Tantric meditation is what first brought me to tantra. I’d been practicing yoga on and off for a number of years, inspired by the fact that my muscles were increasingly tight and forever pulling whenever I went for a run, but also to strengthen my back, which seemed to protest whenever I sat in a seat for too long.
I’d always been reasonably self-conscious and didn’t want to be the only man in the class, so I tended to avoid organised classes. Instead, most of my yoga was done in the privacy of my own home. So, when Covid hit, like most people, yoga seemed a safe go-to form of exercise, and I was soon doing an online class on a daily basis. But one thing always bothered me – the meditation practice that came at the end of every class.
No matter what I tried I couldn’t quieten my thoughts or empty my mind. The temptation was to dismiss the meditation part altogether, but whenever I researched yoga and meditation everything told me that the whole purpose of a yoga routine was to improve your meditative practice. It got to the stage where I felt as though I was failing at yoga because I didn't know how to meditate.
So, I did some more research. And I discovered that most of what we understand as meditation in the modern western world is a Buddhist form of meditation, focusing on transcendence and the attainment of an empty mind. But the form of yoga most of us practice descends from an Indian tantric tradition, and tantric meditation is not about transcendence, it’s about transformation. It’s about feeling your own inner source of energy and recognising it as something universal and omnipresent, something that fills and surrounds you, something that binds and connects you to everything that exists: to experience unity. Importantly (for me at least), tantric meditation is far more active than the kind of transcendental meditation that is often taught.
To understand the tantric meditative approach, you need to consider the tantric concept of time. Within tantra (or at least, the dominant traditions of tantra), time is constantly being re-absorbed and recreated in a cyclical process. Whilst we may be aware of an experienced past and a potential future, the only true reality, the only place where we can experience union with the divine, is the present.
Consequently, any thoughts that remove us from the present are distractions. They prevent us from achieving an awareness of true reality. These thoughts can be categorised as future oriented or past oriented. Future oriented thoughts manifest as fantasy or anxiety, whilst past oriented thoughts are manifested as nostalgia or remorse. To escape these distractions, we should aim to ground ourselves in the present through the use of sensory techniques, i.e., sight (visualisation, yantra meditation, open-eyed meditation), sound (mantra recitation), or touch.
But in order to experience union with something bigger than ourselves – something that exists both inside and outside of our physical bodies – we need to connect with our inner source of universal energy, our Kundalini Shakti. The tantras contain innumerable meditative techniques that can be used to raise our awareness of kundalini, but a couple of examples might serve to demonstrate the underlying themes:
One method would be to identify something that elicits pleasure or delight and then, rather than focusing on the source of the pleasure, meditate on the sensation of pleasure itself. By doing so, you are shifting your focus onto the essence of kundalini, a deep abiding spring of blissful pleasure that exists independently of any external source.
Another method is to meditate on something external and try to incorporate this into your sense of self. This can be done through visualisation and breathing exercises – for example, imagine the object surrounded by light, as you inhale the light collapses, consuming the object, and you breath it into yourself. As you exhale, the same light beams forth from your heart and recreates the object. This mirrors the tantric cycle of time and encourages you to recognise universality in all things.
A further technique is to meditate on the sensation of union itself; some tantras recommend visualising a sexual consort. However, these visualised consorts are usually revered deities, so if you intend to emulate this particular technique it is worth considering how you would visualise a deity that is relevant to you. Whilst this technique helps practitioners to imagine themselves conjoined with the divine, sexual rituals are also representative of the cycle of time: the generation of sexual energy represents creation; stasis is achieved by retaining the energy; moving sexual energy throughout the body represents the re-absorption of energy; and finally, allowing your kundalini shakti (your energy, your ever present inner power) to unite with consciousness presents the opportunity for revelation.
Breathing exercises can also be used to awaken kundalini, and these sensory techniques can be combined with a pattern of breath that also simulates the cycle of time and encourages us to focus on the present – inhalation (reabsorption), retention of breath (stasis), exhalation (creation) and emptiness (providing space for revelation or concealment).
So, tantric meditation uses sensory techniques to focus on the true reality of the present and to raise kundalini so that we can experience a sensation of unity with ourselves, with the universal Self and with the selves of others.
Although I occasionally incorporate different techniques (visualisation, mantra recitation etc.) into my meditation, the technique I first used – and the one that brought me into tantra – is the one I still use most often today. It involves a combination of touch (start with your energy centres and then be guided by your body) with conscious breathing. The touch helps to ground me in the present whilst the breathing exercise is used to awaken kundalini, visualising the circulation of breath and energy through my body to a point at the crown of my head. Whenever I feel pleasure, I focus my attention on the sensation and allow it to grow and spread throughout my body, riding on the flow of energy.
The effect of this method when I first practiced it changed the course of my life, and whilst I don’t always enjoy the same liberating sense of union, I am always reminded that there is more to my self – and by implication, our world, our universe and all our selves – than I ever previously realised or even knew was possible.
When I get the opportunity, I make my meditation eco-tantric by taking it outdoors and using the sights and sounds of nature to ground me in the present. If you want to give it a try, remember to share your experiences here or in the gallery.
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