How Can Tantric Yoga Help My Love Life?
When trying to gain spiritual growth, many religions encourage celibacy. Along the same lines, many yoga practices say that sexual involvement should be avoided, as it is a "detriment to a greater development of self." On the other hand, Tantric yoga is one type of yoga that suggests that one's sexuality can be a force to harness for a powerful increase in self-awareness. Tantric yoga is unusual among the kinds of yoga, in that it uses sexual experiences as a means to enlightenment, and allows sexual feelings and contact.
Tantrics (those who follow Tantric yoga) believe that sexuality holds enormous energy. They say that if this energy is released from the spine's lower end, the energy can flow up the spine to bring divine illumination to the person's brain.
How's That Again?
Inside the spine, Tantrics believe that there is a hollow region that is called the canalis centralis. Within that space, they say there is an energy conduit, which they call "sushumna." They say that within this conduit, from the very base of the spine to the top of the head, there is a most powerful energy of all the psychic energies, "Kundalini energy." On the opposite side of the canal, there are two other psychic energies. They are called "Ida" (for the male) and "Pingala" (for the female). Ida starts at the right of the base of the spine, and Pingala starts at the left.
These two energies coil upward around the spine and the sushumna (like snakes), crossing the charkas (which is the energy wheel or center of conscious). The Kundalini yogi, throughout a lifetime, evolves through the various charka challenges and qualities, bringing the Kundalini energy from the base of the spine up to the top of the head.
Once the yogi has mastered silencing mental chatter, relaxing body tension, and releasing the energy blocks, he is prepared to join with a partner who is also prepared, and whose energies and spirit complement his so that they can become a "whole," through Tantric yoga. Each of them have to get to the highly developed awareness inside their being first, which may take an entire lifetime. Once there, they can engage in tantric embrace.
The tantric lovemaking experience is known as "maithuna." The participants go through a series of meditations and rituals before they can make physical contact. They keep the spiritual bond between then throughout the lovemaking. They practice visualization of the pranic (breathing) currents they have between them. Surprisingly, the lovers making Tantric yoga style of lovemaking do not want to have an orgasm. They avoid having one, as their goal is to bring the Kundalini energy up through their body-minds, to release the power of the chakras. The importance is not on the sexual release, but on sex as a channel through which the self evolves.
