Should Tantra be distinguished from 'sacred sexuality'?
Is any practice associated with sex necessarily 'neo-Tantra'?
... and what about 'sexual magick'?
This is not what Tantra is essentially about... but yes, Tantra can help men last longer in sex by reducing the sexual tension that usually builds up with arousal (or with repression).
When the sexual tension is reduced then the urge for 'cathartic orgasm' also reduces.
When conscious breath and mindfulness or devotion combine, we can approach both pleasure and pain with a totally different attitude.
Tantra can enable us to experience intense communion instead of just self-pleasure. 'Neo-Tantra' may fall short of being 'real Tantra' when the communion is only experienced as 'human-to-human', as beautiful and healing as that may be.
But taking a step back... What does sex really have to do with Tantra anyway?
Well, in some traditions - the Dakshina Marg, or 'Right-path' - it could be considered to have nothing to do with Tantra.
In these traditions the approach can even be celibacy and total transmutation of sexual energy before it has a chance to be expressed.
In these traditions, the marriage of Shiva (the 'Auspicious one') and Shakti ('Power') is purely symbolic, poetically representing the ecstasy of Samadhi (blissful, liberating peace) and the Kundalini Shakti (intelligent life-force) arriving at the higher centers (at the abode of Shiva) at the crown of the head.
But in some traditions, coming under the category of 'Vama Marg' or 'Left-path', sex is not just a symbolic act of communion between Shiva and Shakti.
Some schools of the Vama Marg seem to have developed in a 'reactive' way, making a point of ritually breaking repressive taboos around sex, death and cleanliness.
This is useful to some extent - actually it can create great shifts in consciousness - and is as far as some practitioners take it.
Breaking core taboos is certainly 'liberating' to some extent... However it is also potentially dangerous for people do not have the groundedness to grow from that dismantled self. There are many reasons for Tantra's secrecy and obscure alchemical symbolism throughout the centuries.
In relation to sex specifically...
Beyond reactive taboo-breaking, sex can be ritualized and experienced as the ultimate sacrifice - throwing oneself into the flames of Shakti's arousal, leaving no 'I' behind, no ego in control.
What is 'Shakti'?
Shakti is Life... Energy... Creative intelligence... and actually All of the manifest universe as well as the energy patterns and flows that bring it into being.
And we can relate to Shakti devotionally, altering our state of consciousness - and our experience of life.
When during sexual arousal we use breath, 'bandhas' (muscular/energy locks) and techniques to circulate the life-force, while relaxing into the arousal [it sounds contradictory, but this is the key], then Kundalini Shakti is enabled spontaneously (specially if we have prepared through Tantric disciplines) to flow, all the way along the central nervous system, and along the inner, subtlest energy channels, bringing about Samadhi, ecstasy, Bliss, Divine Communion.
For some schools of Tantra the occurrence of all this during sex is completely beside the point. Samadhi can just as well be experienced in solitary meditation (as in conventional Yoga) and the ability to delay or prolong orgasm could be seen as just an irrelevant side-effect of Tantric practice.
'Tantric sex' is a modern term. There is not much exploration in the ancient teachings of this aspect of Tantra.
However, if we are to place this practice in a genuinely Tantric context, it can be summarised as 'Kundalini flowing fully as a result of relaxed arousal'.
However, if we are to place this practice in a genuinely Tantric context, it can be summarised as 'Kundalini flowing fully as a result of relaxed arousal'.
Prolonging the arousal may help, but it is not the goal itself. Tantra takes us beyond pleasure-seeking.
The goal is the free flow of the life-force - Kundalini.
What does this really mean?
It means that we no longer feel cut off from the Divine. We no longer feel alienated from nature and from each other - stuck in thought-loops... 'in our heads'.
The goal is the free flow of the life-force - Kundalini.
What does this really mean?
It means that we no longer feel cut off from the Divine. We no longer feel alienated from nature and from each other - stuck in thought-loops... 'in our heads'.
A more detailed description of Tantric sex could be: the use of the intense and ongoing expansion that results from the combination of meditative awareness with sexual arousal - the vibration-expansion ('spanda') of consciousness - riding the energy to its full expression through the energy system (described traditionally as 'sat-chakra-bheda', or the piercing of the six energy centres).
But there is also a Tantric approach that may if you like more properly be called 'sexual magic' or 'magick'.
In this case, typically the female may be stimulated into ever deeper and more intense - but relaxed - states of sexual ecstasy and Kundalini flow. Out of this ecstasy she may enter into an altered state in which not only does she flow with life-giving waters, but Shakti speaks - the Goddess, becomes an embodied, incarnate Presence - not just symbolically, but actually a conscious expression of Divine Wisdom, revealing Herself, guiding the energy, guiding the Dance.
In 'new-age' terminology it could be said that the woman thus starts 'channeling the Divine'.
When this happens, she embodies the 'Guru-principle', she becomes the initiatrix, and to use the terminology of Western Magick (which adopted and adapted ancient Tantra), she becomes the Sacred Harlot.
"When householders become enlightened Tantra is simply what they do. Tantra is reborn in the need to adapt enlightened awareness to day-to-day needs and activities."
- Shivanath
"When householders become enlightened Tantra is simply what they do. Tantra is reborn in the need to adapt enlightened awareness to day-to-day needs and activities."
- Shivanath
One characteristic of Tantra, in spite of the importance of 'guru-param-para' (ie its 'lineage-centric' character), is that it is not elitist or reserved for the privileged few.
Indeed, whatever symbols, secret oaths, or power structures that could be erected to protect or obscure it... through the natural inner processes of spiritual evolution, Tantra is ever-reborn, renewed... through direct revelation of Divine Power, even to the solitary cave-dweller, and even to the humblest lovers.
To stay on the path of compassionate service and not get lost on the path of power, remember to give all thanks to the divine, all 'glory' to the divine. This is true renunciation and Brahmacharya.
To stay on the path of compassionate service and not get lost on the path of power, remember to give all thanks to the divine, all 'glory' to the divine. This is true renunciation and Brahmacharya.
