According to tantra, sexual life has a threefold purpose. Some practice
it for procreation, others for pleasure, but the tantric yogi practices it for
samadhi. He does not hold any negative views about it. He does it as a part of
his sadhana. But, at the same time, he realizes that for spiritual purposes,
the experience must be maintained. Ordinarily this experience is lost before
one is able to deepen it. By mastering certain techniques, however, this
experience can become continuous even in daily life. Then the silent centres of
the brain are awakened and start to function all the time. – Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Maithuna is a tantric term for a particular spiritual
practice or sadhana which involves the union of masculine and feminine
principles. The masculine principle is
consciousness and the feminine is creative energy. The universe of our experience is created
through the interplay of these two.
Neither can exist without the other.
If we consider our experience we find that we are always enjoying the
alternations of pairs of opposites: day and night, hot and cold, male and
female, happiness and sorrow, pain and pleasure, birth and death. Our home is unaltered peace and joy but we
entered this world of experience for other reasons.
When the two poles of consciousness (Shiva) and energy
(Shakti) are in balance we experience absolute bliss, love and deep peace. This state is referred to as samadhi in
yoga. It is the state of spiritual union
beyond ego. Amazingly enough Tantra says
we can enter this state through one of our favorite activities: sex. As the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra tells us, “When
you practice a sex ritual, let thought reside in the quivering of your senses
like wind in the leaves, and reach the celestial bliss of ecstatic love.”
Ordinarily sex is problematic for us. As ego-beings we feel ourselves driven by our
libidos. Religion has conditioned us to
feel that sexual pleasure is wrong and sinful.
Tantra is a spiritual philosophy and methodology which is beyond
religion. Tantra does not believe in
judgment, sin in the ordinary sense, or some antagonistic relationship between
spirit and nature. Every aspect of
experience is sacred. Everything and
everyone is an expression of divine consciousness. It is our job to realize this within and
through every experience of our lives.
The violence, violation and pain inflicted within our world is a
reflection of ignorance. Fear, guilt,
jealousy and resentment are reflections of ignorance.
Most of us have been lead to believe that love is some
mixture of sexual desire and emotional attachment. Tantra says that we can rise above these
through the power of awareness, of nonattachment. Nonattachment means that we can observe our
physical, emotional and mental states without judgment or identification. Whatever we experience on these levels is
temporary. Our essential Self is the
ever-present observer. However this
inner divine presence observes with unconditional love and compassion. We enter this world of form through the act
of procreation. Tantra says we can
liberate ourselves through the same act.
“We rise by that by which we fall.”
Maithuna is the name of a specific Tantic ritual which
includes sexual intercourse on either a literal or virtual level. It is a ritual of offering and surrender
which includes offering the five elements of our existence to the Divine
within. The five elements (tattwas) are
earth (pritvi), water (apas), fire (agni), air (vayu), and ether (akasha). Earth is the solid aspect of material experience,
water the liquid, fire the thermal, air the gaseous, and ether is the
zero-point field. So symbolically the
ritual involves sacrificing every material aspect of our beings, from gross to
subtle, to the formless absolute within.
In the ritual these elements are represented by various
aspects of the performance. As Swami
Satyananda says, “The five tattwas, or elements, of tantra are madya (wine),
mansa (flesh), maithuna (sexual union), mantra (the chanting of stanzas,
scriptures, or psychic sounds) and mudra (practices like shambhavi mudra,
yogamudra, etc.). If you have been to church during the communion, you will
have seen the flesh, the wine and the chanting of scriptures. It is a tantric
practice.” (Very few Catholics realize
the true origins of the Mass.)
Celibate yogis are said to internalize this whole process
(and we are not talking about masturbation.)
It is a union of the feminine and masculine energies within out
body-minds. However many of us feel the
need to connect with another on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual
level. However this takes discipline,
patience and karmic fortune. The first
thing is to find a suitable partner. The
next is to be involved in a mutual practice of yogic discipline. You cannot practice Tantra without yogic
training. Otherwise everyone who got
drunk, ate meat and had sex would be enlightened. Somehow this doesn’t seem to be the case.
"Maintain the fire and avoid the ashes."
