Often when someone hears the word Tantra or Tantric the first thing that springs to mind is something to do with free love hippies and spiritual group sex. Tantric massage and the Karma Sutra would be next on the list. Whilst the association with the spiritual is a genuine part of the tradition – this is where sacred sexuality comes into play – Tantra incorporates a much broader sphere of possibilities. It is easiest to understand if you attempt to see it as a reflective way of being, an ongoing meditation, and an intense alchemical process.
WHAT IS TANTRA?
Tantra is About The Present Moment
Tantra isn't overly complicated, even if some people make it appear to be that way. Tantra is a very deep and thoughtful way of being positive, open, and agreeable to life and what is presented to you. Think of it as a practice where your frame of mind has you embracing whatever feeling, memory, reaction, or sensation comes about as a result of living your life.
Tantra isn't just about embracing and feeling the good things. It is also about creating sensitivity to the bad and negative things as well. This means no matter if something is beautiful or horrible, loving, or cruel, pleasurable, or painful, Tantra is the art of embracing the state of every being, as each one possesses the possibility of our spiritual actualization.
TANTRA AND BEING PRESENT
When we can reach a state where we can feel what is to be felt in our present moment, witness this treasured energy ascend from within the body, and express gratitude to the source of that sensation, we will begin to slowly melt away our archaic habits of distraction and projection. In substitution for these, we learn how simply being connected with the enormity of the feeling, through fashioning a void between sensations and reactions, we can react from a position of profound presence.
Tantra is Just Like Alchemy
Alchemy is defined as the process of taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary. In Tantra we take the position of being the tender witness to our reactions to life, observing rather than negating, embracing rather than judging, and embodying rather than excusing. It is through these methods Tantra seeks to take something ordinary for most people and, for those who wish it, transform it into something extraordinary.
Tantra has a focus on acceptance and inclusion, meaning it is a pathway of no rejection. It is from this grounding that this practice is understood to be the basis for the actual transformation of deep patterning. When we can reach a place where we can say Yes to any situation that comes before us and allow it to be as it is and welcome what it has to offer us as it passes through, we are said to be deep in the process of self-discovery and transmutation.
EMBRACING YOUR DARK EMOTIONS
Learn to Embrace Your Dark Emotions
Before anyone can journey down the Tantric path, we need to address our rusted habitual reactions that manifest when we encounter negative emotions. These habitual reactions can often cause us to shut down and block ourselves from the full experience of energetic sensation and movement within our bodies. This can cause our energy to become limited, reduced, knotted, or even blocked. This energetic restriction may take the physical form of knots in muscles, tender areas, sensitive spots, and even baffling pains and soreness in certain places. Over a lifetime of preventing our total participation with our emotional flow, our energy is driven either into unacceptable expressions of rage, shaming, or aggression, or into indirect outcomes such as mild afflictions, loss of sensitivity, numbness, or actual disease and illness.
Heraclitus of Ephesus, an ancient Greek philosopher, once said the only constant thing in life is change. Tantra wholly supports this statement. Tantra takes the belief held by Heraclitus and adds that it is also our full engagement through all our senses with this forever flow of change that will ultimately lead us out of our denial-patterning to our realization of Oneness with all and with the Universe.
Even though this seemingly accept-everything-as-it-comes-and-embrace-it philosophy sounds incredibly straightforward, journeying down the Tantric path is a serious challenge and a great undertaking. Tantra is not spiritual escapism, which is the inclination of many within the numerous New Age movements out there promoting Love and Light and calmness while running in the oppositive direction of confronting and overcoming the deep intensity that lurks within the darkness of negative energy and negative emotions. When you think about it, it is quite ironic that this intensity is essentially the starting place of the power needed for our spiritual growth.
It is the total embrace of our dark emotions (anger, fear, guilt, regret, sadness, shame, pain) that is a decisive step on the Tantric path, as these emotions signify some of the greatest energy offered to us for our growth process. The true skill is to transform our relationship with these emotions, rather than finding imaginative ways to deny, hide and escape them. Instead, we should work at ways of proffering to them our full attention.
TANTRIC EXERCISE TO FACE ANGER
Lesson: A Tantric Exercise When Faced With Anger
Here is a simple practice in Tantra for you to apply the next time you are confronted with a frustrating situation and you can feel your anger rising.
Take the time to stop and pause. Imagine time has suddenly frozen.
Give attention to what you are feeling right at this moment. Do you feel anything? Feel your anger bubbling and boiling inside. Fully feel that anger and relax into it.
Breathe in. Fully and deeply down into your belly. Hold that breath inside. Count one, two, three.
Breathe out. All the way out.
Give yourself space and time to understand you are angry. This is what my anger feels like.
Witness the energy moving around inside and outside of your body. Where can you feel it the most? Does it have a colour? Does it have a form or a shape? Does it make a noise? Is it moving around you, or it is solid and still? How does it make your body feel?
Take the time to reflect on these questions. There are no right or wrong answers. Your experience is unique to you.
Now say to yourself: I accept total control of the emotion of anger that is inside of me.
Stay with this energy now. Give attention to how it is moving within you.
Simply stay with it, nothing more. Just see where it moves and what appearance it may want to take on.
Allow the expression that arises in you first for that particular moment to come through, and then move it aside.
This "moving" can be done in numerous ways: dancing, jumping, shouting, stomping, squeezing a cushion, or taking a cold shower. The actual activity here is secondary to you being fully present and participating in your anger, not from reactivity, but from a position of presence and ownership. If you can connect in this way, the energy of your anger will pass through you healthily and allow for authentic emotional discharge. In turn, this will generate notable momentum within you towards greater and greater consciousness.
Now you have successfully completed an exercise in Tantra. The next time this type of energy surfaces, don't run from it. Instead, apply this Tantric methodology to aid in your mindful reaction. Remember, it starts by saying Yes to the emotion.
Tantra is The Path of the Courageous
For those who wish to be brave and discover more about themselves, Tantra can offer a pathway towards real discovery and growth.
One of the beautiful things about our modern age is the amount of information available to us at our fingertips. If you hold an interest in wanting to learn more about Tantra or how to explore the experience of consciously feeling as much as you possibly can or connect more with the flow of your energies in motion, please read more of my articles, or even start your research on the Internet or through books.
When you begin to engage with this scared, conscious form of relating, you will come to learn that there is only one path for true physical and spiritual healing and growth: to face our darkness and see it transform before us.
Give faith to courage and trust. Say Yes to emotion.
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The information contained above is provided for entertainment purposes only. The contents of this article are not intended to amount to advice on your personal situation and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article. The Writer and Shoshin Therapies disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article.
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