what is tantra?

The word tantra is a Sanskrit word, and its literal meaning has to do with weaving, meaning the loom or the way threads are stretched whilst weaving. But around a thousand years ago the word tantra was used to denote certain mystical teachings and practices within Hinduism. Later still the word has been used to denote similar practices and teachings in some branches of Mahayana Buddhism.

These original teachings of tantra were almost certainly reserved for very experienced monks who had been practising meditation and living an ascetic life for many years. Having obtained all that could be attained through such a life of denial, using some extreme methods could cause the final breakthrough to full enlightenment. So these tantric teachings included rituals which involved the monks breaking almost all the vows that they had originally made. The tantric rituals might involve eating meat, drinking alcohol and sexual intercourse. But it was not all about sex, far from it.

The method of tantra was to break through the dependence on the artificial constraints of the monks’ way of life. Whilst we are living under a set of artificial rules – whether those of the wider society, or those of a monastery – we are not truly free. We have a subtle dependence on the rules, on the structure. So to go beyond those monkish rules, tantra included these strong methods which involved the very opposite of the monks’ vows.

Of course the word tantra has changed its meaning somewhat in its modern usage in Western countries. Most tantra courses are focussed purely on sexual energy, and usually such tantra courses are really designed to allow us to explore our sexual energy without feeling bad about it, without feeling guilty. Unfortunately, in most societies, especially ones which have been under a Christian influence, sex has been condemned and we have come to feel bad about our sexual nature. So, tantra courses can help us overcome our negative feelings about our sexual energy, our sexual nature. To emphasise this, the tantra groups teach that our sexuality is sacred, part of our divine being, and is to be cherished, worshipped even.

But for tantra groups to be of a spiritual nature, they must go beyond treating sex as an interaction between two personalities. The stronger teaching is that the sexual energy exists in itself in the masculine and feminine polarities. During sex we can be feeling our partner as a pure manifestation of one polarity and our own energy as a pure manifestation of the other polarity. In this way the personalities can disappear. In such circumstances, the sexual energy can be felt very intensely. Indeed, we can lose ourself totally in that sexual energy. We can allow it to grow and overwhelm us. With that amplification of the energy, it can become strong enough to burn up parts of our psychology which are no longer serving us. Ultimately, it has the potential to incinerate the ego.

Tantra does not have to be about sex. We can use the word tantra to mean any method where we are using this approach of totality, of abandoning ourself to an energy; forgetting about our personality and allowing some energy to overwhelm us. Such methods of totality are quite the opposite to many meditation methods, where we are being very still and silent. The tantric methods are hot, wild, fiery and so they work by a different process altogether. Rather than starving the ego to death they engulf it like a tidal wave. This is tantra.