Holistic Sexuality
Pleasure and orgasm, independent of the physical act of sex or physical stimulation, is a trademark of a lot of Tantric practice. When we open up to the force of Shakti in a conscious way, the experience is one of intense pleasure — aliveness, openness, and a sumptuous, full-bodied sensation.
I don’t have a rational explanation as to why this is the case. Shakti is erotic energy. Or, perhaps it makes more sense to say that erotic energy is Shakti. Why is opening up to Shakti from within inherently pleasurable? It just is.
Sexual energy, in its purest sense, isn’t just desire or the impulse to be boisterously boinking; it is much deeper and much more profound. This is the case according to Tantra, but it also seems true from my own experience.
As I said, I am not a formal practitioner of Tantra, but my curiosity and spiritual inquiry have led me to the doorstep of realms that are very Tantric in nature (whether to call it “Tantra” or just Life, I don’t know…and I honestly I don’t think it really matters).
I dove into a body of work called Holistic Sexuality (now called Holistic Transformation as the word “sexuality” was ringing in folks who were expecting something different from what the work was offering). It is an inquiry into what it means to be human.
The basic idea of the work is that we are physical, sexual and spiritual beings with a heart that allows us to express these different energies through our human form. Each energy has its own physical doorway — the place in the body where the energy can most easily be accessed.
The legs are the doorway to our physical being, the genitals/lower belly our sexual being, the chest the center for our heart and the top of the head our spiritual doorway.
The work entails simple, structured guided meditations with one or two partners, and uses touch. Don’t get the wrong impression. These meditations weren’t “sexual” or “erotic” (at least in the way you’re used to). The use of another human being for contact was simply to notice what happens for us when certain energies (e.g., the heart and the mind/the energy of consciousness) interact or connect.
The Body
The body is an integral part of Tantric practice — the body as a vehicle, as way of listening and learning. Swami Prem Pranama, a Tantric master (now known as Traktung Rinpoche), shared in an interview his view of learning versus the traditional, didactic schooling that focuses on the mind:
“In truth understanding is a whole body act. You must understand with the cells of your body, your mind and your feelings. Listening involves a profound action of the entire self. This action is what practice is. Spiritual practice is the act of listening to the teaching with the whole body.”
This was the basic premise of the Holistic Sexuality work, and why we had physical touch as the medium: so that information would be evoked within the body through the contact and come into awareness. We didn’t think too much, or try to have an experience; we let the experience come to us — just being open and curious.
The woman who co-founded the work — and led the workshops I took — says that when the heart and our sexual energy come together, the authentic experience and expression is aliveness. She refers to sexual energy as the dark, primordial substance of life, the seed or source of creativity (sound familiar?).
Holistic Sexuality isn’t “Tantra,” in the sense that it doesn’t call itself by the name. Nor does it use terms like Shakti or Shiva (the male deity that represents consciousness, the spiritual force. Shiva is the counterpart of Shakti, and the unification of the two is at the heart of Tantra).
But minus all the concepts and terms, the core elements of Holistic Sexuality coincide well with much of the principles of Tantra — spirituality, sexuality, the body, and being open and present to these energies to deeply wake up to them.