What is Tantra?

What is tantra?  For me, tantra is a path – a personal path – that blends stillness, meditation, connection and love making.  With Tantra, less is often more.  Focusing on stillness and presence takes us out of goal orientation, out of being in a hurry.  It is here that we arrive at true intimacy.  True intimacy is a little scary for some.  People can have sex and never really look into each other’s eyes.  Never really look into each other’s heart.

Taking time to slow down and touch with presence, brings such joy.  It brings such love.  At this gentle receptive pace, we learn to find our voice, to speak our boundaries, and to move energy when it’s stuck.  Just the other day I was making love with my partner and I needed to cry.  I knew I needed to cry because I didn’t feel anything.  My sense of heart, my sense of connection sexually, was disappearing.  Rather than fake it, or stop, I said, “Something’s up, I think I need to cry.”  He paused and held me.  After a little bit of tears, the opening happened again and I felt incredibly alive.

Tantra teaches us how to listen to our bodies, how to listen to our hearts and energies and be true to ourselves.  On this path, we naturally become and gravitate toward partners who meet us, who accept without trying to change us, who are supportive.  In the groups I teach, we are all that partner for each other.  We are healers for each other, and we are teachers for each other.  Most of us are not sexual together, though we often run beautiful sensual energy.  We have our clothes on and our hearts open.  When we sit across from our partner, we see The beloved in them.