In today’s spiritual scene, it seems like tantra is everywhere. You can’t go five feet without bumping into something labeled as a tantra course, tantric yoga or tantric ecstatic dance, or tantric shamanic ceremony… but how much of it is authentic tantra? It can be hard to tell if you don’t already have some experience in tantric practice. So before you invest your time and money in the next trendy tantra retreat, ask these questions to see if what you’re being offered is a genuine, meaningful spiritual path.
Sex must not remain sex; that is the tantra teaching. It must be transformed into love. And love also must not remain love. It must be transformed into light, into
meditative experience, into the last, ultimate mystic peak. How to transform love? Be the act and forget the actor. While loving, be love — simply love. Then it is not your love
or my love or anybody else’s — it is simply LOVE.bWhen you are not there, when you are in the hands of the ultimate source current when you are in love,
it is not you who is in love. When the love has engulfed you, you have disappeared; you have just become flowing energy.’ ~ Osho
Tantra is a Sanskrit word for the power of the original state of being. Its cosmic name is love, but only in the infinitesimal moment of separation from the unity of Supreme Being. As love enters existence, the tantric principle consumes the past and restores the gap of time back to nothing. However, in this momentary split in the continuity of existence emerges the divine formless lover. This genderless spiritual presence is the Lord in existence. The task of the Lord is to bring the errant lovers of the world back to the source of reality.
The purpose of existence is for man and woman to be this exalted tantric presence as the personification of love in the flesh. The difficulty is the accumulation of past which has accrued within the human psyche as a blockage to the simplicity of love.This manifests most noticeably as demand, frustration, manipulation, accusation, self-doubt and the impulse for sexual release from the pressure of unconscious living. In other words, all the negativity on earth arises from the conflict in relationships that now exists between the male and female principles. Although the tantric potential is within each being and is unmistakeable in those moments when the breakthrough happens, the full realisation as a state of uninterrupted knowledge is very rare indeed. This is due primarily to the demands and personal sacrifice which must be encountered in the transformation of the sexual self. The depersonalising process is so intense and protracted that only someone who has realised God at a particular level of higher mind will be able to withstand the unconscious forces as the process deepens. But this is bestowed through grace and seldom realised through the more common, but still relatively rare, realisation of God out of existence.
The realisation of God within the body, and not through physical union in love, is of the truth behind the sensory realm. This arises from the devotion of self to the transcendental being and does not necessarily permit access to the exalted state of love.It’s not uncommon for the individual to abstain from physical love afterwards, so as not to agitate the equilibrium of the inner state. This is encouraged by certain religious traditions and teachings as an adherence to celibacy, which as a consequence has forged a division of confusion and ignorance within the human psyche. In man, the tantric principle is his authority to love woman in such a way so as to bring her to a greater appreciation and love of God. For such a man, the privilege and delight in the fulfilment of this divine function is his benediction. He has been divested of the personal taint of sex, and wants nothing apart from the sheer pleasure of loving his opposite principle in the flesh. His body, regardless of appearance, is beautiful since all that is inside is love of the mystery of existence as an inner and outer union of consciousness and sensory perception. The mind as any movement is utterly still, with only the bodies making love in a unity of being, no longer separated by distance and time.
Woman is closer to the pure idea of tantra than man, since it is ‘She’, the principle of love that embodies the earth’s spiritual fragrance within the womb of life. The tantric presence of woman is a passive state of immense power and beauty. She exists as a body and may appear quite ordinary in the eyes of the world, but she will radiate a quality recognisable to a consciousness of similar resonance. In the East it is referred to as the power of ‘Shakti’. The function of such a woman is to simply be what she is as the personification of love in existence. For someone inspired to love with purpose is indeed an honourable and holy undertaking. All that’s necessary is to be willing to love when the opportunity is there. Nothing can be done with intent to bring about the tantric awakening, apart from living one’s life just as it is. Although there can be a greater realisation of beauty and a deeper threshold of pleasure, the catalyst for self-change is pain. People rarely change, however, in a way that radically alters the life because they are unconscious of the purpose of suffering. The greater the love of anyone or anything, the more intense the suffering that will follow. To love someone so deeply as to enter their mystery in physical love will create circumstances to shatter the attachment to that person. Only in the final dissolution of the emotional band of pain can the tantric power enter existence in its full potency from the unconscious.
1. Does it go to the Absolute?
Tantra is a spiritual path. Full stop. As a path of energy, it can bring many amazing benefits along the way. Healing, improvements on the personal level, insights into the inner workings of the universe… Today many people are drawn to tantra as a way to improve their sex life or heal from sexual trauma: totally valid motivations, but missing the full scope of the tantric vision. To say that tantra is a spiritual path is to say that the goal of a true tantric practitioner is nothing short of enlightenment, Self-realization, union with God, or however you want to describe the wordless encounter with reality that lies at the heart of all spiritual traditions. With all its energies and deities, complex metaphysics and overlaps with practical magic, its intensity of expression, and vibrant interest in the world of manifestation, tantra may seem a far cry from the austere directness of Zen or Advaita Vedanta. These paths often read as more “spiritual” to Western eyes, conditioned as we are to associate asceticism with holiness. However, the same verticality is at the center of authentic tantric teachings. This becomes obvious if you look at tantra in its more traditional forms, as per my next point…
2. Does it rely on traditional sources?
This is not to say that everything new is bad and everything old is good. There are plenty of recent innovations, even in spirituality, that is groundbreaking and valuable, as well as some tried-and-true old chestnuts best left now as a footnote in history. Still, a path that has been yielding results for hundreds or thousands of years is somewhat more reliable than an idea that some guy from California Maybe this guy’s idea is brilliant. Maybe not. Even if it seems valid, it’s very hard to say for sure unless you’re a very experienced and highly realized practitioner, who has already walked far enough along the path in this lifetime to evaluate from a higher perspective. As modern Western people, our practices are unlikely to take fully traditional forms. How many of us are learning fluent Sanskrit, as was assumed in Hindu tantra, or willing to perform 100,000 prostrations before receiving basic teachings, par for the course in Tibetan Buddhism? Still, by sticking to paths that are rooted in tradition, we have some guarantee that we’re headed in the right direction. The guidance of the great masters of history and the blessing of their lineages will help ensure that we don’t stray too far from the right path.
3. Does it give meaningful practices?
Your spiritual path shouldn’t just talk the talk, it needs to walk the walk. All the intellectual knowledge and sophisticated discussions in the world won’t do you any good if they don’t go beyond the mind. There must be a lived experience in order to have deep transformation and a full understanding of the teachings. At the same time, if a teacher only gives exercises that lead to emotional release, without any metaphysical basis or sense of systematic progression, this also is a warning sign. Tantra cannot be separated from hatha yoga and meditation. Talking about tantra as something separate from yoga and meditation is like saying you want to go swimming without touching the water! Authentic tantra includes a combination of theory and yogic practice, especially the traditional tools of mantra and yantra. It gives both the goal and practical means of getting there.
4. Does the teacher provide a living example?
This one is a bit tricky. It’s all too easy (and dangerous) to get swept away by the energy of a teacher with a lot of charisma and devoted followers. On the other hand, if we dismiss a teacher the moment they do something that rubs us the wrong way, we can miss out on a valuable opportunity to learn – and maybe spend our whole lives in pursuit of a perfect teacher who just doesn’t exist on this plane. Stop looking for gurus. Start looking for someone you can learn from. A good teacher doesn’t have to be a Buddha. It’s someone who embodies the practice. They show clearly what you can expect by following the path they offer, not so much by what they say but how they live, the energy they transmit, and how they interact with others. So is your teacher someone you want to become? Are they acting in alignment with their own teachings? (With allowance for human imperfection – and do they own up to that imperfection?) If not, then either the teachings aren’t good or the teacher is not qualified to transmit them.
5. Does it use sexuality as a practice or an end in itself?
Many forms of tantra embrace sexuality as a powerful tool for spiritual evolution. The tantric gifted the world with a whole science of sexuality, developing the art of love to its fullest as a path to truth. Along the way we can find many gems: full-body orgasms for men and women, how to amplify desire and sexual performance, sexual healing… which are not the point of tantra. In tantric sexuality, pleasure is never an end in itself. It’s a beautiful step along the way, an amazing pointer, and potentially a trap. There’s a reason the sexual practice has been called “riding the tiger:” if you stay on top of it you’ll fly, but if not, this energy will eat you alive!
So, how to stay on top? (No pun intended.) Keep the highest vision. Remember your aspiration. Detach from the pleasure and offer it to the Divine. If a teacher or community embraces pleasure as the highest goal, they are not practicing tantra. No matter how big the orgasms are or how much they can control the energy, they are not practicing tantra. True tantric sexuality stands on three pillars: consecration, sublimation, and transfiguration.
vinodhan,