What is Tantra?
Tantra means ‘to weave and to expand’, the fabric of life can provide true and everlasting fulfillment when all the threads are woven according to the pattern designed by nature. When we’re born, life naturally forms itself around that pattern, but as we grow, ignorance, desire, attachment, fear, and false images of others and ourselves tangle and tear the threads, disfiguring the fabric.
In Tantra the body is seen as a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, a temple that is the expression of the spirit and life force of the individual, and to ignore a given part or area is to ignore part of the spiritual essence of the person. Tantric practices aim at unifying the polarities inherent in the world and one’s self. These opposites are symbolically known as “Shiva” and “Shakti” or consciousness and energy, personified as male and female forces of nature. Shiva, the Destroyer, represents universal consciousness diffused throughout the galaxies, while Shakti, the Divine Mother, is the power swinging in a celestial dance, between energy and matter, giving birth to all creation, both tangible and transcendent.
In truth everything in life is about Tantra. When the rain goes onto the parched earth, that’s tantra in a sense, that’s creation, that’s merging. When the wind blows through the tree’s that’s merging. Everything in life is always dancing with the polarities, with the interchangeable energies.
Tantra takes the whole person/experience, including all desires into account. Some spiritual traditions teach that desire for material pleasures and spiritual aspirations are mutually exclusive, setting the stage for an endless internal struggle. Although most people are drawn into spiritual beliefs and practices, they have a natural urge to fulfill their desires. With no way to reconcile these two impulses, they can fall prey to guilt and self-condemnation or become hypocritical. Tantra offers an alternative path. Unfortunately, a large number of tantric enthusiasts, in both the West and the East, mistakenly identify tantra as the yoga of black magic, witchcraft, seduction, and an amalgam of techniques for influencing the minds of others. When this falls into the hands of charlatans, it is inevitably misused giving tantra a bad name. Fortunately, however, there are still tantric masters and authentic scriptures to undercut such false and distorted notions and make it possible for us to gain a better understanding of this sublime path.
