Tantra Yoga

Tantra Yoga and Sex

Tantra yoga was introduced to the west in the nineteenth century as exotic sexual-spiritual practices to deepen connection and intimacy.  The interest in Eastern spirituality and the sexual and revolutions of the late 1960s and early 1970s further popularized and cemented Tantra as a yoga technique for great sex. Tantra as a sacred sexuality practice does relate to classical tantric teachings on the subtle energy body and an embodied presence to sexual union. But to simplify and conflate sexual techniques and interpersonal intimacy with the practice of tantra yoga is a distortion of this elaborate and complicated system of enlightenment. ( For us to merely think Tantra yoga is about having good sex, we forget or ignore all the other aspects Tantra has to offer and it’s original intent.)

The Goal of Tantra

The Tantra Yogis emphasis on personal experimentation and experience led to radical techniques to cleanse the body and mind to break the knots that bind us to our physical existence. The famous “Left Hand” schools of Tantra used unlawful practices of consuming sex, alcohol, and meat as powerful tools for transformation. Tantra Yoga encompasses a huge range of techniques, yet its underlying focus is on using the body as a temple to worship the all-encompassing oneness of life as sacred.

Tantra enables the practitioner to directly experience the Divine and to taste the oneness of the cosmos. Tantra offers a smorgasbord of yogic techniques to bring one into the state of ecstasy representing a vast synthesis of spiritual knowledge