A Tantra Introduction
Your Guide
Because of the most frequent desire of couples to improve their sexual life, Tantra developed some new practices to help them. Tantra believes that through sex you can reach higher paths faster. Spiritual enlightenment is something that everyone looks for. Tantra offers you practices that can help you reach that state. The Tantric sexual practices are spiritual practices.
Its aim is not just pleasure but spiritual connection. It is believed that making love claims both partners letting aside their egos, which is the first step to spiritual enlightenment.
Tantra comes from Sanskrit and is derived from the root tan, which means “to extend, expand, spread”. And, just like our universe, Tantra is continually expanding, being made up of different energies. Our thoughts and actions are all parts of this, like powerful energies. They make the universe what it is.
Tantra is founded on the concept that all things are connected and that the universe is in us and develops through each of us. Tantra means that everything has a relationship with everything else.
If we follow the practices of Tantra that offer new and unique experiences, we might get closer to Divinity. When these things are done with spirit, be they yoga, meditation, relationships of all sorts, spiritual pursuit and most of all, sex, they remind us of the unity and the divine presence.
We live in a world of ‘fast’ and ‘faster’. We think every experience should have a meaning, and we forget about our spirit. We concentrate so much on the material that we forget the spirit.
The experiences that touch us the most have their origins in the spirit. This is what we should keep in mind – to take care of our souls. When we can let aside our egos, we’ll be able to have our first spiritual rise. This will be just the beginning cause once you have a spiritual lift you’ll want more.
The goal of Tantric sexual techniques is to reach a greater communion between partners. When you learn to let aside ego and love with all your heart and body, you will open your soul to different experiences. When one learns tantric practices, your life can improve significantly.
The seeker of these practices may see that many of the components of the ancient tantric techniques integrate well in our daily lives. Tantra can give us the means to be more present and more aware.
The Tantric Way
We live our lives in a permanent rush. We keep inside "synthesis" of experiences that we had.
We keep past loves, victories as well as defeats. But when we think of love, everything is seen in a different light, more alive, unique, and mysterious.
It is possible that we do not remember what we did three years ago or on January 7.
But if it is the day when you saw him for the first time or the day that he told you he wanted you to be together, it is all coming back to you and you keep on smiling about some details that that day seemed to be excellent.
If you experienced a profound love story, there is no doubt that you were beautiful and strong, that you thought that you had something special decided for you by your fate. After a while, after your love passed over your field of lust and you put aside whatever was needed to be put aside, you found yourself stronger, though apparently without something or somebody to lean on.
And your love became more intense, conscious, and even more significant. Love is constructive and creative; she unites and lifts you up. It's a regenerating principle, a substance that turns everyone who's blazed and lonely.
Masterpieces, poems, inspiring music, they all have in their composition something - love. And so do we.
Love is real, as real as we are. It's not a sterile concept but a magic of all our being. The moment that not even a blade is an accident, if someone loves you, you should consider that because we exist to prove that there is love on Earth.
It's the easiest thing to be transformed because of love. It is the only standard that everything else should be measured by. Shared love means our existence in the infinity of shapes and shades.
Loving is the easiest thing to do because it is the most natural. You almost do not have to do anything else. Everyone needs to love even before he loves somebody or something. Sooner or later, you will find someone to respond to your feeling.
Love makes people search for their soul mate; to make all their dreams come true. It makes you want to know yourself. If you feel that you do not love any more, that is because you never did or you stopped looking inside yourself, where there is still love. Love knows that what is inside your mind can be changed or forgotten, so lost, when love is the one that always makes you triumphant.
Love… is. We are the ones who feel it through the person that we love, through the moments of happiness. It doesn't need all of those. Love does not rule and does not to be ruled. Love doesn't ask; it gives. It's a divine simplicity. Love is the reflection of divine love on Earth. That is why it hasn't boundaries or limits.
Tantra Yoga
It is known that in TANTRA, the pleasure, however intense, must be entirely controlled, and therefore the ejaculation (or the explosive orgasm) must be avoided. However, especially nowadays, in the West, some beginners still mix the two ways of experiencing sexuality; also there sometimes may occur accidental (involuntary) losses of control at some beginners.
For all these reasons, it is said that at least one hour after every Tantric technique, all sexual manifestations (masturbation included) are prohibited; this has the object of avoiding any risk of having the energy lost, allowing it to be integrally used for higher goals.
THE HANDS
The TANTRIKA-s (Tantric adepts) are especially careful concerning the care of the hands since they are the main "instruments" for touching and caressing, and the tantra techniques often involve specific use of the hands, fingers, or nails. Some texts advise the cutting of the nails of the thumb, and index (especially of the right hand), so that they are short, and these two fingers present a soft, round tip (for avoiding any scratching or wounding). In contrast, the other fingers should have rather long nails, but very clean and manicured. It is deemed that long nails conduct better the etheric energy of the hands, thus enhancing the intensity of the touch, stroke, and massage. Many TANTRIKA-s can be recognised after the special way in which their nails are manicured.
THE SEXUAL ORGANS
All Tantric texts mention the care and cleanness of the genital organs, and area, as being very important, for both hygienic and aesthetic reasons. Moreover, the cleanness of the sexual organs is said to enhance their sensitivity, which will be noted with the practice of perception techniques. For women, it is often recommended that the pubic hair be periodically shaved or depilated with wax entirely so that the sensitivity is enhanced and the sensuous feelings and excitability are amplified.
THE LIGHT
"TANTRA loathes the darkness" is a traditional saying; therefore, all the tantric techniques shall be performed with some form of light, never in darkness. The are structured for stimulating all the senses, including the visual one; moreover, the darkness makes possible the manifestation of certain uncontrollable psychic energies, which spiritual probationers should avoid.
Amongst the recommendations, TANTRA prefers natural light (candle-light, for instance), and sometimes recommends the use of coloured lights; red light is said to stimulate male sexuality (and the root-CHAKRA), while violet light is highly recommended for enhancing female sexuality (opening the throat-CHAKRA). Therefore they shall be used according to the circumstances.
THE FOOD
TANTRA emphasizes the importance of a natural diet, without toxic products, and as much as possible without that food that is usually forbidden to the high classes of Indian society (meat, alcohol, fish, tobacco, coffee, drugs, etc.). TANTRA states that all the senses must be stimulated to the greatest extent but with perfect mastery; this is also a very personal matter.
THE UNDERSTANDING AND THE ABNEGATION
TANTRA forbids those deeds by which the elementary rights of another human being are denied. Amongst others, the Tantric Masters will never try to persuade outsiders to perform special Tantric techniques at all costs. The understanding must come from inside, and approaching of the trantric way must be done with the participation of one's entire being and with total self-offering.
THE MEANING OF LOVE
In most of the languages, and especially the Germanic ones, the word "amour" - love is tough to define. TANTRA deems love as a gradual expansion by which, starting from the finite, one reaches the infinite; this definition should be meditated upon to clarify its meaning. Love also means total empathic identification with the innermost being of the other, as part integrated in the harmony of the macrocosmic Infinite.
THE POLARITY OF THE ENERGY
TANTRA is pre-eminently a science of polarity; the man and the woman are here the personifications of the two fundamental cosmic poles: SHIVA - the Male consciousness, and SHAKTI - the Female manifestation. Therefore it is particularly important to remind a few elements concerning the polarity of the energy. Any energy of the manifestation (and therefore anything, being, phenomenon, state) is composed of two distinct poles: the solar one (male, active, emissive, +, YANG), and the lunar one (female, passive, receptive, -, YIN).
The condition of harmony, and therefore the aim of any method of spiritual development - TANTRA YOGA included - is to reach a perfect balance of these two poles. The traditional teachings state that the unbalance of these two energies (solar (+), and lunar (-)), in whatever sense, creates the condition of disharmony that entails disturbance, disease, pain, limitation, and unhappiness. On the other hand, their balance creates perfect harmony, which is the springboard for higher spiritual accomplishments. Here are some practical examples concerning the predominance of the two polarities in the manifested world: the left side of the body, generally, is of lunar (-, YIN) polarity, while the right side of the body is generally of solar (+, YANG) polarity.
In tantra, there are data concerning the polarity of the energy between a man and a woman during the sexual union about the various "bodies", or ranges of frequency of the being. Since we haven't yet made a methodical study of this topic (of the various bodies), we'll briefly mention this information. Thus, at the physical body level (called in YOGA: ANNAMAYAKOSHA), the man is predominantly +, and the woman predominantly -.
At the etheric body level (PRANAMAYAKOSHA), the woman is +, and the man -. On the astral plane (MANOMAYAKOSHA), the man is again +, and the woman -, while at the mental body level (VIJNANAMAYAKOSHA), the woman is solar, and the man is lunar. Meditating upon the various meanings of the solar/lunar polarity, a deeper understanding of these brief statements will occur.