Introduction
Allow me to share the knowledge of one of my revered earth-based spiritual teachers—a master whose wisdom was passed down through the art of spoken word. In honoring her legacy, I aspire to do her teachings justice by sharing them with you in this article. She passionately believed in the transformative power of passing on knowledge and inspiring others to make positive changes in their lives. It is my sincere hope that these insights will enrich your divine experience and expression of life.
Understanding Tantra
The Universe is inside of you and Tantra is a discipline that emphasizes a deep relationship with oneself and one’s body. The word “tan” means “loom” or “weaving” a fabric, a theory or doctrine.
“Tra” means to expand, reflecting the expansion of consciousness through method.
The purpose of Tantra is to open the doors to cosmic experience through ecstasy. It’s a relationship to the body, releasing emotional pain and weaving pleasure and rapture into a spiritual practice.
Tantra lets something happen for a pleasurable time. In the body, we have five senses—hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. Our body is always working on the inside, constantly.
Our calm and peace in Tantra do not come from the body. In Tantra, we come in harmony with the bodies in the Universe, physically relating to the ethereal. It’s not about the separation of ourselves from the ethereal.
Simplicity and Fulfillment
Tantra is about life being simple. Our relationship to simplicity gives us fulfillment. Touch, taste, smell, hearing, seeing—when life exists, these senses are active, but experiences continue in the ethereal body. In our culture, we don’t make space for living. We don’t let things go; we accumulate more. What if our relationship to consciousness was not relative as an absolute, unchanging entity but rather something that varies based on individual perspectives or circumstances? What if what we did remained in the collective experience, influencing not just the present moment but the ongoing state of universal consciousness?
The Fabric of Consciousness
In the conscious Universe, our actions alter consciousness in the ethereal realm because all beings are interconnected. The “nothing” is everything that is not there; when you visualize the fabric of consciousness, it resembles a grid. By connecting to it, you can reach out to everyone. What we do, affects all conscious beings. Destruction creates depressions in this fabric; we must raise the fabric of consciousness to heal these rifts. Causing significant harm is likened to tearing the fabric and it will never be the same. This act creates an irreversible disruption in the interconnected web of existence.
By causing such a tear, you become responsible for it. Some consequences can influence the fabric of consciousness positively or negatively. With this power comes the responsibility to consider the consequences and act wisely. You decide what you do and don’t do.
Personal Responsibility and Morality
Creating Your Own Values
What you do with your body is your business—no one else’s. Tantra is a discipline where we practice these values. It is challenging to be both tantric and hold traditional religious beliefs at the same time. We have to create our own values, re-establish our morals outside societal notions of right and wrong, and do what fits us to create our world. There is no consistency in our culture; we must decide what is constant for us.
In our many cultures, feeling good is not just something you can do freely. Religions often want to be the source of good feelings. Traditional beliefs hold us responsible for our experiences, leading to conversations about pleasure that limit us. In Tantra, we must identify where negative ideas interfere with our pleasure and release them.
Re-examining Beliefs
You must re-examine and redefine your beliefs about sex and relationships. Decide what pleasures you, and do that by yourself. It is up to you to determine this, and you need time and space to do it. Explore your body, and if something is not pleasurable, find out why. Once you know what you like and don’t like, you can share this with your partner.
Tantra is about sharing your feelings, energy, and experience. There is an exercise in sharing, in energy. When two people share energy, the sum is greater than the parts. It’s about having an expanded experience—the physical and etheric body to the maximum senses. It’s about being in total harmony with the body inside and outside the Universe.
When two people harmonize together, magic happens that can’t occur by accident. It requires practice, and the practice is enjoyable. Your relationship becomes more than sex and procreation. Even if someone is not in harmony with themselves, you can still merge and be in harmony with them. They may experience less and think it’s all you; it will be the best experience they’ve ever had.
Gender Roles in Tantra
The Feminine and Masculine Divine
For women, Tantra is to be connected—the vessel and initiator. For men, it is to serve the feminine. Men honor the feminine and worship the goddess. It’s a wonderful way for a relationship to expand. The feminine divine is about being connected, while the masculine divine is about the experience of getting connected.
Service and Connection
Being in service gives the male who he is; being served is who the female is. Owning someone else’s feelings does not work. The feminine is to be served, and the masculine is to serve. Each of us needs to identify what hinders us. It’s a challenging relationship—the physical body relating to the ethereal.
Key aspects of tantra between lovers:
- Mindfulness and Presence: Partners focus on being fully present with each other, immersing themselves in the moment without distractions. This heightened awareness allows for a deeper appreciation of shared experiences.
- Deep Emotional Connection: Tantra encourages open communication and vulnerability, fostering trust and a stronger emotional bond. Sharing thoughts, feelings, and desires openly enhances intimacy.
- Energy Exchange: Lovers become attuned to each other’s energies, learning to feel and direct this flow between them. This exchange amplifies connection and can lead to profound shared experiences.
- Sacred Sexuality: Physical intimacy is approached as a sacred act, transcending mere physical pleasure. It becomes a form of worship and mutual honoring, elevating the relationship to a spiritual level.
- Breathwork and Synchronization: Coordinated breathing techniques help synchronize partners’ rhythms, promoting harmony and deepening the physical and emotional connection.
- Prolonged Pleasure and Sensory Awareness: Instead of focusing on the end goal, tantra emphasizes savoring each moment. Heightening sensory awareness enhances pleasure and allows partners to explore new dimensions of intimacy.
- Meditation and Rituals: Incorporating meditation and intentional rituals creates a sacred space for connection. These practices deepen mutual understanding and spiritual alignment.
- Balance of Masculine and Feminine Energies: Tantra acknowledges the interplay of masculine and feminine energies within and between partners, regardless of gender. Balancing these energies fosters harmony and mutual growth.
The Journey of Pleasure and Releasing Emotional Pain
Understanding Pleasure
We have to relearn and distinguish pleasure from emotional pain. The brain decides whether something feels good or bad. If you don’t experience your emotional pain, you trap energy in the body and can’t begin healing. Learn to live pleasure daily so that people know you are in pleasure. Be happy and share pleasure; people will notice and love you. It is a practice you develop—a discipline.
Redefining Cultural Morals
For pleasure, we must let go of all cultural morals about pleasure. This process is painful because these morals are woven with pain, shame, anger, and guilt, and it hurts to extract them. We have to redefine pleasure and pain and distinguish between them. Bliss and ecstasy are pleasures to experience. Bliss is harmony with all consciousness—the etheric and physical world. Ecstasy is more intense; it is derived by achieving totality and experiencing the dissolution of illusion.
Ecstasy is becoming one with the creative force so that we are the fabric of consciousness and it permeates every sense of our being.
In ecstasy, all senses are heightened to the maximum, and the physical and ethereal body is heightened to the maximum. When that happens, who we are as a unique being disappears into the ONE (an orgasm is like that).
The Inner Source of Pleasure
If you are not true to yourself, you cannot experience pleasure—pleasure then becomes a thinking process. The source of pleasure is inside of you, not outside of you. It can’t be done to you. Our experience of pleasure begins within; then you expand it and share. First, you have to learn how to experience it on your own. If you divorce guilt, shame, anger—anything diminishing—you can be happy.
Each of us needs to identify what gets in the way of us. It is a very difficult relationship. It is the physical body being in relationship with the ethereal. Our relationship to life should not be different. We have to relearn what feels like damage assessment to know our pleasure.
Re-establish your own morals and do it outside of what’s right and wrong. Do it based on what fits you and create your world.
Sex occurs inside of Tantra, but it is not all that is there. It is just one of the things that is wonderful about being in a body.
The model that gives expansion is—this is what brings me pleasure and this is who I want to share it with. I am the source of all my pleasure.
You must re-examine and redefine what your beliefs are going to be about sex, emotional pain, and relationships.
Context Matters
If a child is created out of love, it is born into a loving environment. If conceived in anger, the child may carry that anger into the world. Procreation occurs within the context of the experience.
Breathing Life
Think about recreating: breathing in is the light; breathing out makes space for the light to occur. When a newborn breathes on its own, it is alive. Before that, it is dependent. Life is connected to breath.
Conclusion
By embracing Tantra, we learn to connect deeply with ourselves and others, transcending physical boundaries and experiencing the oneness of consciousness. It is a journey of self-discovery, pleasure, and harmony with the Universe.