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Tantra Yoga came into being around the fourth century but it
took another 500
 to
600 years for it to come into full flower. This school
represents a rather radical departure from the philosophy of the
Vedas. For instance it refuted the notion that liberation could
be attained only through rigorous asceticism and meditation, and
it dismissed the Samkhyan precept that a yogi must renounce the
world in order to free himself from it. Tantra also eschewed
karma yoga (the path of action or service), choosing instead to
focus on devotion (bhakti), please refer to the Yoga Traditions
section of this web site for information on (bhakti).
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Most Westerners equate tantra with kinky sex practices, and in
one particular school of tantra the uniting the male energy of
Shiva with the feminine principle of Shakti actually does lead
to innovative sexual positions and some orgiastic practices.
Sensualism contrasts with the philosophy of asceticism, which
postulates that the spiritual world is separate from the
physical world, and that one must turn one's attention away from
the physical in order to perceive the spiritual. Tantra was
eventually incorporated into Buddhism to form Tantric Buddhism,
but in most cases the ritual sex was eliminated, and only the
symbolism of sexual union as a metaphor for union with the
Divine was retained.
The tradition which is based on Taoist alchemy, a Chinese
spiritual system which evolved after Tantra was brought to China
(through Tibet). Taoist alchemy is a combination of Taoism and
Tantric sexual practices, many of which have been modified and
added to by Chinese practitioners throughout the centuries.
Neither Tantra nor Taoist alchemy are limited to sexual practice
-- they are spiritual systems which include sexual techniques as
part of a larger spiritual practice. In teaching about the
causes of suffering and the path to liberation, tantra shares
common ground with its ancestors. Like the non dualistic authors
of the early Upanishads, tantric yogis believed that human
suffering comes from the illusion of opposites, from the
mistaken notion that the Self is somehow separate from the
objects it desires. Being good non dualists, tantrikas (tantric
yogis) see all possible sets of opposites, all dualities (good
and evil, hot and cold, hard and soft, male and female)
contained within the universal consciousness. The only way a
yogi can liberate himself from suffering, according to tantra,
is to unite all the opposites or dualities in his own body, in
his own mind. Tantra Massage
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Not everything in tantra broke with yogic tradition. Before a
yogi could even begin tantric practices, he had to adhere
strictly to the yamas and niyamas (ethical standards and moral
disciplines) and the asanas and pranayamas (postures and
breathing exercises) as outlined in Patanjali's eight-limbed
path in the Yoga Sutra. From there, the adept learned to
concentrate (pratyahara) on a single point (ekagraha); for a
tantrika, this point was usually an icon of a deity. Once he
mastered pratyahara, he was ready to study visualization, which
included feeling the deity's presence and summoning the sacred
force of the deity in order to experience its divinity. Tantric
yogis liked to use visual aids, such as mandalas, in their
meditations. These mandalas were generally made of wood, paper,
or cloth, tantric mandalas were drawings of circles and
geometric shapes and designs. Regardless of how simple or
complex these drawings were, they always contained a seed or
bindu at the center, which represented the union of the cosmos
and the mind; concentric circles, which represented the various
levels of existence; and a square "fence" around the circles,
with open gates, to protect the sacred space and contain the
energies within. Ultimately, by meditating and visualizing, the
tantrika entered into the mandala and realized that the unity of
all things resided in himself and that there was no separation
between him and the Divine. This realization is the quantum leap
in self awareness that is the goal of most consciousness raising
systems or practices.
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Tantra evolved into a number of orders (sampradaya) and diverged
into so-called "left-hand tantra" (varma marg), in which sexual
yoga and other antinomian practices occurred, antinomian refers
to one who holds that the moral law is of no use or obligation
because faith alone is necessary to salvation, and "right-hand
tantra", in which such practices were merely visualized. Both
groups, but in particular the left-hand tantrists, opposed many
features of Hindu culture particularly the caste system and the
subjugation of women. Despite this rebellious nature Tantra was
accepted by some high-caste Hindus, most notably the Rajput
princes. Tantra naturally filled the void left by ascetics who
deliberately denied themselves the pleasure and the joys of
physical existence.
Tantra
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Tantra spread out from India, chiefly to Tibet, where it became
the Vajrayana school of Buddhism. It also had some influence on
Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, and even briefly enabled a yogic/sufi
synthesis among some Indian Muslims. Nowadays Tantra has a large
though not always well-informed following worldwide. Easily
exploited, Tantra may attract hedonists and narcissists. The
Tantric tradition uses the mythology of a plethora of gods and
goddesses, each of which represents an aspect of the universe,
as well as the practitioner's psyche, they are purely symbolic
and self revelatory. These deities may be worshipped externally
(with flowers, incense etc.) but, more importantly, they may be
used as objects of meditation, where the practitioner imagines
him or herself to be the deity in question, so that they may
bring the devine aspects of the object back into the subject.
Tantrists generally see the body as a microcosm; thus in the
Kaulajnana-nirnaya, for example, the practitioner meditates on
the head as the moon, the heart as the sun, and the genitals as
fire, the body is thus worshipped as a model of the universe,
where each cell of your body is seen as a tiny hologram of the
whole universe. Many groups in Tantra Yoga also hold that the
body contains a series of energy centers (chakras) which may be
associated with elements, planets or occult powers (siddhi).
Tantra is also associated with the phenomenon of (kundalini), an
explosive release of energy which occures through the chakras,
some sects see kundalini as essential to Tantra, while others
regard it as unimportant or as an aberration.
As stated before, actual sexual intercourse is not a part of all
tantric practices, but it is the definitive feature of left-hand
Tantra. Contrary to popular belief, "Tantric sex" is not always
slow and sustained, and it may sometimes end in orgasm. For
example, the Yoni Tantra states: "there should always be
vigorous sexual intercourse", so there are different approaches
to the use of the orgasm. In the West we have the ground
breaking psychological work of Wilhelm Reich's Orgone Energy to
reference in regard to the extraordinary physical and
metaphysical powers of the orgasm. In India there were and still
are many taboos that prohibit contact with a low caste person,
so to help a person break with habitual behavior sexual
intercourse was recommended preferably with a low-caste partner,
this was one method by which traditional left-hand practice
forced practitioners to confront their conditioned responses.
Others include the eating of meat (particularly pork) and
drinking alcohol which was usually prohibited in Yoga practices.
Fear was also used as a method to break down conditioning; so
rites would often take place in a cremation ground amidst
decomposing corpses which was a most extreme method of
confronting conditioned responses.
Tantra is now used as a general term which relates to the
traditional sexual practices and many schools have adopted these
as their primary scheme for attaining enlightenment. Many sects
recognize sexuality as the most approximate expression of cosmic
love or God and so they worship it as a mystical expression of
the devine.
Modern Tantra may thus be roughly divided into practices based
on Indian and Tibetan traditions, and a more eclectic approach
encompassing "sacred sexuality" in general, often with very
little reference to its historical roots
Some of the basic tenets of Tantra Yoga
Body Consciousness, and the utilization of Sexual energy to
raise Kundalini for the purposes of transcendence, with a focus
on, ida, pingala, shasuma. Retention of semen. Restraint of
orgasm to ultimately attain Transcendence, Seeing the divine in
each other. Tantric practices include Meditation, movement,
cultivation of sensuality and body awareness, awareness of
kundalini energy, elegant verbal and tactile communication with
the other, music to heighten pleasure, play as a means towards
relaxation and pleasure and meditation.
It is not very easy to find a genuine Tantric scholar and
practitioner to teach you Tantra Yoga but it is worth the
search.
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New York, San Diego,
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