By: Victor Epand

Tantra is a loose term assigned to practices characterized by ritual, rites of passage, energy work, and the utilization of the mundane to reach the supramundane and understanding the relationship between the micro and macrocosm. These aspects of Tantra can be spiritual and/or material. A guru is often consulted to help the practitioner have a mystical experience and properly guide them through the associated rituals.

Yoga is a vital part of Tantra as it awakens the ability to reach the divine in the practitioner. An integral part also of Buddhism, there is different forms of yoga in existence to meet a person's spiritual needs - varying from vigorous to peaceful movements. Visualizations, evocations and mantras can also help the Tantra practitioner reach a point of spiritual awareness.

Tantra has had roots in areas of the world such as China, Tibet, Japan, Cambodia and Indonesia. It is closely affiliated with religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In Hinduism, Tantra ties closely to Vedic tradition- or rather the rejection of the orthodox beliefs. Practicing Tantra is meant to bring the practitioner a blissful feeling of self awareness while sorting away illusions.

The exact rituals associated with Tantra are difficult to pin down since they vary greatly depending on region and the available tantric community. Commonly employed rituals include the repetition of mantras and yantras (amulets) to invoke deities. Feasts and bodily functions can also be included in the rituals. Although it gets the most attention, sexual rituals play a very small part of traditional tantric practices.

The term Tantra is of course most familiar to Westerners for the sexuality related to that small portion of rites. It is believed the sexual practices originated early in the Hindu culture as a means of forming body fluids that were thought to be transformative and a necessary offering to the deities of the Tantra. The fluid exchange often involved man, woman and guru (also a man). The female fluid was thought to be the fluid of the clan and it could be used to mark a man's belonging to that community. These rituals of Tantra evolved to focus on bliss and the divinity of union.

Tantra evolved when it moved west to become what is known as NeoTantra. The sacredness of sexuality was kept but the involvement of a guru was abandoned, as were some of the ritualistic rules and meditations. NeoTantra followers favor aspects of the Tantra like full body orgasms, the worship of the female and many do still study the non sexual aspects of the rituals.

The history and spirituality of Tantra is so great that those merely seeking sexual thrill might want to look elsewhere. Tantric sexuality is more of a pleasurable religious act than an impulsive physical satisfaction. Studying the meaning of Tantra and employing some of the rituals in conjunction with the acts of physicality will heighten the cognitive clarity that practitioners are truly seeking. The mental effects will last much longer than the physical pleasure, but will pave the path for future enjoyments in bodily union.

About the Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for magic, art, and Tantra. You can find the best marketplace for magic, art, and Tantra at these 3 sites for magic, art, and Tantra.

(ArticlesBase SC #362043)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - A Brief History Of Tantra

Tantra is many things to many people.

What is for sure is that Tantra is something for everyone who came in contact with it. Something that is mostly, either adored or rejected.

Actually, Tantra is not at all amused or bothered by the controversy surrounding it. Tantra is just quietly doing what it is suppose to do. Tantra has been doing just that for many thousands of years in fact.

The naked truth about Tantra is that it is only a technique to be used to accomplish something else. Once the something else has been accomplished then it packs its bags and off it goes. It is exactly at this point where everything goes haywire amongst Tantra users.

Many Tantra users amusingly get so attached to the experience they had through some kind of Tantra technique, that they try to package Tantra. These Tantra addicts want to take it with them wherever they go. Almost like taking your cigarettes with you whenever you change rooms.

Tantra techniques are for the experiencer and not for the experience. No single experience can be repeated through Tantra. There is nothing of "more" or "higher" or "deeper" experiences available to the experiencer once they have experienced what they should experience.

So, what is the job of Tantra? What on earth has to be experienced? Does it all boil down to some weird sexual experiences? Is it about experiencing something that is not allowed by my upbringing, my culture or my religion?

Tantra surely did choose the most insignificant goal to achieve. The goal of Tantra is to offer the technique users, a split second interaction with themselves. Tantra focuses on a split second interaction between you and the one who you really are.

Is that all? Is this what it is all about? "Surely there must be more," I hear many people say. What about all the sexual things we hear? What about people running around in the nude and touching each other?

Tantra is a technique. Tantra is a technique for personal spiritual enlightenment. It is nothing more or nothing less.

Many people get stuck with the technique aspect of Tantra instead of getting stuck in their own personal spiritual path they have to follow. The techniques are not for everyone but a personal spiritual path is. It is good to leave the techniques with a few dedicated people and to indulge in your spiritual path.

The word spiritual, another word so misunderstood that it needs some clarification. To be spiritual isn't a blissful state of copying what others are doing. Spirituality is the state when your energy flows freely throughout your whole being. Spirituality is when you know who you are, what you are supposed to do in this life and you do it.

So often I hear from participants in our workshops about the "blocked chakras" syndrome. Many times I hear participants tell me that they can move their energy even up to their hearts or wherever. The saddest thing is when participants try to explain to me that they are in a process of change, that they are turning spiritual, that they are gaining awareness.

Tantra techniques allow the user to experience their divine self. If you have experienced it for a split second, then you can experience it every moment of your life. There is no process to go through. It is just the switch that needs to be touched and all the lights are on. Processes belong to the mind and not the being. There is no need or time to fix the past or to plan for the future first.

When Tantra is dragged into the mental games of unaware users then it becomes associated with a therapy for sexual problems. Tantra is no therapy, Tantra is instant!

Tantra doesn't care about your problems; it does care about you living your greatness. Anything that is greater than the understanding of the mind, that and exactly that is your greatness. It is called greatness because it is greater than your understanding of it.

Once you have seen or experienced your divine being for a split second, then Tantra is already standing at your door with its bags packed. The taxi has already been called and Tantra is no more welcome or needed. This is where Tantra users get it so wrong, so very wrong! The tantra user should now walk the path that allows a state of being which can be described as restful and alert. Should Tantra be taken with you on this road, then people become Tantra abusers.

Once you have re-connected to your divine being, you are re-connected. No need to do it over and over again. No need to make sure that you are allowed to live your greatness, no need to hang onto any unsolved issues. When you are healed, you are healed. When you are living a life of joy this very moment then it can just as well happen the next moment as well and the next and the next!

When Tantra has given you a split second encounter with your divine self, then you have to let it go. Tantra needs to visit many people. Do not hold onto it. Should you want to walk a spiritual path with Tantra in it then you have an obligation to study Tantra techniques and to pass it on to others.

Tantra gets praised and blamed for things it never even dreamt off. Tantra is dragged into the therapy rooms of quick massage sessions. Tantra is praised as the biggest sexual liberator of all times. Fortunately Tantra is too wise to get stuck in any of the assigned roles. Tantra has no god, no book, no code and no rules. To study the Tantra techniques you only need your divine self and nothing more.

Tantra is a quickie. Tantra hits and runs. Tantra is on the move. You are eternal, you are the moment and you are more than Tantra. Tantra is a technique, you are real. Live your life to the fullest right now.

Face your greatness and share light, peace and joy.

Martin from International School of Tantra

Dear Martin

A very interesting article offering a unique perspective that I have not seen before! Since I am fairly new to tantra, some of these concepts are just intellectual for me - I have not deeply realized them yet.

I was surprised when you said that tantra should be discarded when a person experiences their divine self. My own understanding is that we discover our divine self in varying degrees, a gradual unfolding of deeper and deeper realizations. And I have read that tantric realizations also unfold in layers, offering deeper and deeper insights over time.

For instance we can see the divine within ourselves, and we can also experience the divine within another person - union with them. And we can also experience the divine in nature - a tree for instance. And finally we can realize the divine aspect of collective consciousness, the infinite (or so I have read).

Anyway, I like your article, even if I don't understand all of it. And I do appreciate the way it simplifies and demystifies tantra.

New in Tantra

Dear New in Tantra

Our divine self is our divine self.

It has always been and will always be. It has never changed and will never change. It doesn't have the capacity to unfold. God answered Moses when he was asked about whom He is, saying: "I am who I am." Our divine is from God, Therefore, my divine is who my divine is and I am who I am.

The unfolding is through the mind and the experience thereof. The unfolding is deeper and deeper insights into the mind and not into the self. The discovery is about the pace and manner in which the mind gains understanding about the self and has nothing to do with the self.

We can see the divine within ourselves every moment of our lives. We can also experience the divine within another person; we can union with them, every moment of our lives. And we can also experience the divine in nature - a tree for instance, every moment of our lives. We can realize the divine aspect of collective consciousness, the infinite, every moment of our lives.

Where there no wheels before the discovery of the wheel?

Unless we have completely realized the full potential of consciousness, we have not realized at all. Either we are conscious or we are not. Either we are asleep or we are awake.

We are creatures of bliss. Our divine state is bliss. It can't be experienced, it can only be lived. We have to go outside ourselves to experience it. We have to become un-blissed to realise our bliss state.

Powerful energy flow throughout our whole body and being is our natural, divine, bliss state. To pick up the crumbs from the floor after the big party isn't really the same as attending the party. To crave picking up the crumbs over and over again is surely not the way to go. It is better to attend a party in full swing.

Spirituality in India has reached such heights in people's minds that they have forgotten to live what they know. Jesus looked at the children and told the wisest of the wise to become like them. He even added: "unless you become like a child you will never be able to enter the Kingdom of God."

Tantra is a technique to give us a split second view of our real self. If we try to understand we will never be alive or awake. When we just live according what we have experienced, then we are empowered to perpetuate this single moment so that it becomes an eternity.

Martin from International School of Tantra

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/christianity-articles/tantra-is-much-less-than-what-you-think-it-is-but-much-more-than-what-you-think-2046428.html

Martin is the director of the International School of Tantra, operating in India, UAE, UK, Ireland, Brazil and Spain.

There is an old saying that after twenty years practising tantra you slowly get to understand what it is all about. Martin says he is in his twentieth year of practising Tantra and therefore the writing about Tantra.