Introducing Tantra as a Complete Path

by Virochana April, 2002

Tantra is
bliss, blending, and a continuum from the God like quality of our spirit
through to the immediacy of our personal view.

Tantra is
the magic of nectars whereby this continuum can be realized and
bliss easily and effortlessly experienced.

Tantra is
intimacy and the dynamic by which we continually break down that which binds us in illusion.

Tantra is
the recognition that all is illusion and playing within illusion in a very real way.

VajraYogini

Tantra begins from the most simplest, the highest, the non-dualistic nature of our being, upon which we find ourselves again in this radiance.

The personal give way to the impersonal, and the yogi, exploding in love, makes the divine a very personal experience.

For one who is already awake in buddhic awareness; Masterful Consort practice unifies our lifeforce with buddhic awareness, and most importantly, it further awakens us within the family of those who are awake in the body-of-the-one. This sentence is the touchstone of what is tantric consort practice and what is not, upon which we can make an honest self examination of our desire for true awakening.

Without this purity of connection, without first making the effort within, the wisdom to know the ins and outs of the soul, and the familiarity of it, along with a maturity of yogic application, so called consort practice, while perhaps great sex, is not a spiritual path of liberation. It all depends on what we want.

Tantra Couple In a recent poll of young people the number one subject of interest was tantra as it pertains to working with sexual energy. In America and much of the west, the word tantra, largely through a new age style of presentation has taken on the meaning of gaining sexual skill and mastery.

While it is true and advantageous that the tantric schools held under various masters through the ages have a distinct sexual flavor within them, it may be surprising to many that there are many true masters of tantra whose lives have been largely celibate. Through exploring this seeming contradiction with how tantra is popularly presented, we may gain an insight into the real depth and possibility of what tantra is.

The depth and directness of the tantric approach is for many spiritual practitioners the only real workable solution to continue their advancement. This is because tantra as unification with our life energy leaves no stone unturned. It includes elements that in today’s culture have become less realized, such as our relation with the earth, our bodies, bliss, and our divinity.

An approach so vast as tantra, can result in becoming lost and just another label for the same experiences we have been turning around and around in for countless existence. Tantra addresses this distinctly and exactly, and it is this distinction that separates the true understanding of tantra from the popularly presented path of gratification and emotional exploration and discovery.

For tantra to become workable, we must ‘first’ discovery what our body, soul, and spirit are. Tantra gains its real power through bringing forth our soul-bliss into every-day life. This helps to transform how we see life itself and gives the necessary transparency in which to cultivate the conscious awareness of continuum. And here lies the biggest requirement of the tantric path. Our soul is vast and every flowing, and the attitudes, the views of our soul free us or trap us in delusion. It is only under the radiating origin of our spirit, that we can harness the power of our soul to gain liberation through the tantric path.

This depth is why tantra can become a complete path to the fullness of everlasting life. We have tools, disciplines and masters to help us achieve this, all of which are interwoven as an integral part of the tantric path. Within our presentation, these are the yogic disciplines of kriya and yoga, the practice of eternal yoga, and the transmissions of the ascended masters and teachers whose light holds this school.

These fundamentals become extremely alive as they are applied within a tantric framework through blissful development of the nectar body. For an advanced yogi, in proper timing, a focus upon the words “nectar” is all that is needed to shift the focus and transform the body into a new dimension. This yogic development is rare, and thus again specific flavors, transmissions, tools, and applications are given in how to create an inner temple through which visualization, breathing, living, and sexual consort practice can gain fruit.

In the rarified understanding gained through tantra, our whole concept of relationship changes — we see the earth differently, and our experience of love deepens. The obviousness of what is experienced in sacred moments of how we need to live our life, and the pulls of conventional consciousness still within us can be extremely challenging. This dynamic can at times seemingly pull us apart, yet through it we know that we are moving forward, and there is definite experience resulting from the truth of spirit that is worth more than a thousand mundane moments. It is the strength of our spiritual practice combined with an inner truth that helps us maintain clarity.

There are many facets of tantra as a complete and wholesome path of liberation. Building upon the foundations given in the books,Cultivating a Body of Nectar, Kriya Yoga and tantric Foundations, and Eternal Yoga, Awakening within Buddhic Consciousness, this book further brings it all together in the temple of your body. I will present the particular tantric school of Meru and Mu, explore the role of sexuality in tantra, show you ways to work with the earth through your body, help you to see some of the trappings on the tantric path, guide you in the development of your inner temple, and finally present several profound tantric practices for those who are ready. In this way, I hope to present the tantric path in enough depth so that you may gain an understanding of it as we experience it to be, and thus transmit it.