Explaining what tantra is, is like explaining what love is. Not so easy. Because tantra is something to be lived, to be experienced.

My experience

So let me start of by sharing a bit of my experience with you. What I love about tantra is that it is very holistic. Holistic means dealing with the whole of someone and not just a part.

Before really getting into tantra, I was practicing and teaching a lot of yoga. And although I still love yoga too, it never really felt like a ‘complete’ practice to me. When I decided to dive into the world of tantra, I understood what I had been missing. Tantra doesn’t exclude any part of me, tantra includes all of me.

Suddenly ALL of me was welcome. My anger, my sadness, my playfulness, my animal side, my fears, my joy, my busy mind, my sensuality, my sexuality – everything. Before I was fighting with a lot of these aspects of myself. Fighting with everything that isn’t me in my essence, fighting with my humanness. I thought that was the way to enlightenment.

I discovered the opposite is true. The key is not fighting – it is fully embracing and living all aspects of myself, but with awareness! Consciously.

By doing this, I started experiencing more freedom, more aliveness and more love -for myself, for others and for life- than ever. I started having experiences I didn’t even know were possible for a ‘simple human being’ like myself. By consciously living all of me, I’ve gotten to the deepest spiritual experiences.

Our body and our whole being is hardwired for bliss! Trust me. Or even better: find out for yourself!

Tantra consists of active meditations, silent meditations, body work, expressing emotions, massages, dancing, raising our sexual energy (kundalini energy), rituals and so on.

The origins of Tantra

Tantra has been around for a long time – thousands and thousands of years. Just like yoga, it comes from India. Tantra is a Sanskrit word and can have different meanings. It is often translated as ‘to weave’ or ‘to transform through methods’.

There’s a third meaning, which is my favorite: ‘to transform poison into nectar’. Because tantra transform you on all levels. On a mental plane tantra can bring you from a state of restlessness to a state of no-mind. On a physical level it can take you from tensions to relaxation. On an emotional level it can transform all of your suffering into love. And on a spiritual level it brings you from duality to Oneness.

Have you ever heard of The Book of Secrets? It’s my personal “tantra bible” 😉  It’s quite a read, with over 1100 pages! In this beautiful book Osho comments on one of the most essential tantric texts, the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. It consists of 112 different meditation techniques.