tantra. sounds a bit dirty, right? smells like incense. feels hot & sweaty. is it what you think it is?
india, some 6000 years ago:
a group of people: half men, half women. they sit in a circle & share their deepest feelings, desires & fears. then they form couples to share some conscious touch under the supervision of a team of coaches & assistants. then they do an hour of guided meditation. after diner, they form a huge cuddle pile that slowly transforms into an outgrown orgy. next morning, they come together for 20 minutes of easy-going hatha yoga in order to start another day full of mindfulness, unconditional love & the honoring of their feminine qualities.
„you’re about to embark on a wonderful journey! would you like to feel more intense excitement than ever before? experience more love for yourself & others than you ever imagined possible? have the best sex ever—truly, because it’s not just sex; it’s much more?“
(judy kuriansky – the idiot´s guide to tantric sex)
this would be a bit closer to reality:
india, some 1000 years ago:
a highly formalized sexual ritual, preferably with prostitutes (because those are so „unclean“), in order to collect sexual fluids. drinking of a mix semen of & menstrual blood as the ultimate sacrifice that brings the greatest spiritual & material rewards. probably accompanied by the beheading of some animal.
wait, what?
„for european colonizers, orientalist scholars, & christian missionaries of the victorian era, tantra was generally seen as the worst, most degenerate & depraved example of all the worst tendencies in the “indian mind,” a pathological mixture of religion & sensuality that had led to the decline of modern hinduism. yet for most contemporary new age & popular writers, conversely, tantra is now celebrated as a much-needed affirmation of physical pleasure & sexuality, as a “yoga of sex” or “cult of ecstasy” that might counteract the hypocritical prudery of the christian west.“
(hugh urban – the power of tantra)
what is tantra, then?
truth is, its really hard to say …