What is erotic tantra?

Natha yoga and tantra school is a tantric school throughout - also the core of yoga courses springs from the tantric tradition. Tantra is a very ancient spiritual discipline. Tantra, tan - to stretch and tra - to save, is often together translated as extension or uniting body and mind. Tantra is both the name of a certain doctrine and a certain category of texts belonging to the doctrine, the TANTRA-s.

(Much of the so-called Tantric teaching in the west today is based upon very scarce knowledge of the original Tantra.)
The tradition is much wider than understood in the west. Tantra has two general approaches: the left hand- and the right hand tantra. Only the left hand tantra is related with eroticism. The left hand tantra is only 5 % of all the tradition, the other 95 % is Yoga, meditations and other disciplines. Through the classical yoga with postures and energy control exercises the tantric cleans out the body, opens the energy channels and the 7 chakras, the centers of energy and awareness.

Lovemaking as a tool for spiritual transformation
Tantra combines body and mind, joy and spirituality. Where many spiritual traditions try to avoid sexuality and even condemn it as unclean or bad, Tantra uses it as a tool. This means that through the control of the energy it becomes possible to use lovemaking for development. The pleasure of lovemaking becomes a fixed point of the awareness and the sexuality is seen as a dynamo to feed the higher levels of the practitioner. As in Taoist tradition the Tantric avoids downwards going explosive orgasms. In the case of man the explosive orgasm means ejaculation. Instead, this energy is lead to a much more powerful orgasm at a higher level. This way energy is not lost and lovers can continue much longer, even for hours. Through this focused control of the energy the higher levels of awareness are opened as this requires very large amounts of energy. Gradually this becomes quite an adventure opening up to and experiencing still new levels of awareness.

In classical Tantra it is very important to focus upon love more than sex. Sex is the motor but without love it does not lift to a higher level. Making love this way strongly increases the feelings between the lovers and makes the relationship very deep. Most people understand love in a conditioned way meaning that “if you do as I want then I will love you”. Here we are referring to unconditional love.

Shakti and Shiva- the divine couple
Shakti and Shiva are the Tantric expressions for the universal feminine and the universal masculine aspects as yin and yang are in the Taoist tradition. The man focuses to see the Shakti in the woman as the woman focuses to see the Shiva in the man. This is called seeing the divine in your partner. When we are in love this is very easy but usually people forget this when they are not in love anymore. To see this higher aspect of your partner is to make love at the level of the soul, not only at the level of the body. The meeting at this level will automatically create a deep feeling of unconditional love. This again allows the couple to stay at a very high frequency resulting in amazing lifts of awareness. In such a field no negative emotions can exist. Possessiveness, jealousy, hate and depression become a part of the past. This way lovemaking becomes an ecstatic meditation, a travel in joy and bliss. It may sound over exaggerated but it is absolutely not, quite the opposite.

The couple will feel like a god and a goddess and like making love to one. This is the true inner nature of every individual from a Tantric outlook. We just generally are ignorant about this. More advanced practicioners can experience state of fusion; all feelings of separation disappear during lovemaking and the couple reaches higher levels of consciousness. This is the perfect fusion of Shiva and Shakti.

Erotical tantra does not make lovemaking or sexuality more complicated - on the opposite, the strongest feeling during and after tantric lovemaking is naturality and simplicity. Finally we realize why man and woman want to love and make love.

Ancient Tantra: a cure for modern problems
Modern society is very demanding and most people have jobs, family and other responsibilities to take care of. Also most people have a sexual life. Tantra is very special in the way that it offers a path for physical, emotional, mental and spiritual development without necessary demanding a major change of lifestyle. Actually much of what most people do already can with this training become a path of development. It even offers an increase in joy and pleasure.
Many people suffer from stress, burn out, winter depression and allergy. Tantra gives a very good and rapid ease to these problems. Also problems like impotence, hormonal imbalance and bad digestion are problems of modern society which can be solved in time. Good health is a treasure to take very good care of. This will be ensured through especially the yogic practice as it strongly increases the vitality and energy on all levels. Also the erotic practice strongly revitalizes the whole body and sharpens the mind.

The deeper understanding of the aspects of Shiva and Shakti helps many people to find their identity as men and women and thereby easier their place in life. In the Nordic countries femininity has a hard time. If a woman appears very feminine she is often considered stupid or cheap especially by other women. Also men often have a problem finding a balanced way of being masculine. In Tantra this polarity between man and woman is increased and used. The stronger the polarity the stronger the energy between the couple, just like with magnetism or electricity. This will keep the love life going without ever being boring. Tantra stresses the usefulness of long relationships as they allow the practitioners to go deeper and thereby achieve more. Your partner will always be an inspiration for you and the relationship will this way have a chance to become a lifelong experience.