Yantra — The Sacred Diagram
A Yantra is a geometric diagram that is the visible form of a deity or cosmic principle — meditating on it is equivalent to meditating on the deity, as the yantra captures the precise vibrational structure of the divine being.
Yantra (instrument, tool — from the root 'yam' — to support, restrain) is the geometric form of a deity's vibratory structure. Just as mantra is the sound-form and the sacred image is the visual form, yantra is the geometric-structural form of the same reality. The Tantric tradition insists on the intimate correspondence between consciousness, sound, and geometric form: specific states of consciousness produce specific geometric patterns (as cymatics demonstrates) and conversely, meditating on specific geometric patterns activates specific states of consciousness. The Sri Yantra is the most complex and revered of all yantras. The process of yantra meditation (yantra dharana) involves: external gazing at the yantra; internal visualization; and ultimately the dissolution of the yantra into pure awareness. The yantra is also used in puja — it is treated as the living deity, bathed, dressed, fed, and worshipped.
The Yantra is the body of the deity in geometric form — gaze upon it and you gaze upon the face of the infinite.
Mathematician and consciousness researcher Roger Penrose has proposed that consciousness may be connected to quantum geometric processes in microtubules — a proposal that resonates with the Tantric claim that consciousness and geometric form are fundamentally related rather than entirely separate domains.
Tantrarajatantra
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- What Tantra says about beauty
A yantra is the same deity in geometric form that a mantra is in sound. That puts structure and proportion, not only sensation, inside tantra's account of beauty — the Sri Yantra is gazed at, then visualised internally, then dissolved into awareness.