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Figure 6.20.
A yantra. Source: Beer 1989b, chap. 14, 105.
engaged in visualization exercises in meditation. In the tantric tradition
this is recognized as a way of accessing a subtle realm of body, energy, and
spirit—experiencing the body, for example, as a sequence of chakras ascend-
ing from the base of the spine to the top of the head, and eventually aim-
ing at union with the cosmos—“yoga means union,” as Beer was wont to
put it.
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Three points are worth noting here. First, we again find a notion of de-
centering the self here, relative both to the chakras as lower centers of con-
sciousness and to the higher cosmos. As discussed before, we can understand
this sort of decentering on the model of interacting homeostats, though the
details, of course, are not integrally cybernetic but derive specifically from the
tantric tradition. Second, we should recognize that yantras are, in a certain
sense, symbolic and representational. Interestingly, however, Beer has Perny,
his apprentice, stress their
performative
rather than symbolic quality when
they first appear in Beer's text. Perny remarks on the yantra of figure 6.20 that
“I was taught to use this one as a symbol on which to meditate.” Another dis-
ciple replies, “It's sort of turning cartwheels.” “I know what you mean,” Perny
responds. “This way of communicating, which doesn't use words, seems to
work through its physiological effects” (Beer 1989b, 106). We thus return to
a performative epistemology, now in the realm of meditation—the symbol as
integral to performance, rather than a representation having importance in
its own right.
