What is Tantra?
Tantra is a personal spiritual pursuit that functioned as a socio-political revolt when the middle class in India was separated by gender and caste around the 6th century. Contrary to the popular belief, it’s not all about sex.
Tantra is a Sanskrit word that means “loom” or “continuous process”.
Essence:
- Life View: Ongoing process of creation, an ongoing marriage of consciousness and energy at every level of existence
- Represented in the story: Shiva(The god of pure consciousness/Masculine energy) that makes sexual love to the goddess Shakti (Goddess of pure power and energy/Feminine energy)
- Elimination of duality: Good/Evil, Mind/Body, Male/Female
- “What is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere”
- “What is spiritual is physical, what is physical is spiritual”
Root Principles:
- Personal practice of liberation
- “Divine energy”: View the human body and earthly life as a concrete manifestation of divine energy
- Sexual excitement is a taste of divine energy
- Self-acceptance and self-love
- Sexual energy:
- Powerful path to spiritual progress
- Exist beyond genitals
- Sex can be sacred
- All of life can be included and celebrated on the path to enlightenment
From Urban Tantra