Aligning Your Chakras – Tips for Tantra Breathing

Tantra breathing plays a pivotal role in good tantra sex, but it must obviously be practiced before it is used in that context. An ideal time to practice tantra breathing is while engaging in tantric meditation under the guidance of your tantra teacher. In the context of the tantric sciences, sex and meditation have a lot in common. Both activities require a certain degree of focus and discipline, and both require a stillness of mind and temperament in order to be successfully practiced.

Tantric breathing is a refined form of the ancient yogic practice of pranayama. Pranayama is basically the science of harnessing the power of breath and the powerful influence that breath has over the state of the mind. Tantra breathing should initially be practiced only under the guidance of an experienced tantric master. If you have already received basic instructions, you may proceed on your own.

In order to get ready for a session of tantra breathing, sit comfortably in a cross-legged posture. If you are still not comfortable with this basic yoga posture, sit against a wall for back support.

With your eyes and mouth closed, inhale and exhale slowly and deeply through the nose. Rather than expanding your chest during inhalation, feel the breath flow past your lungs and into the pit of your stomach. Tantra breathing has nothing in common with the Western concepts of deep breathing. Rather, it is based on the concepts of Qui Gong and Tai Chi, in which breathing techniques exercise the diaphragm.

It is a physical fact that it is only when the diaphragm is expanded sufficiently that the lungs can fill to comfortable capacity. The best way of achieving this is to picture your breath flowing through your lungs, but passing beyond them into the belly.

Do not force your breath, but ensure that it is deep and measured. There should be no discomfort involved, or else your focus will be broken and the benefits of this breathing technique lost. Picture each inhalation flowing through your chakras and irrigating them with life-giving oxygen.

After about a minute, when your breath has steadied into a comfortable rhythm, begin to clear your mind of all extraneous thoughts and impulses. This is not an easy exercise, and will take much practice to master. However, it becomes easier when you picture each measured exhalation carrying out of your mind and body a disturbing, disruptive thought.

With each subsequent inhalation, picture the space left by the unwanted thought being filled by blissful nothingness. You will soon find your over-busy mind calming down as the disruptive thoughts are flushed out. Imagine the tantric breathing cycle thus becoming a process of thought-purification – a form of mental and spiritual detoxification.

As you grow more and more proficient in this technique, your tantra teacher will instruct you in how to use the bundled power of tantric breath to sharp-focus on a certain task or function – be it sex or any other activity requiring unwavering concentration.

Only when you have become a master of your breath do you begin to achieve mastery over your emotions. Devotion is an emotion, and masterful devotion is what tantra worship is all about. When you have become adept at tantric breathing, your worship of your tantra goddess or tantric god reaps mind-boggling results. You will be able to achieve and transmit the full ecstasy of spiritual sex. You become a devotee engaged in worship of the tantra deity in your life.

May the power of tantra begin to flow in your life…

Acharya Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra Teacher with an in-depth knowledge of traditional Indian sciences and Sanskrit literature. Visit his tantra online guide for Tantra Lessons, kriyas and mudras from this young Tantra Master.

Following The Path Of Tantra Sadhana

When most people think of tantra, they usually imagine that it is all about advanced sex. While sex is certainly a component of the tantric science, there is a lot more to it than that. Let me tell you what tantra sadhana involves.

Sadhana is a term that describes a spiritual path which has a specific objective or goal. A sadhu or sadhika is a man or woman pursuing a spiritual path that leads to a higher degree of spiritual realization. Since tantra is such a spiritual path, one who pursues it can expect to encounter enlightenment and liberation from earthly constraints of mind and body.

Tantra sadhana is therefore a spiritual pursuit in the classic sense of the tradition of ‘Bhakti’. Sexual techniques are certainly involved, but only in the context of liberation from physical and spiritual repression. Overcoming these repressions plays a big role in tantra sadhana so that complete self-realization becomes possible.

A person embarked on the path of tantra sadhana under an acknowledged tantra teacher practices specific meditation techniques, learns and recites prescribed tantra mantras (chants) and engages in tantra deity worship (puja). In the tantric arts, the quintessential deities are the tantra goddess Shakti and the traditional tantric god Shiva. The power, love and passion that these two deities embody are the basis of all tantric practices.

Learning tantra under a gifted tantra master is therefore not a trivial pursuit of sexual thrills, but involves understanding a whole philosophy, science and life path. Ancient tantra was conceived by Indian sadhus who studied humans and how they fit into both Nature and the cosmic scheme of things. The techniques they formulated are geared towards helping men and women to get body, mind and soul in perfect synch with Nature and the cosmos.

A student of tantra can be said to be on the path of tantra sadhana when he or she begins to practice the various rituals and techniques prescribed by their tantra master. This is the spirit of bhakti and sadhana, which requires the relinquishing of the ego and an attitude of worship in order to achieve spiritual awakening. In tantra, this worshipful attitude manifests in tantra puja, which is a system of ritualistic worship of the deities.

In tantra for couples sessions, the students gain a better understanding of the tantric deities Shiva and Shakti. As the couple progresses in their instructions under their tantra teacher, these deities themselves become the subjects and objects of intimacy – including sexual intimacy. Only when the couple reaches this level of awareness does tantric sex begin to have real meaning.

In short, the glories and joys of tantric sex are a gift that those who are on the path of tantra sadhana. This gift does not come apart from tantra sadhana. This is why this ancient science of life and love must essentially be learned under the expert tutelage of an experienced tantra teacher, or guru.

Acharya Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra Teacher with an in-depth knowledge of traditional Indian sciences and Sanskrit literature. Visit his tantra online guide for Tantra Lessons, kriyas and mudras from this young Tantra Master.

Transformation Through Tantra Meditation

Your tantra teacher may ask you – what do sex and meditation have in common? The answer is that they both have the mind as the primary participant. In fact, the mind is the most important sexual organ. Imagine trying to have sex without being able to think about the act… without building up mental anticipation first and without perceiving and processing our partner’s sexual attraction. It is impossible.

Tantra meditation takes cognizance of the fact that there is no such thing as mindless sex. Your tantra teacher will instruct you in honing the mind into a highly evolved, powerful sexual tool.

With tantra meditation, intimate partners learn to approach the sexual act with complete mindfulness. With tantric meditation, sex is no longer just carnal lust and gratification but becomes something spiritual. Inhibitions, reservations and self-doubt dissolve under the advance of complete awareness of the act, the desire that drives it and the object of desire. Objectification of the sexual partner ceases, and a worshipful mind-set takes its place. The tantra god and tantra goddess engage each other at the mind level, and only proceed to the level of sacred sex.

Tantra meditation may lead to actual sex, but a physical encounter is by no means the only objective. Your tantra master will make it very clear that the most important objective of tantric meditation is complete mindfulness of the partner and of oneself. The sexual energy that exists between the intimate partners is examined and cherished at the mind level, and this itself can be far more exciting and fulfilling than even a full-body orgasm.

In practicing tantra meditation under a qualified tantric teacher, the students of tantra discover and explore the sacred aspects of their love for each other. Done correctly and consistently, it is a deeply transforming experience that cannot be matched by mere joining of bodies at the physical level.

In the basic format of tantric meditation, the partners sit quietly in front of each other. They sit neither too near nor too far apart. They may be clothed or naked, and they may look upon each other or sit with their eyes closed. Either way, they are opening up a channel for tantra energy to flow freely between them.

If sex is to follow, the partners should decide on a period in which they will first engage in complete mindfulness and meditation before sex ensues. In this period, they will engage in tantra breathing and maintain a worshipful silence. Initially, their tantric master will guide their thoughts so that they do not stray from the desired focus.

When the partners have achieved a sufficient level of proficiency in this form of meditation, they are often able to achieve orgasms without so much as touching or looking at each other. No foreplay, erection or any kind of physical contact is required – it happens at the cosmic level.

If you are eager to explore the transformative powers of tantra meditation, you should seek out an experienced tantric teacher who can initiate and guide you into it. It is a grievous mistake to practice tantra without such expert guidance, since amateur attempts can seriously contaminate any spiritual pursuit.

Acharya Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra Teacher with an in-depth knowledge of traditional Indian sciences and Sanskrit literature. Visit his tantra online guide for Tantra Lessons, kriyas and mudras from this young Tantra Master.