Tantra…what do you know about it?

This is one of the questions that I ask participants at the workshops I present. The answers generally include sex and sexual positions…of which is it not….that body of work belongs to what the West has done with the Karma Sutra. Other answers include the moving of energy….a spiritual practice….activating chakras….breathing….All of which Tantra can include for sure. 

Tantra in essence is mindfulness….The word itself means to expand awareness….It requires our presence and in the moment awareness. All of the subtlety and nuance…all of the sensation and pleasure that might be experienced with our full body. So Tantra becomes about how we might attune ourselves to be present and receptive to such mindfulness…..to expand our awareness to perceive beyond what we might easily skip or dismiss.

In a world where we’ve traded connection …with self, the earth, community and indeed those closest to us…for productivity. Where distraction and disconnection are woven so seamlessly into our lives. Where stress equals success. All of which however, is ultimately the undoing of all relationships…Tantra and it’s skill set might just provide a much needed salve. 

If you have practice yoga and experienced the space post savasana…. Having allowed your body to rest and integrate at the end of the session….Tantra is the meeting of self and possibly another within that state of calm, pure and alive, embodied awareness.

There was a time, several years ago, I was watching a divine sunset down at the beach. I was in total awe as I watched the sun going down over the ocean, the colours as they ravaged the sky, the stillness of the ocean…glass like it’s surface appearance…and the gentlest wisp of breeze caressing the skin of my cheeks. There was a welling of gratitude within….of not only bearing witness to such a sight but for my capacity to be able to experience the all of that moment….That to me encapsulates my understanding of Tantra. How much pleasure…in all it’s forms …can I still myself enough to experience…to drink in….to absorb from each moment.

Tantra is as much an individual practice as it can be a shared experience. It brings us to a state of presence within ourselves from which we might also connect deeply and fully with another. So it becomes the tools and processes as to achieve that which I impart within the workshops. How do we enter that other space, beyond the machinations of the everyday….and land with such  presence and awareness….from which all pleasure might be fully experienced….and where we might meet with self and other as soul to soul.