What is Tantra?

Video by Gabriela Gonçalves
Deva Sangito article

After all, what is Tantra?

Tantra is, above all, a spiritual path, marked by inner discovery. It is marked by a journey of self-knowledge that profoundly transforms our attitudes and behaviors.

More than just a practice, Tantra is a philosophy of life, a way of looking at oneself, at others and at the world that brings more balance and harmony.

This is a path without indoctrination, very guided by practice and, in short, seeks to sensitize the body, expand consciousness and make the voice of the heart louder.

This is a transformation that happens from the inside out, free from the influence of outside opinions and concepts. A journey in search of organic individuality - which recognizes its role in the whole - and brings nothing but maturity to those who follow it.

Understand Tantra Philosophy

Tantra texts were written by different masters throughout human history and passed on in various lineages, they seek to lead humanity to altered states of perception in a natural and meditative way.

Throughout this tradition that speaks to different customs, peoples and religions, Tantra gained new interpretations, being polished and adapting to the reality of its time.

Some characteristics, however, were maintained throughout most of his interpretations, such as the sensory aspect that his practices evoke.

In their meditation practices, it is very common to use the body's senses, working with smells, touches, flavors, textures and other stimuli as elements of the meditative experience. The body is invited to participate in an integral and holistic way.

How Does Tantra Work?

Tantra has two main deities: Shiva, to represent male energy, and Shakti, to represent female energy. Tantra works from the balance of these two forces, including breathing techniques, meditation and energy manipulation.

In this way, Tantra practitioners tend to ascend to higher levels of consciousness. In tantric philosophy, the body is not an opposition to the spirit, but a path to the fruition of energy through the chakras.

Although the practice of Tantrism is closely related to sexual ascension, it is not limited exclusively to this use. Its applications are much broader and deeper.

What are the principles of Tantra?

Tantra is closely related to the spiritual precepts of other religions and, despite being written by different masters, in different places, there are principles that are common to Tantra. Know now some of the principles of Tantra:

Tantras have always been directly related to the religions that surrounded them. And although they are written in different places and by masters with different interpretations and lineages, some principles permeate the reality of many Tantras.

Take responsibility

No one is responsible for what you feel or don't feel. That is why each one reacts in its own way. People constellate us, activate us and facilitate our experience in this reality. But the responsibility for what you feel is up to each one. Nobody makes anyone happy, nobody is responsible for anyone's sadness. But when we recognize the other as a facilitator, we also accept the influence that everyone around us has on our mood. It is part of the development of consciousness by Tantra to develop a healthy relationship with its responsibility, recognizing the strength of the triggers around as well as the sovereignty of each one in interpreting each activation in the best way.

Align your language with reality

Language is a mental resource that seeks to translate aspects of reality that we filter all the time. It is natural that the meditative path of Tantra helps us to deconstruct judgments and prejudices, not because judgments are bad - which would be another judgment - but simply because judgments do not work, do not clarify the mind and reduce the portion of reality that can be absorbed. It is an interpretation often made unconsciously based on the energy patterns that emotions and feelings create in the body. When we align our language with the raw reality, in addition to the subjective interpretations that happen almost instantly when we feel frustrated, it becomes easier to take responsibility for your actions. Judgments are capable of unconsciously transforming our observations into evaluations.

Ensuring autonomy to all sentient beings

You will never be free until you allow all beings to be free as they are. It is necessary to transform our demands into requests. The look directed to the external, to the other, created patterns of relationship in which the spouses spend their lives playing strange games trying to change aspects in the nature of the other. Restrict social life, freedom of communication, demand the transformation of addictions and unwanted behaviors.

Avoid Dehumanization

When we select an aspect of a person to represent his totality, we are helping to establish that reality. We are reducing the human potential that exists in each of us. Each human being has the potential in itself to reach any level of complexity and develop in thousands of ways, without necessarily even needing it. We are all ready and perfect in our own way.

Cult of the feminine

Most tantric texts place women and the entire manifestation of feminine energy in a position of evidence and strength. It is common to find the masculine principle represented as consciousness and the feminine principle representing energy. In many lineages, initiation was done by women. Since Tantra is a philosophy that works with the subtle energy of the body, its bioelectricity, it is easy to understand why this position of female evidence: the woman's body has much more strength and biological predisposition to sustain more intense levels of energy; it is capable of generating a life, of passing through orgastic explosions without letting the energy drain from the body and undergoing cycles of renewal much more intense than man.

Tantra

In the 60s, an Indian philosopher began to have his words spread throughout the West, riding on the wave of the New Age culture that was arriving in the United States, which sought new philosophies and ways of seeing the world in the West. Chandra Mohan, who would later become known as Osho, went about his life spreading controversy wherever he went. He established several Ashrams - meditation centers - throughout his history and created his own meditation methods, thinking about the pace of life of the busy Western man. His work would become known worldwide as Osho's active meditations.

But the main source of inspiration for this work comes from a Tantric text called Vijnana Bhairava which, among its sutras, presents 112 meditation techniques to expand awareness. Osho even makes a speech, compiled in almost 1200 pages, called The Book of Secrets, in which he comments one by one of all the verses of this sacred scripture. There, a new interpretation of this old knowledge began, the NeoTantra was founded.

Within Osho's view, several lines of work are developed; works with pranic energy, massages, meditation retreats, breathing practices and many others. There are many therapists who leave the world spreading this new way of looking at Tantra, stripped of rituals and magical intentions, but with a more practical and therapeutic approach. A Tantric work adapted to the reality of a new moment of a new humanity. Tantra quickly became popular and, in about 50 years, we have thousands of professionals working around the world within Osho's Neo-Tantric interpretation.

It is from NeoTantra that Tantric Therapy is born, a series of practical and corporal tools and interventions compiled within methods to deal with traumas, neuroses, compulsions and other issues that interfere with the free exercise of human behavior. This is also where the famous tantric massage is born.

Allow more pleasure in your life!

What is not Tantra

All knowledge that goes through a process of popularization and reinterpretation over time tends to be radically transformed by someone, at some point. Some would call this distortion, but Tantra does not teach us to judge in this way, quite the opposite. Within the naturalness of human actions, we know that when something becomes popular it will receive different interpretations, with varying levels of understanding and depth.

We need to look at this process as a child's game of "Chinese whispers", in which one person passes information to another along a long line of children, and at the end the initial message is compared with the one that reached the last one. They are rarely the same and the transformation can even be funny. One of these great simplifications is the idea that Tantra is Sex, or, as it has become popular, just Tantric Sex. This is due to a misinterpretation of its texts, which do indeed present sexual practice in some rituals. More present in Non-Dualist texts - which see the entire universe as a great being - these rituals aimed to provide the experience of fusion between two people as a tool for expanding consciousness. When we feel deeply connected with our partner within a present, meditative, conscious and neurotic sexual experience, we can feel a dissolution of the "I", as if both were one. This experience can open the energetic channels and the sensitivity of practitioners to the experience of Non-Duality. It is also possible to have this experience by breathing, looking at a candle flame, meditating in the presence of a tree and in many other ways. But Tantra is wise and understands the role of bioelectricity in the expansion of consciousness; and nothing generates more energy in the human body than the sexual experience.

But all of this is not 1% of what Tantra presents in terms of tools for a spiritual path. It is not even a step, something that needs to be experienced exclusively. Many Tantras do not even mention Maithuna, ritualistic sexual practice, as one of their practices.

And yet, when it comes to Tantric Sex, there is a lot of misinformation. It is common for people to read things on the internet like "Tantric sex takes hours" or "ejaculating during tantric sex is prohibited". No lines about it were written in Sanskrit.

When applied to Sex, the wisdom of Tantra can use it as a meditation tool or as a gateway to incarnation. Tantra never said that sex needs to take time, but it says things like, if you want your sexual relationship to be intense enough to be able to hook a Buddha’s soul, you need a relationship with a lot of energy in both bodies, a lot of presence and a lot of meditation. It is not by chance that Abhinava Gupta, one of the great masters of Kashmir Tantrism and teacher of many during his life, was born to parents who had been practicing Tantra for many years.

Tantra is not sex. It is a philosophy of life that seeks to bring back the naturalness of bodies, the fluidity of emotions and vital energy. For that, Tantra looks at the human body as it looks at nature, free of judgments and serving as an instrument for its meditative experience. Thus, looking at the body also entails looking at sex, as well as food, the way we breathe, the thoughts we produce and so on.

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