Tantric sex has taken on a life of its own, spiced up with tales of the many shades of sexual bliss of the so-called Tantra gods and goddesses. Small wonder then that these myths have spawned an entire industry of spurious, half-baked and half-brained offerings of Tantric sex courses, seminars and workshops dreamed up by self-styled experts, masters and other titular exponents claiming various equally dubious degrees of accredited knowledge or mastery in what is but one distinct but highly misunderstood component of Tantra, the intricately complex, ancient Indian spiritual path of unitary consciousness.
In a society dulled by the population’s limited attention span, it appears that sound bites and rumoured celebrity endorsements are enough to carry the day for tantric sex teachers tripping over each other to school the populace in the erotic arts of the East. These entrepreneurs unabashedly profess to be able to unlock the secrets for the students, to use their bodies and genitalia for delivering prolonged, full-bodied multiple orgasms. There’s no dearth of people willing to sign up and shell out significant sums, all in pursuit of the holy grail of seemingly endless sexual bliss. This preoccupation with sex would partially explain why this particular aspect of Tantra, shamelessly sensationalised and hastily branded as ‘Tantric Sex’, has, like yoga, become so hotly commoditised in recent years. The term ‘Tantra’ has been hijacked and grossly misused as a branding prefix to promote and sell a wide range of sexual ‘techniques’ touted as being the practices originally prescribed in Tantric teachings and scriptures; at its worst it’s become a meaningless buzzword for promiscuity and wanton sexuality or even an excuse for indulging in salacious sexual activities, addictions, and commoditising sex and sexuality. The typical Tantric sex courses and workshops being marketed today are usually a hodgepodge of various yoga and pranayama (breathing focused yoga) exercises, perhaps accompanied by select ‘mudras’ (gestures) and massage techniques and topped up with some superficial spiritual discourse around sacred sexuality in the union of the primal male and female energies personified in the gods and goddesses embodied by the participating couple. While the packaging may vary depending upon the so-called teacher’s knowledge level, the basic practical instruction to be gleaned from the programme content, distilled down to the unique selling proposition is: how to suppress ejaculation (for males) or orgasm (for females) for as long as possible in order to achieve full-body, prolonged sexual bliss.

A note of caution for males who are tempted to explore possibilities: The Journal of the American Medical Association, April 2004 has linked ejaculation frequency (whether through sexual intercourse or otherwise) to lowered risk of prostate cancer in men: “Overall, an average of 21 or more ejaculations a month during a man's lifetime decreased the risk of prostate cancer later in life by 33%... Men who reported more than 21 monthly ejaculations in the previous year had a 51% lower risk of prostate cancer.”

While it’s anybody’s guess as to whether these sundry workshop offerings might actually deliver on their promises of bliss or ecstasy or any other hyped up erotic effects, the one thing certain beyond a shadow of a doubt is that Tantra they are not! The very term ‘Tantric Sex’, itself completely artificial and made up, is a reflection of the purely profit motivated attempt to excise this important component from what is both a complex science and a comprehensive holistic branch of Indian spiritual studies and practices called Tantra. Any practice focusing on sexual gratification in isolation as a goal unto itself no matter what the label, is never a part of tantric teachings and in fact goes against the grain of Tantra, which only at the highest level of spiritual instruction and in certain specific contexts, involves ritualistic practices where physical union becomes an important channel of instruction - in the process of attaining unitary cosmic consciousness, by training mind and body to channel latent desires and physical drives into spiritual energy. These techniques constituting the most advanced stage of holistic Tantra practice are taught to advanced practitioners as the final step in their spiritual progression, but most certainly not before a process of initiation and intense instruction where the aspirant under the guidance of the Tantra master has become fully versed in controlling the critical energy flows within body and mind. Attempting to undertake the sacred sexuality practices without the preceding integral steps is not only a corruption of Tantra but quite a fruitless exercise that could prove rather damaging in the long run. Given that true adepts and their extremely advanced initiates are all committed to upholding the secrecy and never revealing their actual practices, precisely to prevent misuse/abuse, one could safely say that the vast majority (possibly even all) of the courses and other offerings being hawked on the internet and elsewhere are likely no more than a naked attempt to sell snake oil to those preoccupied with their pent-up libido. Amongst the more ludicrous justifications advanced mainly by self-serving western pseudo experts is the claim that Tantra was almost lost or in danger of dying out but has now been saved and is enjoying a revival in the West thanks to the efforts of these sexual entrepreneurs who should therefore be lauded for their endeavours. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Tantra is (and always has been) alive and kicking in India (and other parts of Asia) where the many schools and traditions of Tantra continue to thrive and be practised in their pure form in locales far and wide, from remote villages in the south to the caves in the high Himalayan peaks, often under the watchful guidance of genuine living Tantra masters belonging to direct ancient lineages that have remained unbroken and preserved intact for thousands of years. Thus Tantra was never in need of being rediscovered, revived or reformed. This misconception may have arisen due to the fact that true adepts and masters who are qualified to teach the practices that involve sacred sexuality rarely reveal themselves other than to the few advanced aspirants who themselves have been chosen to receive initiation into these practices only after a series of gruelling tests to determine that their true motivation is spiritual expansion as opposed to physical gratification. Inherent in these false claims is another related misrepresentation in need of clarification, which is the assertion that “Tantric Sex is available for anyone and everyone who wants to do it”. Certainly Tantra as a spiritual path is open to anyone whose spiritual quest leads them to become more aligned with the Tantric view of life and the cosmos, and to therefore determine Tantra as the most direct and appropriate way to spiritual unfoldment and ultimately to attaining divine consciousness. However, as already mentioned, Tantra masters are notoriously rigorous in their selection process to assess the aspirant’s fitness for safely receiving these teachings and their propensity for appropriately applying the practices to positive ends. Rarely if ever will a master unlock these sacred mysteries merely on the student’s say so, let alone conduct mass workshops that are open to the public or to anyone who can afford the admission fee.

Tantra
Most spiritual traditions impose a separation between the worldly and the spiritual, rendering the desire for material pleasures and the quest for spiritual progression incompatible, ergo mutually exclusive. This perceived dichotomy becomes the source of constant inner conflict, guilt, or self-condemnation for most people who feel torn between the need to follow a more spiritual path, but are unable to ignore their physical needs. Tantra averts the dilemma born of the misperception that the two paths are irreconcilable by offering a holistic approach to life which considers the person as a whole, and addresses both material and spiritual domains. Understanding tantra requires an expanded view of reality precisely because the tantric vision of reality is radically different from the norm. Where most people are conditioned to experience the perceived duality implicit in life (eg male-female, right-wrong, young-old, pure-impure), it is the Tantric’s avowed living, breathing reality to envision everything as one. This is no metaphorical statement of a philosophical premise. In the Tantric’s ‘unitary’ world view the whole world and everything it contains is considered an indivisible whole, a vibrant, seamless tangible manifestation of the divine, which is the world, and indeed the entire universe. Therefore, perceiving any difference or separation between the self, or any natural or cosmic force and the divine is misperception. To effectively inculcate the Tantric vision requires, amongst other facets, study of the scriptures, interaction with Tantric initiates and adepts, and obviously disciplined practice in accordance with a systematic course, all of which are ideally to be assimilated in an integrated fashion. This presents several challenges. Indeed the key scriptures are often not available in translation form, and where translations exist their accuracy and thus usefulness are subject to the skill and comprehension of the translator – an assessment that itself calls for a certain level of understanding of Tantra and, should one manage to obtain a fairly good translation, it would be well-nigh impossible to glean any important practices from it as it is a known fact that the adepts strictly adhere to the inviolable principle that none of the key or potent practices is ever to be laid down in its entirety. There will always be some critical missing element that can only be provided usually via the oral tradition by a guru (Master Tantrika).

Realising Divinity
The ancient sages and seers realised that the key to achieving lasting success in both the material and the spiritual realms is to awaken our latent soul, or shakti (divine force) which lies dormant within most of us. Since Tantra believes no real spiritual illumination can be attained without accessing our shakti, tantric practices therefore seek to awaken and use this inherent shakti. In its all-encompassing scope, Tantra is both a spiritual path focused on purifying heart and mind and fostering a spiritually illuminating philosophy of life, as well as a complex science involving highly effective techniques that rely on the precise application of Tantric mantras (chants), yantras (diagrams), and mudras (gestures), complemented with mental exercises and the ritual use of particular substances and materials. The full spectrum of Tantra is said to include, amongst other outcomes, healing diseases, kundalini (latent divine energy in body) awakening, memory enhancement, developing clairvoyance and the ability to invoke a vision of one’s preferred deity, and attainment of the highest spiritual illumination via the practice and use of special yantras (Kala Chakra, Sri Chakra). Because these practices effectively work like scientific tantric ‘formulas’ that yield desired results if properly applied, irrespective of the practitioner’s intent, character, or spiritual comprehension thereof, they are liable to be misused/abused in the hands of charlatans and unscrupulous profiteers, which is how Tantra came to be sensationalised in the West and why it continues to be misunderstood by the ignorant in the East. While it is relatively easy to encounter individuals who may have learned how to apply a limited number of Tantric formulas to obtain gratifying results, finding genuine Tantric adepts or masters is an uphill task.

Guidance from a Master
Given the complexity and scope, Tantra practice should be undertaken under the attentive direction of a competent master who knows how to determine the appropriate time and place for the practice or ritual to ensure maximum potency. Tantrika’s caution that experimenting with even the most seemingly benign of these practices without an adept’s proper guidance is like playing with fire, which is why they have been labelled "forbidden tantra". To ward off the misinformed and the under/unprepared, the adepts warn: "An aspirant should not even open and read the scriptures containing these practices (prayoga shastra) without the guidance of a master", for the "forbidden" practices, regardless of the purity of heart or intention of the aspirant, are capable not just of activating but also of materialising extraordinary forces so overwhelming as to literally be beyond the unprepared practitioner’s ability to comprehend, let alone control. This is why prior to imparting this knowledge masters traditionally put their students through rigorous tests to ensure they have attained purity of heart and mind and are interested, not in worldly gratification, but in spiritual expansion through attainment of wisdom, peace, and enduring happiness. Such aspirants upon successful completion of the practices discover the dynamics underlying the extraordinary forces that are the basis for the laws governing energy and matter. By learning how to implement them to control or subdue the negative forces within the inner being such as anger, desire, hatred, ego, and attachment, they further liberate themselves from the consequent obstacles thereof: fear, doubt, disease, inertia; inability to attain the goal, or back-sliding after achieving the goal; grief, mental/physical instability, etc. The objective in mastering these practices and rapidly overcoming these hurdles is to prepare for even higher practices. Hence, while spiritual illumination (enlightenment) may or may not result from the "forbidden tantra" practices, they do demystify the eternal life-force manifest in countless forms all around us while illuminating the forces of matter and mind to reveal a radiant glimpse of the divine within.

© COPYRIGHT PUBLICATION 2011 • JYOTISH VICHAAR