Tantric philosophy
A text from Advaita Maria Bach's website: one of Germany's most experienced Tantra coaches, explains beatuifully what Tantra is about.
http://www.advait-tantra.de.
"Exploring the philosophy of tantra means diving into the spiritual world of the Hindus. Hinduism is the oldest surviving world religion and it's the only one which doesn't have a founder: the names of the legendary Rishis (wise ones) who composed the Vedas have been forgotten in the dark depths of history.
The tantric teachings always existed alongside other streams of Hindu knowledge: this religion has always had as many different hues and tints as a rainbow, reflecting its origins in the magical Indian sub-continent with its rich diversity of peoples, languages, customs and deities. Above all, the tantric teachings differ from the Vedic philosophy when it comes to the question of asceticism: Is the physical world a temptation and distraction for the spiritual seeker, or is it a vital and inseparable part of the divine?
In common with other world religions, such as Christianity, Hinduism also has its share of misogyny, and the repression of women here as elsewhere is connected to the repression of sexuality, condemning this with the stigma of 'impurity'.
One side claims that God or the absolute is beyond form: eternal, immortal, beyond birth and death. Only those who dedicate themselves purely to the spiritual, sublimating the physical, can see God.
The other side says that God is everything. Since everything is God, how can the world be different from him? He is also the world, and everything beyond that. The universe is full of unsolved mysteries. There is antimatter and black holes, and someone recently discovered a new galaxy that probably throws our previous chronology out of the window - tantra can integrate all of this into its philosophy since it unreservedly affirms the existence of everything there is. The body is the "vehicle of ecstasy"; an example of how this is expressed in tantric philosophy is the fact that the lingam (penis) and yoni (vagina) are considered to have a consciousness. When we celebrate erotic rituals and I give a little talk about the tantric spirit, some of the participants are always surprised to hear that a guiding consciousness resides in their genitals! Our most sensitive body parts, the signposts to great earthly bliss, have a consciousness? And it can be all-embracing? It has an even finer sense of feeling than the heart? And it's sometimes wiser than our ego?
The lingam is the most sensitive part of the man; it is an organ of love and the bodily organ that enables him to unite. By uniting with woman, man can become one with the world and with the Original Mother. And should his ejaculation lead to him becoming a father by fertilizing the woman, then he becomes part of the creative process - after all, this is lingam, the jade scepter, the vajra (thunderbolt) penetrating the "mandala of delight", the governor of the conceptive power.
Sometimes the lingam's wisdom doesn't want what the man's ego wants: the tantric view explains that this is because of the lingam's innate logic. If the 'self-born' doesn't want to rise to the occasion, then this is because he doesn't feel enough trust - whatever the reason for this may be. These situations are of no minor importance for men whose ego depends on their 'sturdiness' and this 'memorial to the great stud', so it can actually be liberating for the man to grant his lingam its own wisdom. And sometimes King Lingam rises to an inappropriate occasion - in the sauna, for example. In this way, King Lingam can be seen to have his own life - until his 'owner' unites himself with the lingam consciousness. Then they can become more than one; the lingam is not ego, is not head, it is feeling and the joy of life and love. Indeed it is heart energy, but even finer than the heart! How often have I observed during rituals that the man finds it difficult to connect lingam and heart energies: if he's in his heart, he loses his erection. This is all a result of our body-unfriendly culture. However, if Shiva (the man) considers his erect penis as a memorial to the worship of the female, instead of as an expression of instinct and horniness (which are supposed to be 'lower' powers), how can his erection disappear when he directs the energy to his heart? Here we can see a very practical role for our philosophy, or our value system; of course, this example ignores other factors, such as a previously experienced sexual trauma.
And yoni, too, has her own consciousness; lust or lack of lust may be less visible, since it 'only' expresses itself as moisture in the yoni. Many women sidestep this somehow: after all, there is the option of lubricants or simple spit, and a missing orgasm can also be faked. But Shakti, too, can receive signals from her yoni if only she listens to her! Trust is important for yoni, too, and she only reveals her deepest secrets to a truly devoted worshipper. But many women don't even worship their 'most womanly part' themselves, thanks to an upbringing full of shame. In tantra, yoni is the altar, the paradise - and Shiva has the key. Bringing them together in sexual union opens up paradise in the here and now - the only immortality there is. A lot of women talk of the 'shadowy existence' of their "valley of the water chestnut": even more than the men, they were brought up to ignore the essence of their gender instead of being proud of it, leaving it protected and 'occult' (hidden) in their body. (Again, here I'm not even referring to upbringings that included sexual abuse). The dominant philosophy and religion taught us that on no account do respectable women admit to their lust, let alone cultivate it; it taught us that the spirit is "willing" but the "flesh" weak - this religion robbed us of our Earthly Paradise and promised us one in the beyond, but no one has come back from there or reported about what it's like there.
Body and soul are never, ever separate! They are always one, and only go their separate ways in the moment of physical death. Shiva and Shakti only need to think about the behavior of lingam and yoni to realize how integrated they are as living beings. We can fly with the angels, but if yoni and lingam are on strike, then there will be no trust, no love and no abandonment: the upper chakras might behave as if they were completely open, but something isn't quite right. The angels also need to sing in the holiest lingam and yoni - the tantric angels definitely do! Of course they sing everywhere in the human being, and during the experience of ecstasy, the lingam and yoni consciousness envelops the whole body - the whole energy body - and this is connected to everything.
Duality is overcome during sexual union.
Now would be the time to explain who "Shiva" and "Shakti" are, what "duality" really means, and to describe the bliss that is possible when it is overcome. Of course, this is possible with meditation, but for the tantric, everything can be mediation. There are a lot of different methods. Tantra considers itself the science of connecting the microcosm of the individual to the macrocosm.
A complete description of tantric philosophy wouldn't fit in this article. Is the gentle reader now curious and eager to pursue this topic further? In tantra, the love of wisdom is certainly a trust in the wisdom of the body, but there are also plenty of topics to explore mentally."