Advaita, Vedanta, Non-Dualism and Transcendence

Advaita, Advaita-Vedanta, Non-Dualism and Transcendence

To put it in language as normal as I can, a strange thing happened to me a dozen or so years ago.

I have seldom referred to the experience directly, and when I do, I haven’t called it “enlightenment”, “transcendence” or “God-consciousness”.

I have called it my “weirdness”, I sometimes say “since my normal life ended”. I call it a “big satori”, which in the language of this school means an experience-affecting insight that happens to be lasting unusually long, but could end at any moment. Sometimes, just to help those around me to not take it (and therefore me) too seriously, I call it my “brain tumour”.

The most direct I have been in talks and my writing is saying that I have reached a point of my tantra at which I am no longer driven by eroticism.

The most direct telling of my experience is in The Rocky Horror Tantra Book, chapter 9. 

It has now been a dozen years that I have had the constant tingle of satori, and that nothing I have done to end it (and I have tried) seems to have reduced it appreciably. Certainly fever, persistent pain, lack of food and shortage of sleep affect the mechanics, the functioning of my body and mind, but the change that occurred in me is, if anything, strengthened at such times.

When this strange thing happened, I was glad of the preparation I had, little though it was. 

Although, to my very bones, I could feel the completeness of it and suspected its irreversibility, strong spiritual/meditational experiences and insights had been an almost daily occurrence for over a year, so it was awesome and shattering, but not entirely unfamiliar.

My own learning had often been from people who had had the strong insight of satori – they had glimpsed an aspect of truth. Communicating that insight was the whole of their true and useful teaching. When they interpolated from their understanding, the usefulness of their teaching declined dramatically. Not knowing how long my satori would last, I did not explode into expression of it. I kept it very much to myself, and went into the world as what I had been: Swami Advait-Rahasya, a sannyasin (disciple) of my last Master, and the only one I actually submitted to in any worthwhile sense of the word, Osho, previously called Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Osho was a truly remarkable teacher. His discourses pointed to valuable spiritual practices and knowledge. He opened areas of enquiry and exploration – he did not provide “answers”. He questioned answers rather than answering questions. 

Some of his discourses revealed the territory beyond enlightenment. The Indian world is old enough that enlightenment is not as strange a phenomena there as elsewhere. It has been studied much, and some guidelines around mature spiritual expression exist. Fortunately, I had been listening. 

So, I knew that even if this experience had some duration, even permanence, that the common wisdom was that it could easily take 10 years just to get used to the new way of being and its implications.

I also knew that, even though I now had an unusual capability or two, showing these off to interest people in the path is generally counter-productive (because those who are enthralled by such tricks make truly terrible students).

I resolved to simply get on with living, meeting what life presents me with …

And life presented me with students. The students learned and came into their expression as teachers in their own right – and not just any teachers. They matured into Dakinis. Dakinis are women in the fullness of their spiritual and sexual powers who can and do use their capabilities to guide and teach others the lessons of Tantra. They are extremely rare and are generally very hard to find indeed. Before these, I had just once met just one, in India. She was retired from teaching and had no idea whatsoever about where or how to find another.

Strictly speaking, the disciplines, practices and approaches of Tantra with a big “T” can only be taught to those thoroughly prepared through the Yogas (study and practice) of the body, the mind and of higher (as in ultimately true, not just useful) philosophy.

These Dakinis appreciated the historic tendency to secrecy – they had experienced the judgements of culture and family – but altogether were of the attitude that this teaching can be more available and less secret.

Since then, they and I have been involved in the chaotic melee of tantra as practiced and taught in the world. 

A Dakini wrote a book which was described by another Dakini as “The first four years with Rahasya”, I wrote The Rocky Horror Tantra Book, to fill in the things other tantra books don’t mention and to make it clear that this is a tough path for seekers of intent, not a gentle, friendly path for happy bliss-bunnies.

We have poked fun at the more indulgent and silly teachers, we have participated in several international conferences …

… and, above all we have taught – in the formats of individual sessions, groups, workshops and residential retreats.

Over time, we have taken on the biggest challenge of such teaching: “How far down the mountain can you go?”

Many teachers, particularly those in the non-dual/advaita territory, make no attempt to reach people where they are. They sit atop their highest understanding and basically tell you that, if you could think as they do you would experience what they experience. They are useful to those who are truly ready for pinnacle-understandings and are not much use to those who need learning and preparation.

Likewise, at the beginning, I was only available to teach those few who had already developed the capacity, capability and will for the meditations of tantra and the rigours of philosophy.

They, likewise, were at first only available to students of good development. We sent people to other teachers when it looked like they needed particular lessons of physicality, mind-training or philosophical development as preparation for their tantra.

Step by step, we took on the challenge. One major step was developing and teaching our touch-work. One Dakini volunteered to be the headmistress (yes, she does not like me calling her that) of our touch school. 

Not an easy step, that. On the one hand, because a few aspects of touch work are pretty much all that is called “tantra” out there, we had been reflexively referring anyone looking for such work to other practitioners. We had to loose the snooty “That is not the work of a Dakini” attitude, even though, yes, it is not the work of a Dakini.

The decision to “go down the mountain” to the territory of touch work was, for me motivated by what it can teach the practitioner (Yogini-adept). Sure, it is useful, even healing, work, and I do care for those who need that … but I care much more for the women I work with, and, for them, doing touch-work is a rapid learning/discovery of their mastery of masculine energy (a vital part of their journey).

The next step was into the tricky territory of erotic work, which is about getting over the tendency of the mind to overlay (particularly sexual) experiences with fantasy. Most people use the lover as a prop to enhance, confirm or develop a fantasy … not optimal for making your sexuality your meditation.

It is time now for another step, this into the territory of mind-training, which, when it comes to Tantra, means the study of the highest of philosophies: Advaita. 

Advaita means “not two” in literal translation. Synonyms are: undivided, indivisible, non-dual.

It starts, like all philosophies, with its axioms – that which it takes to be true, from which careful interpolation is hoped to remain true. To minimise the axioms and keep things really clear, Advaita has just one axiom:

All which appears as opposites are polar expressions of an indivisible thing.

Let’s break that down to terms and get accurate.

“All which appears as …”

Pat Grove, a generally unacknowledged pioneer in the motivational/personal growth/coaching arena was my first teacher in these things. He told me:

"What is, is and what isn’t, isn’t."

We do not need to discuss that which does not appear, “appear” meaning that which we perceive and that which we theoretically could perceive – everything that affects or could ever affect us or anything we observe in even the slightest way.

Hence, in Advaita, we do not, cannot and won’t discuss that which isn’t … because it isn’t. 

In mathematical language, this means that we completely discard the notion of zero as an actual (worth putting in a calculation) number instead of what it originally was created to be – a marker of a blank space in numbers that exceed the base used. (More about this and other implications of Advaita for mathematics will be linked here when written.)

So, the statement of Advaita only applies to “what is”, in other words, absolutely everything.

Absolutely everything? … Well … almost absolutely. The one thing that Advaita cannot shine any light on is itself – why it should be so, and what the nature of the “one” from which all arises actually is.

On to the next term:
" … opposites are polar expressions …"

Our senses report, for example warmth and coolness. They feel different, we have different names for them and less of one generally seems to be equivalent to more of the other. A measure, a quantity of one thing (in this case energy) is what is being experienced. In other words, heat and cold are actually one thing, which we call, for now, "temperature", but which is, more accurately, speed. One phenomenon, two experiences/expressions/polarities that we classify as opposite.

A corollary which traditional (and again, except for really, really traditional) teaching tends to miss is that a thing, once expressed, can never become or be experienced entirely as one of those expressions alone. There will always, in mathematical language, be a minima of one polar expression within a maxima of the other. Absolute cold and absolute heat will always be unattainable. There will always be a minima of heat within a Maxima of cold – and – a minima of cold within even Maximal heat.

This is hopefully clarified by the end of the statement we are examining:
"… of an indivisible thing."

An indivisible thing, expressed/experienced as two things can never be completely expressed as either. If it could do so, it would no longer be what it originally was. It would have become entirely one end of itself, just one end of a polarity.

What is, is and what is persists. Once expressed as a polarity, a (the) thing cannot express as either polarity exclusively or entirely.

This is similar to the ideas Science has around the persistence/conservation of matter, energy and more recently, information (persistence of the potentially knowable/measurable/discoverable). It also echoes the old magical rule of that which has been created being impossible to un-create.

The Philosopher's TOEs

All philosophies are “Theories Of Everything”. Ideas describing just a “something” are not philosophies, they are theories or notions.

Advaita is perhaps the ultimate Theory of Everything. More correctly, it is a Theory of (Everything-1). The one thing it cannot describe is itself, the indivisible and undivided oneness.  No theory could explain absolutely everything and no cockamamie notion is absolutely incorrect in absolutely every situation. 

All explanations of the world need a miraculous starting point. The Abrahamic religions require an anthropomorphic God in the sky, managing every little thing personally and getting grumpy with people who don’t proclaim their adoration for Him regularly. Modern physics requires an undefinable singularity, operating by laws we see paralleled nowhere in nature, giving us all the complex features of existence in what, at its time was mockingly called a “big bang”.  (More about this and other implications of Advaita for big and small physics will be linked here when written.)

The irreducible mystery that Advaita cannot describe, what we have to take for granted, is as minimal as possible. The mystery is that there is anything at all in the first place. The fact that we experience, and that there is something to be experienced – that there is indeed an “is” – is all that Advaita requires us to take, so to speak, on faith.

The proof of Advaita is the same as the proof for any philosophy or TOE – how well it describes our actual experience, experimentation, and knowledge that we are pretty certain of. Proof is of course not absolute, though the ongoing process of revelation/testing over time refines it.

So, I find myself in an unusual situation. On account of my weirdness (or brain tumour) Advaita, for me does not require proof.

Because it is the core of my experience, it is self-evident in my every moment. I find it filling in the gaps which appear between the currently fragmented parts of what was once called Natural Philosophy.  I find it applicable to any area of life I care to examine, from the fine structure of the universe to the mathematics of banking and the mystery of death. This does not require effort, just the willingness on my part to let “it” do the explaining.

I don’t like duplicating the work of others. When someone teaches something to my satisfaction in a particular area, I far prefer to refer to their teaching than to reinvent wheels. That said, I am not very satisfied with some of the current expressions of Advaita in the world, nor do I find the old-school “Advaita Vedanta” styles of teaching very applicable or useful in the way they are currently taught.

So this is not going to be “connect to my essence in silence while I immerse myself in my intrinsic blissfulness and occasionally mutter profundities about how profound my experience is”. For that, I recommend John de Ruiter.

Neither is it going to be “think as I think, accept these ideas and be freed from your worldly pains and concerns”. For that, see Tolle.

I am also not going to be exploring the philosophy in the mode of: “Your happiness and unhappiness are one phenomena. The difference is the choice you make, so you can choose to rather be happy, doesn’t that make you happy now?” For that, with awesome cool and a great Jamaican accent, see Mooji.

Finally, I am not going to recommend repeated inquiry into the question “Who or what am I?”. I can’t recommend a teacher for that approach. The last great one I know of died recently. 

Don’t get me wrong. I do not dislike these expressions and teachings. Silence is the ultimate honesty, right-thinking is very useful, Mooji’s expression of Advaita is gorgeous and the quest for our true nature is the very essence of the path. Just … this is not going to be an exercise in duplication or reframing those teachings.

My silence is for those who choose to be close enough to share it. My expression of Advaita is going to be in a non-traditional (unless you count really, really old tradition) mode of applying the philosophy to questions and puzzles of the “world of phenomena” – in regular language, the world that lies behind our individual experiences of it.

I have been writing and researching mightily for the last couple of months. It looks like humanity has a pretty near complete understanding of the components of existence. Just, like a jigsaw, some pieces of knowledge need a little wiggling to make them fit and, like making a patchwork quilt, some areas of understanding need stitching together. 

For the next few months, I will be using Advaita and related understandings to explore several aspects of existence on this blog. Pencilled are: Advaita and perception; Advaita, the quantum and relativity; Advaita and information theory; Advaita as a personal philosophy, Advaita and emotional experience …

I have (thanks, like everything I have, to the generosity of a beloved student) an awesome laptop with camera. I also have, thanks to having pioneered the field, some skills with illustration. I will be doing drawings and shooting video clips as I go along. Whatever gets too deep for blog articles (and some of it is far too deep) I will assemble into an online course for those who want to approach the madness that has always been associated with (effective) studies of the ultimate.

For some of you, this is going to be weird because it is going to involve much science, some informative (and not necessarily pretty) graphics, some mathematics and references to technology (which is the actually proven to work end of science). For others, and especially for those who might find their way here on account of the maths and physics, it is going to be weird because I will be referring to some very ancient ideas, quoting sainted philosophers and may even use pretty images of sacred geometry. I can promise you all though, that there will be no unicorns. Rainbows … maybe.

I think it is going to be fun, and do feel free to suggest topics you would like to see Advaita applied to – in comments here or at the school Facebook group.

Love, as always, however it looks.

R

Disproportionate Feelings

Disproportionate Feelings

"You ... overreacted ?"

Every now and then for most of us, and pretty much all the time for tantrikas, life brings experiences that look scary and hard to face.

Some of these things are just that – scary. Hard to face.

Some of these things, though, perhaps most of them, are, when you take a broader look at them, a bit puzzling. They do not look as if they should be all that hard or scary, but the feelings that arise in response to them indicate great scariness. Crushing hardness …

For example, if I am dawdling across the road, paying deep attention to something happening on my smartphone, the pounding heart and sudden sweat that I feel after a car has hooted while swerving around me is more or less proportionate to the event.

If, however, I feel similar feelings when noticing who is dancing with my beloved, or find myself taking a game of go far, far too seriously … the feelings that arise in me could perhaps be said to be disproportionate to the situation.

The normal habit of normal people, of course, is to react to disproportionate feelings and the situations in which they occur in the normal way – disproportionately. The art of motivating people by the use of symbols and slogans which provoke disproportionate feelings is called "government". All perfectly good for normal people.

For tantrikas and others with a brave approach to living though, disproportionate feelings and the things that provoke them are worth deeper examination.

The End of The World

The end of the world

It seems that the world has been about to end for a very long time.

So far, of course, it has not happened. The aftermath can be awkward for those who have maxed their borrowings and celebrated in style. It can require some clever explaining of the cancellation or postponement of the last days.

1666, 1844, 1977, and 1994 saw predictions from the Christian world come and go. Science had its turn with the Y2K non-event. For the last dozen years or so, almost every alternate spirituality has been looking to 2012.

Predictions for 2012 so far have ranged from devastating weather phenomena to food wars in the wake of a financial crisis. As 2012 approached, predictions got more esoteric and less physical. Less the Earth Changes scale of disaster and more the spiritual transcendence of all beings kind of consciousness shift.

How to make love to a woman tantra style

Dakini Shima offers profound and unusual guidance on how to make love to a woman. Click on the youtube link. How to make love to a woman

Dakinis, Yoginis, Touch and Tantra

In response to recent questions about our different kinds of sessions work:

Yoginis (touch work practitioners) work, at first, with the authority of the school, using techniques taught to them by Dakini Wendy, Yogini Annwen and me. In this structure, their own teaching arises. When they are teaching completely from their own authority, they have embodied the secrets of Tantra and we call them Dakinis.

Dakinis work with addressing all obstacles to awareness and direct transmission of the experiential lessons of Tantra. Addressing all areas of life in which obstacles occur requires a mastery of physicality, mind training, strategy,erotic work, relationship patterns and meditation. Their sessions work is as varied as the needs (not wants!) of their students.

Dakinis also provide guidance, in the sense of holding an overview, of their more sincere students. They also guide those inclined to devotion. They refer these students to touch practitioners when appropriate, and students who do well with the lessons of touch work get referred to Dakinis and me by Yoginis if it looks like their Tantra is something they feel strongly about.

These divisions - descriptions and titles - we use are at best a rough guide to categorisation of our work. They describe the general tendencies, how it generally looks. Also, the general style of sessions.

Operation Goddess Temple

Open letter to the Maricopa County Attorney

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Dear William Montgomery

In response to your “Operation Goddess Temple”.

In September 2011 Temples of Tantra in Phoenix and Sedona were defiled. Heavily armed storm troopers caused extensive damage to property and put many lives at risk. Several of the women arrested have told me of violent and sexually abusive conduct on the part of the militarily equipped fellows, the more normal-looking police men, court officials and prison authorities.

Yes and No? :a Seeker's Story

A short story by a student of our school...

The path was easy, worn well and traveled straight from point to point. Along the way I met happy people, each focused on their own journey, moving forward. The Spring morning was crisp and at sunup carried a magic with it that most people on the path didn’t seem to notice. It was a friendly road, people chatting or greeting each other. It was a safe path, a beautiful day and an easy slope. We all traveled the same direction, some of them ran while others walked, but I dawdled for the grass and the trees were too green not to notice. Along the path, set back a bit, was a shady forest, thick and dark. It was the sort of place stories might be told of.

Sexual Awakening for Women

Sexual Awakening for Women
a tantric workbook
By Shakti Mari Malan

Shakti is a truly remarkable woman. Before her initiation into tantra, she had a PhD in anthropology and her own successful consultancy in social sustainability.

By the time she met me, her spiritual life was every bit as well advanced as her career. She had been drawn to initiation in an African tradition and had already started her work of guiding women to a deeper understanding of themselves.

Shakti was one of my first initiates and rapidly gained the capacity, understanding and power that characterises a dakini truly worthy of the title.

Many men and many women have been initiated and guided by Shakti. She has visited much of the planet, meeting seekers in individual sessions and intensive residential retreats.

Her already immense contribution to complete-path tantra is now crowned by the release of “Sexual Awakening for Women”. A truly remarkable book.


Sexual Awakening for Women is available at advaittantra.com and shakti.co.za
Look inside the kindle edition at amazon.

Heart Meditation

Master Atisha said: As you breathe in, take in and accept all the sadness, pain, and negativity of the whole world, including yourself, and absorb it into your heart. As you breathe out, pour out all your joy and bliss; bless the whole of existence.


This technique was taught a thousand years ago by Master Atisha, and the technique itself is possibly a lot older. It is perhaps the centre of the spiritual discipline known in Tibet as Loojong .

Master Atisha had a particular of spiritual intrest: Speed and efficiency. Atisha was all about the most effective methods, most supportive attitudes and spiritual totality in general.

That's why his so concise description of this technique, quoted above, expresses the totality of this technique. The starting point, and the method were taught person to person. The text served as a reminder of the practice and a concise distillation of the full teaching.

This meditation is a key method for growing your heart centre and using it consciously. The core work of this school is the re-development of the Dakini's arts and practices, in ways appropriate to the world as it is now. This practice is one that we treasure as a glowing ember among the ashes of Ancient Tantra, which has contributed greatly to this school's fire, to the heart of this phoenix.

So, don't be daunted by Atisha's words, the scale of the aim he urges. If you're even just tasting, dabbling with the idea of Tantra perhaps being your path, just taste this, dabble with this too. Particularly if you get some knocks along with life's caresses.

Science vs Religion? Science is a religion.

Science is now a full fledged religion. Much of its proselytising has been based on its not being a 'religion' at all. Science claims to be a rational, logical approach to investigating existence.

The early scientists, like the early christians before them were persecuted. Their teachings were demonised and their morality was considered suspect. Over time, the new way gradually replaced the old.

As was the case with early christianity many priests of the new religion hold a dual allegiance, practicing the old forms while being involved with the new. As the numbers and confidence of the new religion grows, allegiance becomes an issue. Peoples and their governments are under increasing pressured to choose.

Science has heroes now. Hitchslap (now deceased) and Dawkins have been aggressively challenging priests in debate.

Over time, Christian priests became part of culture and government. Science has done very well in these areas.

Childhood Insights from Alia

Rahasya's daughter, Alia, shared this piece of writing with us last night.
It shows insight and she agreed to me sharing it here.

Sadistic Bastards

Why are children's story writers such sadistic bastards?

Wait, you doubt that statement?
Seriously? Have you never seen Bambi?
They make this beautiful fun world and just as you have completely fallen for it, want to live in it and be one of the characters in the story, they make disaster strike. They tear this new and beautiful world to shreds and are not satisfied until you cry. Then a few short happy moments later, just enough to stop the tears, and it's over.
But that happy ending isn't what lasts, it's the tragedy that sticks with you, especially at such a young age.

What do you learn from that? I don't know about you but it taught me that when there is joy, sorrow soon follows and shatters your world, then you have to rebuild it, and the cycle continues.
That is a pretty depressing outlook on the world.
Kids shouldn't have such things shoved down their throats; you only need to learn responsibility like that when you're a teenager.

I suppose the happy ending isn't as happy if there isn't some sorrow, but then put the sorrow near the beginning, like in the Lion King, before you have even met all the characters. That movie taught me that everything that happened in the past helped shape who I am now, and not to cling to or run from bad memories, but rather learn and grow from them. It also taught me that tragedies in life help you grow. If Mufasa hadn't died, Simba would never have met Timone and Pumba and never have become the lion that he did.

The point I'm trying to make is, rather teach children how to cope and grow from the potential troubles and tragedies in life, then tell them that tragedy is inevitable.

Wanting

How much of what I think of as my love is my wanting? How much wanting have I done in the name of love?

M Scott Peck says: "Real love is wanting the other person's good. Romantic love is wanting the other person."    

For the last 2 or 3 years I have been deeply challenged in the realms of romantic rejection and watching the beloved love another.

Comparison, jealousy, feelings of deep deficiency and accompanying depression are well traversed territories in me. 

"God, I am so sick of this! I WANT to be WANTED, DAMMIT!!!" I bang my hand on the steering wheel while tearing around mountain pass corners in my little bakkie. My teachers sit squashed on the bench seat next to me on our way back from dinner, taking in my emotive outburst and boisterous driving style with equal equanimous grace. "So your wanting is for a theoretical state in another's mind?", one says. "Look carefully and see if you can find any dharma in that".

The jealousy and hunger for love (not any kind of love, mind you: Very specific love in specific ways from specific people... in what my teacher refers to as Mind Symbols) makes me feel wild, and desperate like some kind of caged creature that is starving to death... and there is that in me which is dying, because it is time for it to die now.

But it doesn't go down without a fight. This desperate place in my unconscious is the spawning ground for all my manipulation, for my clutching onto intimate relationships, my pushing, my forcing, these insistences that arise from my mind, rather than from my being. 

I am gradually learning to make space for the horrible states created by my thoughts- these deficient, heavy states. 

I give up trying to get my external to rescue me from them - all that manoeuvring I have done in the name of Love to try to get others, particularly the beloved, to convince me that it's not true: This horrible self image I have. And I let myself go... into this frightening feeling, these mucky, sticky, heavy, murky depths.  

Yes- I am worthless. 

Yes- I am so small. 

I lack.

I am so deeply deficient.

I am the loser.

I give up trying to fight these things.

My body becomes so heavy that I can't stay upright.

I slump down flat, sinking into the mud...

And then somehow in this surrender, this death, there is a calm. I find myself looking at the thoughts and the feelings with compassion... And find that I am not that.

In my heart there is value. I can see the value of my surrender, the value of that which has chosen this surrender. 

Today a shoot breaks through the surface of the mud... gradually it climbs through the dark muddy water towards the light...

Painting by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Thank you dear Wendy and Rahasya for your loving guidance last week during our tantra practitioner training. 

Elitism and the Lightning Path: A Discussion of the Rocky Horror Tantra Book

Following is a quote from the introduction to Rocky Horror Tantra (see previous blog post for more) and ensuing conversation/debate between Rahasya and Anne-Marie Clulow, a tantric practitioner.


Rahasya:

"The first task of any teacher of tantra is to scare you off the idea all together. This is a compassionate measure designed to spare those without the calling, saving them considerable effort, pain and time.

Tantra is also known as the Path of Bliss, the Lightning Path and the Royal Road.
 Bliss, because pleasures and pains are embraced, not avoided. Bliss is the integration, the encompassing acceptance, of life’s pleasure and suffering as one suchness.
 Lightning, because the path is notable for its extreme speed.
The Royal Road, because it is a path designed (at least the Buddhist version) originally for the elite of a culture, who’s worldly involvement and responsibilities make a monastic life impractical.

The personal characteristics that produce achievers in any area of human endeavour are essential to tantra: Ambition, determination, responsiveness and especially hubris."

Anne-Marie:
Hmmm. And scared off I would have been. And run I did. And hide. And fear. And then...
You cannot not do it.
You can send any challenge into the universe.
And you cannot not be it.
I am looking fwd to reading this book, as for so long my inner voice/guide/channel told me to learn through my own experience, not through those of others. That my learning had to be my own, that my path was unique. In my opinion I believe that true of everyone now, and I subscribed differently for a long time. Rahasya, I often do not agree with you, finding many things that you say elitist. Yet, I am so grateful to you. For what would any of this be if we were all in agreement? And what does Tantra teach if not acceptance of everything? Part of my path presently is truly listening to those I do not agree with. If I have gathered anything from your posts, it is that you would not be offended by this at all, that you enjoy a great debate, and that your views on many things do not subscribe to the norm?

And I had to look up hubris!! Hahaha!!!

Rahasya:
A lovely word, Anne-Marie, and it looks to me like you have at least your fair share of it :)

Elitist - absolutely!

Special forces soldiers consider themselves an elite among the military, although 'regular' soldiers could be offended by that idea.
 Tantra is not something 'everyone can do'. It just is so. Just like not every enlisted man has the capacity for special forces work.
 Acknowledging actual differences is not a superiority/inferiority thing though, any more than Inuit are 'superior' human beings because the handle cold that would kill other people.

Tantrikas often would not wish what they have to go through on anyone, even if they have a worst enemy.

Anne-Marie: 
I agree with some of this, and disagree too. False dichotomy... As it is not an either or actually.
I agree that it would be easier to not have this calling which I have perceived through my experience as being a conduit to energy outside of myself as well as using my own sexual energy to specifically channel into another's body, enabling a body experience that leads to many things, emotional release, insight, visions, change in consciousness, increased sexual energy and heightened energy for actual physical healing too. I would have preferred to wear white and meditate a shitload like the Buddhists. Until I saw the hypocrisy of not being able to save a drowning woman because you can't touch a woman, yet completely missing the point of the original precepts of do not kill. Obviously, allowing to die was seen differently. I was
tired of splitting hairs. I wanted something that encompassed all, did not judge, did not deem itself "better than" I wanted to be "holy" not dealing with the nitty gritty of people's bodies.
So I agree with the not wishing it on your enemy, yet I have also known a deeper more connected space in healing than almost any other space. Meditating, singing ( sometimes) and making love are the only other places I have that "flow" although I am wary of terminology as often it leads to dissent if it is not the same as others' .
I do feel that Tantra in the form of opening to self, balancing light and dark, the fullness of the human experience and linking the spiritual journey with sexual energy is not only to be mainstream, but an absolute necessity to the awakening of mankind's consciousness as we move into a new era. Many spiritual teachers in differing modalities are beginning to awaken to the linking of all energies in the body to raise consciousness.
If the folk in the Tantric world keep it elite, and don't share practical ways to open energy up for people to have their awakenings is that not the ultimate separation? Maybe all are not meant to be healers or teachers, but how does keeping it elitist truly share love in its most unconditional form?

Rahasya:

Anne-Marie,
"If the folk in the Tantric world keep it elite, and don't share practical ways to open energy up for people to have their awakenings is that not the ultimate separation?"

One better known example, which means that it is not very well known outside of tantra, is the practice called Mahamudra, aka Sacred Union.
This is commonly (in the greater world of tantra as therapy, healing, sexuality, poly, bdsm, etc) taken to mean 'penis in vagina' sex.
In the old and dusty schools, it is ritualised and has mostly lost its power/function.
The 'elitist, secret' version of this practice is a neurological bonding of the masculine and feminine energies within.
Some of the method is known, some is hinted at in old literature. I have taught 'partial' and 'diluted' versions on what we call 'practitioner level' workshops.

The reason for all the caution is simple. It is a seriously dangerous practice. It has very powerful real-world consequences.
If, for example, someone suffers the usual Western condition of a divided, divisive, mutually antagonistic relationship between their inner masculine and feminine aspects, this practice will add rape, not love to that relationship.
This is likely to make the inner war so intense that it consumes all the person's prana (nerve-system energy). This means they become completely inwardly focused and have no outward energy, no capacity or capability of communicating outside of their own mind. In other words, a psychosis. Likely permanent.

We deal in love and other very powerful energies. It is part of our compassion and responsibility that we are careful in how and when we apply them.

Someone who hides the matches when you are in a room full of dynamite may be your friend.

Anne-Marie:
Rahasya, I can only speak from my own experience and from my inner guide. You have more experience than I. I have much to learn and experience, so even though I don't understand this, I will listen to your book. Yes, I get the concept of passing "dynamite" to those who have methods of dealing with it. Perhaps I saw elitism where there was caution. In my learnings with Taoism that concept of passing down carefully to avoid the misuse of "dynamite" has purpose.
Perhaps I have been guilty of drawing conclusions through vocab and words and for that I apologize :)

Rahasya:
No apology – I enjoy this discussion much.

As people read on, I wait for much more difficult criticism/exploration (wince).
I did find a lot of it very difficult to read aloud. Different from the quiet hours over the last few years, just me and the muse, just writing it down.

My favourite question so far emailed by a listener/reader:

"in your audio book, when you said Wendy had "ruined 3 or 4 men during her training" Were you speaking figuratively or literally? Might I ask what form of "ruin" are seekers likely to face? (The rocket scientist risk calculator is buzzing in my brain.)"

and, yes, he is a rocket scientist.



…  The discussion continues in the Rocky Horror Tantra FaceBook group.


Listen to the Rocky Horror Book Introduction:

Track 1 Track 2 Track 3

Rocky Horror Tantra audio Book release

It took me nearly 5 years to write it, about ten days to record it, a few dozen hours to listen through and edit out the worst of page turning, coughing, retakes and other excitements.

My sound engineer, Gabriel, managed wonders through Josi's summer storms and guided me through the process of audio production.

Some of you know him as the muso who did the cool backing track (or whatever it is called) on a guided meditation CD I recorded a few years ago.

This whole exercise (and what is still to be done for the print version) has been a huge learning for me, alongside the nearly ten years in which I have been learning to teach, guided by those who thought of themselves as students.

The stories I tell are all fictionalised to some extent, some quite a lot. Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

I recommended an age restriction somewhere around 85. I have banned (with her wise and wholehearted agreement after a little explanation) my own mother (91) from reading it. I still have to work out what to do about my father.

A wise friend has advised me to now do as all authors and story tellers must do. The text/tape/CD/mp3 is a created thing. It has its own relationship with its readers/listeners. It even, as I discovered reading it for the audio version, has its own relationship with me now.

I thought I had good reason to believe that I knew what I was in for.

I was wrong about that. I feel well mauled, but in a good way. It is different writing late at night, just me and the Muse, from reading aloud what I have written. Especially when it gets all sexually descriptive.

Strangely liberating, though …


You may now click the following link to have your own relationship with the thing. Good Luck.


RockyHorrorTantra.com

The Goddess and the Harlot

 “What is the relationship between the harlot and the goddess? I sometimes fear powerful women are untrustworthy as if they’re promiscuous-maybe a lot of powerful women are. I wonder if this is my own fears/projections or if there’s some truth to it.”

Thank you for voicing this. It is a common notion but because we are now encouraged to be so all-inclusive and non-judgemental, it slips into the covert of the culture, rather than being brought out into the light. So much can be written in reply – I hope I have gotten the most important bits here.

To begin: A healthy, unadulterated woman will naturally love or at the very least appreciate sex and sensuality, will likely be tactile and physically demonstrative, will love and trust the wild places both within the human psyche and without, in nature. She will be responsive, exuberant and have keen sensitivity. She will instinctively know that her body is a portal to the Divine and that the power that rises through it as sexual energy is good and wholesome and can be put to use for the health of her own organism and also the health of her family and the community where it can be directed into healing and creativity.

Your question demonstrates the associations that we have picked up from our socialisation, from our culture. The message within the patriarchal system which has dominated for the past few millennia is that the woman I speak of above is dangerous and must be controlled. In the past this has been done with a great deal of violence, particularly by religions like Christianity and Islam and is still in certain parts of the world. These days, within our culture, although it is starting to shift since the feminist movement, it is still very present in the covert attitude and such women are referred to bitterly with words like “slut”/ “harlot” / "whore". The word "Promiscuous" holds the association that for a woman to love sex is an evil thing (where as for a man, it is “normal”).

Can you imagine why such a woman would be threatening to anyone who was wanting to control a society… and why, by extension it was imperative to find ways to make such a one look dangerous? Slowly but surely the oppression of the feminine nature was so effective that even women started to believe that the only way that they could have any power was if it was given to them by a man. Thus, we even began policing each other and routing out those women who did not conform to the status quo, using the weapon of shame for having these very natural wholesome drives, to great and devastating effect, not just for women but for our whole society.

So, the relationship between whore and goddess is in the perception of the culture and also the perception the woman holds of herself. When she has bought in to what the culture has told her about being intrinsically powerless and weak because she is a woman, she may believe that she must manipulate to get power for her survival from the outside and one of her tools is seduction… so sex and intimacy deprivation is used as part of the deal making between men and women, operational within the illusion of scarcity and separation.

... that is when it is in its unconscious aspect. In the conscious aspect there is the ancient roll of the Dakini who's work it is to support you towards your full capacity for awareness, however that looks and whatever it takes, including the tools found within sexuality. 

If your idea of trustworthy is a woman who will consistently behave in a way that makes you feel safe within the illusions held by our culture… (such as those around how love should look) then you are quite right that such women cannot be trusted.

If, however, your soul seeks to awaken into the fullness of your own god-self, then you can  trust the direction of such a women to guide you in whatever needs to be done to shatter the illusions that keep you apart from this. Your fears are those of the ego (that in us which maintains the illusion of duality) fearing for its life and are a good indication of where to aim your rudder if you are ready to let it go.

for more on this topic, see:

http://tantraschool.co.za/sessions.html 

under the heading “Tantric Practitioners: Dakinis And Dakas”

and one of my favourite pieces of writing:
http://www.buddhanature.com/buddha/vajrayogini.html 

Love,

Annwen

Here it begins ~ Yogini Journey

 Here it begins

Hmmm, gratitude...: I fell asleep watching the stars above the southern hills. Now the light is oranging its way up those rocks. A speed boat streaks across the calm sea and cool air comes with its quiet caress on my morning skin. I'm feeling awe at the magical movements in my life.

I stood in my doorway waring my string of Mala beads - a gift to mark my initiation - as Rahasya, my teacher, left yesterday after his month's stay, saying: Goodbye Yogini.
We had decided that I would start practicing.  An hour later I mentioned this to someone on line and they booked a session for yesterday.
I panicked silently... and said Yes. They came and I think it went well...
I love this work.  Awakening consciousness and capacity for love and bliss is the most important thing in my life... I am in my element.

I am a tantrika... Here it begins.
Where will this lead, I wonder. How will this affect me having my own mate and family?
In this territory there are fewer and fewer road signs. I head off into an exquisite wilderness. My guides are stars and orange rocks and instinct and the breath of sea air on skin. The subtle whispers saying This way... That way...
I am an adventurer, an explorer of the Heart Land.

Tantric Touch Q&A

From Yogini Annwen, a touch work practitioner in this school:

Tantric Touch Work ~ Q ‘n A

                Client: So what is tantric touch work, exactly?

Annwen: In this Advaita tantra school, we have two ways of working. From the top down –eroticism, in other words working with the mind’s ideas around sex- and from the bottom up: touch work. Touch work supports the person into expanding their capacity to feel: Learning to feel pleasure, trust the body, love the body- learning how to love themselves and then they can be more qualified to love another.So Shakti Malan, for example, is a Dakini. I am a Yogini. A yogini follows the forms of touch work and works within that structure. Dakinis have less use for structure. They will do whatever it takes to get you to awaken…. They have licence to scare the hell out of you to speed up the process. Touch work may be considered a gentler approach, but it is in fact just as challenging for the one who is holding on tightly to that which has protected him/ her, but now imprisons and prevents intimacy. A Dakini may start with this work and then move on to eroticism work. I will leave eroticism up to the Dakinis… for now.

                Client: So, through touch you experience more... emotional feelings?

Annwen: Yes… and through more deep emotional feeling you experience more physical feeling too

                Client: hmm, does not make sense to me, must be an experiential thing.

Annwen: do you know the term body armouring?...
When experiences happen- especially as children- that are too much for us to feel, we put the experience away for later. We develop this armouring in the body (a holding, a tension- an unconscious pattern) to protect us from that feeling.
In Tantra, Now is Later.
Being supported by having someone see this armouring and work with you to soften and dissolve it will release the blocked feeling…which can be tough... especially when we really resist this happening, as we are likely to do because we're scared. And of course then you have to Feel everything you have been resisting all this time.
But, once this kind of congealed holding is softened and dropped, our capacity to feel bliss deepens. Bliss is our birthright.
From the other direction, when you become willing to feel more emotional depth - like, the tricky, sticky, yikky emotions... you will find, surprise, surprise... that your capacity to feel in the body increases too. This has been my most recent learning

                Client: Aaaaah, OK I get that
                So what are the forms of touch work?

Annwen: The three approaches that I am using are Tantra Massage, Chakra Massage and Tantric Balancing.
Tantra Massage involves developing an awareness of sexuality and love beyond our conventional interpretations.
Chakra Massage addresses resistance, numbness, discomfort, repression, trauma and judgement
Tantric balancing supports integration and inner love making of the masculine and feminine

I will make use of these different approaches as I see the need for them arising.

No-sex Tantra

 

A friend of mine went searching for a particular teacher. He was interested to track the old roots of wild, south Indian preferably Dravidian tantra and advaita.

He found exactly who he was looking for –  a Dravidian advaita teacher of an ancient tantric lineage.

Naturally, the fellow was doing as his ancestors had done, sitting in the shade of a wide banyan tree.

Conversation ensued, and over the next few days, my friend was treated to a feast of ancient lore and deep philosophical discussion.

It was a delight to hear of this lineage. We both enjoyed the traditional and fresh expressions of understanding that he had encountered, ignoring our companions a bit rudely.

At some point, my friend commented that in many general and some specific areas, this taste of an ancient teaching had been remarkably similar to what he had encountered around this school.

"Practice too?" I inquired.

"No." He replied. "That was the one startling difference."

"How so?" I asked, intrigued, always interested to discover new methods.

"No sex."

"None?"

"Well, he spoke of some methods and rituals, but from the moment of his attainment, no sex."

"Did he care to share why?"

"I asked, and he said not all lineages have the same insistence, but in his lineage, it is mandatory. He says that without this condition, the teachings he preserves and continues would have died out thousands of years ago."

There was obviously more to this. I waited in respectful patience, or perhaps hurried him with further questions. Whatever the details, he shared the story.

"The first master of the guru's lineage was apparently a little overwhelmed by his attainment. He was, here and there, a little irresponsible with his powers.

At some point, the Gods got a little annoyed and had a meeting to discuss the issue. Agreeing that something should be done to teach a lesson, but not knowing what lesson, or how it should be delivered, the Gods eventually turned to a Goddess for help.

The Goddess listened to their issue, agreed that a lesson had to be taught and that she would deliver it.

 Appearing before the guru, she danced a dance of sublime seduction. Even though he was past all need, all craving for sex, he was disturbed. This was, after all, a Goddess working him over.

She evoked his arousal and, far far worse, his ejaculation. Just with her dance.

The guru was, as the English would say, unmanned.

From that point on, he taught that no-sex was essential to the survival of his teaching."

I digested this for a while. This variation on a story I had heard often had got my attention.

I knew from my own experience that chastity is a comfortable and perfectly available option once the lean-pig hunger of sexuality stops. Even if sex continues for teaching, fun or any other reason, ejaculation is optional, and some choose to never do that.

I considered what difference it would make to my life and teaching if I had inherited or developed such an insistence myself. My first impression would be that it would be a lot easier.

Easier because … well, because …

Suddenly I saw the why, the reason behind this far away guru's no-sex insistence.

I rejoined the conversation, which had barely paused while i had swum in thoughts.

"So, was he enjoying his irresponsibility?"

"Like what?" My friend, not sharing my particular curiosity, was a little confused.

"Well, you notice the difference between his lifestyle and mine?"

My friend looked around the quaint 3rd world cottage I inhabit. "Not that different."

"Not that, and sure, if we had proper African heat in winter here, I could enjoy a banyan tree too. I mean the difference that comes from his no-sex thing."

He looked at one of the companions we were almost ignoring, a Dakini he has known as long as he has known me. She was smiling, obviously a step or two ahead of us males.

"The difference is…" He said, looking from her smile to mine "You get bossed about by them."

"Yes. They keep me on the straight and narrow." This got a laugh from the Dakini, who then got involved in discussing more interesting things with my daughter.

"According to the Dravidian guru, you are vulnerable to them."

"Yes. When I get irresponsible, they are there to slap me immediately. Hence I do not push things so far that divine intervention is required. At least not yet."

"And he is safe from that kind of trouble …" my friend mused.

"He is safe from much more than that."

"Like what?"

"Well, as you know, I take my direction from the Dakinis." This earned me a derisive comment from one of our unnamed companions, which I choose not to repeat. "More or less, anyway." Another derisive comment which I manfully ignored.

"Your friend in India, however, gets to decide how he teaches, who he teaches, the context that suits him and so on. If he had…" I smiled at the source of derisive comments "If he had such wonderful supports and guides for his teaching, he would do …"

"A hell of a lot more, for sure." My friend replied. "He really has some very cool stuff, and a strong energy, but he is not interested in traveling or being very welcoming. It is kind of a pity …"

"I don't know about that." I interrupted. "He is right about it being essential to the survival of his lineage, to the preservation of knowledge and method."

"But, now, with the world enjoying these teachings, he could do so much more."

"Well, for now at least, his no-sex thing seems to be keeping him safe. I am sure if that has to change, the right Goddess will be there to sort things out."

What happens in a tantra session?

I am so often asked this question and wonder how can I possibly explain ( or make flat ) the mystery of a tantra session. Every word I pronounce seems a shadow of the experience.

So today I call the land of words to bear you into this mystery.. om namah.

Firstly people arrive at the door for a number of reasons ..

All things sexual

Sexual healing .. Sexual mastery .. Sexual confusion .. Sexual fulfillment (wanting a sexual service).

The relationship dance

Drama ..confusion .. challenges .. ultimately resolving the age old masculine - feminine conflict.

Reclaiming the true feminine

Accessing the goddess and calling the return of the feminine that has been denied for the longest time ever.

Reclaiming the true masculine

Meeting and living from the true masculine and dropping the distortion -replacement of patriarchy.

Wanting to be a better person and live a better life

Wanting to know or understand the true self

Unresolved pain and rage

A dakini can also be a very powerful guide in terms of career and power strategy as she has come to a deep understanding of this energy in herself and she is also an exquisite muse and midwife of all creative endeavours.

What I have come to see as a tantrika or what has been my occult or hidden intent in the session ...

My first love is awareness. I did not always know this. I was interested in money and survival, how to have orgasms and experience bliss and pleasure in my life, how to attract a beautiful man and be in a sweet togetherness, how to get on with others and also be true to myself and always very interested in the mystery of that which is not seen or easily tangible ..existence god soul.These were some of my interests along the way as it is for most human beings.

But what I have come to know is that all of these interests were ultimately teachers and guides of awareness.

So what is awareness? Before I knew awareness in the same way as a lover comes to know her beloved, I believed awareness was about knowledge. If one learnt enough about things and life and people then you would know how or what to do in any given moment or experience, but it is not this at all.

Awareness is a tangible presence; pulsing, alive and fully available in the moment beyond thought or any knowledge.. the delightful, delicious, spontaneous participation moment to moment sans mind.

This is what I teach or share...

This is not to say that a tantra session may not look like an intense exploration of one's sexual healing and or mastery , relationship dynamics and the exploration of the truth of reality but in this exploration there is always and foremost the subtle calling and befriending of awareness.

One finds that yes tantrikas are deeply and sincerely interested in sexuality and tantric sex is beyond all imagination. I would never have known such sex was possible without experiencing it for myself.

But this interest is the carrot of Existence that brings you to awareness and when you taste this awareness then the interest shifts. From super amazing sex to awareness, from delightful relationships to awareness. If awareness is first all that we seek, desire and long for follows. Perhaps not as we THOUGHT it but as it it sweetly is..

If I can assist in calling awareness into your being than you can meet any moment in totality and truth sans the reactive and conditioned state that you currently know as yourself.

Whatever happens in a tantra session the intent is to befriend awareness.

The tantric way is the path of the lover. The dakini guides you into falling in love with your self, your fellow travelers and finally the moment and then awareness is met in the core of your being as your constant lover companion where all else follows.

I offer tantra sessions in Johannesburg to women, men and couples. A session is approximately 2 hours long and much happens in a session. You will be very surprised at what you walk away with. If you remember the scene from Matrix where Neo is hooked up to the computer and information is being downloaded. He looks up and says " I know Kung Fu". Tantra sessions can have a similar feeling.

If you are interested in a session please email me shima@shima.co.za.

I will be offering a tantra practitioner training later this year. If you feel you have the calling for this work or are already in a similar field and would like to bring the tantric understanding into your work please let me know.

Namasté
Shima opening Lotus