What is TANTRA?
An edited excerpt from LOVE IS UNDER MY SKIN: Explorations in Living Yoga by Ateeka
“tantra begins with the body.”
yogaSOMATICS is a modern exploration of ancient tantric ways. To practice tantra is to devote yourself to discovery rather than certainty. It is a practice of surprises. Just when you think you know what Tantra is . . . it shows you yet another face. Tantra is a teaching that comes most authentically through practice, through direct experience, again and again and again. Our body is our tantric temple iand we experience directly through its sensations, perceptions and feelings.
The word Tantra has Sanskrit origins. Because Sanskrit is an ancient vibratory language, each “word” is really a resonance of a feeling, a sensing, a becoming. It is a sacred language that was always transmitted through vibratory chanting. Sanskrit is hardly translatable into our choppy modern intellectual language. So try to just feel into the Sanskrit offered to you in this book and enjoy the resonant and metaphorical meanings.
With that in mind, sound the word “tantra”. How does it feel in your mouth, upon your tongue, in the cavities of your body? Grant your rational mind a rest from judging or naming, for just a few moments, to feel the vibration. This is the very beginning of feeling what IS the practice. The word tantra is derived from the Sanskrit “tantram” which implies a “loom” or place on which things are woven. The root tra suggests “a technique” or a “way to practice’. In tantric practices, we are experimenting with all the possible experiences that the living world offers us to weave ourselves in with Existence. So here you are, a cosmic weaver with an infinite supply of experience threads and sensation yarns . . . weaving an ever-changing tapestry of life. Don’t worry if you don’t know the skill of the loom, the know-how is inherent in the threads and comes with practice!
Illustration and words from Ateeka
One of the ancient texts of tantra practice is the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.
This lyrical text recounts a "lover's conversation" between Shiva (masculine principle) and Parvati (Shakti - feminine principle).
Each aphorism of this sutra is a world in itself . . . each a doorway to know the "delights of this wonder-filled universe".
Several beautiful translations and commentaries of Vijnana Bhairava Tantra exist, with the most extensive being Osho's masterpiece, The Book of the Secrets.
Vijnana Bhairava tantra meditations continue to be the foundation for YogaSOMATICS teachings, again and again bringing us back to life process . . . daring, difficult or delightful.
An aspect of Ateeka's meditative practice includes playing with and writing commentary on these beautiful sutras. Forthcoming will be her book with the 112 sutras revealed as accessible and alive everyday practices. Below are a few for you to enjoy now.
“There is a moment ! Sometimes short. Sometimes long.
Between your inhalation and your exhalation
Where your breath turns the corner upon itself
And smiles in its own lovely face.”
“Choose a vowel . . . any vowel A, E,O,U,EE
And sound that vowel.
Watch it emerge from deep inside of you. . .
And watch it disappear into the silence of its origins.”
EROS: THE EFFICIENCY OF ECSTASY
The tantric experience includes and goes beyond all time, space, words and descriptions. It is at once, extra-ordinary and oh so very ordinary. The tantric way can evoke a state of ecstasy. Ecstasy comes in many packages and can be an everyday experience. I call this “ecstasy-in-action.” We have been led to believe that ecstasy is an “extra-ordinary” experience reserved for a privileged few who dedicated their lives to intense practice. That IS one way to know ecstasy . . . and the other is to simply accept that nearly every experience your life has an ecstatic component ready to be discovered. It is a matter of perception. Are you coming from a space of acceptance or suffering? In any moment, it is possible for you to accept WHAT IS and be HERE in connection with all life processes within and outside of you.
This is not to say that you will not experience suffering in your life. We all ride waves of great highs and great lows. Ecstasy is a path of riding the waves with a profound acceptance. Even accepting . . . if even a little bit . . . that we might accept . . . or let in or at least let a bit of reflection be around what is happening in this moment. We can even be open to feeling closed. Living in “every day” ecstasy means opening up to all the feelings, sensations, emotions, experiences with which we engage. We choose to feel, go deep, expand and abide in the change. We can be curious about gently opening instead of habitual contraction. We let ourselves explore the cycles and rhythms of opening and closing which come naturally.
In this abiding, you stop making things happen and shift into receptivity. For certain periods, your living system can dwell in a state of suspension where life processes are following an effortless flow. This state can be called eros and is a deeply regenerative, highly efficient state. Eros is a wide field of pleasure and open receptivity. It is the most efficient state of a living system. It is abundance, acceptance and YES. Our living systems become receptive to new input. We are nourished. We are reborn.
The word eros has been misunderstood and often relegated to the ranks of the erotic. While eroticism has its natural place and healing and creative benefits in our human expression, eros is a much wider state of being. When we are in a state of eros, we live in the world from a fertile space of possibility. We are creatively stimulated, innovative and need not get our bearings from the status quo. In a state of eros, we experience connection, deep relatedness, new attitudes, ideas, creative impulses and a wider spectrum of emotional presence. Eros is essentially the somatic integration of deep connection and relating.
illustration from Ateeka
So how then, do we evoke eros? Eros is a psychic energy that can be stimulated by liberating the body’s tissue and letting it be bathed in a sensation bath of fluid freedom. Psychological and emotional responses follow the tissue release. When the fluid of our bodies is freely flowing, it becomes the uniting medium that puts us in a state of global belonging, inside and outside the body. The efficiency of eros arises because of deep connection, where we do not have to take it all “upon ourselves.” Our needs are met. We feel at ease. This is our most natural state.
When we deny eros due to societal pressure, we are signing up for a slow decline. How often have we been told to “sit still”, “be quiet” not move, not dance, not take up space (embodied presence). How often have we held in our stories, our truths, our bellies for fear of prosecution. This control and repression of eros renders us dry, contracted, controlled and denies us our greatest health, physically, mentally, emotionally spiritually.
The opening to eros is not indulgent. Its expression is healthy and naturally respectful to the life process of all living beings. It is a like gentle rain that moistens the earth. It is the sweet sounds of morning birds at the first rays of dawn. It is the constant movement of a great ocean. It is the feeling of warmth that emanates from your heart, when you recognize yourself in the other. It is choosing to feel. This is eros. This is nourishment.
Our yoga practices evoke eros. We inquire upon ways to move into pleasurable receptivity and allow new information, vibrations and signals into our mind-body field.
An edited except from LOVE IS UNDER MY SKIN: Explorations in Living Yoga by Ateeka