In Tantra Yoga the yogi “loses the taste for dualistic thinking”. This path goes beyond the various forms of yoga and exercises which are designed to affirm the yogi’s non-dualistic perception. The yogi sees everything as manifestation of Shiva/Shakti. Everything is consciousness. Skillful means are linked to all things known, they do not reveal consciousness. “Everything which is prescribed or prohibited cannot be used to enter or obstruct the path of supreme reality.” Says Abhinavagupta. This yogi realises that he/she is not bound by karmic actions, that no innate impurity or dependence exists, and that nothing nor nobody can deprive him of awareness. “Thus, imbued with a sense of the self as absolute awareness he/she embodies the divine.”
Tantric ritual seeks to access the supra-mundane through the mundane, identifying the microcosm with the macrocosm. The Tantric aim is to sublimate rather than to negate relative reality. The Tantric practitioner seeks to use prana as an energy that flows through the universe (including one’s own body) to attain goals that may be spiritual, material or both.
So the yogi is gradually freed from non-dualistic perception, from inner blocks which prevent the full consciousness from flourishing. Repetitive patterns of behaviour are abandoned, and fear, terror and feelings of isolation recede. Little by little the ego relaxes its grip, a continuous presence is developed, full consciousness emerges and the non-differentiation of tantric-subject and universe-object prepares the yogi for the path of intuitive reason.