What is the difference between Yoga and Tantra? Tantra says you have to accept yourself as you are – do not restrain, just accept, but be aware and you will transcend. Yoga promotes restraint Both ways are acceptable. Tantra and Yoga may be two different manifestations but their genesis is the same. All concepts of Yoga are derived from Tantra. How is that? In Tantra you accept yourself because that is the expression of your life, of your consciousness, in its natural course of evolution. Within us we have both ‘good’ and ‘bad’, creative and destructive.

Usually, religions tell us to accept ‘good’ and reject ‘bad’ or negative aspects of our personality, but we, with our limited understanding, tend to mess things up. We try to change the pattern of our behaviour and thinking. This enforced change within the personality is suppression of the normal expression which applies to all levels of our consciousness. Tantra talks of the union of Shiva and Shakti. Shakti has nearly always been defined as kundalini, and Shiva, the male aspect, has been defined as chetana or consciousness.

Tantra is not really referring to a physical relationship. It says that in order to experience internal union you first experience external union; to experience internal bliss, experience external bliss. The difference is external bliss is momentary; internal bliss is continuous. In Tantra there are initiations which are awakening of Shakti. The practice of asana is an initiation for the body Pranayama is initiation of the pranas. The only difference between Tantra and Yoga is that Yoga is outgoing; it deals more with the world, body, mind, personality, emotions, actions and environment, whereas Tantra is more meditative.

You require desire because, for the evolution of consciousness, conflict is necessary. It is a means for awakening part of the consciousness. If there were no conflicts, there would be no evolution. There would be a stagnant state of consciousness. How should we deal with desires? We must accept them. If I desire to slap you, i should think of the repercussions it can have, positive or negative. If I simply follow my emotions there will be a big fight between us. This is where you have to learn to detach yourself.

Both processes happen together You allow emotions to flourish, observe them, and learn how to control them. You come to know when it is the right time for action and let that energy manifest. Then this manifestation will be positive and creative, rather than haphazard. You wait for the right time, you follow that desire through, so there is no conflict. Do men and women have different spiritual attributes? Tantra believes that feminine energy is more refined and of a higher quality than masculine energy.

In Tantra the female principle has the position of guru, and the male principle that of a disciple. Why is this so? Because of a woman’s ability to flow without any kind of intellectual barrier which binds one to the material level. Women have intuitive ability because theirs is a psychically active energy. Male energy is passive and seems to tend towards tunnel-vision. Women are able to perceive things which the male energy cannot. One must learn to flow with sensitivity; one must learn to flow with higher awareness.

An erogenous zone (from Greek ἔρως eros “love” and English -genous “producing” from Greek -γενής -genes “born”) is an area of the human body that has heightened sensitivity, the stimulation of which may result in the production of erotic sensations or sexual excitement. People have erogenous zones all over their bodies, but which areas are more sensitive than others vary. Some may resent stimulation that others find arousing.

The stimulation of these areas can produce gentle, mild or intense arousal. The erogenous zones may be classified by the type of sexual excitement that they provoke. Many are gently aroused when their eyelids, eyebrows, temples, shoulders, hands, arms and hair are subtly touched. Gently touching or stroking of these zones stimulates a partner during foreplay and increases the arousal level. Also, the gentle massage or stroke of the abdominal area along with kissing or simply touching the navel can be a type of stimulation.

Classification Erogenous zones are either nonspecific or specific. Nonspecific zones In these zones, the skin is similar to normal-haired skin and has the normal high density of nerves and hair follicles. These areas include the sides and back of the neck, the inner arms, the axillae (armpits) and sides of the thorax. An exaggerated tickle and anticipatory response are responsible for the heightened sensual response. Specific zones Specific zones are associated with sexual response, and include areas of the genitals, notably the foreskin and corona of the glans penis, clitoris, vulva and perianal skin, and lipsThe rete ridges of the epithelium are well-formed and more of the nerves are close to the external surface of the skin than in normal-haired skin. Pubic area Male Ranked by self-reported degree of ratings of ‘sexual pleasure’, ‘orgasm intensity’ and ‘orgasm effort’, the most sensitive part of the penis is the ventral area ‘underside of the glans’, followed by ‘underside of the penile shaft In particular, the foreskin (including the ridged band of preputial mucosa and the frenulum) and the corona around the glans (head) are highly sensitive to light touch. Taylor has postulated that the ridged band is sensitive to movement The foreskin, which carries the ridged band and lower frenular delta has mucocutaneous end-organs extending from the distal margin to the point where hairy skin starts. The thin dermis and minimal subcutaneous tissue results in closely set nerve networks. Vater-Pacini corpuscles are present.

The mucocutaneous end-organs are formed after birth, with few in newborn infants and many well-organized endings in adults. Cold and Taylor, citing Winkelmann, stated that the prepuce (foreskin) is primary erogenous tissue. Males can also be aroused by stimulation to the sides of the glans and penis, upper side of the glans, the foreskin, the front side of the scrotum, the skin between the scrotum and anus perineum, and around the anus. The prostate gland may be stimulated from inside the rectum, or by applying pressure on the base of the perineum near the anus. Men who report the sensation of prostate and seminal vesicles stimulation often give descriptions similar to females’ accounts of G-spot stimulation Female The clitoris is an erogenous zone on a woman and has the densest concentration of nerve endings of any part of the skin. Located past the clitoris, just above and on either side of the urethral opening, is sensitive erectile tissue known as the Skene’s gland, or the U-Spot. Within the anterior of the vaginal canal, there is a patch of ribbed rough tissue which has a texture that is described as similar to the palate (the roof of a mouth) or a raspberry, and may feel spongy when a woman is sexually aroused. This is the Gräfenberg spot, or G-spot. At the deepest point on the anterior (front) wall of the vagina, located between the cervix and the bladder, is the Anterior fornix erogenous zone, or A-Spot. It is described as having a wrinkly texture similar to the tip of the nose. Other areas known to be orgasmic for some women include the rectouterine pouch, accessible through both the back of the posterior wall of the vagina and the anterior wall of the anus, the perineal sponge, accessible though the perineum and the anterior wall of the anus, several inches in, and the uterus, which, when stimulated, can result in a uterine orgasm. Head ]Mouth The lips and tongue are sensitive and used during kissing.Neck The neck, clavicle area and the back of the neck are very sensitive in both males and females, which can be stimulated by licking, kissing or light caressing. Some people also like being bitten gently in these areas, often to the point that a “hickey”, or “love-bite” is formed. Ears Some people find whispering or breathing softly in the ear to be pleasurable, as well as licking, biting or kissing. Torso Chest The areola and nipple contain Golgi-Mazzoni, Vater-Pacini and genital corpuscles. No Meissner’s corpuscles and few organized nerve endings are present. There are concentrations of nerve tissue in the area of ducts and masses of smooth muscle. The hair surrounding the areola adds additional sensory tissue.

The mass of smooth muscle and glandular-duct tissue in the nipple and areola block the development of normal dermal nerve networks which are present in other erogenous regions and the development of special end organs. Indeed, the entire breast has a network of nerve endings, and it has the same number of nerve endings no matter how large it is. Accordingly, smaller breasts are more sensitive while larger breasts can be stimulated (e.g. fondled, bitten, sucked) more forcefully. Intense stimulation of a woman’s nipples may result in a surge in the production of oxytocin and prolactin which could have a significant effect on her genitals. Having the chest, breasts and nipples stimulated manually (hands), digitally (fingers, toes) and/or orally (mouth, lips, teeth, tongue) is a pleasurable experience enjoyed by many males and females. Abdomen and navel Many people find stimulation (kissing, biting, scratching, tickling, caressing) of the abdomen to be pleasurable, especially close to the pubic region. It can cause strong arousal in men and women, in some even stronger than stimulation of the genitals. The navel is one of the many erogenous zones that has heightened sensitivity. The navel and the region below when touched by the finger or the tip of the tongue result in the production of erotic sensations.

The famous pop star Madonna has told in a interview to the SPIN magazine (May 1985 issue),”When I stick my finger in my belly button, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine.] This is because the navel and the genitals have a common tissue origin, and in some people this connection still exists so that stimulation of the navel will elicit a distinct tickle in the genitals. Arms The skin of the arms, and specifically the softer skin of the inner arms and across the creased mid-arm bend covering the ventral side of the elbow, are highly sensitive to manual or lingual stimulation. Light stroking with fingers or tongue, more vigorous kneading, and butterfly kissing can initiate arousal and, in some cases, induce clitoral/vaginal orgasm or penile ejaculation without direct contact with the latter areas. The mid-arm bend is especially sensitive due to the thinner skin found there, which makes nerve endings more accessible. Arm sensitivity may be reduced or concentrated to a more narrow range by excessive muscularity or obesity on the one hand, or transformed to uncomfortable tenderness by excessive thinness on the other. Armpits Researchers have discovered that women adjust their menstrual cycles when exposed to the scent of a male underarm. Some consider the armpits to be an erogenous zone. If pheromones exist for humans, they would likely be secreted by a mixture of liquid from the sebaceous glands with other organic compounds in the body. George Preti, an organic chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and Winnefred Cutler of the University of Pennsylvania’s psychology department, discovered that women with irregular menstrual cycles became regular when exposed to male underarm extracts.

They hypothesized that the only explanation was that underarms contain pheromones, as there was no other explanation for the effects, which mirrored how pheromones affect other mammals. Fingers The fingertips have many nerves and are responsive to very light touches, like the brushing of a tongue, light fingernail scratching or teeth stroking. The sides of the fingers are somewhat less sensitive and more ticklish.[citation needed] Both light and firmer touches work well at the junction of the fingers. Human fingertips are the second-most sensitive parts of the body, after the tongue. Feet and toes Due to the concentration of nerve endings in the sole and digits of the human foot, the sensations produced by sucking or licking the feet can be pleasurable to some people. Similarly, massaging the sole of the foot produces similar nervous stimulation. Many people are extremely ticklish in the foot area, especially on the bottom of the soles.

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Our ancient heritage is the repository of several techniques which come to our rescue in today’s stressful world. Sahaj Yoga is one of them. It finds mention in the discourses of Guru Nanak, Sankaracharya, Kabir and Sant Dyaneshwar. It is invaluable for one’s mental, physical, psychological and spiritual well-being. Mata Nirmala Devi has popularised the technique in over 90 countries and has helped weary souls come to terms with stress and suffering. Sahaj yoga is the kundalini, the divine energy, which lies below the sacrum at the bottom of the vertebral column, which when stimulated ascends through the sushumna nadi, the spine, and corresponds to the parasympathetic nervous system.

There is a spontaneous awakening and the union of our primordial energy with the all-pervading power of the divine. The awakening of the kundalini allows divine energy to pass through the six chakras or energy centres which take care of the physical, mental, psychosomatic and spiritual aspects of the body. In today’s fast moving world we often overstretch ourselves to achieve our goals. Stress is its side effect and it adversely affects our body system. But Sahaj Yoga is an easy way to distress ourselves.

It makes us experience love and compassion. What does Sahaj Yoga mean? Saha means with us, ja means born and yoga is union. Sahaj Yoga is therefore spontaneous. Through it the residual divine energy, which resides in sacrum bone is awakened and energised. There are three nadis in our body, namely ida, the sympathetic nervous system on the left which controls our temperament; pingala, the sympathetic nervous system on the right which controls our physical and mental well-being; and sushumna nadi, the parasympathetic nervous system at the centre which has chakras to give us our qualitative attributes.

If a person activates the chakras in this nadi, he would attain spiritual ascent and enjoy life to the fullest. Sahaj Yoga considers six chakras, namely mooladhar chakra, swadhi sthan chakra, nabhi chakra, anahat chakra, shuddhi chakra, agnya (not a chakra) and sahasrura chakra. All these correspond to a particular place on hand and to a particular element of the universe. Each is attributed with special qualities.

The first chakra — Mooladhar Chakra — depicts the element earth and attributes qualities of innocence and wisdom. The swadhi sthan chakra represents the element fire and is responsible for creativity and divine knowledge. Nabhi chakra, representing water, gives us sustenance and dharma. Anahat chakra represents air and attributes the qualities of love, maryada, and fearlessness. It awakens the atma or soul. The shuddhi chakra representing the element ether is associated with divine diplomacy. It maintains integration between mind and speech. Speech is important and a proper coordination between thought and speech assures better communication.

Agnya is for forgiveness and resurrection, representing the element light. If we are tense we cannot utilise the full potential of mind. Tension and anger have to be controlled. If this area of the spine is awakened, one can control one’s anger. The last chakra is the sahasrura chakra and represents all the five elements of the universe. Its place is the centre of the palm. This chakra attributes the qualities of collective consciousness and integration. Sahaj yoga is a master key to solving the problems of the mind and the body.

This technique is for cleanliness and efficiency of the upper digestive system (pharynx, esophagus, stomach) as well as the respiratory system (pharynx, trachea, bronchi).

How can we clean out the stomach and lungs you ask? The yogis invented a way of simply back-flushing the stomach, just like Jala Neti does for the nose. The yogis maintain that every morning one should flush the stomach, starting off with a clean digestive furnace, to remove any remnant food and to replace the mucus lining. It is just like washing off the dead skin cells on the outside of the body each day. Just as swimming, saunas and scrubbing helps the skin to function or “breathe” better, flushing out the stomach helps it to digest better.

Method:  About six cups of warm salty water (we are not going to include the exact recipe here) are drunk to completely fill the stomach, and then from either a squatting or a bent forward position, two fingers are used to press the root of the tongue and stimulate the vomiting reflex. This makes a quick and easy gushing out of the water held in the stomach. Jala Neti is then done to clear out the sinuses. This practice is not as awful as people first think, and is in no way similar to the experience of being sick when the stomach is rejecting food due to an illness or when you’ve overdosed on alcohol after a drunken party! It need not take any more than about 5 minutes and leaves you feeling light and empty.

The quantity of water needed to fill the stomach may vary from person to person. Six glasses is just an average. A smaller person, or someone with an anorexic temperament, may only need four, whereas a large, hungry person may take eight to ten.

Some people do Kunjal very easily first off, and others may have a bit of trouble when they first begin. Those who have trouble getting the water down, or getting the water to come out, have nothing but a mental problem with it. Based on past experiences, they believe it is an extremely horrible thing to be sick and vomit. They may have nasty childhood memories of being ill with a stomach bug or of drunken binges where the stomach has had to vomit to protect itself from overload and these fears and memories come flooding back when approaching this practice. They often say ” I’ve never liked being sick ” (well who has???) or “my mother used to make me drink Castor oil” or something like that. They simply have a psychological resistance to the practice, yet once they get used to the idea or see others going about it easily, they loosen up and it happens much more easily. It may take a few attempts, but eventually it’s never as bad as they thought. 

Please note: The modern syndrome known as Bulimia has nothing in common with this yogic practice, and is a psycho-physiological addiction to the cycle of gorging and purging. Digestive Pic

 Anatomy of Kunjal: The pyloric sphincter, which is a muscle located at the bottom or out-going end of the stomach, normally remains closed except for when food is sent in waves down into the G.I.T. (gastro intestinal tract) for further digestion. But when it receives a message from your brain that your body needs to expel the contents of the stomach, perhaps if there is bad food in there, or when the stomach has nausea due to illness and doesn’t want to digest the food you have fed it, that sphincter and the surrounding muscles make strong contractions in the reverse direction, forcing the contents of the stomach up and out. The pyloric sphincter is something that one can learn to control consciously, firstly by using the fingers to create the vomiting reflex, but later on simply by stomach control.

Like any organ in the body, there is a build up of deposits, and breakdown through wear and tear. Material builds up on the stomach walls and over time it begins to work less efficiently. It is the job of Kunjal to remove this build up and help restore proper function to the stomach lining.

The lungs and trachea too, have mucus linings which can get a build up of toxic wastes through air pollution or activities like mouth breathing, smoking and poor diet which can inhibit their correct function. When flushing out the stomach with Kunjal there is a connected nerve reflex in the lungs which helps expel excessive mucus as well as releasing nervous tension.

Benefits: In addition to flushing out the stomach and esophagus, Kunjal is also an excellent cleansing for the lungs and hence it is very beneficial for asthmatics. The strong contractions made by the pyloric sphincter send a shock wave along the vagus nerve which can release the spasm within the bronchial tree. Kunjal is in fact recommended as instant relief for anyone feeling the onset of an asthma attack. If an asthmatic performs Kunjal every morning, over several months their attacks will get less and less frequent. The contractions of Kunjal help with openness of the breathing mechanisms and improve blood supply to the whole abdominal and thoracic area.

Salt is known to be a great cleanser for the body. Everyone knows the feeling after a good swim in the ocean. The head feels clear, the nose is clear, the lungs feel alive. The same mucus clearing benefits can be attained at home, on a daily basis, through this method. By cleansing the lungs and the blood within the stomach area it also helps with removing bad breath.

 Kunjal helps those with under-active digestion and stimulates the digestive fire. Regular practice of Kunjal will increase circulation in this area and assimilation of food in the gut, and therefore will raise the internal body temperature. It is a good technique for those with perpetually cold extremities and under active digestion. It can help to remove indigestion, gas, and acidity. It tones the abdominal muscles and other internal organs.

 Precautions: People with stomach ailments such as ulcer, hernia, heart problems, high blood pressure, cancers and asthma should seek guidance from a qualified Yoga Therapist before learning this technique.

Vyaghra (Tiger) Kunjal: Tiger Kunjal is so called because after having gorged its prey, the tiger goes off and hides somewhere for a bit of a sleep. It is at this time that it would be most vulnerable to attack, so it hides. Upon waking up several hours later, it voluntarily expels any food left in its stomach after that time. This is because any food still left in the stomach will be the least digestible part and will therefore take even more energy to finish digesting. Normally, humans shouldn’t need to do this, if their food intake is correct in quality and quantity. However, should you ever eat some food which does not agree with you and you suspect the beginnings of intestinal upset or, if, after several hours there is still a heavy feeling in the stomach, this technique can be done. By drinking enough salty water to completely fill the stomach performing normal Kunjal as above.

Vastra Dhauti:  (Don’t try this one at home kids!) 

Instead of just washing out the stomach it can be scrubbed out with a cloth! This is the infamous yogic practice of cloth eating. A strip of cotton cloth about two inches wide (which obviously doesn’t fray at the edges) is soaked in a bowl of warm salty water. Then one just starts eating the cloth and swallowing it. Three metres of it, making sure to leave a bit hanging out! Then one does Nauli Kriya (the rolling of the abdominal muscles) to scrub the rag around in the stomach. Afterwards it is gently removed within the maximum set time. 

As a spiritual seeker, whether I’m writing a lecture or leading a retreat, whenever the subject comes up, a very particular form of focused attention immediately takes over the room. Suddenly everyone is listening very closely, hanging on my every word! Why? Because everybody wants to know the secret. What secret? The secret to how to handle the sexual impulse—the wild beast of our evolutionary heritage that is alive and kicking within us all.

I always find this so ironic, because we’re supposed to be the most sexually liberated generation ever. Since the cultural revolution almost half a century ago, most of us have experienced unprecedented freedom in relation to our own sexuality. I know I did. It has been a sex-positive, go-for-it, don’t-worry-be-happy, if-it-feels-good-do-it world for all of postmodernity’s children. But what’s so ironic is that all the freedom and sex-positive morals haven’t, for the most part, made us much wiser as to how to handle the beast. Why is it that with more freedom to experiment and more actual experience we still tend to be so confused, insecure, and victimized when it comes to sexuality? Why is it that when the wild one awakens, so few of us are deeply trustworthy?

Oops! … I have to be careful here, or I’ll sound like a square. Sex, among the spiritual crowd, is definitely a sacred cow. If anyone dares to question whether sex is all it’s cracked up to be or to suggest that it may be dangerous and complex terrain to navigate, they are almost automatically labeled as being an unenlightened, sex-negative moralist. It’s almost like daring to question whether God exists when talking to a religious fundamentalist.

Well, I’m definitely not sex-negative—I’ve been happily married for more than twenty years. But as a spiritual seeker and cultural critic who looks deeply into the nature of the human experience with unwavering idealism and uncompromising realism, I can say one thing with enormous confidence: Few areas of life are more of a source of karma, confusion, and mistrust than sex. So whenever I hear ordinary people or spiritual authorities speak in a cavalier way about this most complex and confusing topic, it’s obvious to me that either they don’t know what they are talking about or they haven’t looked very deeply into their own experience or anyone else’s.

We can look at this subject in different ways. Habitually, we tend to look at sex from the inside, so to speak, to see it purely from the perspective of the subjective experience—biological, emotional, psychological, and spiritual—of the individual. To put it simply, we see it through the lens of how it makes us feel. But there’s another way to look at sex, which in postmodern culture is much less familiar: We can look at it from the outside, which means we look at the long- and short-term consequences of sexual engagement for real people, in real time.

What we will find, if we take this perspective, is that sexual pleasure, emotional intimacy, and spiritual thrills never come for free. Even as much as I, being a healthy, virile male, would like it to be otherwise, the simple truth is that if we’re not extremely careful about how we engage with the beast, we will probably create karma in the long run. No matter how much short-term happiness, pleasure, or freedom we may taste, when the fireworks are over, the complex realities of our emotional and psychological selves have to absorb the multidimensional consequences of sexual intimacy, both positive and negative.

The traditional definition of enlightenment means coming to the end of karma. I have always defined karma in a particular way, as the suffering we cause to self or other when we act out of ignorance or selfishness. Ideally, therefore, the enlightened individual would no longer be creating karma, and to not create karma in the sexual arena is nothing less than a supreme spiritual attainment in our day and age!

As a seeker, I’ve always preferred to look at this particular subject from the outside. If we have spiritual aspirations, if our goal is enlightenment—emotional, psychological, and spiritual freedom—we have to look beyond the immediate promise of thrills, ecstasy, and intimacy.

Once again, don’t get me wrong. I think sex is wonderful. I love to awaken the wild one within. I just don’t want to get burned by it, and neither do I want anyone else to. I have high ideals—I want sex to be karma-free. I want its ecstasy to be experienced in a way that strengthens rather than weakens our fundamental confidence and trust in life itself. Deep and profound trust between human beings, especially now, is nothing less than sacred. In fact, I believe it’s the currency that a truly spiritual life depends on. For God—or whatever name we use to define that which is most sacred—to enter into this world through us, we must learn how to be deeply trustworthy. And in order to do that, it’s important that our experience of sex is karma-free.