TANTRIC SEX or Tantra is a form of active meditation; it’s spontaneous and promotes the development of an intimate relationship with self that is then shared with a partner in everyday life and in intimate lovemaking. The history of Tantra dates back many thousands of years and evolved in India. Tantric practices were at their most popular between 500 and 1300 AD. The Tantric texts specify that sex has three distinct and separate purposes — procreation, pleasure and liberation.
The Kama Sutra (Sanskrit for “Aphorisms of Love”) of Vatsyayana is perhaps the most well-known published work on Tantric Philosopy. Written in ancient India the text is a beautiful and in-depth guide to love, sexuality, sexual positions, sexual techniques, and kundalini yoga and meditation. It focuses on increasing and experiencing sexual enjoyment and other sensual pleasures. It also contains profound historical and anthropological insights into the mores, customs and cultural paradigms of ancient India.
Through Tantric sex you learn to extend the sexual experience and to build and channel potent orgasmic energies, thereby raising your level of consciousness. There is no goal in Tantric sex, only the present moment of perfect and harmonious union. Tantra teaches you to revere your sexual partner and to transform the act of sex into a sacrament of love.
Tantra teaches that sexual experience, when entered into with presence and conscious awareness, is a gateway to both sexual and spiritual ecstasy. In India people sought, through the sacred act of sex, to merge the dual nature of their sexuality into an ecstatic union. From this came the harmonisation of their internal masculine and feminine polarities, and a realisation of the blissful nature of the Self that goes beyond the illusion of duality.
Many people who experience deep ecstatic sexual states or orgastic states liken these to transcendental spiritual experiences. They realise that the distinctions between carnal and spiritual may be unclear. Sex in Tantra aims to heighten and extend the connection that develops between two people when they are lost in the ecstasy of love. That thin line that separates you from feeling ‘one’ with everything dissolves, leaving you in the ‘bliss state’ you were originally born into.
Today in the Western world, most people have been taught very little about their own bodies and their potential to experience pleasure and satisfaction. Hence, there has been a rekindling of interest in Tantric sexual practices. With Tantra, as you become expansive, your awareness increases and by engaging in more trusting sexual practices that involve sharing intimacy, your life perception becomes more playful and joyous – you can start to grow spiritually through beautiful and loving experiences.
In essence Tantric sex is an intimate practice – like meditation or yoga. Tantra uses pleasure, satisfaction and sexuality as a springboard to higher levels of consciousness. It enables you to be present with your lover and, ultimately, with your self within everyday life.
