What is the Purpose of Tantra?

Maybe you read on a lot about sexuality, but how many of you know that Tantra is much more than sex? It's much more than Kama Sutra, and even more than sexual continence. Yes, it uses sex, but this is just a means to an end.

This purpose can be confusing for you right now... In Christianity we call it the salvation of the soul. In Zen it's name is Satori, in yoga it's SAMADHI and in Buddhism we call it Nirvana. No matter how we name it, in the end it's the same thing. It is written in the Holy Book that we all have a spark of God inside us. Tantra believes that your spirit is of the same essence with God, pure happiness, infinite knowledge and immortality. It sustains that SPIRIT is above pain, illness and suffering, immune to all the limits of the human personality.

By achieving the goal of SPIRITUAL LIBERATION the tantric becomes an all powerful being. There is no limit to what he can do, but not everything is permitted. Even in spiritual liberation there are laws that must be followed - the universal laws of love, compassion and harmony.

However, a spiritually liberated person enjoys a much greater freedom than the other people because he is no longer limited by ignorance, lack of power and he's happiness is not conditioned by anything exterior (and for women is the same). How many times didn't you say : First, I must get a car and THEN, I'll really be happy. I have to strive to become rich and THEN I will become happy. By contrast, all the LIBERATED people find a supreme happiness INSIDE themselves and in their permanent union with the Absolute, a happiness much more real and intense than what we usually feel in the day to day life. In fact this state is so different that we can call it by another name : DIVINE ECSTASY.

Patanjali, an ancient yoga master said "For the sage, everything in THIS world is suffering and pain". But he is not the first one and not the last one to notice the universal suffering. Buddha himself said "Everything is pain, everything is ephemeral (in our physical world)". The human experience, whichever it is, creates suffering. But this universal pain does not lead to a pessimistic philosophy. No Indian philosophy fails into desperation and negativism. The universal suffering has a positive value, it stimulates the aspiration to reach the ultimate freedom. It is true that the suffering is universal but it is not eternal too.

The aim of every spiritual path is to free us from suffering. Tantra does this by a gradual EXPANSION of the field OF CONSCIOUSNESS. It is a process that involves a profound purification of the body and the aura and the mind. The physical and subtle bodies of a Tantric are as pure as a diamond, as sharp as a lightning (Vajra).

We will use an example : let's say that you are in love and you tried hard to make your loved one respond to you with the same feelings. It was difficult and it took a lot of time... But today it finally happened! she told you she is in love with you. How do you feel ? Don't you want to run and tell everyone how happy you are ? Don't you feel like flying ? Could you now see anything ugly or bad around you ? Of course you can't. You are on the top of the world, nothing can touch you! Now try to multiply this feeling ten times, a thousand times, a million times, and you will barely begin to grasp the feeling of having your CONSCIOUSNESS EXPANDED into the infinite.

It is all about perspective. The goal of Tantra is the ultimate happiness, a feeling so powerful that if you would feel it right now you might not be able to bear its intensity, it would be like running thousands of volts through a light bulb. This divine state is what we're meditating on, this is what we seek.

It takes a special kind of people to seek this goal. Not anyone off the street (and we can add, not everyone off the net) can be genuinely interested in this high goal. An old tantric maxim says : "Many are called but few will succeed". The actual society has perverted the religious message to such a point that many good intentioned and moral people don't want to have anything to do with religion because it fails to address the mind as well as it addresses the soul.

Tantra on the other hand is a practice reserved to the few, it was a secret kept by few people for thousands of years, it didn't decay over the time. Tantra is not a religion, it is more like a spiritual philosophy doubled by a set of very efficient practices and techniques. You need not be an Indian to practice Tantra. I, myself, am not an Indian and my tantric teacher is not an Indian. In fact we are Christians and I got to be much more close to my own religion after I studied the spirituality of Tantra. By studying one I can understand the other better.

Tantra does not require you to believe in its statements without judging - Tantra doesn't need people who cannot judge a certain affirmation with their own minds. I invite all who are open minded to try it without any preconceived ideas, give it a chance to work, and you will be convinced on yourself of its efficiency in a short time.

So, if you think you got what it takes to embark into this journey, stick with us and we'll show you how far can you go.

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