Schools of Tantra

Because Tantra is so vast with its teachings, practices and literature, at a certain point in history it was categorised into three seperate schools and two specific paths within those schools. 
The categorisation revolved around the school’s fundamental approach to practice, their orientation towards outer or inner ritual, the aims of the school and the proximity or lack of proximity to the views held by the Brahmanic orthodoxy. 
The three schools are known as Kaula (External rituals, focusing primarily on bhoga), Samaya (Internal rituals, focusing primarily on apavarga) and Mishra (Mixed, focusing on both apavarga, bhoga and bhukti). 


Within these schools there are two paths, referred to as the ‘Left and Right’ handed paths. The Left handed path (Vama marga) veers away from orthodox standards, while the Right handed path (Dakshina marga) aligns to the orthodoxy. The tradition here is part of the Right-handed Mishra school, leaning towards Samaya, or internal worship. 
In most modern descriptions of Tantra, two types are mentioned, Left-Handed Tantra and Right-Handed Tantra. However, this view of Tantra is incomplete. The Left-Handed and Right-Handed Tantras are both aspects of Kaula Tantra. The higher Tantras are Mishra and Samaya. All systems or methods of Tantra fall into one of these three schools, though there may be many subdivisions within these three. 

The Kaula Tantra school utilises external practices and rituals, while the Samaya school is completely an internal meditative process. The Mishra Tantra school mixes the external practices and rituals, along with internal practices. The three schools are progressively higher, with Kaula Tantra being the lower, Mishra Tantra going further inward, and Samaya Tantra for those who are prepared to do the advanced practices. Each of the three schools of Tantra believe in purifying of the body, breath, mind, and the latent impressions called samskaras, which are the driving force behind karma. Each of the schools of Tantra also practice methods for awakening the spiritual energy of kundalini, though the methods and the height attained in that kundalini awakening may differ. 

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.