"Ecstasy comes in many different packages."

"Sex is the seed, love is the flower, compassion is the fragrance."  

(Osho: Zen, Zest, Zip, Zap & Zing Vol. 3)

Set aside any idea of what you think Tantra "is".  You cannot think it, because it is not of the thinking mind.  It cannot "be" something because it is always changing its form.  You are already living a tantric life, because life process IS tantric, it is just a matter of opening to the tantric attitude with awareness. 

Yoga Somatics  is a modern tantric practice and accesses the fluid world of tantra. It feels to me that almost all yoga is rooted in Tantra . . . the "woven path" . . . a yoga of fullness, acceptance and relation. We experientially explore many of the 112 ancient and sacred Vijnana Bhairava Tantra meditations in the Tantra Yoga experiences and initiations that Ateeka shares..

The tantric attitude celebrates life.  It celebrates direct experience.  Tantra celebrates immediacy, presence and totality.

The Raja yoga path, as outlined in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras can be seen as more sequential and deliberate.  It is refined in discriminating and precision. It also includes presence and totality. 

Raja is logos.  Tantra is eros.  Masculine and feminine.   Yang and Yin.  Both dancing with life.

Both move the same direction, towards the center-less center, towards the Absolute . . . yet in quite different ways.  We can work with them in consort and dedicate ourselves to one path or attitude for some periods of our lives and then let the practices turn themselves inside out to get a different view from a new path or attitude in other periods of our lives.

We also explore in the practice of Somatic Bodywork . . . a restful and deeply healing tantric meditation bodywork practiced in groups of two and three. The moving into stillness meditations of this person to person contact help to lead us back to our humanness . . . to evolve the possibilities for a new humanity.

The Human Heart

by Ateeka

I believe in the majesty of the human heart.

I believe in the potential of the human heart.

I believe in the recoverability and great strength, power and of the human heart.

I rest in the awareness that the human heart is an organ of transformation.

I rest in the awareness that sorrow can be transformed into joy.

Suffering can be transformed into peaceful presence.

Anger can be transformed into understanding.

Fear . . .

Into . . .

Love. . .

I have felt deep inside of its chambers, a quivering stillness . . .

Folding into its vast quietness, its potential is healing me of centuries of pain.

When I don’t know how to continue . . .

When experience and mind are simply not enough . . .

I turn to my heart.

When will I learn to turn there first?

Its trustworthy presence beating inside of me . . . regardless of my acknowledgement . . .

always beating, always creating void and fullness . . .

Always welcoming me home . . .

To my heart . . .

To my self . . .

To self. . .

I believe in the majesty of the human heart.