What is Tantric Yoga?
In the West, we often associate "tantrism" with a sexual practice that allows you to obtain a more intense pleasure or orgasm. If you hear "tantra" you immediately think "low sex" or even orgy.
But this unfortunately reduces this doctrine to very little and gives a simplistic image of reduced tantrism.
During the sexual liberation of the 60s and 70s, tantrism gave rise to so-called "neo-tantric" currents which gave rise to cultural divergences far from the spiritual path of tantrism. There are, in fact, schools which teach a ritualized and sacred sexuality, but they are confidential.
So what is “tantra”?
Tantras are, above all, texts. "Tan" means "to amplify", "to extend", "tras" in Sanskrit, texts. "Tantras" are therefore texts "that by which knowledge is extended". It is a "protean" path that crosses cultures, religions, going beyond Hinduism, Buddhism, and other traditions.
It aims at salvation, liberation and the realization of our true nature. It commits us to overcome our personal limitations, our identity.
The teaching of Tantra is based on the energy and joy of mental stillness
Indian tantric teachings were open to all, regardless of caste. But it took courage, determination, a hero. According to tantrism, everything is energy, and as such nothing is to be rejected. Negative energy can be changed into positive energy.
In tantrism, some rites included the sexual union "maithuna" which had as its sole purpose the annihilation of the self and the mental arrest in the same way that it was permitted to eat meat, fish and drink wine. These teachings were only transmitted to initiates. Some tantric practices were built around the woman, goddess and initiator.
Tantric Yoga
Among the Hindu tantric currents, there is a medieval current from Kashmir (in the north of India), dominated by the thought of the master Abhinavagupta, born 950 years before our era. It is often called Kashmir yoga. Lilian Silburn and Jean Klein are specialists in Kashmir Shaivism. They translated the texts and laid the foundations of tantric postural yoga.
The approach of Kashmir yoga is not based on the establishment of a pre-defined series, but is based on the art of listening. Listening to the psychosensory changes of the body subjected to the various situations of daily life.
It is an exploration of the body, of sensations that go against blockages and tensions. It is a pure listening to one's body that does not seek to create or transform anything. According to Eric Baret, disciple of Jean Klein, "Kashmir yoga places as much emphasis on the moments between poses as on the poses themselves."
What is a tantrika?
It is the one who aspires for all the moments of life to become situations of expansion of "spanda" consciousness.
