Tantra Yoga – Benefits and Prerequisites For Practice

Tantra Yoga is a much talked-about term, but what is it and what does it take to practice tantra yoga? Quite simply, it is a set of tantra exercises that harnesses extremely potent power for spiritual regeneration.

Because of this power, it lies at the fundaments of ancient tantra practice.Tantra yoga lays special emphasis on the development of the powers latent in our six chakras, from Muladhara to Ajna. It should be clarified here that tantra yoga is not concerned with sexuality, but with creative force and transmuting the energy of this force into higher channels.

This revered and highly efficacious form of tantra practice involves deep meditation, in which the student of tantra sits calmly and purifies the mind and heart of wayward thoughts and desires.Tantra yoga is a ritual path, and is often grossly misunderstood and wrongly practiced. The fact is that its practitioners must have purity, humility, devotion, courage, dedication to their tantra teacher, a deep understanding of cosmic love, faithfulness, contentment, dispassion, non-covetousness and honesty. This form of yoga is a process that can unfold one’s spiritual nature through the constant worship of the energy within, collectively known as Shakti.

Practiced diligently under the guidance of an accomplished tantra master, it brings about an awakening of the self.Tantra yoga does not limit itself to a particular branch of study – rather, it incorporates in it diverse elements which are linked by a unifying rule of Tantra Dharma. It aims to bring about consciousness in all states of human life – the conscious state, the waking state and the dream state. It is a path and practice that teaches the methods and ways by which we can discard intolerance, ignorance, selfishness and the animal instinct that lives in all of us.Tantra believes teaches us that the primary driving force behind the Universe isnothing but desire, and that desires are very natural for a soul residing in a human body.

Tantra yoga brings physical and mental cleansing through Pranayama (tantra breathing exercises) the visualization of energized energy vortexes (yantra) and deities, the repetition of mantras (energized sounds/words) etc. It is a holistic means of studying of the macrocosm from microcosmic point of view.When a student of tantra practices tantra yoga under a tantra teacher, he or she will soon be able to identify a wide range of factors that impact our thoughts and feelings. Regular practice of this most basic – and yet most powerful – manifestation of ancient tantra inculcates the contentedness, concentration and focus which are needed to release our consciousness from its inherent limitations.

In short – tantra states that desires are natural, and tantra yoga provides practical means and devices to reprogram our minds and desires so that they serve us, rather than the other way round.

Acharya Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra Teacher with an in-depth knowledge of traditional Indian sciences and Sanskrit literature. Visit his tantra online guide to read more about Tantra Yoga, learn tantra exercises and tantric techniques from this young Tantra Master.

Tantra Meditation To Re-Establish Inner Connection

Tantra meditation can help bring us back in touch with ourselves – and with what truly matters in our lives. The art of tantra is all about transcending the superfluous and reconnecting with our elemental core. Never has there been a greater need to practice tantra mediation than today…

Mankind has strayed far from the elements that ancient Tantra upholds as holy and paramount. We are chronically obsessed with the development and acquisition of sleeker cell phones, smaller Ipods, faster Internet connections and smarter refrigerators. The human race continuously strives to improve its own situation better – unfortunately, in the constant search for something that is smaller, bigger, faster and jazzier, we have forgotten how to appreciate what we already have, or rather, had – the soul connection.

Is sitting in America and video-chat with friends or relatives in India real connection? We have adopted a false ideal – that of instant gratification, money, mechanical partying and mechanical loving. We think we are making things easier, but something as basic is being lost. We are experiencing a slow degradation of the soul. Bodies come together, but a tantra master will point out that this conjoining is incomplete to the point of unwholesomeness. Minds exchange ideas, but there is no common meeting ground of the spirit. Ideas, thoughts and emotions remain disjointed, dry and bereft of true life.

Those who learn tantra must choose not to be blind to the fact that relationships are at their worst point ever, and that the soul-to-soul connection –the very crux of interactions – is being steadily eroded. While the most basic tantra lessons lie ignored by the wayside, relationship fixers, marriage counsellors and lawyers mint money from the disconnect.

No one recognizes this as a serious problem. We are contend with coping as best as we can, either by ourselves or by paying for services that are ultimately useless. Modern science does not acknowledge a mind-body-soul connection and treats bodily ailments in isolation, cutting off its connection to the soul and mind. However, ancient tantra hold the key to this problem – a problem that arises when we lose the connection with our mind and thereby fail to connect with others. When you practice tantra meditation, you open the portal to your soul.

In this context, here are two simple Tantra meditation techniques:

1) Watching-The-Breath Tantra Meditation:

Pay close attention to your breath for a few minutes. Relax, close your eyes and focus on inhaling and exhaling slowly and comfortably. In this tantra breathing technique, you must breathe through your nose, involve the diaphragm and allow oxygen all the way to the inner core of your lungs. Visualize a energy-cord from the bottom of your feet to the main energy-cord attached to your spine.

If your mind starts wandering during this tantra exercise, re-focus your attention on breathing in and out. Keep doing this for 10 minutes without a break, and you will feel energy well up within yourself. This energy will draw only those people who love and appreciate you.

2) Zero-Mind Tantra Meditation:

Visualize a garbage dump and empty all thoughts your mind conjures up into it. Sit still in a tantric cross-legged position and let your mind go silent. The root cause of disconnect within ourselves stems from negative foreign energy being stuck in the body. When this virulent energy overshadows your real energy, it results in inner disconnect and disharmony.

A word of caution: Tantra influences mind, body and soul simultaneously. One must therefore practice tantra only under the vigilant guidance of an experienced tantra teacher. Amateur instructions or unguided practice will not yield in any benefits.

Acharya Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra Teacher with an in-depth knowledge of traditional Indian sciences and Sanskrit literature. Visit his tantra online guide to read about tantra meditation, learn tantra exercises and tantric techniques from this young Tantra Master.

Can Tantra Healing Cure Cancer?

A cure for cancer exists in the healing methods of tantra. This is corroborated by the tantric scriptures and the citations in it.

Cytology is a diagnostic branch of modern practice of medicine that pinpoint early stages of cancer. However, it doesn’t explain the reasons why cancer originates in the body. Tantra practitioners believe they have the answer. Under the guidance of a genuine tantra master, tantra and meditation can indeed heal chronic arthritis, headaches – and yes, cancer as well.

The ancient art of tantra teaches that most of cases of cancer are psychosomatic in nature and origin. Tantra healing methods combine intense chanting and beej mantra hymns at varied vibrations and speeds. They are exhaustively based on tantric scriptures.

Tantric healing has nothing to do with black magic or black arts. Healing through the tantric scriptures is a comprehensive system that gives a detailed understanding of why cancer develops in the body, and what are its specific points of origin are in individual cases. A genuine instructor can train your mind in an integrated manner to lend the power to heal your body.

The word ‘psychosomatic’ implies that the origin of a specific physical condition is a combination of insufficiencies in the mind, body and soul of the sufferer. Tantra believes that the psyche creates the disease, and that the body suffers. Since it is the psyche that is responsible for creating the disease, the only way to cure it is through the psyche. Tantra can cure any disease without having to resort to extended medical treatment, merely by treating through the psyche…. the root of the problem that induced the disease.

As a tantra master, I teach tantric healing so that my students may realize the answers to some of the most thought-provoking questions of life – where do we come from, and why do we have diseases at all in this world? Why can we not be completely free of all diseases? The answers lie within tantra. Students of tantra are aware of the specific roles stress, family and lifestyle play in developing the most life-threatening diseases in the world.

Copyright (C) Subhojit Dasgupta.

Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra teacher and offers Tantra lessons to select pupils.

Tantra Prana Darshana: The Swerving Tantric Technique Of Prana-Vayu, Or Life-Breath

In a Tantra workshop, the Tantra teacher’s first purpose of teaching his pupil the intricacies of Tantra Prana Darshana is to help him or her understand that the act of inhalation and exhalation creates a circle of breath within. The second purpose of this tantra exercise is to help the pupil comprehend that inhalation and exhalation do not constitute two but one single breath. The breath that comes in also goes out, creating a single internal curve – the incoming breath becomes outgoing. Your Tantra teacher will place great emphasis on this fact.

For this Tantra exercise, you must sit in Padmasana (Lotus position) with your back straight. As you close your eyes, start by inhaling and exhaling effortlessly, feeling the breath entering and exiting your being. As you continue this Tantra exercise for nine cycles, you will feel the sensation of a circle of breath created within your body.

If you stop your breath for a brief moment during this Tantra exercise, you will find that your mind stops suddenly – it cannot function. Your breath is now in intricate symbiosis with your mind, and the connection between the mind and body is snapped for this moment. Only a breath-in-motion is joined with the mind and body… a motionless breath is disconnected, and this is when breath curves. You are not joined with the breath and that is the moment you actually become aware of who you really are. You realize the ‘I’.

During my Tantra workshops, I often ask my pupils to try a variation of Tantra Prana Darshana. They do the same technique of circular breathing, but just sitting, doing nothing. No movement at all. I then explain that if they are able to observe their breath curving without any movement of the mind, Tantra says they have entered into themselves.

This is because Tantra makes your breath leave you to move in a different direction. It was with you when it was coming in, and it will be with you again when it goes out. However, it is not with you at the point of the curving, and you are not with it. In this moment, the breath becomes separate from you, and you are separate from it.

By being be aware of this curving of the prana-vayu, you become a realized soul through Tantra.

Copyright (C) Subhojit Dasgupta.

Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra teacher and offers Tantra lessons to select pupils.

Tantra and Tantric sex – Explaining the tantric path

A shloka from Tantra Rahasayam explains Tantra as “Tanyate vistaryate jnanam anemna iti tantram” (Tantra is the divine scripture by which the light of advanced spiritual knowledge is spread).

Tantra is an ancient system of psycho-spiritual meditations and self-realization techniques that originated in India. It is still practiced in its authentic entirety by a young Tantra Acharya Subhojit Dasgupta, who represents the most ancient lineage of Tantra in India.

Tantra is collectively a large set of specific tantric techniques that includes yamas, niyamas, asanas, mudras, pratyaharas, dharanas, dhyanas and samadhi techniques. These techniques are considered an integral part of tantric self-realization and awareness.

Tantra is defined as the combination of tattva (the advanced science of cosmic principles), and mantra (the sciences of mystic sound and energy vibrations) and its various applications. Authentic Tantra is based on the harmonization of this combination, raising its intensity to unlimited potency.

Tantra can further the growth of human consciousness in all its manifestations – in personal growth, health, business, and knowledge – treating mind, body and spirit as aspects of the one intelligence.

But there is a unique aspect to Tantra: Unlike several other religions and paths that preach abstinence from all that give pleasure, Tantra proclaims that a life without pleasure is no life at all. Moreover, our desires will continue to haunt us until they are allowed to reach its peak; only after that can it be submerged. Tantra instead says that the transcendental experience of sexual union should be utilized in our path to spiritual awareness. Does that mean that the paths that teach abstinence are wrong?

No! It simply means that they are trying to attain transcendence in different ways. Their aim is the same, only their basic methods differ from Tantra.

Tantra aims for the transcendence of the transient world and aims at giving its practitioners, experiences of intense meditation. Tantra recognizes sex as an important part of a person’s being and the development of one’s soul, but acquiring the right balance is the key.

Tantra is to be used as a spiritual path by people who do not prefer to sacrifice their sexual activities, either due to their disposition or because they are involved in family life.

Rather than suppressing our sexual inclinations, Tantra asks us to utilize the power of sex to gain transcendence. It instructs us not to have sexual play but to use it to climb the ladder of spiritual consciousness. Sex will not stop the continual distraction in one’s mind but when the sexual urges are strong, it is better to utilize it for spiritual purposes and not suppress it. And through these esoteric experiences gained by tantric union and through other non-sexual tantric techniques, one can anticipate to evolve spiritually in a natural way and will gradually lose mundane interest in sex.

And finally when the mind’s attention is diverted away from sex, it becomes ready for serious spiritual sadhana. That is the prerequisite for greater spiritual evolution.

But a word of caution: Tantra does not preach indiscrimate sexual play. It has set specific rules as to how the sexual energy will be utilized. These rules have to be strictly followed; otherwise one can suffer undesirable experiences associated with the premature awakening of the chakras, which is life-threatening without the direct guidance of a knowledgeable Tantra Master

Persons who would like to practice this sexual aspect of Tantric Sadhana must do so under the able guidance of a Tantra Master, who will lay down strict guidelines on the conduct of their lives and what focus their spiritual sadhana must follow.

Copyright (C) Subhojit Dasgupta.

Subhojit Dasgupta is a Tantra Master and offers Tantra lessons to select pupils.

Tantric Kriya: Awareness With Anapanasati

We start with the kriya that will help you take the first step towards our sadhana of Tantric Awareness. Lie flat on your back with the arms beside and in-line with your body and palms facing upwards.

Move your feet slightly apart to a comfortable position. Close your eyes and breathe deeply and just experience the breath coming in.

When the passage of breath touches your nostrils, let the breath move in slowly within you. During this time, you are not supposed to move any part of your body even if discomfort occurs. If you feel uncomfortable, you must not proceed further.

Now continuing this kriya, as you breathe deeply… try to go within in terms of awareness with your breathing-in and move with the breath fully conscious of its passage.

When you are going with the breath, do not miss the breath. Do not go ahead and do not follow behind, just go with it. Breath and consciousness should become one.

The breath going in with you simultaneously is very important. Only then will it be possible for you to get the point between two breaths. So move in slowly with your breath, then move out with the breath slowly doing in-out, in-out. In Tantra kriyas, this is the first step and it is also known as Anapanasati.

The whole purpose of this first kriya is to make you aware of the brief silence between the two breaths. When you are able to experience that briefness within, you have come a little closer to the higher Tantric awareness that awaits you.