Tantra: When the spirit and body unite

Learn about the ancient form of meditation and how its viewed today

As human beings, part of living healthy
lives requires us to seek and engage in
intimacy with people around us. The intimacy
that we seek can be physical, emotional,
conversational, or spiritual but without it we
cannot fully lead balanced lives. However, the
word intimacy is often only associated with
the physical act of engaging in intercourse
with a lover, when in reality sex is only a
small element of intimacy. The same can be
said about Tantra.
Tantra is a meditation and ritual
practice that has influenced Eastern religions
like Hinduism and Buddhism. Having started
no later than the 5
th
century AD in India,
Tantra has evolved and grown into a mainstream practice by people seeking to
achieve a desired level of oneness between their physiological and spiritual selves.
Tantric ideas and practices first began to spread from India to Tibet, Nepal, China,
Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Because of Tantras Indian origins, the practice embraced the Hindu gods and
goddesses (especially Shiva and Shakti) and the Hindu philosophy that each
represents an aspect of the ultimate Para Brahman (highest god). These deities may
be worshiped with flowers, incense and other offerings such as singing and dancing.
A common practice of Tantra is visualization. In Tantra, visualization entails
Ishta devata meditation, where practitioners visualize their preferred Hindu god or
goddess and internalize them in a process similar to sexual courtship and
consummation. Some practitioners visualize deities to the degree that they
become the meditational deity.
Indian philosopher, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar famously described a Tantric
individual and a Tantric cult as the following:
A person who, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, aspires for spiritual
expansion or does something concrete, is a Tantric. Tantra in itself is neither a religion
nor an "ism". Tantra is a fundamental spiritual science. So wherever there is any
spiritual practice it should be taken for granted that it stands on the Tantric cult."
Scholastically the word has been defined as, an Asian body of beliefs and
practices which, working from the principle that the universe we experience is
nothing other than the concrete manifestation of the divine energy of the deity that
creates and maintains that universe, seeks to ritually appropriate and channel that
energy, within the human microcosm.
Today, Tantra has taken on a more sexual meaning among practitioners who
are less interested in the spiritual enlightenment of the ritual and more focused on
reaching a newer level of physical satisfaction.
Tantras sexual rites were first present in Vamamarga (a form of Tantric worship)
and involved catalyzing biochemical transformations in the body as offerings to
gods. With time, these sexual rites developed and focused on the primacy of divine
and blissful union between partners. Practitioners seeking the physical benefits of
Tantra believe sex should be recognized as a sacred act capable of elevating its
participants to a higher spiritual plane.