The Tantric Sex, by Maria Martins (Ma Bhakti Shakti)

Tantric sex was a controversial issue present in the Western world for the last 20 years or so. The nature of Hindu Tantra, its methods and goals intending to achieve is still a challenge for Western countries to understand and accept. However the man-woman polarity is not new at all. The idea of such polarity finds expressions in most spiritual traditions of the world. Forms of this polarity are of a great variety. Man is the sun, woman the moon; man is the father, woman the mother; man is the heaven, woman the earth, etc. Hindu Tantra is based on some fundamental ideas in which sexuality has to play a major role.

What Tantra intends to do is to bring awareness into the entire human sexual interaction. Tantra believes that is possible to access the transcendent by the use of instrumentality of the immanent existent within humans. Tantra sees Shakti as expression of the human immanent and a door to the transcendent. Transcendence itself is dependant on Shakti. Tantra developed an intricate philosophical credo in which Shakti, the force and energy pertinent to creation has an essential role. This immanent force is used to access the transcendent Shiva. Elaborated practices have to be followed.

Tantric Sadhana takes the major aims of Tantra, those of pleasure (Sukha), progeny (Janma) and spiritual liberation (Jivanmukti), as guidance for defining the kind of sexual interaction a couple might have during Maithuna Tantra that is the ritualistic sexual interaction. Tantric Sadhana is based on Maithuna Tantra, a ritual requiring a lot of preparation. Elaborated techniques of Hatha and Kriya Yoga have to be mastered because the expectations from the experience of Tantric sex are high. This kind of experience culminated in Tantric ecstasy known as Ananda, an experience that goes beyond the ordinary generic notion of pleasure. A step-by-step preparation is necessary.

First of all, body and mind have to be ready for the experience of the Tantric sex. The aspirant practitioner of Tantric sex has to have enough knowledge in order to follow certain rules ultimately leading to the great experience of Ananda, the bliss as a result. Specific powers accompany the Tantric sex experience.

The Tantric powers (Siddhis) have a wide range. Overall Tantric sex brings a person back to live life plentifully. This gradual process is accompanied by a kind of specific awakening, an experience that none will willfully give up once the blissful experience of Ananda does happen. The awakening is basically made of various stages of deification of body and mind.

The first stage of deification is the consecration of bodies of participants to the relevant deity, a ritual known as Nyasa. Once Shiva and Shakti become sentient the sexual interaction is used for their union. Sexual positions used in Tantric Sadhana have to reflect the Shiva-Shakti union as well as the care given to preservation of energy.

Tantra divides energy manifestation in the human body on three main areas, the mental energy (Manas), the breath energy (Prana) and the sexual energy (Virya). Various Yogic techniques working of each of these areas are employed. The Tantric breath is such a technique allowing the mastering of one's own breath. Along the sexual interaction the issue of preservation of male sperm is essential because preservation of sperm is equated in Tantra with preservation of life. Thus the knowledge of control of ejaculation is a must.

These Tantric methods of control of ejaculation are the responsibility of the man, however they have to be supported by the female partner in order to be practiced. Mastering one's own sexual energy is an art that needs continuous improvement and cultivation. Cultivation of human sexual energy is done by specific exercises. Tantra has unique views on the human psychophysiology particularly the Cakra system and the Kundalini ideas.

The concept of the Tantric Cakra system is essential in understanding the importance of the five human senses and the issue of awareness. The seven Cakras are the gates allowing the human senses to manifest powerfully. These Cakras serve the senses and mental awareness of human manifestations as gates through Shakti herself acts.

Shakti means 'power'. As such all manifestation as expression of power is the product of goddess Shakti. Worshipping Shakti signify worshipping the principles behind the goddess. However Kaula Tantra is concerned with the worship that is relevant to the sanctified human bodies. On such basis the Tantric partners worship each other's bodies from individual parts to the entire human body structure.
Tantric sex for pleasure is based a lot on the physical interaction between partners although the mental interaction is also significant. This interaction becomes sacred because of their consecration to deities. Body consecration of Shiva impersonation is known as Shiva Nyasa, while for Shakti impersonation that is Shakti Nyasa. There could be specific results from man-woman sexual interaction the Tantric way.
The use of Tantric methods of Janma Maithuna brings the involvement of the divine into the matter when a couple wants to have a baby. Thus there are significant difference between the ordinary ways of creating a baby and the Tantric methods of conception.

Tantra asserts that it can help to have good quality children by its approach to man-woman sexual interaction. This interaction is seen as being sacred. What is created during the sacred time of Tantric experience has to have sacredness in it. Tantra recommends specific methods in order to create conditions for a human conception to be an extraordinary event. Yet, beyond Tantric sex for pleasure and progeny, Jivanmukti Maithuna is the top experience.

Jivanmukti, i.e. 'spiritual liberation while alive' has to be seen as the final goal of Tantra no matter by which method the goal was achieved. Kaula Tantra tradition in particular asserts the possibility of reaching the state of Jivanmukti by sexual interaction between a man and a woman. In Kaula Tantra it is above all Maithuna Tantra the ritualistic sexual interaction between a man and a woman that is the main method for attaining spiritual liberation.

For such a purpose the entire concept of Tantric psychophysiology and the adjacent Kundalini theory has to be thoroughly known. The major issues to be addressed are the Cakras, Nadis and Kundalini concepts. At the individual level Tantra manages to unite the emotional and rational expressions of human psyche. It is by the lack of harmony between emotion and reason that many problems do arise at the level of humanity.

Tantric ideas if embraced by a significant number of people will definitely be able to have an important social impact. Gradually humanity will acquire self-control at collective level. By it, human communities are able to evolve and project the human beings into another dimension of awareness and self-awareness. The social dimensions of Tantrism become far-reaching. This is all because the act of creation is made divine by the sanctification of its actions. The Tantric sex does just this.

Copyright © 2003 by Maria Martins (Ma Bhakti Shakti)

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