Tantra. As a word it can evoke images of new age sexuality, or maybe deep Buddhist ritual and lineage. Recently, in the last 25 years, Tantra has been typically sold as a series of tools and exercises that increase relationship, sexual pleasure and orgasm. My hope is to help you expand and awaken to the depth of Tantra and see how this amazing system can change your approach to life, not just in the bedroom. Tantra is a life wisdom that has deep roots in ancient India. It’s spiritual, esoteric and philosophical. It is a matriarchal system and supports the path of no path. It’s based on saying “yes!” to life.
Tantra offers a solution to everyone’s question of “How do I… ”? We have been trained to ask, “How do I…?” Tantra simply answers you with a new question, “What’s keeping you from… ”? This takes people into inquiry, and explores a deeper relationship to self. Tantra welcomes the practitioner to intensify their relationship to communication, intuitiveness, emotions, work, love, creativity and spirituality, just to name a few. Tantra offers a chance to shine the light on what’s been in the shadows for too long. When we feel free to let go of past anger, fear, shame, guilt and sadness, the unfolding of a life well lived becomes possible. These are also the emotional blocks where most people carry their sexual issues. When the need to struggle through things and fight to have what is already your birthright stops, you enter a profound awareness as you get out of your own way.
Tantra encourages one to merge humanity with their spirituality. It’s in this union, that the sexual teachings of Tantra are reveled. However, sex has to be redefined from the stereotypical idea to understand its Tantric meaning. Sex is more than the act of genitals coming together creating pleasure, love and life. Tantra needs you to expand your experience to embrace that truth that in deep states of arousal, you can lose the small mind. Many meditation practices ask the seeker to become no-minded. Well, while in orgasmic pleasure, you can enter into this state very fast, which allows the mysteries of life to drip down into your consciousness, leading you toward greater empowerment and enlightenment.
Tantra calls forward the individual uniqueness in you. You learn that the deepest relationship in the world is the one with self. If sexual orgasm is the only goal one is seeking in Tantra, the full possibility is being overlooked. Sex can become a vehicle to unlocking one’s full potential. Here is an example; a person could practice meditation and yoga with great diligence, yet not fully get the results they may want, even if their practice is solid. By adding a healthy component of Tantric sex, the meditation and yoga work unfolds through releasing the head and adding the fire of our own life-force energy, in the form of sexuality, to all that we do, thus amplifying our actions.
If the only time you use your sexual energy is in sexual acts, then you are limiting your full nature. Sexual energy can easily be transmuted into passion, emotion, creativity, activity, health, meditation… the list goes on. In other words, great sex is not just about orgasm. Tantra is not about sex, it’s about life, and sex is part of life. If you understand this, then Tantra and its sexual teachings, begin to breathe without the social dysfunction that sexuality carries. Embracing all aspects of your humanity releases the boundless amount of spirit and love we all carry.
Shawn Roop is based is San Diego, CA and is the founder of www.TantraQuest.com. He has been teaching programs and helping conscious individuals explore Tantra worldwide since 1999.