Tantra and Technology: Practicing Wonder in Daily Life (Eat, Walk, Love, See)

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Tantra offers day-to-day practises to live in wonder in an age of disenchanting technologies. The internet, mobile phones, and social media intensify disenchanting tendencies towards always-on-ness, velocity, elsewhereness, individualism, materialism, and preference for control. Tantric practises of slowness, presence, appreciation and visualization can jolt people out of ingrained habitual tendencies to expand experiences of wonder, wildness, freedom, and spiritual connection. Through inner revolution which alters samskaras, the Tantric extends mantra, presence and visualization to daily life practises of walking, eating, loving, and seeing which can lead to jivanmukti - the experience of liberation, enchantment, and mystic connection while living in the world.

The book describes how cyber technology pushes against wonder in contemporary life and how Tantric practise constitutes an alternative technology that can re-enchant living. Interviews with 30 Americans about their experiences of wonder show Tantric practises are liberating for anyone willing to try them. The book also describes the Tantric theory of wonder as a primary emotion, which in combination with emotions of fear and courage can awaken practitioners from disenchantment.

STEVE DERNÉ is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York-Geneseo. Since 1982, he has occasionally lived for months at a time in Banaras, Kathmandu, and Dehra Dun in the midst of conducting interviews for his earlier books. Over the last dozen years, he has researched wonder experience, while turning to Tantric practise and spiritual pursuit.

In 1981, in the basement of Cloyne Court, a Berkeley student co-op, Laurie rhythmically danced, bells on her ankles, the hard thump of her feet punctuating the ringing. Intoxicated, enchanted, I'd ask "Where did you learn to do that?" At the time, I knew next to nothing about Nepal: I was surprised it was in the northern Hemisphere; When I asked at a discount travel agency from which I got my air ticket whether there was a "Let's Go! Nepal," I was surprised to learn that there was such a thing as Lonely Planet Travel Survival Guide, which came in at 157 pages - scant compared to today's versions! An old debate coach, long-haired, Grateful Dead follower, passed on to me a more ancient guidebook when he heard I was heading East. Stumbling onto The Power Places of Kathmandu thirty years later evoked memories I didn't know I had; again I felt the grit, beauty and madness of that place. I realized again how lucky I am: not just the luckiest guy on the planet, but maybe the luckiest guy in history. Lucky to have lived in Nepal on $20 a month at the age of 22. Lucky to have seen the sadhus at Pashupatinath, to have seen a jyotirlinga at a young age.

From the basement, I pull out the journal from those days to see what went through my mind. The shock and reorientation of those first five days hit immediately: "4 September 1982. That flight in- dropping into the valley. So green. God. Asia. After flying into Nepal and actually seeing that scene of life is everyday - green hills, beautiful houses. At airport, a mob scene of thousands of children trying to help you. The drive through the streets more than I could ever imagine - people, goats, dogs, cows, all out on the street. I'll never be the same. The sounds of festival music going on all night - beating drums; it's 2AM.