Schools of Tantra

Because Tantra is such a vast and intricate tradition, encompassing countless teachings, practices, and scriptures, it was, at a certain point in history, classified into three distinct schools and two corresponding paths within those schools. This categorisation arose from differences in each school’s orientation toward practice: whether it emphasised outer or inner ritual, the specific aims of its teachings, and its degree of alignment or divergence from Brahmanical orthodoxy.

The three principal schools of Tantra are known as Kaula, Mishra, and Samaya.

Kaula Tantra focuses primarily on external rituals and the pursuit of bhoga, worldly enjoyment and fulfillment.

Samaya Tantra is centered on internal worship and meditation, its primary goal being apavarga, or spiritual liberation.

Mishra Tantra, as the name suggests, represents a synthesis of both, blending external and internal practices to achieve both bhoga (enjoyment), bhukti (participation in worldly life), and apavarga (liberation).

Within these three schools, two traditional paths emerged: the Left-Handed Path (Vama Marga) and the Right-Handed Path (Dakshina Marga). The Left-Handed Path diverges from orthodox social and religious norms, employing unconventional and sometimes transgressive methods to transcend duality. The Right-Handed Path, by contrast, aligns more closely with orthodox standards and places greater emphasis on internal purity, devotion, and meditation. The tradition followed here belongs to the Right-Handed Mishra School, leaning toward the Samaya orientation, which emphasizes inner worship and meditative transformation.

In most modern presentations of Tantra, only the Left-Handed and Right-Handed paths are mentioned. However, this simplified view is incomplete. Both Left-Handed and Right-Handed Tantras actually belong within Kaula Tantra, while Mishra and Samaya represent more advanced stages of practice and understanding. All Tantric systems, regardless of their methods or symbols, ultimately fall within one of these three overarching schools, though each contains numerous lineages and sub-traditions.

• Kaula Tantra employs external rituals, mantras, yantras, and ceremonies as vehicles for awakening.
• Mishra Tantra integrates these outer practices with deep internal methods such as pranayama, mantra japa, and meditation.
• Samaya Tantra is almost entirely inward—a contemplative and esoteric path for those prepared for the most refined practices of inner alchemy.

Each school shares a common foundation: the purification of body, breath, and mind; the transformation of latent impressions (samskaras), which fuel karma; and the awakening of kundalini shakti, the spiritual energy that lies dormant within the subtle body. The approaches may differ, as may the depth of the kundalini awakening they produce, yet the ultimate aim remains the same, union with the Divine Consciousness that pervades all existence.

Kaula Tantra is external Tantra that focuses on concrete practices and rituals. The left-handed Tantrics perform their worships with the use of meat, fish, intoxicants, mudras (certain gestures), and sexual contact. The right-handed Tantrics perform these rituals only symbolically. Kaula Tantra focuses its practice on the Muladhara chakra, the first chakra, at the base of the spine. The Kaula Tantra practices are training for having control over the lower desires and physical needs of the body. 

However, the student would do well to be wary when choosing a teacher, as there seems to be a great deal of less than authentic guidance available. Some of the modern behaviors that have been labeled Tantra are only hedonism given a spiritual name, and are taught by people with little knowledge or experience of authentic Kaula Tantra or the higher schools of Tantra. 

Higher than the Kaula Tantra school is the Mishra school of Tantra. Mishra Tantra performs both external and internal rituals, and is thus a mixture. Mishra means mixed. Mishra Tantra focuses its practice on the Anahata chakra, the fourth chakra, at the heart center, where there is devotion practiced to the mother, feminine, or creative principle of the universe. 

The Mishra Tantra practices are inner practices and direct the one-pointed mind inward. The rituals are done in the field of mind, and are thus referred to as mental rituals. These rituals are done with feelings of devotion and non-attachment, and do not involve any external objects. The energy from kundalini awakening is brought upward from the root chakra to the heart chakra, the space between the breasts, where it is experienced as a relationship with the divine. 

Higher than both the Kaula Tantra and Mishra Tantra schools is the Samaya school of Tantra. It is a purely yogic practice, without any external rituals. Its entire purpose is Self-Realisation, ultimately leading to moksha, final liberation. The meditators of the Samaya Tantra school focus on the Ajna chakra, in the space between the eyebrows, after which the inner practice, is done in the Sahasrara, crown chakra. Samaya Tantra and Raja Yoga are similar. It is the most advanced of the schools of Yoga and Yoga meditation.  

Tripura: In the Himalayan tradition, the aspirant clears the mind through the practice of Yoga meditation as codified in the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, does self-enquiry of Vedanta, and then breaks through the final barrier with Samaya Tantra and Sri Vidya. Samaya Tantra brings an intense and inexplicable joy that is beyond time, space and causation, as one becomes like a divine child, frolicking in the union of the mother and father principles of the universe, which is the oneness of all.