What Is Tantra?

After years of study, practice and observation, I decided that in one way Tantra is like Christianity. There are over 1700 flavors (sects) of Christianity with huge diversity of opinions, doctrines, practices, etc. It is the same here with Tantra.

For instance..the Dalai Lama is a Tantrika. So was Osho/Rajneesh (the guru guy from Oregon who had all the Rolexes and Cadillacs and who got thrown out of a number of countries. His followers were accused of doing the first mass terrorist bio attack..they poisoned a restaurant buffet with E Coli to make sure people could not vote in a local election and they would control the town).

With all this diversity, I decided there are three broad but distinct divisions of Tantra. Once delineated they make the question "What is Tantra" much easier for me to answer.

1) Souped Up Nookie Tantra

This is a term I read in a book by David and Ellen Ramsdale called Sexual Energy Ecstasy. This form of Tantra is the one everyone is familiar with and is in the media. It's about all that stuff that usually elicits a smirk in people when the word Tantra is mentioned: burning candles, putting on nice music, breathing a bit together and all sorts of positions from the Kama Sutra. It's sweet, and makes for nice experiences that are generally outside the norm of most people’s sexual lives. For the average American who knows how to do missionary sex, who has no idea that sex can be longer than five minutes, and who has no idea that a man can be multiply orgasmic, it is a very good thing if you want more out of sex. This really isn't intentionality about anything spiritual, but rather a better sex life. We Tantrikas would say everything is of spirit so this is, too.

2) West Coast Tantra (my name for it) or Neo Tantra

This form of Tantra took off in the 60’s and 70’s with the Somatic Psychology movement. Basically, some new Agey thinkers in the realm of the body and how it is connected to the mind and spirit, took many select ancient Tantric practices, combined them with new psychology, threw in new Relationship as Spiritual Path theory/practice and voila. It's a combination of intense sexual "exercises," Reichian Therapy, Breathwork (ancient yogic pranayamas, Holotropic Breathing, Rebirthing, and lots of other forms), ritual, Deep Tissue Massage and release work, elaborate, advanced Master Level Souped Up Nookie practices, conscious relationship practices, yoga or Tai chi, Gestaldt therapy and a mesh of many other therapies the particular Teacher/Practioner might have studied and found opened them up. All of these exercises and processes open the energetic channels that hold Kundalini energy.

The ultimate goal here is Spiritual Enlightenment through the Body as Sacred Vehicle. This is the form of Tantra that most of my formal training was in. By this I mean tons of workshops from a number of different Teachers, many of them being weeklong ones. One was over the course of a year. I did a ton of independant book study (on Neo and Mystic Tantra), even getting eight or so college credits as my degree was Religious Studies. I also assisted my teachers and after time, offered workshops in my community. The biggest name Teachers of this type of Tantra are Margo Anand and Charles and Caroline Muir. The best Teacher I know is Dawn Cartwright . Her intuition, presence, ability to maintain herself in the middle of chaos, insights, healing energy, and the ways in which she has synthesized all the different elements and practices combine to make her a "Master Teacher," in my opinion.

3) Ancient or Mystic Tantra (my name for it)

This is the old Path and it is extremely rigorous. Often the practitioners are celibate, only partaking of sex in ritual called Maithuna, and do hours and hours of daily meditation, yoga and visualization of deities. There are extremely complex breathing meditations, body postures (mudras), chanting mantras. In India, this Path is not admired too much (she says very subtley). The practitioners often go to live with the lowest castes, often choosing to live in Crematory grounds. They participate in activies that are taboo and the more extreme sects do stuff that is considered downright repulsive in most any culture (which is not discussed much at NeoTantra workshops, she says very amus-ed-ly).

All of these are designed to quickly rip away attachments, dissolve the ego, and sever any semblance of its feeling safety in the outer world. Kundalini is raised so that pure mind/enlightenment can be obtained. Everything is seen a divine and as such, Sacred and practioners' goals are to be in union with the Divine/One with God. The Path is often called the Fast Path to Enlightenment or the Path of Fire. The best Teacher I know that is available to the West and the public at large is Daniel Odier . This is and was my Path internally, athough I haven't been too rigorous lately.

In the end of it all, I've come to define Tantra as the Path Of Life, lived fully and with presence

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Painting "Kundalini Rising" courtesy of Cynthia Re Robbins
Shaivite Sadhu by Asian Art
Meditation from Tranqulity Is Yours site.