Tantric Glitch Sorcery: Sadhana as Bugs in Mara’s Code
- dingirfecho
- Sep 2
- 4 min read
Tantric Glitch Sorcery: Sadhana as Bugs in Mara’s Code
From the series: The Tantric Engine of Hyperstitional Dharma—Navigating the Rhizome of Emptiness in the Age of Algorithmic Gods
Introduction
In digital art theory, Rosa Menkman’s The Glitch Moment(um) describes how errors and ruptures—glitches—can open new ways of perceiving systems. A “pure glitch” is an accidental break with no purpose; a “post-procedural glitch” is when that disruption is re-appropriated, transformed into meaning.
In tantric Buddhism, something similar happens: our habituations—the patterns that create samsara—are deliberately disrupted in practice. These bugs in Mara’s code don’t destroy reality but expose it, revealing the hidden architecture of mind and allowing new possibilities of liberation.
The following dialogue with Lama Sherab explores this intersection: glitch aesthetics and tantric sadhana as acts of sorcery, disruption, and renewal.
Dialogue
Host (Lama Fede):Welcome everyone, to another session of The Tantric Engine of Hyperstitional Dharma. Today’s talk has a title as strange as it is urgent: “Tantric Glitch Sorcery: Sadhana as Bugs in Mara’s Code.”
Our guest is Lama Sherab. Good morning, my friend—how are you?
Lama Sherab:I’m doing well, thank you.
What is Glitch Sorcery?
Fede:Let’s begin simply. What is “Glitch Sorcery”?
Sherab:Glitch Sorcery is about disrupting the patterns that shape our lives—the habits and narratives that perpetuate samsara. By creating or exposing a “glitch,” we interrupt those cycles.
In some forms of sorcery, glitches are exploited for power. In tantra, the purpose is different: to return power to those who are disempowered, to redirect energy back toward liberation.
Fede:So it’s re-empowerment?
Sherab:Exactly.
“The glitch is the moment when a system breaks down and reveals its presence.” — Rosa Menkman, The Glitch Moment(um)
Sadhana as Glitch
Fede:How does tantric sadhana itself become glitch sorcery?
Sherab:Sadhana arises from the sutras and abhidharma, where the Buddha explained that the world is woven from habituations. Those habits form stains (kleshas) that perpetuate samsara.
Glitch Sorcery uses the very same patterns but turns them against themselves. Imagine plugging something too powerful into an electrical grid—the system shorts out. That’s what happens when we glitch samsara. We dismantle it and rebuild from the perspective of liberation.
Always Local
Fede:But when you say “rebuild the world,” are you talking about this world or some other dimension?
Sherab:Always this world. There’s no distant paradise. When we arise as the deity, our neighbors, family, and friends are the retinue. Our home is the palace, our local mountains are the mandala ground. Tantra is always local.
Rosa Menkman and the Glitch Moment(um)
Fede:That reminds me of Rosa Menkman, the media theorist who wrote The Glitch Moment(um). She speaks of the “pure glitch”—accidental ruptures with no immediate use—and the “post-procedural glitch,” where the glitch is subverted and transformed into new meaning.
Would you say tantric glitch sorcery works in that way?
Sherab:Absolutely. In sadhana we take the glitches of samsara and subvert them, turning them into gateways of empowerment. It’s uncomfortable, even shocking, but that discomfort is exactly the point. Menkman showed how in art, glitches reveal hidden systems; in tantra, they reveal the hidden architectures of mind.
“The glitch has no essence; it is always in relation to the system it corrupts.” — Rosa Menkman
Naropa and Disrupting Expectation
Sherab:There’s a famous story: Naropa tells Marpa to walk into a crowded city and shout insults at strangers. Not as cruelty, but as training—to watch how reactions arise, to see emptiness in motion.
It’s dangerous to do without context, but the point is clear: samsara thrives on expectation. Break expectation, and you see the code behind the world.
Fede:So like Menkman’s “glitch moment,” which reveals the system by breaking it.
Sherab:Exactly.
“The glitch is a rupture, a shift in perception that makes us question our relationship with technology, with systems, and with control.” — Rosa Menkman
Transmission and the Risk of “Main Character Syndrome”
Fede:You’ve said transmission is vital. Why?
Sherab:Because tantra isn’t DIY. We need the triad:
Abhisheka (empowerment), which reveals our true capacity.
Agama (scripture), the map of practice.
Upadesha (oral instruction), the heart-to-heart pointing-out of where the glitch lies.
Without this, practice collapses into individualism. That’s the danger we see in movements like the “manosphere”—they start with empowerment but end in toxic self-centeredness. The same risk exists in tantra when practiced alone. Tantra is always relational.
Closing
Fede:So tantra without community isn’t really tantra?
Sherab:That’s right. One can imitate, but tantra is essentially connection. It lives in relation—teacher, student, community.
Fede:Beautiful. Any final words?
Sherab:Yes: may everyone find the glitch. Samsara’s patterns are tightening—resources and power consolidating around individuals. But glitches open the code. Together, we can rewrite it.
Fede:Thank you, Lama Sherab. And to all listening—remember, we’ll be in Portland this September for the Mara Roast. Keep Portland weird, and join us again this week when we explore The Black Iron Prison.
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