tantra

noun

1. (italics) Hinduism. any of several books of esoteric doctrine regarding rituals, disciplines, meditation, etc., composed in the form of dialogues between Shiva and his Shakti; Agama.
2. Also called Tan·trism [tuhn-triz-uh m, tan-] /ˈtʌn trɪz əm, ˈtæn-/. the philosophy or doctrine of these books, regarding the changing, visible world as the creative dance or play of the Divine Mother and regarding enlightenment as the realization of the essential oneness of one’s self and of the visible world with Shiva-Shakti, the Godhead: influential in some schools of Mahayana Buddhism, especially in Tibet.

noun

1. Hinduism Buddhism the sacred books of Tantrism, written between the 7th and 17th centuries ad, mainly in the form of a dialogue between Siva and his wife

n.type of Hindu religious book, 1799, from Sanskrit tantram, literally “loom, warp,” hence “groundwork, system, doctrine,” from tan “to stretch, extend,” from PIE root *ten- “to stretch, extend” (see tenet).