Tantra: Part I

Phil Johncock

菲力甫．都安．姜寇克 | Johncock family blog

GETTING STARTED

TANTRA - PART I

by Philip Johncock, M.A., M.Ms.

This is Part I of a III-part series of articles on "What IS Tantra?".

Kittie disrobes and steps into the swimming pool where Jack is waiting anxiously. "How will Kittie show herself?" Jack wonders to himself. As the couple moves toward one another in the middle, Jack leans toward Kittie to embrace and kiss her. "Don’t touch!" says Kittie. "Go to the other side of the pool." Reluctantly, Jack agrees.

Kittie begins to glow in shimmering red, green, and yellow as the energy builds up within and around her. Suddenly, the energy rises up above her head and begins to spin in circles. Swirling and spiraling in the air, the energy surges toward Jack and explodes into his chest in a huge burst of passion, flashing green and yellow, sending ecstatic sensations throughout his entire body. Blissed out, Jack laughs, "If this is foreplay, then I’m a dead man."

This scene is from the movie, "Cocoon". Interestingly, there are two similarities between Jack’s experience and the practice of Sacred Sexuality, commonly referred to as Tantra, or "High Sex". Initially, many people begin their practice of Tantra with preconceived ideas about sexuality based on past experiences. Then, when they receive that blast of powerful ecstatic energy, their expectations are shattered and a new sexual paradigm is birthed, forever changing the way they view and experience sexuality.

The second similarity is that Tantra is an energetic event. Through Tantra, we show the essence of our true beings and merge together in a beautiful tapestry of Oneness. Tantra means "weaving".

In my forthcoming book on Tantra, I describe my experience of this sacred weaving: "It was as if our bodies came alive with passion and energy. I felt our energies merge together, becoming one with each other and the Universe. There were no longer two people… but a sacred merger of interconnected Oneness. We let our minds go and our bodies take over… Every Tantric session was a new adventure that lifted us beyond our imaginations to unfathomable heights of self-expansion and higher consciousness… We touched antiquity and felt like newborns… We giggled like children and laughed uncontrollably like life-long friends."

When I first heard of Tantra years back, I knew absolutely nothing about it and not much more about sex, except that it felt good. Little did I know at that time that Tantra was a wonderful tool for spiritual growth and personal transformation, even a path to enlightenment.

Two concepts were instrumental to my initial practices of Tantra: 1) Creating a sacred space and 2) Focusing on the movement of energy within my body and my partner’s (rather than solely focusing on intercourse).

Making a sacred space creates a container in which a person or couple feels protected, clear of outside energies and influences, and safe to express their true selves more fully and freely. The ritual of creating a sacred space for one’s self or with a partner is a natural unfoldment of beauty, grace, and honor. The space is purified and cleansed using such items as sage, cedar, incense, or essences. The space is beautified with music and such items as flowers, sacred objects, candles, scarves. "Tantrikas", those who practice Tantra, also purify, cleanse, and beautify their own temples: their bodies. In my personal experience, once a sacred space is created, magic happens, not unlike what happened to Jack.

The second step to beginning a practice of Tantra is to focus on energy rather than sexual performance. With emphasis being placed on an energetic merger and exchange, practicing becomes less threatening and more playful. Sexual and spiritual energies can be circulated through the body and between two people. Male and female energies are harmonized. The result is a full-body sex-heart-spirit kind of orgasm rather than a localized sexual-genital experience.

By controlling and moving sexual energy through the body, we expand the power of our orgasms. Research shows that the average orgasm lasts only 10 seconds. For an average couple, that translates into 18 minutes a year and 15 hours of ecstasy per lifetime. According to Margo Anand, author and teacher, we devote "many thousands and thousands of hours thinking about sex, worrying about sex, daydreaming about sex, wishing for sex, planning for sex. Sex has become a very mental occupation." With the three keys of Tantra (breath, movement, and sound), we leave our minds and come to our senses. We learn to be orgasmic.

Many of us have lost our connection to our ecstatic source, our playfulness. As children, we were born orgasmic. When our natural innocence, spontaneity, and sensuality is reawakened and interwoven with the essence of the Sacred, we begin to breathe magic and creativity into our love-making, work, and life.

If you would like to awaken your Ecstatic Self, check out Tantra. Like Jack, "sex" will never be the same again.

(This article first appeared in In Light Times and also in Sunrise Magazine in 1996)

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