A Brief (and Contrary) Description of Tantra

Tantra is a collective term for spiritual traditions that focus on practices which integrate transcendent awakening and embodied realization of the Self.

The premise of Tantra is that we are not in a body only to realize our true nature beyond form, but also to bring that realization back into form and into our everyday living.

Can we realize our divine nature and then let that realization shape and direct every choice we make on the earth plane? That is what Tantra invites us to…

Because of its inclusion of embodiment, Tantra is the one spiritual pathway that works directly and consciously with sexual energy. In this regard, the wisdom of Tantra has been greatly misunderstood in the West (and the East catering for the West) where ‘Tantric massage” is now available on every street corner as some kind of super-spiritual happy-ending experience. And Tantric practice is being advertised as the next thing to aspire to: Once you have your super-sexy yoga body, then you can become a sexual spiritual superhero by applying your Tantric gymnastics to some wide-eyed, admiring lover (who is likely to be left feeling quite barren from the lack of real connection in the encounter as the great Tantric Adept dances on to the next wide-eyed recipient of their prowess.)

In its widest sense, says Tantric Master B Prior, sexuality is the entire manifest universe as we see it. It is consciousness embodied. When we look at the Tibetan Tantric traditions, the visualization of the masculine and feminine deities in sexual union is an activation of an inner spiritual union between the masculine and feminine divine in us. There is nothing about it which is about the next-level-up of sexual gratification.

And yet, Tantra is also all about sex. Through Tantric practice, we can discover that lovemaking is indeed a profound co-meditation, a communion between two people that can take us together to the heights of self realization and the depths of embodying that realization.

Tantra is sometimes called the Lightning-path because it it so intense and demanding. In the fire of purified sexual energy, everything in us that was driven by sexual or emotional wants and needs, disappears into ash.

You may ask:

Is it possible to learn the fundamentals of Tantric practice without entering into genital sex?

Indeed it is. After years of teaching Tantra, I will maintain that the luckiest of us are the ones who get to receive the direct transmission of Tantric realization from a Tantric Master.

B Prior is such a master who has created a profound and simple practice through which his realization can be received and embodied. It’s called the Form Reality Practice.

The practice activates both the deep masculine and feminine in us. First, we enter into “the Black” – pure emptiness/consciousness beyond form/the Masculine principle. And then, while staying in this state, we start to slowly, with the grace of a butterfly opening its wings, move into the dance that is the Form. The movements open us to subtle sensation and a vastly expanded sense of the body and the heart – an awakening of the true Feminine.

Many spiritual practices focus on either the masculine or the feminine aspect – and the Form Reality Practice brings them both together.

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