Reading the texts before taking the practices

A note for people arriving at tantra through the internet.

Most of what is sold under this name online has no relationship to the tradition. The actual literature is philosophical, ritual, and demanding, and it was never separable from a teacher and a lineage.

If someone offers you initiation after one conversation, or frames the tradition as primarily sexual, you have met a salesman rather than a teacher. Read first. Abhinavagupta is difficult and worth it.