Tantra as a Social Justice Movement

If you are serious about or even interested in Tibetan Buddhism and Vajrayana Tantra, you should absolutely read Miranda Shaw’s book “Passionate Enlightenment”.

Miranda Shaw speaks to the reality that most people translating ancient Tantric scriptures for the past 2 centuries fit into a very specific demographic, which has a very specific lens through which it views these scriptures.

For the past 2 centuries, this lens has been largely white, male, and subscribing to the sexual attitudes and orientations of a mainstream society that is largely dominated by white maleness.

And while there is nothing inherently wrong with whiteness or maleness (I happen to love a white man with a PhD very much), when whiteness and maleness are the ONLY lens through which these things are viewed it offers a limited perspective and understanding of the original material.

Miranda Shaw reviews these same materials but through the lens of a woman interested in the experiences of other women. She views these documents through the lens of a MODERN woman, who is unapologetic and unafraid of explicitly expressed female sexual desire. Therefore, the pictures painted through her translations look very different than the stories told by her colleagues of a different demographic.

Having studied and practiced Tantric Buddhism under the tutelage of men for 10+ years, reading the same stories and scriptures through the lens of a female scholar who was NOT afraid of SEX was revolutionary for my understanding of the roots of Tantric Buddhism.

Not the peaceful, zen, sunshine, and butterfly roots of Buddhism, but the throbbing, pulsing, beating, ROOTS of Tantra as experienced by the outcasts, the marginalized, the untouchables, and the undesirables. 

As Miranda Shaw describes in her book, Tantric Buddhism started as a pushback against the ruling class in Vedic India. Tantric Buddhism sought to transcend and transform the hierarchy of light-skinned, Patriarchal supremacy that governed Vedic India at that time.

Tantric Buddhists at that time WERE the Queer folk, the Indigenous dark-skinned folks (Dravidians) that had been marginalized in that culture, the women, the poor folk, AND the renegade Brahmans, scholars, merchants, and warriors. Tantric Buddhists were the revolutionaries, those who sought to break down socially constructed barriers of oppression and liberate ALL sentient beings without exception!

Having practiced and studied Tibetan Tantric Buddhism for almost 17 years now, I can say without a doubt, that those of us who come from marginalized backgrounds view, understand, experience, and relate to these practices very differently than those who do not.

This is why I believe no white scholar has connected the dots that Niguma was most likely Dalit. She was BLACK SKINNED living in a caste system that for several hundred years defined her Black skin as untouchable. Couple that with the fact that nobody seems to know who her parents were or ANYTHING at all about her origins… of course she was Dalit. How is this even a question? But for folks who have never experienced the social violence of light-skinned supremacy, these dots don’t even register to be connected.

Our experiences matter. Our experiences of oppression, or lack thereof, shape and craft the lenses through which we view the world, but also, the lenses through which we read, translate, and interpret the words of those who came before us. Remember this as you study “tantra”…the information we present as “teachers” is shaped and colored by our own human experiences. The lens through which we teach and share Tantric methods through IATE is shaped by the collective experiences of our teachers and staff. This is why we prioritize actual diversity on our team. 

The takeaway from all of this is that Tantric Buddhism is rooted in LIBERATION. It was crafted and designed specifically for and BY:

• The anarchists
• The renegades
• The undesirables
• The untouchables
• The unacceptable
• The Queer
• The Trans
• The Gender Nonconforming.

So if you are an outcast of mainstream society OR mainstream society is outraged by your very existence, Tantric Buddhism may be the path for you!

I invite you to rally under the banner of pre-Vedic Tantra and return to the roots of our shared humanity through the energy body yoga of Tibetan 5 Element Tantra.

The first class of 2025 is “Intersectionality and The Elements: Queering Tantra as a Liberatory Practice”. Sign up here.

Tibetan 5 Element Tantra Healing & Transformation coaching programs are launching in March 2025. 

Watch the video below for more!