Tantra: The Art of Living Fully

Meditate On This:

Tantrikas dance with bliss

Living life fully,

Skillfully,

As profound play.

Even the low points

Of the WAVE of life

Are held by the ocean of grace.

Katrina Ariel

Pure Bliss

There are many paths to ecstasy, just as intimacy has many forms.

There are also limitless experiences of enlightenment.

Both ecstasy and enlightenment are experiences of divine bliss, and can be found and expressed uniquely by each individual. When your consciousness merges with the whole Om, the vast existence of energy that is all One, bliss happens.

Tantra is a form of yoga; an approach and perspective that weaves threads of truth together. Tantric philosophy takes things that work from other systems of belief and being, fits them together, then steps back and asks “How can we enhance this? How can we improve our approach and make life more beautiful?”

Tantra honors relationship profoundly. The way you experience the outward world is through relationship with things that are other than yourself. The way you connect with the inner realms is by realizing that the external world, with all its difference, is none other than your Self. We are all unique expressions of one creative consciousness.

Saying Yes First

Living from a spacious perspective means you have more opportunity to recognize blessings.

When you see the big picture you worry less and smile more. It is easier to understand “why”, or at least just trust when you don’t understand.

Being connected to a higher awareness of consciousness helps you really, truly feel, without a doubt, that you are completely taken care of. And that certainty gives you enormous freedom.

As you live life, if you only see difference and your first instinct is to say “No”, it creates a narrow vision which hides much of your world from you.

However, when you first say “Yes”, view all your options, and then discern what will enhance your experience in a life affirming way, the full spectrum of living is available. Colors are brighter, laughter more frequent, beauty more apparent.

When you concentrate on the flow of energy, intention, method and action, the way you live and experience relationships of all kinds changes. You see the similarities between yourself and others more often, and even chance meetings are viewed with respect.

Shakti and Shiva

Because we’re human beings, and we like to organize things in order to understand them, it is helpful to think of different aspects of this one big energy as archetypes. The deities of Tantric Philosophy personify the contrasting complements that make up our world.

The creative feminine, the power that grows trees and blows the wind, she is Shakti.
The waves, the cliffs, the dance of breath within your divine body, she is Shakti.

The masculine consciousness, the vast spaciousness of the universe, he is Shiva.

The word Shiva literally means Auspicious. It describes the pure goodness inherent in all beings.

Shiva is the stainless sky while Shakti is the clouds. Shiva the light and Shakti the colors of the rainbow.
Shiva is the water of the ocean, Shakti the shape that contains it and dances within it as waves and lagoons.

Shiva pulses within the heart of everything while Shakti creates endless expressions of being.

Both can be wild. Both can be peace. Both can be joyful.

They are manifest in infinite ways.

Both are born of the one energy that cradles the universe in a loving palm.

From my Notes

In a training with Anusara® yoga’s founder, John Friend, I made the following notes and observations:

When you think of the two as Shiva-Shakti, it’s a complete concept of conscious energy. They are always connected. Even in relative world, nothing is isolated. All is connected.

Shiva – power to know => Chit – supreme unbounded power of consciousness.

Shakti – power of this consciousness. Dynamic, creative attribute. => Ananda – the highest, purest bliss.

Think of a river. The water is Shiva, the movement Shakti

Sat – Power to be. “it is”.

Chit – Power of consciousness. To know.

Ananda – Power of ecstasy itself.

Sadashiva

Sadashiva => sat and shiva. Goodness is.

This is the essence of being. The feeling of pure being. You can actually learn to live with this truth in your heart.

Living from this perspective is perhaps the fastest way to happiness.

Goodness is. Sadashiva.

It is this goodness that pulsates with the will to create. It says “I have to move, to be, to dance, to become.”

What is Tantra?

Tantra is finding what is right for you.

It’s saying yes to life in order to see all your options, and it is using balanced discernment to define your choices. Once you’ve said yes, you can then decide which things to say no to.

Tantra believes deeply that there is one big energy which, out of its own free will, has chosen to become YOU. This consciousness of unlimited potential creates infinite possibilities.

There is no end to the power that exists within you, through you – within and through everything. And there is no end to the happiness and freedom you can experience when you live skillfully in awareness with it.

Tantra teaches and describes ways to connect with the source, and enjoy being an embodied creative expression of God.