4. An Intro to Tantra

Transcript

4. Tantra, a path of love In Tantra, we look at everything in terms of energies. Contemplate just for a minute about your own body composed of different parts, organs.

These organs are composed of different tissues, composed of different types of cells, that in turn are composed of molecules, that in turn are composed of atoms inside which you find protons and neutrons. And then what? Energy, of course.

As energetic beings, we look into Tantra upon energies flowing into two different directions, one horizontal and one vertical axis. Energy is also one of the catalysts we use in Tantra to transform. As with any form of transformation, energy is needed to move from one place to another, but also in merging or fusing two different parts together.

As we have discovered throughout previous episodes, we have our active right side, where we make sense of all things, we calculate and organize. In the West, we have very strong right side energies, always on the move, creating structures and organizations. This side is represented by the sun energy, the source, that which holds the space for creation to happen, the doer, represented in Tantra by the Divine Masculine, Shiva.

Our Divine Feminine left side invites us to lean back, allow, find rest, be creative, be patient, soft and humble, allowing anything that wants to come to be accepted and invited. This side is represented by the moon, the reflection of the sun. The element is water.

In the West, we are most of the time in our right side, obsessing about always having something to do. We are sleep deprived and addicted to beverages and food that gives us energy. Very few of us rely on the energies we have in abundance inside ourselves, our Shakti.

In Tantra, the life force energy that we want to work with is the energy of the serpent, Kundalini energy. It is an energy system that moves from the below to the above. It is energy that moves up and down on a vertical axis, also known as the Tantric Chakra system.

It is composed of seven energy centers. In ancient Sanskrit, they are referred to as Chakras, meaning wheel of light. From the base of the spine to the top of the head, with the heart in the center, one can see it as a flute, each chakra vibrating at a different note.

It's this vessel of energy that connects the gross below to the more subtle above. Even though chakras do not have a physical part in the body, they do have an energetic location, and it is proven that when focusing on these centers, it has very profound healing properties. The three lower energy centers deal with our basic needs to find safety, connection and create our own individual self.

It starts with the grounding element of earth, water and then fire. Our three energy centers above allow us to express our truth, our ability to connect with our intuition and eventually to self-actualize. The elements are ether and pure white light.

All chakras, when open and balanced, allows our chakti, life force energy, to flow freely and openly within our limitless awareness. There are so many rituals, meditations and details to the chakra system, it is impossible for me to spell it all out here in detail. I hope to have the possibility to guide you through the chakras in more detail in later episodes.

So now that we have discovered the two sides and the two directions of how energy flows, it allows us to land in the center of our being, where all transformation and merging of energies meet. The center of centers, the heart. The energetic heart center is where we vibrate unconditional love and divine grace.

It welcomes and brings into divine union our masculine and feminine right and left sides, with our lower and higher chakras, our physical body, being grounded into the center of the earth and the astral energy pulling our spirit up towards the heavens. The heart chakra is from where we give and receive. Just think about how the arms extends out from your heart to embrace the world around you, your hands offering and grasping to experience the world around you.

The heart heals the divide between the split of being too much in the gross body and opening up to the bliss body. It brings you into your center of being too much out there, looking for stimuli, love, affection and brings you back into yourself where you find abundant resources of energy and intimacy to feel whole and complete. It's like bringing two different parts together to create a new totality.

In a way, you can say that tantra is the path of love. Through love and compassion, we heal ourselves and the world around us. And here I would like to give a little quote by Rumi.

Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Such a beautiful quote by Rumi. So let's take a look at what these barriers are and where they come from.

Barriers are created anytime that we feel we were hurt. Anytime we were open hearted and vulnerable, abandoned, rejected or put off. Any of these kind of things that has happened to us, either as a child or adult.

Each time it happens, it's a big temptation to close our heart and protect it. And we create a barrier. The problem then is that what we did in order to protect the heart also blocks the heart for love energy to flow.

And consequently, we shut ourselves down. Sometimes even to the point that we don't allow feelings to enter our being. We feel numb and nothing really moves or touches us.

There are many ancient meditations to release the blocks around the heart. And for this episode's practice, I will guide you through a beautiful heart meditation inspired by my beloved meditation teacher, Daviji, to feel more love and compassion. The heart is very important as we start to look at our inner transformation as we heal our splits and loosen up our blocks and our barriers.

The field within which this healing can take place is within the field of love. It is essential for love to be present. It is a catalyst for the transformation to take place as love holds the space where opposites and divides can merge, unite, and ultimately transform.

So in tantra, we really want to open our hearts first before any transformation can happen. So getting to know the barriers we have placed around our hearts and releasing them is the key, the very key, to initiate our healing process. In tantra, we focus our attention on a very specific barrier, the desire for intimacy.

Intimacy is one of the basic needs of our human nature. Newborn babies especially need it for their very survival. When as children we start playing our wang, we are most often told that expressing curiosity and intimacy for oneself or others is naughty and sinful.

Do not touch this or do not do that. Because when told by our parents and other grown-ups to hold off, to please people we wish to respect, our desire for intimacy gets pushed aside and we are told that it's not allowed. Sexual desire and the desire for intimacy is one of the most personal and vulnerable things that we are ever called upon to express.

And it exposes us to potentially feel different degrees of ridicule and shame. So desire is the strongest energy there is and pushing it away will in itself take a lot of energy. When our desires get pushed away into the shadow, it disguises itself into a distorted shadowy desire and can even traumatize us in such a way that it creates addictions in later adulthood.

When our desire for intimacy is instead nurtured and cared for consciously by loving and allowing parents, desires can be welcomed and expressed freely. Intimacy and pleasure is so very healing. It generates many of those feel-good hormones like endorphin and oxytocin, that's the hormone for love and connection and to give birth, to be released into our system.

We need these hormones in order to stay healthy and vital, to feel and look good both internally and externally. When we shame and push our desires for connection and intimacy away, it will most likely be silenced and ultimately distorted and kinked. Sexual shame is so embarrassing that we dare not even speak about it.

It is of huge importance for healing to take place, to dare to put our feelings into words and seek out warm-hearted, broad-minded people with whom we can, in safety, share our kinks and distortions with. Because eventually, we learn to see ourselves through non-judgmental and caring eyes. In Tantra, we want to free up desire, as when it's allowed into a safe space, it can feel like the most natural, most profound energetic release and allow us to move into our own healing process and inner evolution.

As desires become more accepted and allowed, as we bring them into the light, we release the negative energy that has pushed them down. We release the barriers within ourselves that we have built against love, so that we can feel and be loved and we become more open to relating intimately. When the desire is freed up, it transforms into the desire for love.

And that is magic, as my teacher Sharon Gannon calls it. Magic happens when there is a shift in perception. So take some time to look at your desires.

What is it that you desire? Chocolate, food, cigarettes, and so forth? Do you have any pattern for addictions? And which desires are you open to share, and which ones have you pushed away into the shadow? During the course of my own personal journey with Tantra, one thing that struck me early on, and which has always been key to my understanding of this path, is the importance of freeing up desire and allowing love to flow freely.

When the subject about sex and orgasm gets too overwhelmed, without me feeling safe, I instantly go back into contraction, and I lose the expanded feeling of freedom. Because of that, it has become very important for me to make sure the teacher is legit and grounded in the heart. Since Tantra is growing so fast in popularity, there are innumerable workshops and courses which teach about how to get more pleasure, deeper sexual intimacy, and longer lasting orgasms.

But unfortunately, many of these workshops fail to give enough, or if any, importance to love, and the power of the heart to heal and transform our wounded souls. On my journey, I've had the opportunity of experiencing many different workshops, some focusing more on orgasmic pleasure and others leading with the heart. And leading with the heart in Tantric practice is infinitely more fulfilling and liberating than trying to achieve deeper, longer orgasms.

Even though it is also very pleasurable, it has not changed the way I understand reality. It hasn't shifted my perception. Not forgetting that all of these experiences are just that, experiences.

And that the actual goal of Tantra is ultimately not.