Synopsis of Tantra

By Madame X 2002

All the Tantric Treatises are dialogues between two lovers Shiva and Devi. They are presented this way to reflect the loving openness, the mutual trust and the receptive absorbing mindset needed between teacher and student, or mentor and ward, when it comes to deeper tantric teachings and understandings. Tantra is not as much about the western concept of sex, but about the ‘loving’ mindset, overcoming doubt, duality and achieving oneness. Differing greatly from any logical language we, westerners, may be accustomed to, the Tantric texts are written in the language of love.

In its essence Tantra means technique. Tantric practices are concerned with methods more so than philosophy. The 5,000 year old Vifyan Bhairav Tantra consists of 112 techniques of stilling the mind to go beyond consciousness. Tantra is about experience, where knowing is only achieved by doing. The purpose of tantric texts is to assist with the individual growing process and ultimately transform the practitioner into a new state of being and perceiving. This transformation, akin to an awakening, applies to all facets of life including death and dreaming. Bliss, boundaries, emptiness, freedom, loneliness, self-awareness, surrendering, vulnerability, reality and illusion are frequent topics of Tantric exploration.

Tantra focuses on acceptance, affirmation, awareness, desire, indulgence by utilizing and directing sexual energy. It is an amoral practice, which very much like science, is neither morally wrong nor right; it simply is. The key to the effective application of Tantric practices is the discovery of (a) particular technique(s) that resonate(s) with the specific individual enabling inner transformation. This inner transformation, which is catalyzed by a state of ‘grace’, facilitates mental processes, emotional awarenesses, perceptions, and therefore social interactions, familial relations, even physical processes.

Of particular interest to the energy worker, Tantra explores and transforms hidden sources of energy, enabling a new source of energy, more potent than sexual energy, to become available to the practitioner. Along the same lines and of specific interest to the energy feeder, Tantra focuses on techniques involving cycling, drawing and harvesting energy. Tantric practices also advocate the acceptance and unity of the self (the thinking and feeling self) as a whole being, supporting our concepts shadow-self integration and of inner twilight. Tantra allows for the primal side of our dragon to fully manifest through sexual expression.