What is Tantra? An Introduction
An Introduction to Tantra
The earliest record of Tantra was around 6 thousand years ago in India…..It is documented in the book “The Vijanabhairava” or Divine Consciousness, which is the story of Shakti [female quality or principle, sometimes called yin] inviting Shiva[ male quality or principle, sometimes called yang] to tell her the way of the world……….Of course she already knew all this, but Shiva was lying around lazily complete in himself.
For the benefit of us poor mortals she invited him to speak and share his wisdom creating the “The Vijanabhairava”, but not only that ……the two together created a whole, Shiva being consciousness, Shakti being energy, meaning the marriage of male and female within, which in turn allows the sacred experience to manifest…….the book “Zen Flesh Zen Bones” is a precis of the aforementioned scripture.
Tantra is a difficult concept for the highly trained intellectual mind because it’s more to do with feeling than doing. We are taught to be clever, think a lot about life, what it means and how to obtain and perform. What this approach doesn’t do, is to teach us to really live life, to feel,to make our choices from our own inner knowing of what is good for us.
Tantra invites vibrant aliveness from inside, not from our heads but from a totality in the body, emotionally rich and authentic in our expression. Tantra came into being as a spiritual discipline for the lay people, householders [married people]……who became increasingly fed up with the concept that the only ones able to celebrate the sacred path were the celibates……..the nuns or monks etc.
Although it was a strong spiritual discipline in the east, and now in the west, it is still a discipline but a lot of the emphasis is on the healing aspect of our sexual energy, the many issues around abuse, shame, sexual health and all the violence that is born of ignorance. Tantra is ‘The Tao’ [the way] that honors the body as sacred, celebrates the senses and allows pleasure and nurture as a way of life……..It teaches us how to relax, to choose to live totally and as intensely as we wish to. Tantra teaches us to trust ourselves, trust our inner guidance and judgments in our way of living, choosing and creating our lives with awareness.
Much has been written about Tantra and sex, it is most commonly thought that this is all…….in actual fact the Tantric path is about consciousness, sex is only one manifestation of our unique expression of life……love is another…..we have many expressions of living and at each point of meeting we can choose to be total in consciousness and awareness…….it is a skill, a discipline, invited by the model of Tantra ……The byproduct of all this, is that we can live a life with more intensity, more sustainable sexual pleasure and much deeper connected relationships.
Tantra is a non dualistic, a non prescriptive model, not making any demands on sexual orientation……..you can be with one partner or many, the choice is yours, it is leading a life of transcending all differences. Living life in awe, wonder, love and with the innocence of a child with the adult perspective, the miracle of our bodies and senses, being participants of our lives rather than spectators.
Hilly Spenceley
Tags: consciousness, discipline, divine, energy, health, sacred, sexual, shakti, shiva, spiritual, tantra, vibrant
