Yoga has become very famous in the world in the last few years. In every city you can find several courses, even in gyms and online.
Unfortunately, in most cases, what is left of the ancient esoteric and spiritual path of yoga is nothing but a complex series of stretches for muscles and ligaments to improve a healthy and elastic body, together with some relaxation. But is yoga only that? What is tantric yoga really about?
Flexibility and health of the physical body is a great thing. Yet this aspect is only the tip of the iceberg in the way of yoga. Yoga is the in-depth study of the energetic structure of human nature. This includes a dense network of energy channels and chakras (energy centers) in which energy flows or can become blocked.
With various techniques including positions, breathing, mantra repetitions, visualizations and meditation, these energy channels are purified and opened in a progressive way so as to be able to sustain higher levels of energy. When the system is perfectly optimized, the energy can flow to the upper chakras to achieve the expansion of consciousness.
In yoga, as in any spiritual practice, the purpose is to discover the true, universal, Divine nature of one’s being.
The path lies in bringing our mental attention inward. We learn, with training, to focus the mind on a single point until the discursive flow of the mind ceases. With mental peace, our energies flow upwards towards the higher chakras, opening the gates of consciousness. Recognizing the universal nature of one’s Self is the real purpose of the yogic discipline.
This is a mystical experience often accompanied by a sense of pure ecstasy, a beatific pleasure that infuses the entire being and that brings a beneficial treasure on all levels: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
What is Tantra?
Tantra has become almost a fashion among practitioners of yoga and holistic disciplines, in New Age environments or among healers and shamans. Although tantra comes from an ancient tradition, in traveling around the world at the speed of the internet age it has mixed with different disciplines, including various types of psychological therapies, bodily and psychosomatic exercises, shadow work and healing practices.
Often the word “tantra” is associated with genital massages or particular erotic practices. For most people, tantra is a refined way of calling sex. Tantra is first of all a philosophical approach to existence.
Is it really necessary to withdraw from the world, renounce the pleasures of life and isolate yourself in silence in a cave to reach enlightenment? Is this really the only possible way to find God?
What is Tantric Yoga?
Tantric yoga in its authenticity represents a spiritual path to enlightenment. Is a world-oriented path, considering everything in this manifest universe as the expression of the Divine. Everything is God and God is everything. Every difference between what is human and what is Divine ceases to exist and the search for the Absolute is addressed within each of us.
That is why in tantric yoga we use a huge variety of techniques for accumulating energy in our system.
Any energy available to us can be used to experience the One. That is why in tantra yoga we use a huge variety of techniques for accumulating energy in our system. This includes yoga postures, breathing exercises, mantra repetitions, visualizations and meditation etc. working to purify and open the energy channels of the being in a progressive way so as to be able to sustain higher levels of energy.
When the system is perfectly optimized, the energy can flow to the upper chakras to achieve the expansion of consciousness (Sublimation process). What energy is so powerful and accessible to humans if not sexual energy?!?
Sexual energy is one of the most overwhelming forces we have available, so powerful that it can generate life through procreation. Isn’t it incredible? What alchemy, what nuclear power lies in the encounter between masculine and feminine!
Imagine being able to channel it and use it. How much strength could we get from it? Using this atomic energy bomb in various areas of life, from the intellect to physical strength, to creativity, and up, last but not least, to the spiritual search, is tantra. Nothing less than that!
Human potentiality can be amplified, and anyone who steps on the path of an authentic practice of tantric yoga can experience it. The levels of vitality, intelligence, intuition, ability to love, personal power etc. are amplified even after a few months of intense practice.
How Can I Know More about Tantric Sexuality?
One should never try to separate tantra from yoga, as the first is considered a part of the second. In the last decade, with the boom of yoga in the West, the oriental holistic disciplines have become very fashionable, but often have lost the depth of the teachings and become, for the most part, yet another source of entertainment for the Western mind ever in search of new stimuli. Yoga has become nothing more than gentle gymnastics – just another class for healthy housewives to put on the calendar along with Zumba and Pilates. Tantra workshops have become a fashionable way for couples to deepen their intimacy and learn massage and sexual techniques to enhance pleasure.
It is necessary to clarify that, while tantra is all this, there is much, much more to discover. Only by maintaining an inwardly-oriented approach is it possible to avoid losing the depth of this ancient spiritual path.
But it is also true that by taking the path of tantra, which sometimes includes the use of sexual energy to access the Divinity in each of us, sexuality opens up to unimaginable levels of pleasure, never before experienced. It is also true that, on this journey, partners reach a level of intimacy at a profound level and with sincerity seldom attained by couples in bed.
However, it cannot yet be called tantra until the two lovers drop the illusion of their identity to become One with the All, merging into the Supreme source from which everything derives.
To swim in such depths of connection, each aspirant must undergo a training that is practiced not only in bed but also on the yoga mat and with meditation practice, during which adepts learn to control their energy to surrender to the Oneness. Part of our course has exactly the purpose of imparting such comprehensive training.
What is the Difference between Classical Tantra and Neo-Tantra?
As we have seen, tantra and yoga have changed a lot in modern times. When this ancient spiritual path traveled from the east to the west, they lost the spiritual component and turned into something much more earthly.
Indeed, the new tantra becomes a holistic healing discipline that addresses psychological issues, liberation of repressed energies, removal of taboos, openness to emotional intimacy, etc. Let’s say that it took a much more “horizontal” turn, where the goal is to open up, heal and have the tools to live this life well, but losing, we can say the most esoteric aspect.
Classical tantra certainly has a “vertical” predisposition, where the tantric path is completely consecrated to the spiritual realization, every teachings and practice come from the study of the sacred tantric texts, and nowadays it is mostly left in the hands of Sanskrit scholars and less from yogis practitioners. The sexual tantra was definitely there since ancient times but not as the main focus, or a kind of obsession as the in the neo tantra, actually sexuality it is a great tool for spiritual realization but it occupies just a little part of all the tantrik philosophy and practice.
In our courses, the emphasis will be on the most spiritual, vertical aspect, a true path of great inner transformation. Despite this, our choice is to maintain a certain amount of work on the most human and earthly aspects and the realms of the personality, especially liberating sexual energy: such a powerful and engaging force, a true energy propeller of human potential, yet often so full of shadows and difficulties.
A complete journey, in short, from the low chakras to high chakras, that includes the totality of your being in this incredible transformative path. This is tantric yoga. Do you want to find out more if you are ready for such an intense and profound experience within a Tantra Yoga Teacher Training with us? Schedule a half an hour free call with us, without any commitment, let’s talk and get to know each other.
