Introducing Tantra
What is Tantra?
Tantra is becoming increasingly popular in the world at large and at the same time, there are also a lot of misconceptions about it. So the first question we have to ask is; what is Tantra?
Tantra is a multidimensional path to enlightenment based on:
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Meditation techniques which activate awareness in each and every aspect of life experience, including the body, mind, senses, emotions, sexuality, love, chakra system, kundalini energy and expanded consciousness states.
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The union of the feminine path of love and devotion with the masculine path of awareness and witnessing.
Tantra is a Sanskrit word, which has several meanings.
- To weave
- Transformation of Poison into Nectar
- Methods for transformation
Weaving
The meaning connected to weaving is profound. As you weave, two opposite threads are being brought together to create one cloth. It is a universal law of life, that when you consciously bring any two opposites together, Godliness is experienced. Tantra methods play with bringing together all opposite polarities in a conscious creation dance.
Transformation
The transformative aspect of Tantra is: a base substance is transmuted through the fire of our awareness into its divine aspect. The transformation of poison into nectar, has to do with using Tantra methods to transmute those areas of human life which are normally considered to be pitfalls, such as animalistic sexuality, emotions, ego-mind, power trips, etc.
Methods
In the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra (a 5000 year old scripture), Lord Shiva answers questions on life, love and spirituality posed by his consort Paravati. Each of his 112 answers opens a portal into spiritual awakening through a method of meditation. These cover every aspect of human life, whether that be our senses, emotions, breath, sexuality, love, creativity, subtle energy, intellect, or spirituality.
Key pillars of Tantra practice
METHODS OF TRANSFORMATION
In the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, (a 5000 year old scripture), Lord Shiva answers questions on life, love and spirituality posed by his consort Paravati. Each of his 112 answers opens a portal into spiritual awakening through a method of meditation. These methods cover each and every aspect of human life, whether that be our senses, emotions, breath, sexuality, love, creativity, subtle energy, intellect, or spirituality. Most major religious traditions of our world can trace their roots to one or more of these methods. One example of this is Vipassana meditation used by Buddha to become enlightened.
RITUALS
In Tantra practice, Rituals are very important. While engaged in ritual we are able to invite particular energies and transformational effects into our field of experience.
ELEMENTS
All the five elements are represented in our bodies. By entering into the body with a witnessing, loving consciousness, we will discover that we are the microcosm of the macrocosm.
KUNDALINI
Is the basic life force energy, coiled like a snake at the base of the spine. As a meditator begins opening up their central channel, kundalini energy begins ascending upwards, all along the spine, opening up the chakra system as it moves. To move energy down and out is for procreation. To move energy in and up through kundalini activation is for transformation and opening our full potential.
MUDRA
Through specific positions of hands and body, we activate channels in the body leading to particular states of being within.
LOVE
Love is the very fabric of our existence. It is through love that we find our way home to who we are meant to be. The three stages of love are; loving yourself, loving another and loving the whole.
DEVOTION
Devotion is a feminine attribute. Through being a devotee, we erase egoic tendencies and surrender fully to love.
Merging of opposite polarities
Whenever two opposite polarities meet an alchemical transformation takes place. Through this meeting of opposites we experience godliness. Tantra practices encourage us to experiment with the meeting of opposite polarities.
COMPASSION
Through compassion we learn the art of transforming poison into nectar, suffering into bliss. We learn that the heart holds infinite capacity to love and through love to transform all aspects of our worldly existence into a divine experience.
MANTRA
Mantra is a powerful set of words, working similarly to affirmations. The words carry specific vibration and may unleash tremendous power. Mantras are chanted a specific number of times, therefore releasing a cascade of transformational effects.
IDA, PINGALA AND SHUSHUMA CHANNELS
Inner male inner female aspects are united in the shushuma channel in the center of the body leading to higher consciousness states. Tantra plays firstly with the duality of Ida(moon, feminine qualities) and Pingala (sun / masculine qualities) and slowly but surely guides the seeker into a non-dual state where opposites merge into oneness through the shushuma channel.
YANTRA
A geometric form which calls into the space, particular dimensions and levels of consciousness.
AWARENESS
Awareness is born through being in the here and now so totally that a laser light of consciousness manifests in the center of such experience.
MEDITATION
Applying a witnessing consciousness to each and every aspect of life experience
SPIRITUAL TRANSMISSION
Traditionally, Tantra is passed experientially, from Master to Disciple. The master will offer those techniques and practices which the disciple is ready for as they move on their path of transformation. In Tantra, it is recognised that wisdom is awakened through deeply lived experience. The master creates devises and techniques which will help the seeker awaken his or her own innate genius through lived experience.
SENSES
Our senses are a divine gift! We can learn the knack of how to open them through Tantra Meditation. They are primary gateways into aliveness, pleasure and spiritually expanded states of being. Outer senses open into physical reality in multidimensional ways. Inner senses lead us into our fuller potential as clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsentient.
THE BENEFITS OF TANTRA
When we dive into Tantra Practices we begin a journey of unveiling our true and vast potential as the divine feminine, the divine masculine and the meeting of both leading to transcendence. Tantra is a path to enlightenment which utilises all that the human being is, as portals into your divine nature.
Tantra is not something which we are adding into ourselves from the outside. It is actually a path of remembering who we truly are within. Through this path, we remove conditioning and false concepts given by others and slowly but surely discover unlimited resources of love, inner ecstasy and wisdom within that were just waiting to be discovered.
CLEARING UP MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT TANTRA
“Part of my mission in teaching Tantra is to clear up misconceptions about it. When I moved to Europe in 1999, having spent 26 years in India, I was amazed to find out that most people seemed to believe that Tantra was all about sex and promiscuity with a few feathers and some incense thrown in for good measure. The general public still carry such concepts, and some even think that Tantra is a code word for a massage with a ‘happy ending.’ How did this come about?
During the Victorian Age, India was a jewel in the British colonial system. It was an age of extreme sexual repression. For example, tables were covered with long cloths, hiding the legs. It was thought that table legs being exposed could be suggestive of human legs, leading to thoughts of sexual organs at the top of those legs. In this milieu, some Sanskrit scholars translated fragments of Tantra scriptures. When they found that a few Tantra practices include meditations with sexual union, they freaked out and forgot all about the many other aspects of Tantra. They overlooked it as a path for spiritual liberation and gave it the title, “cult of sex.” The word and concept of Tantra in the Western mind, still suffers from this Victorian hangover.
Tantra is now experiencing a renaissance all over the world. Like rain to thirsty earth, the Tantra vision nourishes the wholeness of life, embracing human nature as a magnificent expression of universal energy. It offers an intelligent way for us to move forward into the new dawn of human consciousness.”
Ma Ananda Sarita
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