5. An Intro to Tantra

Transcript

5. The Spiritual Orgasm When our two sides are merged in a new totality and our energy system is whole, in balance, not in disease, but in ease, then we can start to work with and move our energy. It might seem a bit out there, but it does make sense that for anything to go from one place to another, it needs energy.

So in order for us to transform, to heal, we need energy. The 7th century Kaula Trigatantra text we discussed in our earlier episode, the beautiful union and conversations between Shiva and Shakti, presents in-depth practices and techniques to raise the vertical Shakti energy, Kundalini, throughout the chakras, from the lower chakras into the higher chakras, from gross to subtle. The idea of Kundalini is the very key to all Tantra teachings and practices.

Kundalini is the divine creative energy that gives birth to the universe. It is the feminine energy of the Divine Mother that arises from the union of the God Shiva and the Goddess Shakti. Kundalini gives the form to the formless and brings into manifestation all of life.

Kundalini therefore is also our sexual energy because it is the powerful force of creation. In fact, it is the energy which we use to create anything in life, from babies to art to music. So if Kundalini is the basis of Tantra and spiritual enlightenment, it seems logical that stimulating and working with sexual energy would be a natural part of Tantric practices.

It's not surprising then, that we find erotic art and architecture in some old temples depicting this union of Shiva and Shakti. The temple architecture of Vairayana Buddhism, a direct descent of Tantric teaching, shows very explicit sexual acts with vivid imagery of the lingam, the penis, and the yoni, the vagina. Whether or not this means that sexual acts were being practiced inside the temples, one thing is clear.

Sex and eroticism were certainly linked to spiritual life, at least in some lineages of Tantra. So coming back to Kundalini. So Kundalini energy passes through our chakra system.

It is always there. It's always alive. It moves up and down our central energy channel, even without our awareness.

One could say that our entire life moves along the vertical axis with its seven energy points. We don't love from our toes, do we? Nor do we understand reality from our arms, and we're certainly not aroused when we fall off a cliff and our instinct to survive is kicked in.

As we can commonly agree, energetically, we move through life's different crossroads. From our gut instinct, that's the third chakra, solar plexus, we connect to others with love and compassion from our hearts, that's fourth chakra. And we are able to perceive a deeper knowing from our inner mind, the sixth chakra, also known as the third eye, the eye looking inwards.

Now this is what it all comes down to. If we train ourselves through yogic practices to bring consciousness to our life force energy, we can direct that energy to the chakra we want it to go. When we direct energy to the second chakra, for example, it is experienced as sexual energy.

If we move the energy to the third, we work on our ego, on power and mastery and control. It is the same energy, just expressed through different centers in our body, that shifts our understanding and experience of reality. So listen carefully now.

What tantra allows us to do is to work with our sexual energy in a whole new different way than when it moves unconsciously. It's a creative energy, it's potent energy, and when we learn to direct it with more awareness, it transforms our lives. So let's take a deeper look at how the sexual energy expresses itself unconsciously.

So let's say if my energy is always in the second chakra, it will bring lots of sexual desire. And if I'm always in my throat chakra, I have the urge to always speak and communicate. The chakras in one sense can be overproducing energy or underproducing energy, or they can be balanced.

But as an existing human being, our energy is always in our root chakra, because this is where the energy of survival and stability resides. Most of you know Maslow's hierarchy of needs. So when our need for food and shelter is satisfied, we can move into the next level of love and self-esteem and eventually self-actualization.

The chakra system is identical, just that instead of seeing it as on hierarchy, we see it as energy expressed in different intensity at all times. So energy moves, when your survival is established and assured, into the second chakra for reproduction, a basic human instinct for the survival of our species. It allows you to move into feeling sexual arousal.

And many of us get confused, scared and addicted about energy when it moves into the second chakra. We are not educated in how to operate the energy as we believe the source of this arousing energy to emanate from external objects outside of ourselves. And consequently, a lot of time, energy and sometimes even money is spent on trying to gather energy and ultimately release energy and form of orgasms from this center.

We see it today in an overpopulated earth, multi-million dollar porn industry and many of the kinks in connection to sex. Starting from it from a more spiritual sense of view, sex is merely the act of two bodies just rubbing together to reproduce and there is nothing spiritual to draw from this act to liberate one's being from the bondage of suffering. Rather, the act of sex is filled with so much pleasure and desire, more looked upon as being crucial for a species to procreate.

If it wasn't for the pleasure of it, we wouldn't be producing so many babies into this world. It's quite functional in that sense. So the question is then, how can we transcend our desire for sex to make our orgasm be part of our spiritual practice?

Well, it all comes down to the essence of the orgasm itself. Because when we orgasm, all of our energy and attention is directed inwards, into that still point of presence. No object outside of ourselves gets our attention.

Our love is directed towards the eternal self. Our sense of separateness is dissolved into the divine. The polarities you normally identify yourself with are unified.

It all becomes one. And for many people, this is a direct root and taste of a blissful state. And as a human being, you get to understand what a liberated state from the bondage of suffering feels like.

But since most of us are stuck in the third chakra, where our ego resides and wanting to structure and control, we are drawn to the blissful states of orgasm. We are drawn to it, but at the same time, frightened by it. Why? Well, because it involves losing our control.

And as a result, a lot of tension, contraction, and expectation is drawn up around orgasm. Most of us chase the orgasm by rubbing and contracting so much that it explodes in just a millisecond, like a balloon popping, and assume that it's over and done with. We quickly go back into our minds, and sometimes even feeling shame and guilt, just to regain that control.

The moment of orgasm gets so short and intense that a lot of our nectar of life, in Sanskrit that's ojas, is wasted and we feel deprived of life force energy. A sense of exhaustion is felt. It's quite an eloquent design by the creator linking our reproduction and our blissful state, our transcendence, together into one beautiful mix as the foundation of the survival of our species.

It's quite a beautiful design. But it's the same energy that moves in you all the time. It's just expressed in different ways, through the chakras.

Almost all yogic practices teach its students how to awaken and move the sexual life force energy consciously, not to the point of orgasm, but drawing it up the spine to the higher chakras so that it can be used to open our vision and our minds to see life from a broader view and ultimately establish ourselves in oneness. In tantra, a relationship is not based in the rubbing of bodies, but in holding each other accountable to awaken and move our sexual energy along the chakra system to heal and balance our beings, to ease instead of disease. As you move the energy up along the spine, the orgasm will be felt over the top of the head in your entire body instead of in the genitals.

The partnership becomes about awakening the energy and move it up over and over again. And that's the practice. What happens when the energy is drawn up from the three lower chakras into the three upper chakras is that your understanding of your partner and the world at large is altered.

You move from viewing your partner as an object, giving you the satisfaction of your desires and fulfilling your lusts, to see him or her as a divine being, a god or a goddess. Coming back to the divine cosmic marriage of Shiva and Parvati. When the energy moves from the three lower chakras through the heart, it changes from being a separate you and me, integrating into an us and then moving upwards, it transcends any form, any notion of object-subject and dissolves into eternity.

So in tantra, the sex act becomes a vehicle to move your life force energy up your spine and offering it to the divine. Eventually it dissolves into every part of you, into every part of your life, instead of it going into the genitals for a short explosive orgasm. What this literally means for the man is to sublime the energy of the orgasm up the spine.

So instead of explode, you implode. And as a consequence, the man will not ejaculate. And for the woman, it is first and foremost to not lose too much blood during the menstruation and for her to also move the sexual energy, of course, in and up so that it again, it implodes instead of explodes.

The woman can generally move sexual energy much easier than a man as she is already much more in tune with her feminine energy. The man will generally need support and guidance to move slowly and become more sensitive to the flow of energy and to the physical touch itself. And eventually, after some time of practice, the world around you also becomes a source of awakening and moving life force energy, the food you eat, the music you listen to, the thoughts you think.

You start moving life force energy up your spine in the bus, in meetings. And as you go to sleep and the objects you once upon a time desire to fulfill you, loosens their power. And as your power and energy is generated within your own very human being, you become more whole, more assertive and independent.

Addictions, desires and lusts for objects outside of yourself just dissolve and you are free. So sex for a person practicing tantra has very little to do with attraction, but rather a union between two souls who are united by karma and whose dharma is established in elevating life force energy. Whether you are single or in a relationship, all the energy put into thinking and desiring sex and planning who to couple with is no longer an obsession, as your love, your bliss and your joy is an eternal affair, not dependent on something or someone else.

As you work on bringing more light onto your shadows and wounds and bring more awareness to your life force energy, you become more sensitive to your own and others energies. You learn how to use your energy and how to direct it. Instead of projecting sexual tension onto those around you, you will come to understand that some people you will just be friends with.

Some you will have children with. Some you will build businesses with. It's all in balance and you learn to operate your relationships from different chakras offering to the person in front of you what he or she needs.

You serve instead of consuming energies. So when you start practicing tantra or yoga at large, it's not that you move from one chakra to the next and close the lower ones down as you move your energy up. It's rather a balance that's created.

Chakras that were closed up are now open and those that were wide open, let's say too much energy concentrated in one chakra, are now cooled down to a more relaxed state. The person with balanced chakras will feel that all in life is open and balanced. Love, sex and power and safety is all one.

Acting from this place doesn't create suffering in you nor in others. Consider everything in life as a source to bring more awareness as to what brings you closer to your divine nature.