People living in Western Europe and North America have long been fascinated with foreign cultures, beliefs and traditions that are so different from their own. The group of traditions coming from the Far East that have caught the interest of Western people includes Yoga, Buddhism and Tantra. From the Middle East, the Western world has taken the Kabala movement and a lot of Arab architecture influences, while the African continent gave us sculpture and painting. In this article we are going to see what Tantra is and why so many people are interested in this ancient and exotic practice that is so far from the Western ideas.

Tantra is not just one well-defined tradition, but the name itself should be seen as an umbrella term for several esoteric traditions whose origins go a long way back in time. In various forms, Tantra has spread across India, China, Japan, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Korea, Cambodia and Indonesia. In these lands, the Tantric principles were incorporated in the local customs and modified to suit the tastes and needs of each new group of practitioners. The Tantra myths themselves offer no clues to their origins, since they tend to focus on the usual mythical explanations.

The earliest forms of Tantra were private esoteric practices that had more to do with rituals and certain special ways of doing things than with a full blown religion. In a nutshell, Tantra is a different way of achieving the same goal of spiritual enlightenment and self-realization. This is the ultimate goal of Buddhist, Yoga and Hindu traditions, but Tantra aims to offer a shortcut to this goal by using different practices. However, Tantra has garnered a bad reputation both in the Eastern and Western worlds because of the incorporation and use of sex on the path to enlightenment.

Most people see Tantra as a way of getting more pleasure out of sex and don’t bother to look beyond the obvious. In a similar manner, many people practice Yoga as a way of flexing the muscles and fail to understand the deeper meaning and purpose of Yoga. The sexual rituals promoted by the Tantra gurus focus not on reaching orgasm, but on opening the soul to the experience of infinite awareness. These rituals are only meant for those that can separate themselves from this world and move beyond the basic emotions associated with sex. Thus, sexual pleasure has no place in the Tantric practices.

Basically, the ritual sex is meant to recreate the primordial intercourse between the gods Shiva and Shakti that resulted in the creation of the universe. The sexual embrace is supposed to bring the individuals to the level of gods and allow them to put aside their individuality for a while and become one with the divine consciousness that makes up the universe. Since those who practice Tantra believe that everything in the universe is a manifestation of the divine, it follows that sex too is a step on the path to master the mind. The entire ritual is supervised by a guru, whose presence is considered to be crucial to the success of the two individuals who attempt it.