What is Tantra?

Is Tantra About Sex?

In western culture, popular Tantra has become almost synonymous with sex and erotic massage.

For many, merely lighting a candle and burning some incense while you have sex is practicing Tantra.

But of course true Tantra is far more than that.

There is some debate about exactly how prevalent and important sex has been in the history of Tantra.

It’s actually very hard to find any mention of sexual practices in the early Tantric texts. This has led many to assert that Tantra has nothing whatsoever to do with sex.

However some scholars point out that this lack of written evidence about sex in Tantra could largely be due to that fact that the Tantras were secretive teachings, and sex as part of a spiritual practice may have been kept hidden, as it would have been seen as heresy by the mainstream religions.

In old historical records of Kashmir there is a description of how the Tantra guru Cakrabhanu of the Krama Tantra lineage, was imprisoned by the King for teaching sexual practices as a means for gaining enlightenment.

Although the writings that have survived are inconclusive about the use of explicit sexual practices in traditional Tantra, there is plenty of mention of the union of masculine and feminine energies.

Tantra, Kundalini and Sexual Energy

Throughout many of the Vedas and later yoga texts can be found the concept of Kundalini, and the male and female nature of the Divine.

This is especially central to Tantra teachings. The 7th century Kaula Trika Tantra text is a beautiful conversation between Shiva and Shakti, the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine, about practices and techniques to raise the Kundalini energy from the lower chakras into the highest chakras.

The idea of Kundalini is one of the keys to all tantra teaching and practice.

Kundalini is the Divine creative energy that gives birth to the Universe. Also know as Shakti, it is the feminine energy of the Divine Mother that arises from the union of the God Shiva and the Goddess Shakti. Kundalini gives rise to form from the formless, and brings into manifestation all of life.

Kundalini, therefore, is also sex energy, because it is that powerful force of creation. In fact it is the energy which we use to create anything in life, from art to music to industry.

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 practice.

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 Vajrayana Buddhism, a direct descendent of Tantric teaching, shows very explicit sexual acts, with vivid imagery of the lingam (penis) and yoni (vagina).

Whether or not this means that sexual acts were being practised inside the temples, one thing is clear… sex and eroticism were certainly linked to spiritual life, at least in some lineages of Tantra.

Tantra is Freedom

Through Tantra we have the possibility of integrating body, senses, emotions, and mind. Of becoming whole and healed. We can free ourselves of limiting beliefs, of traumas that stunted our growth, of immature ways of thinking that got us into trouble.

Tantra is about freedom. Freedom from anything that restricts us, holds us back, and limits our growth.

Using our body and our senses is a relatively easy way to awaken that free spirit, and to rise up beyond the wounded ego that wants to keep us locked in a cage.

In his book, The Art of Tantra, Guillermos Ferrara describes Tantra as a tool of human transformation which uses the body to achieve liberation.

“For Tantra, the physical body is the starting point in the spiritual search, the roots that allow you to reach the wings, the temple in which the individual lives the play of life.”

– Guillermo Ferrara

On the Tantric path, everything in this world is part of our spiritual experience. Everything can teach us to grow in our consciousness of love and connection. From the food we eat, to the things we see around us, in the media, on the tv, to the people who come and go in our lives.

Every situation has something to teach us, every experience can be a Tantric experience, if we can be flexible enough to let go of our judgement and our pre-conceived expectations.

Living a Tantric life is to live a life of freedom, raising your energy and vibration in all your experiences, connecting with love, observing with clarity, bringing compassion and understanding to every situation.

By following this path in your everyday life, you are bringing out your full potential as a spiritual and human being. You are increasing more and more your capacity for deeper states of consciousness. You are bringing into this world the unique gift of your true presence, a gift which has never been seen before in all of history, and which will never been seen again after you have gone. It is the gift  of expanding your love in your life, and bringing bliss and joy into everything.