TANTRA
We must understand that in order to move forward on the path, we need to be open. We don’t reject life, or say “no” to life. We open our self up to become more inclusive to Sex (Physical), Love (Astral), Prayer (Causal), and Transcendence (pure Consciousness). Tantra is the awareness and surrender to the harmony of the Divine impulse, as it flows from formless to form, and is the dance between form and formless.
Sex: We don’t say ‘no’ to sex, but rather we add love. Sex is when we are trying to get our own needs met, when we are only concerned about our self.
Love: Love is when our thoughts and feelings are concerned with others. We aren’t concerned only with our self, but also with other people. When we add love, it doesn’t mean we give up sex, or stop taking care of our body, or stop eating properly, or stop doing the things that are beneficial for the body. It doesn’t mean we stop enjoying the senses. Adding love simply means we now think of others first.
Prayer: We then add Prayer…we begin to identify with, and appreciate, Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram in both form and essence. We begin to harmonize with the Divine Will. We begin to understand how this unique Soul is part of the wholistic wave, or God Consciousness, and how we fulfill our dharma or purpose. Now we have gone beyond just Sex and Love and have included Prayer, or what is beneficial for others in our thoughts and actions, but it doesn’t mean we no longer have sex or love. It means that we have added a higher or greater awareness that is more inclusive. Once we realize we are created in the image of God and begin to experience it, we find that the creation, within the Mayac sheath or cosmic play, is delightful, beautiful, and enjoyable, yet there will still be times we want more. We will want more than to be eternally busy, eternally active, so we will also want peace. This is when we will seek transcendence, which is beyond prayer, love, and sex.
Transcendence: Transcendence is the direct experience of God the Absolute that is without form or activity. This is where freedom or liberation truly begins. When we realize our nature is Satyam (eternal love), Satyam without the need for any other person or activity or anything, this liberates us. First, it liberates us from the idea of incompletion and the idea of separation. These ideas of incompleteness and separation always have us seeking someone or something outside of our self to complete us, to help us feel connected. Ironically, as long as we are seeking fulfillment, connection, or a sense of fitting in externally, we will never attain those things. The realization of our nature as Satyam then also liberates us into the continuous experience of Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram. This is the meaning of the poem it is better to call out to Divine Mother in your aloneness than to seek shelter in someone else’s arms. It is better to call out to the God Consciousness to try to experience this Satyam Consciousness. Once we do this, freedom begins and we are now on the path to ecstasy, and joy, and ultimately liberation.
Now that we have the Satyam, have experienced God that always has been, is now, and forever shall be, we come back, and realize it is also our nature. This state of pure Satyam is the greatest ecstasy, the greatest joy we can ever have. As we come back out to our unique Soul or self, we come under the influence of the idea of separateness again. This idea of separateness, or the Mayac sheath, allows us to see the dualistic nature of the creation. We can call it the cosmic play and delight in it, but there may also be the feeling of two again. We realize that in reality there is only God, but we have accepted the illusion that we are separate again, and the ecstasy is not there. However, we also realize that we can still experience joy and delight in the creation. There is the absolute God Consciousness without form (ecstasy), and then there is the absolute God Consciousness with form (bliss), manifested all the way through the creation (joy and delight).
As we come back out from Transcendence, we come out to Prayer. Now we have appreciation or thankfulness. We see divinity, the Om Satyam, Om Shivam everywhere. We see that everything is made up of the Om Satyam, because it is the very nature of creation. Seeing this, we strive to see the harmony and appreciate life. Then we come back down to the spirit body or Astral, and we add the senses. Now we have the joy and delight of the five senses, and we can enjoy the pleasure of them. Finally, we come all the way back to the Physical, knowing that it is the most limited form of Satyam Consciousness, but still we can enjoy our life when we identify with our Wholistic nature.
Samadhi is when we experience Satyam, or God Consciousness (without form) in our meditation. Then we come back into the cosmic play and fulfill our interests, desires, or the dharma of the Soul, the expression of God through the creation of the unique Soul. This is the Royal Path, a complete inhalation and a complete exhalation. We do all we can to be in harmony, to enjoy, delight, and work to be a pure, healthy, and happy vibration while on earth.
This is also the process of Tantra—Sex, Love, Prayer, Transcendence, and Transcendence, Prayer, Love, Sex. It is incomplete if you only go upward, or only inhale. To make it complete is to come back outward with bliss-bestowing hands, with joy, delight, selfless service, and compassion. This becomes the goal of living. The Soul once born, lives forever, on a daily basis of inhalation and exhalation, and on an incarnation basis of inhalation and exhalation, and including a creative day of manifesting out and then back to a creative night of absolute peace, and also beyond, depending on how large our vision is of the inhalation and the exhalation. How much we will enjoy and delight in life depends on how large our vision, our understanding, how much harmony we have, and how much love we feel.
