Tantra is one of the oldest of the yoga’s. Yoga is just a particular method of achieving harmony with the supreme universe; each yoga believing they have the one most efficient method, where in reality all ways lead to the same goal.
So, Tantra is a belief system because firstly you must know what this world we live in is all about before you dare map a path to enlightenment. It is here that Tantra is supreme in simplicity. It recognizes what most major beliefs recognize. It recognizes, ‘as above, so below’; the macromism and micromism of the universe. Simply put, to have mastery over our own physical bodies is just the same as having mastery over every universe. Indeed, this is no silly idea. So many people today in their search for internal peace go down the so-called spiritual paths to finding this. Firstly, people address their pasts, their emotions and the baggage they are carrying. A self-healing time. Then they address the mental aspects of their thinking processes, philosophies and logics as espoused in personal development so predominant in today’s times. Then they try to live their learning. To walk the walk. To manifest all this searching in the final step on the ladder – spiritual enlightenment. Regrettably, they forget the first most important step and that is the physical. Sure they might have mastery over the emotional, the mental and the spiritual yet, their physical comfort can be severely challenged. How many healers cannot stand to be touched? Without mastery over the physical body you will never reach your spiritual goal – that is a promise! The beginning and the end are one of the same – all your goals are in the physical because as has previously been written, as above, so below. AND this is what makes Tantra so unique today. Whereas a lot of today’s paths are running away from the physical towards the spiritual, Tantra is staying in the physical because it is the spiritual.
So what exactly does Tantra believe in? Surprise, surprise, almost everything that every belief system believes in. The oneness of GOD and Creation. The simplicity of being happy by being true to self and living in the present. It believes in the metaphysical, the unseen energies, the planetary influences, good living and honesty and integrity. It is quite similar to Taoist teachings and Buddhist teachings. Before enlightenment chopping wood carrying water, after enlightenment chopping wood and carrying water. As long as you seek enlightenment you will never find it for the thirst of the seeker is unquenchable. Just be and just be happy.
What makes Tantra so unique is it believes in intimacy, romance, ritual and passion.
Intimacy and romance, that is the gift given to humanity. Without it we would be empty shells of selfish and uncaring deeds. Intimacy and romance is what the human side of us reminds us of home. Intimacy and romance makes a ceremony out of living. Eating no longer is just a thing you do to fill your belly, it becomes a ritual, a ceremony, a fine art and it is the romance of the art of eating that gives the meal its unseen pleasure. A bath is no longer just washing the body clean. Intimacy and romance makes the bath a ceremony, a peaceful space of warm water and refreshment. Talking to someone whose company you enjoy is no longer just a meeting. Intimacy and romance turns it into a moment, an experience, and a true union. Making love is no longer just a wham bam thank you mam, intimacy and romance opens your hearts and slows down the art into not only making love but being in love, it enables the physical pleasure to vibrate on every level of perception resulting in cosmic orgasm and utter purity. Giving a massage or a healing is no longer just putting your hands on somebody, intimacy and romance carries intent and allows your energy to flow freely so that the touch or healing is more than just a physical act. Intimacy and romance may turn a birds feather from just a birds feather discarded into a treasure to be held and that may hold with it memories and love. Great poets, storytellers and writers and artist throughout history are obsessed with intimacy and romance. Intimacy and romance truly is what makes a peasant into a king. A maid into a princess. It is intimacy and romance that enables us to see each other’s soul rather than the physical bodies that we show on the outside. As you can see, intimacy and romance are important, it is spirituality, it is what Tantra is about.
What is Ego
The Tantric view is that to have nothing you have everything, hence the zero zone or the number “0” on the number line negatives, zero and positive numbers, becomes the focal point. However, in tantra the zero zone is not to quiet the mind, it is not an empty space of stillness. Instead, the zero becomes a complete circle where your every being is incorporated within it. It strives to be aware of every sensation every thought every being and in doing so becomes one with all and in becoming one with the all, the individual dies and the whole everything is recognised.
So, in a sense tantra skirts around ego by being in a detached state of total absorption and appreciation of our senses without interpretation. This is ‘living in the moment’ and there is no time for individual ‘I’ space here.
Personal view
My personal view is yes, this Tantric focus is the answer and I here think of an exercise to demonstrate how the ego or the ‘I’ can be but not be. Imagine you are going for a walk. We perceive that we are moving forward as we walk and we observe all the beauty and nature around us as we pass it by on our journey. Now imagine that we are not moving on this journey but instead we are standing still and in stead of us seeing the sights as we pass them, we are standing still and it is the sights that pass us.
If you are actually walking and have this mind frame, it will appear that everything that is usually set is actually moving, coming towards us, by us and pass us, This is Tantra. This is the experience of observing, appreciating and absorbing life as it flows through us and not as we walk through it.
However, I do believe ego as an important role to play in out interpretation of what we perceive and absorb. Every sensation and every input sensed by ourselves, seen and unseen, has to be translated and interpreted for us to know that is exists. This is where out mind and our ego have their role to play. We need ego to perceive creation and we need ego to interact with creation. We need ego therefore, to know that we, an individual, do actually exist. Without ego we may as will be dead.
I quote from my speech, ‘self first’……..
Your own true nature is Self and only Self. Everything ultimately is about Self.
Without guilt nor fear and the weird thing that is not understood is that by being totally selfish you release a compassion for others that is honest, sincere and natural. Because you come from a space of satisfied completion and not dissatisfied need.
God almighty, why do new age commentaries encourage the death of ego when ego is us!
The spiritual notion of soul versus ego is a spiritual suicide. Selflessness is suicide of spirit but not of body. The body still endures.
Selfishness acknowledges ego and there is no spiritual suicide involved here because body and soul are one and not separate. Ego is soul and soul is ego. So unlike killing your soul and leaving alone the body. In selfishness this is an absurdity.
I hope you understand what is trying to be expressed. In short, self gratification is one of the wisest things you can do for your soul. Rather than a battle between and within yourself of what and what is not the right thing to do. One just does without the need to justify or understand or choose. Actions without agenda. No more lies to be seen!
In summary:
Tantra preaches finding the wholeness of self by detaching from self.
I preach the same but go a step further and say that ego is the key to recognizing this Tantric epistle.
