If it's not about liberation, it's not Tantra
What IS Tantra? series
It was such a simple question. “What is Tantra?” It was posed by a new member to the Jivana Tantra WhatsApp group. She didn’t ask online. She asked after an exercise class.
She was curious because I was offering a 4-week asana series related to the high-intensity interval training class we had just finished. Asana is one branch of the 8 mentioned by Pantanjali in the Yoga Sutras. Asana is sometimes defined as meaning “comfortable and steady” and is used to refer to the embodied movement practices on the spiritual yogic path.
To be fair, the offering would probably have been considered by yogic scholars “modern postural yoga” to differentiate it from an offering that had a more traditional spiritual aim. Health, wellness, and alignment-based practices, on their own, fall into this “modern postural yoga” category. Anyway, this particular person was confused. She thought when she joined my group (this is only my guess) that all the offerings might be “sexual energy orientated” or more “Goddessey” at least.
Before continuing, my intention with most of my posts will be to make them short and digestible. A more thorough definition piece for “Tantra” will follow in the near future. For now, what should be noted is that if the practice does not include the aim of spiritual liberation, it’s not “classical” Tantra.
Ruh roh. We have two more terms that will need to be defined now. Spiritual liberation and also what is meant by “classical Tantra”. Only the latter will be addressed in this piece. Spiritual liberation will need its own post.
Currently, what most people know as Tantra is considered by scholars as “neo-tantra”. It is a more modern practice that is not very old and mostly originated in the United States, according to scholar Christopher Wallis (aka Hareesh). It is this neo-tantra that has made the entire reputation, for the tradition they’ve taken the Tantra term from, about sex.
Agreeing with Hareesh, I would say there is nothing inherently wrong with these practices and systems if they are working to address what people are approaching them for. The issue would mostly be with the spread of misinformation. Mainly it’s the claim that what is being taught in neo-tantra is ancient when scholars have found otherwise.
So there is no sexual anything in “classical Tantra”? Of course there is, but in more radical sects typified in what is called “the Left-hand Path”, (the path I do study). However, it does not mean that the sexual practices are, and very often are not, the focus.
If someone is practicing asana-only and has no spiritual interest, I don’t consider that “real” yoga as yoga is inherently spiritual. Using the name alone does not qualify. “Modern postural yoga” is prevalent in West. Although this should be true with yoga as well, tantric scholars do not consider a practice tantric unless the goal of spiritual liberation is present.
There may be offerings made by me in the future that would not rightfully carry the classification of being tantric for both the reason presented in this post as well as one that will be covered in a later post. In the future, offerings that are not tantric will be labeled as such. 99% of them going forward should be ;) My intention, as a Tantrika and teacher, is to guide and motivate on the path of embodied spiritual liberation. It’s a journey you can share with me through ritual-based events and practice-offerings (sadhana).
An upcoming post will be dedicated to giving a more thorough definition of “classical” Tantra as well as what is meant by spiritual liberation within this system. Spoiler alert would be that it is learning to live a joyful life of peace, which is more of an outcome or benefit once default-setting, Self-realization occurs.
Where am I in this process? -on the path and teaching. I’ll create a podcast post surrounding that later as well.
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