What is tantra?
The word tantra comes from ancient Sanskrit and means 'expansion through consciousness' (awareness). Experiencing liberation through greater awareness. Tantra is an ancient spiritual practice for enlightenment that in addition to the path for a connection to the divine through the practice of yoga to activate all senses and move beyond duality, also embraces sexuality as part of our totality as human beings. The tantric traditions come from various ancient (up to 5000 y) schoolings from India, Tibet, China and Nepal.
Tantra as we know it here in the West today is a spiritual path centred on the practice of various practices. These practices are exercises around breathing, making sounds, movement , techniques to calm the mind, activate sexual energy and let it flow through the body to achieve a higher state of consciousness. Walking the tantric path, also helps you 'get rid' of old pains, traumas that accumulate in the sexual centres in the body so that you can be more 'present' in the moment and open to love. When you practice tantra with a partner, it can create a very powerful 'flow' of energy for you and your partner that enhances your 'being' and love for each other and for others. We live in an age of sexual freedom and yet it is rare to encounter someone with fulfilled intimacy. Many long for a vitality in their relationship and a spirituality that affirms the union of body and mind. Adults are often stuck with the oppressive conditioning from childhood, which sometimes makes it difficult for them to define their needs and desires and/or live them. Tantra offers numerous transformative exercises that bring change from the root or core (massages, dance, music, fragrances, healthy food, rituals), in order to make the unconscious conscious, increase concentration, get the body more into a flow of energy, calm the mind and change our attitude (attitudes) in the world.
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Tantra is also about the sacred union between the masculine and feminine, within ourselves and with a partner. Expressing gratitude to our partner for sharing his/her love and energy with us. Seeing the beauty in the other and in that way also seeing the beauty in ourselves. Tantra is so much more than just sexuality. Tantra is also experiencing pleasure, pain, joy, love, anger, passion and compassion and are all accepted in the quest to find a balance between the masculine and feminine energy.
In short, it is a way to get to know yourself better and accept yourself as you are, to inject more awareness into yourself rather than being performance-oriented, to see better how you relate to others and make more sense of your life.
