Tantra

Tantra Meditation Classes / How do I teach? / Vision of reality / What is Tantra?

Tantra Meditation

How do I teach?

At the moment my tantric teaching is on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWj0buqc3WQLq7q27oOPElg

I combine the wisdom of ancient tantric traditions with modern-day spiritual practices.

It is important to me, to respect the traditions, which Tantra originates from, and I will therefore always put emphasis on philosophy, meditation and the original Sanskrit texts, as much as I can to honor the sacred cultural artifacts of Tantra. I am currently very interested in the texts of Kaśmir Śaivism, such as the wonderful Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra.

The modern influences in my teaching are practices of embodiment, conscious communication, breathing exercises and partner meditation, which draw from my training in „Thai Massage and Holistic Bodywork“, from neo-tantric environments such as Arambol (India) and Ängsbäcka (Sweden), as well as from my own practical and scriptural researches.

What happens in a class?

We will meditate, move our bodies, breathe and connect to the source of all that is! There might be partner work, such as eye-gazing, holding hands, breathing together or light touch, depending on the theme of the class. You can come with a beloved partner or alone. Don´t be afraid, these workshops do not contain sexual actions, but rather observe and celebrate the cosmic union of life energy! You are always welcome the way you are, with all your desires, fears and boundaries. Come and explore how your own inner world is intimately connected to all that is.

The tantric vision of reality

Everything is one. Everything is connected and inherently part of the divine reality. There is no such thing as good and bad, pure and impure. These invented categories that divide us are there for our own amusement and growth: The divine is concealing its own nature, making us feel separated, so we can come back to remembering our true nature. This play of separation and union is the pulsating and vibrating life energy that created this cosmos.

The principles of femininity and masculinity, like all other dualities, are essentially one. This is beautifully expressed in Ksemaraja´s commentary on the Netra Tantra:

And of that Lord, the supreme Energy of Freedom is inseparably His own and She is arisen, flashing forth being Her nature. She is established in the nature of the Lord, not in the relationship of the support and the supported, but in a complete fusion of essence, therefore she is present „in His womb“.

Bettina Sharada Bäumer (2019), The Yoga of Netra Tantra

What is Tantra?

Tantra is nothing less than „a cult of ecstasy“ that offers a uniquely successful antidote to the anxieties of our time.

Urban H. B. (2003), Tantra, Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Dehli

Tantra is an imagined and wide-reaching category. Since the Vedic times, the word „tantra“ has appeared with a high variety of meanings and can be derived from either the Sanskrit root „tan-tanoti“ to weave and expand or „trai-trayate“ to liberate. The „Tantras“ refer to particular texts which „weave“ the threads of words and discuss many different topics. There are numerous tantric schools and philosophies, but all of them want to bestow the practicioners with liberation or enlightenment.

Tantra used to be related to secret, dangerous and occult practices. Left-Handed Kaula rituals draw most of the attention, since they involve the socially unacceptable means of consuming meat or drugs, offering bodily fluids, engaging in sex or meditating on cremation grounds. These transgressive practices were one the one hand seen as dangerous, but also seen as containing magical and transformative powers. Nowadays, Tantra is interpreted increasingly as „sacred sexuality“, and is – similarly to yoga – striped of its traditional aspects and reduced to the physical aspects: We can observe that Neo-Tantra often emphasizes the aspects of sexual liberation and physical ecstasy. It presents itself as a non-institutional patchwork spirituality, which celebrates sexuality, bodily existence and materialism. In this way, Tantra gives us important insights into the transformation of religion in today´s time of strange late capitalism.

In more traditional terms, the ten proprieties of Tantric phenomena are (according to Urban 2003): (1) they are extra-Vedic; that is, not part of the conventional canon of Hindu scriptures; (2) they involve special forms of physical discipline, such as kundalini yoga; (3) they are at once theistic and nondualistic; (4) they contain elaborate speculations on the nature of sound and the use of mantras; (5) they involve the use of symbolic diagrams, such as yantras or mandalas; (6) they place special stress on the importance of the guru; (7) they employ the bipolar symbol of god and goddess; (8) they are secret; (9) they prescribe the use of conventionally prohibited substances (e.g. wine, meat, sexual intercourse); (10) they require special forms of initiation in which cast and gender are not the primary qualifications.