Tantric Sex
The word “Tantric”, as applied to Tantric Sex, originates in India, where a Tantra is a written text which would have been some kind of written authority on sex, religion or spirituality.
In the Hindu tradition, the Tantra would be poured over by those wishing to achieve enlightenment, just as a mantra, a spoken chant or prayer, could produce spiritual enlightenment if used repeatedly and with the correct spiritual attitude.
Thus Tantric sex means sex where you follow a series of instructions or texts with the object of achieving spiritual enlightenment. It is not, repeat not, just about better sex; it is not just a way to achieve better orgasms….though that may be a welcome side effect! Of course, this is a representation of a culture predominantly concerned with the archetype of the Lover rather than the archetype of the Warrior.
Sex Manuals
The most famous of these potentially enlightening texts on Tantric Sex is probably the Kama Sutra, but there are others, since other religions besides Hinduism embraced the ideas behind the Tantras.
For example, think of the Anango Ranga, the Arabic Perfumed Garden, and Chinese pillow books like the T’ung Hsuan Tzu (otherwise known as the Tao of Sex) and the Japanese Shunga (also called the spring drawings).
Although these books seem archaic, they actually contain much informative and useful information on ways to improve sex, relationships and lovemaking.
For example, they offer much advice on positions, but as we all know, sex goes far beyond the simple act of finding new physical ways to express your desire: these texts also contain information on how to build and maintain a long term and committed relationship.
Different expressions of Tantra
As I hinted above, there are many different ways in which Tantra has found expression, but since the objective is always enlightenment through sex, that, not surprisingly , is their common theme.
Sex is used as a means to focus your spiritual energy and guide it from base chakra to crown chakra, so that your sexual energy (or the sexual energy of your partner) finds its way to your brain, and takes you to another spiritual dimension.
Our objective on this website is to explain the simplest techniques and exercises which will help you to adopt some of the ancient Tantric practices for yourself, so that you can turn the glory of sex into a personalized spiritual experience, using any or all of the sexual positions recommended by the ancient texts, or other ones which are new to you and your partner. This gives you ample opportunity for experimentation, practice and play in your search for the spiritual aspect to sex. You could see the aspect of Tantric sex concerned with sexual experimentation as a representation of the archetypal magician archetype.
What is Tantric sex about?
Well, as we said above, it’s about enlightenment, and it is one of the four ways in which the ancient Hindu traditions claimed that you get to a more spiritual place. The other pathways were about social behavior and morality (dharma); another was about financial gain, material wealth and physical comfort (artha); and the one we are interested in is the path of kama – the way of love, sex and sensuous pleasure.
The Hindus were not inhibited about this, nor were any of the other practitioners of Tantra – we could do a lot to learn from their attitude, and incorporate sex into our thinking as an everyday bodily activity, a social function, and a god-given means of obtaining pleasure which is separate from its reproductive function. The relevant text, as you may by now have realized, is the Kama Sutra – the summation of a spiritual approach to love, sex and the purely sexual pleasure of intercourse.
Rightly, the ancient writers in this field regarded sex as something that you could not suppress – it is a life energy, a force of the body (a force of nature, in fact), which, like drink, food and physical comfort, was essential to the well-being of both men and women.
If an urge is insuppressible, as sex so often seems, then how right the Tantrikas were to suggest that the better approach to dealing with our sexual impulses is to use them use for something that benefits both the individual and society – not just obtaining pleasure, but achieving enlightenment. This can be true of both sexual desire and sexual practices.
The Kama Sutra
The Kama Sutra is, therefore, a summary of Hindu sexual and erotic guidance. The guidance offered here is complete – from every stage of foreplay, with advice on how you can get yourself into the mood for sex (including which foods were reputed to have aphrodisiacal qualities), information on sex positions, kissing, courtship, and so forth. This is a complete sex manual for the people of its time – and for us, if we choose to listen to the advice which it has to offer.
Thus, the Kama Sutra was not just a collection of advanced sexual positions, but it also explained sexual health, the correct way to conduct yourself in a marriage, information on how to attract a partner, ways in which you can avoid the perils of adultery, and the best methods of erotic foreplay. As you may imagine, there is very little judgment around – sex is seen as a healthy and natural pastime, where what you do with your natural sexual powers is your own concern.