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Concept
Sahaja
Summary
Sahaja (সহজ सहज ) means spontaneous enlightenment in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist spirituality. Sahaja practices first arose in Bengal during the 8th century among yogis called Sahajiya siddhas.
Ananda Coomaraswamy describes its significance as "the last achievement of all thought", and "a recognition of the identity of spirit and matter, subject and object", continuing "There is then no sacred or profane, spiritual or sensual, but everything that lives is pure and void."
The Sanskrit [and the Tibetan, which precisely follows it] literally means: 'born or produced together or at the same time as. Congenital, innate, hereditary, original, natural (...by birth, by nature, naturally...)'.
Etymologically, saḥ- means 'together with', and ja derives from the root jan, meaning 'to be born, produced, to occur, to happen'. The Tibetan lhan cig tu skye ba is an exact etymological equivalent of the Sanskrit. Lhan cig means 'together with', and skye ba means 'to be born, to arise, to come about, to be produced'. The Tibetan can function as a verbal phrase, noun, or adjective.
The siddha Saraha (8th century CE) was the key figure of the Vajrayana Buddhist Sahajayana movement, which flourished in Bengal and Odisha.
Sahajiya mahasiddhas (great adepts or yogis) like Saraha, Kanha, Savari, Luipāda, Kukkuripāda, Kānhapāda and Bhusukupāda were tantric Buddhists who expounded their beliefs in songs and dohas in the Apabhraṃśa languages and Bengali.
Many of the songs in this tradition are preserved in the Charyapada, a work of Buddhist tantric songs in the Abahaṭṭha languages written between the 8th and 12th centuries.
The songs were often sung in tantric feasts called ganachakras which included dance, music and improvised songs or poems called caryagiti.
Sahajiyas such as Saraha also believed that enlightenment could be achieved in this lifetime, by laypersons living in samsara. The sahajiyas also practiced a form of tantric sex which was supposed to bring the female and male elements together in balance.
Official source
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