ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates Maheśvarānanda, a 13th century Tantric philosopher’s text, Mahārthamañjarī and argues that he uses visualization practices for altering an aspirant’s body image and body schema, thus effecting its transformation. His process is therapeutic in that he views subjects as trapped within their own subjective horizons. He further believes that Tantric practice can facilitate in a twofold transformation, 1) an overall subversion of the existing body schema and body image, alongside self-image and self-schema, and 2) the imposition of a new map to reconfigure bodily response with an intent to redirect somatic responses and cognitive processes to accommodate according to a new projected body image and body schema. This process, vividly portrayed in his visualization practices, rests on remapping reality and altering both the somatic and cognitive self-experiences. When this thesis is applied to Tantric philosophy of body, particularly the image body, it becomes clear that Tantras recognize the basic bodily mapping of reality and practitioners use this premise to advance the argument that we can reprogram our bodily awareness and map our environment with this new body schema. This plasticity of the body and the self, as portrayed by Maheśvarānanda, is central in this analysis.
