Tantric Yoga

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Tantric Yoga

A system of Hindu yoga which emphasizes the shakti (sexual energy) associated with the female principle and usually characterized as kundalini.

There are essentially two concentrations of tantric yoga, which can be called the pragmatic and the aesthetic.

The pragmatic level focuses primarily on the sexual act and promotes a sacred style of sexuality which promotes communication, breath, and energy. In concert with the Tantra philosophy, this concentration seeks to enhance the sexual experience through integration of the male and female (shiva/shakti) aspects of each individual, and of the couple together. Hatha yoga (postures), raja yoga (meditation), pranayama (breathing techniques), and other techniques such as coitus reservatus (ejaculation control) and amrita (female ejaculation) are employed to enrich the sexual act. Participants are taught to expand their focus from the second (sexual or svadhisthana ) chakra to all seven chakras throughout the body. This cultivates sensitivity and kundalini throughout the body, vastly enriching the sexual experience.

The second concentration focuses on raising the kundalini energy to encompass several areas of life, including the sexual. It follows the philosophy of tantra (meaning to weave, to expand, to spread) by integrating all aspects of life. In this concentration there is no separation of the physical from the metaphysical, the female to the male, of the animate to the inanimate, of the spiritual to the corporeal. The corporeal is not seen as a barrier to spiritual growth, as in many Judeo-Christian traditions, but instead as another source of divine energy. "Whatever is in the body is also in the universe."

In addition to these concentrations of tantric yoga there exists a specifically left-hand or occult pathway of tantric yoga, known as tantrism, that involves a taboo-breaking ceremony with a female assistant. This form of tantrism tends to oppose ascetic forms of yoga that align spiritual development with the denial of the things of the world. Instead of avoiding those things normally eschewed by a sanyassin (a person living the renounced life), the tantric uses those things and converts them into a tool of tantric development. The generally avoided items, called the five "M's" consist of: Madya (wine), Mansa (flesh), Matsya (fish), Mudra (a term implying both parched grain and mystic gesture), and Maithuna (sexual intercourse). From Hinduism, tantric beliefs and practices passed into Buddhism and became a notable part of Tibetan Buddhism.

Knowledge of tantric yoga began to appear in the West in the early twentieth century within the writings of Sir John Woodroffe (who wrote under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon). However, it was not until the 1970s, with the volume of Omar Garrison, that details of the rituals of the left-hand path were written down and published in the West. Subsequently, a number of texts have appeared. A measurable number of modern tantric teachers first became familiar with tantric yoga through Bhagwan Rajneesh (later known as Osho).

Through the twentieth century, a form of sexual occultism usually associated with magician Aleister Crowley arose out of Western ceremonial magic. Because of the common use of sexual intercourse as a means of spiritual attainment in both tantra and Western sex magic, many have assumed that the two are related. As knowledge of the rituals and teaching of each system was made public through the 1980s, however, scholars are now aware that the two practices are quite different in operation and purpose and have very different historical roots.

Although there is acknowledgment between the differences between Western sex magic and tantric yoga, there must exist an understanding that the philosophy of Tantra is missing in most Western tantric yoga. Most often tantric yoga is used as a sort of sexual or marital therapy, which is ultimately missing the goal of enlightenment. News of sexual enhancement advantages has even lured such celebrities as Sting to explore the benefits of tantric yoga.

Besides Western exploitation of tantra there is also controversy surrounding teachers who allegedly take sexual advantage of students. Swami Rama of the Himalayas, for example, faced several allegations of sexual misconduct with his students, prior to his death in 1997. There have been numerous other accounts of sexual improprieties between tantric yoga teachers and their students. These stories act as a reminder of the delicate and often vulnerable relationship that can exist between the spiritual master and the student.