Partners came from all over the UK, India, Spain, Norway and the USA – even Australia (!) to be ‘in’ on Sarita’s last couples level 1 in June (from next year the first three levels of the training will be run by Roxana or Fiona, with different male teachers from the School).

As ever it is my privilege and joy to see couples taking the ‘rollercoaster ride’ through some of the difficult patterns that may have been causing some dissatisfaction or stagnation in their relating, and come into a greater depth of love and appreciation for themselves and their beloved. This time there were a few surprises – a number of people were clearly having Satori experiences – moments of enlightened perception and clarity ….. and, more down to earth, one couple managed to collapse their bed during one of their ‘love-appointments’ !!

The divine Praful and Peru

We were also gifted with a live concert of beautiful music by Praful and Peru. Praful is a highly talented blower of saxophones and flutes whose music I have admired for some years. Peru is a more recent discovery for me and this was my first time seeing her live. My goddess! She is a force of Nature when singing – together their performance was an exquisite transmission with a strong Tantric flavour that complemented our group work perfectly. Check out their CD ‘Breathing Love‘.

The group was truly a delight with most of the couples already expressing an intention to go ‘all the way’ to level 7 in 2012.

Suta teaches singles and couples groups with the School of Awakening, as well as with his own company. Choose Bliss Now – www.chooseblissnow.co.uk. He loves to help men open to the full range of their sexuality and is also a master bodyworker and healer.

Tantra Man Tantra Woman. Great name, great workshop.

And my third foray into Tantra with the School of Awakening since January. When I discover something that makes me zing I throw myself right into it. I couldn’t wait to get back to the impeccable surroundings of Croydon Hall for another dose of cosmic love.

This was the second time the School of Awakening has run this group. It was extended by a day, but even so it was jam packed with meditations and challenging, loving exercises, punctuated by more showers and tooth brushing than I usually manage in a month. That’s the thing about Tantra, you’ve got to be fresh, fresh, fresh; you never know when you might have to breathe on someone, or lovingly caress them.

I was both excited about and dreading the idea of intimate massage with men I had yet to meet. Please let George Clooney be there, I prayed. George wasn’t, but 26 luscious other people were.

If you’d been on my first workshop, you might have noticed I was constantly on the verge of tears. In my second, Sacred Sexuality, I was laughing like a hyena for much of it, but when it came to being comfy with being sexy, forget it. I was so uptight that when it came to a certain exercise involving a little bit of clothing removal, I managed to get through the whole thing without removing more than my cardy and one shoulder strap.

Suta and Sarita honouring the male and female

This time though I was far more at ease. Maybe because now I trusted Sarita and Suta (left). Maybe because they’d lined up a great team of assistants, some already familiar to me: Roxana, Shanti and Santoshi for the women, and Vince and Richard for the men. Maybe also because we women had an extra, gorgeous, gentle-voiced teacher, Verica. Lucky us.

I was back in the zone as soon as we’d introduced ourselves. Day one we spent doing exercises with the men, sharing about ourselves and some touch, and a sound meditation that took me to the other side of the universe and back.

For the next two and a half days we were with the women. I love being with women, discovering ourselves, each other and what being a sexual woman is all about. I can’t go into detail because that would spoil it for you, but if you’ve never spent time with your own sex doing Tantra then I highly recommend it.

The men and women came back together on day four in a ceremonial performance, which was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. I was too old, too fat, too not beautiful enough compared to all those luscious Tantrikas that surrounded me and seemed so at ease with themselves. In fact right up til the last moment I wasn’t sure I was going to do it, but I knew that if I didn’t I would regret it forever. So I did it. By the end of the night I had come a very long way from the cardy/shoulder strap scenario of my previous workshop, shedding shame and inhibition like an old skin to find a new glorious me underneath; that I liked much better.

Then the culmination of the workshop. Two intimate massages, each done with two men I barely knew. This was massage, not sex, but in a country where a normal massage leaves your knickers on and ignores your breasts, it was a challenge. It was a good job that by this stage in my Tantra journey I knew for sure that my yoni was pretty normal and maybe even pretty. The first massage was an incredibly powerful experience.  A feeling like I’ve never had before went up into my head and transported me somewhere that left me feeling like a 14 year old, innocent and very vulnerable; a feeling I never experienced as a teenager.

The impeccable surroundings of Croydon Hall

I went into a big crisis about massage two, hardly slept all night, needed help from my group of women to find me a man who I could feel safe with, and they rallied. I think up until then part of me, the bit that got trampled on as a kid in a dysfunctional family, didn’t believe that I would be supported, but as soon as I asked, I received. Thank you, women. And thank you to the man whom I did it with, a great big ride of healing and pleasure and then zonking out so completely that when I came to I felt like I’d been thousands of miles away for years and couldn’t believe I was still at Croydon Hall.

I floated home on a cloud of love for all the world, and am now plotting my next course.

Watch out for Catharine’s article on Tantra in the autumn issue of The Source magazine, the south-west’s magazine for all things eco and sustainable. Catharine is also a well-known Bristol columnist, and writes a regular blog on life, the universe and everything at http://catharinestott.wordpress.com/

Can Tantra help to transform jealousy?

Love Sita x

Answer

Jealousy is a red hot topic which trips up even the most dedicated meditator. Luckily, one of the meanings of Tantra is, ‘transforming poison into nectar.’ In this sense, we can use Tantra to transform any of the so called negative aspects of our life, including jealousy.

It is good to understand that in fact, if we are jealous of someone, this feeling comes about because we are projecting some un-lived aspect of ourselves onto the person we are jealous about. We are imagining that this person is able to have a level of fulfillment that we are denied. To heal this wound within ourselves, it is wise to ask the question, “if I could do whatever I wanted to right now, what would it be?”

Once you have found out what your underlying desire is, then you can create a meditation out of living it, as consciously as possible. In this scenario, it is important not to believe you need the other in order to act it out. You can distill your desire to it’s very essence, which means you going for your core need.  A sutra from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra says:   “Objects and desires exist in me as in others. So accepting, let them be transformed.”

By accepting our desires, and acting them out as a meditation, we will be able to discover powerful lessons and insights which will enhance our clarity, wisdom and compassion. An important key in this is to be total. The more honest we are with our core desires, and the more total in acting them out, the more clarity and transformation will happen.  When you are doing exactly what you want, in the here and now with your full passion and creativity, it will be impossible to be in a state of jealousy. You will be so fully alive, so in the flow of who you are meant to be, that you will have no need to project your life force energy on another and compare. You will be in the flow. Jealousy can only exist in stagnation.

With love,

Sarita

Sink,

Melt;

The sacred fluid

Like liquid gold you run,

Smudging,

Shimmering into my being

Light you dart

To this and that of me,

Weightless molten mercury

Sharp you pierce

And firm and full of all you are

The mightiest you give me

Dissolving fluid liquid

Into one quick swift slow deep totality:

This world

This all

This everything

Tara

Sarita began by explaining that Tantra works with uniting opposites, and that we can see these polarities not as separate qualities, but more like the two banks of a river where they seem opposite but underneath the water they are one. I’ve struggled for years to reconcile the two different people that live inside of me – the wild, crazy, loud party animal and the much more quiet, insular and reflective self. Since discovering Osho’s work, I’ve been better able to accept all aspects of my personality and working with Tantra is happily reinforcing that for me. Tantra also teaches that the unity of sex and spirit produces a powerful energy for transformation and that there is no right and wrong, just opportunities for growth. I like this lack of judgement.

The faces of the group revealed eager anticipation from some and nervous trepidation from others – just what had they let themselves in for? To break down any barriers we were invited to dance individually from our sexual centres, connecting with that raw, potent, creative energy. Then as the music dipped to a slower, softer sound, Sarita encouraged us to dance from our spiritual centres and connect with source energy.

Next we performed the same exercise – dancing from our wild and passionate sides and then softly, meeting our partner’s gaze and connecting with their essence, changing partners as we moved around the room. After dancing with those dichotomies I already felt more alive with energy zinging around my body.

In pairs we were then led into the meditation of the five senses. This began with the male partner lying down and being blindfolded. To stimulate his sense of smell, the women wafted tissues under his nose that had been impregnated with different aromatherapy oils.

Taste was the next sense to be kindled as we fed our partners slices of apple sensuously and with great sensitivity. Sarita suggested that the guys explore their sense of taste by connecting with the tree the apple grew on, the orchard it stood in and the sunlight that gave it precious energy to grow. We are connected to everything and everybody on this Earth but we rarely stop and give ourselves time to appreciate these connections.

Playing with sound, the female partners were invited to hum, sing or whisper in our partner’s ear. I found this the hardest to do as I didn’t have any poems memorised or lines rehearsed. But looking inside my heart I found the words to say. Exploring touch we softly stroked hair and bodies from head to foot, from heaven to earth. And on removing our partner’s blindfolds we inspired their sense of sight by dancing for him like Shakti dancing for Shiva. I enjoyed this part the most as my body’s desire to move had been re-awakened by the dancing earlier, and there’s nothing like a seductive snaking of hips to bring out the goddess in me.

On switching roles, I was surprised at just how much stronger each sense became when I tuned into them. Skin was much more sensitive to touch when sight was “out of sight”.  And I really could taste the sweet rain that watered the apple tree.

Me and my friend Loan at Mind Body Spirit

I had to duck out of the workshop early in order to catch my bus back to Bristol but I left there feeling so much more juicy and alive. This valuable playtime was the perfect antidote to too much work lately and I wouldn’t want to be accused of being a dull girl now would I?

Sarah Shivani Williams

Sarah’s weekly radio show, Vivacity, is broadcast on Wednesday’s at midday on BCFM 93.2 in Bristol.  Tune in or go online to listen and podcasts are downloadable from: www.bcfm.org.uk.

Sarah’s blog is available at: http://vivacityradio.wordpress.com/

How can Tantra be helpful for health?

Nania

Answer

To be healthy means to be whole. The nature of wholeness is when body, mind, emotions and soul function as one organic unity. As Osho has said, “The body is the soul made visible.” In my experience, when someone takes a quantum leap in their state of consciousness, it is essential to then take very good care of the body, so the body can catch up to where the consciousness has gone. If this step is not taken it can have dire consequences for the body. In this sense, Tantra is the supreme spiritual approach, since Tantra honors the body as the microcosm. There is a very beautiful Tantra quote from Saraha Doha:

“Here in this body are the sacred rivers

Here are the sun and moon

As well as all the pilgrimage places

I have not encountered another temple

As blissful as my own body.”

I remember in a Darshan with Osho, hearing him say to me, “Love the body. Love the body. It is through the body you reach the divine.” I have followed his guidance very precisely and have found the reality in his words.

As we move on the spiritual path, and use the body as our entry point into expanded consciousness, we have the opportunity of experiencing the five senses and all emotional states as friends on the path. The body is always in the present moment, and so is a great teacher. Opening sensual awareness brings sensitivity to all aspects of life. As we become more sensitive we can easier hear the music of the spheres, or see with clairvoyant vision, or feel the subtle truth of life situations, or see behind the illusory veil of maya.

The path of healing through Tantra supports us in knowing ourselves in our totality, the infinite mirrored in the finite. It is a beautiful, loving and supportive path of all that we are.

It was only when I met Sarita and Geho at the age of 26 that I could validate these earlier experiences as being of spiritual value. Diving into Tantric methods seemed to me like regaining my original face and innocence, as nature intended. The way Sarita and Geho worked could be challenging at times but the essence was always the same: re-discovering my true nature.

My interest in Tantra continued to deepen when reading the fascinating story of Saraha, a Buddhist scholar and consultant of the King who left everything behind to be initiated by a woman in the market place. They lived on a crematory ground, or burning “ghats”, where bodies were burnt. Only when you can celebrate life amidst death can you be truly happy! Those words really struck me as I was living in Varanasi, India, at the time, just few yards away from the “burning ghats”. I remember sitting in front of dead bodies burning and being enveloped by a deep, peaceful silence, as if time totally stopped!

A market in Mumbai, India

Living in India for almost 10 years allowed me to take my time and bring full awareness to my actions. My daily routine in the market place became my school. And shoe makers, rickshaw drivers, “chai walas” (tea stalls), silversmiths and so on, became my masters.

I could watch such people for hours, totally mesmerized by the enormous amount of love, devotion and totality they’d bring into their work. When I participated in my first Tantra courses later on, I would re-call the same qualities that I have experienced while living in India.

To me, the four key words to a sincere Tantric approach to life are: love, awareness, devotion and totality.

Bringing love into our actions immediately changes the quality and the final outcome. Love is like our “soul signature” carved onto every little thing we do in our daily life.

Awareness and totality are like two wings of the same bird, one leads inevitably to the other and vice versa.

To be total means not to be pre-occupied by the end result. Rather, one is so absorbed in the moment that no past, no future exists, only a crystal clear, pure, sense of awareness.

Devotion is like our intimate conversation with existence itself, allowing a sense of deep gratitude to be shared from our deepest core. And for no other reason other than the pure joy to be alive!

I’ve had the privilege to grow on the Tantric path with Sarita as my master. After 14 years of being by her side, imbibing from her wisdom, learning from her life experience and assisting her on numerous courses, I have witnessed a radical transformation within myself.

Lately, Sarita and I started to facilitate courses together within the School of Awakening. Leading groups is for me a deeper way to continue to learn about Tantra as well as having a platform to transmit my insights and life experience.

The beauty of witnessing participants embracing their process from pain/hurt to bliss/ecstasy is always very touching and it confirms one thing that has always been my inner mantra: “in the end, everyone wants to love and to be loved.”

With gratitude and growing happiness,

Niten x

Niten is sharing his Tantric path with his beloved Santoshi, (a Goddess of the highest calibre!) who embodies the essential, feminine principle.

Together, they are in the process of creating new groups that will be offered in China toward the end of 2010.

Niten is also a raw food adept and is currently conducting faw food workshops and retreats in Spain as well as the “Detox/Meditation retreat “with Sarita in the UK (which took place for the first time last month).

Picture of the Mumbai market copyright Isageum 2008

and become each other,

lose and find ourselves in each other,

tumbling over and over,

rolling in heather and in clover.

Let’s breathe each other

and vanish in the we-ness of existence,

flowing endlessly into being,

knowing that there is only the present moment,

extracting the nectar,

savouring the succulence,

rejoicing in the juice,

gorging ourselves on the gorgeousness of being truly present in the heavenly home that is the body,

to embody,

to inhabit

that humungous habitat,

the only place where it’s at.

Riding the waves,

breathing,

rising and falling,

trusting and surrendering,

no longer holding on for dear life

but tenderly dancing with death cheek to cheek.

Not dicing, no not dicing,

but enticing, inviting, courting

and seeking to fully embrace that ultimate surrender.

Truly to live,

fully to give,

wholly to be.

And now understand the meaning of ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’

and transcend now duality,

transcend separation,

be with what is,

accept without reservation my ecstatic undulation.

Now seeing beyond what the eye perceives,

falling into the vanishing,

knowing in that moment there is only self

and knowing this,

feel the infinite variety of experience within.

For all else is an illusion

and thus embracing the paradox,

finally getting the cosmic joke,

I lie and a mandala make,

I sit and eat my birthday cake,

For on this day I am born anew

and I see all the wealth and paucity that I contain

in you and you and you and you.

Doth not thou see?

The dam that breaks in you is washing over me

and I bow down at my magnificence

I bow down to love.

Suddenly, all at once my mind is filled with a new and radiant clarity

my maker wants for me this precious rarity

and truly I am blessed

as I emerge from this crystal chrysalis

words spring from my lips

and love bursts out from my very fingertips.

My heart is all aglow

and from the back aflame,

my delicacy I wear right regally like a filigree cloak

poetry flows full worsted and unimpeded from my pen

as I whirl from pregnant rosebud to pregnant rosebud,

caressing and exclaiming,

appreciating the exquisite promise of blossom

and softly do I whisper a peal of sweet, sweet nothings

as I all drunk inhale the subtlest scent.

As my teachers one and all help me to see

we build the temple of love from moment to moment.

I love you without attachment,

I love you more deeply than I ever knew.

What serious fools we are to hem it in!

Oh slowly, softly, gently, ecstatically, like the honey bee-ing, treeing,

Evolve into lovevolve lovevolve

I reach inside and idly pluck a pomegranate flower.

Tara

From the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

To understand this meditation we need to begin from the last word; ‘joyous.’ If you go deeply into the feeling of joy it becomes clear that joy as such has no container. When we are in a state of pure joy, there is no mind, no awareness of physical limitations. Rather, there is a feeling of limitlessness, expansiveness, lightness. There is a saying, “angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” Yes, and humans can also have the experience of being weightless and free to fly. The moment we are in love, there is joyous abandon. In this sense, love becomes the bridge from the density of form to formlessness and expansion.

One of the easiest ways to experience the nectar of this sutra is through orgasm. When you are with your lover, in total abandon, surrendered to powerful surges of pleasure and ecstasy, you can go into such a deep let go that you completely forget you have a body or mind. In the moment of orgasm, even though the impulse for orgasm is physical, it has the capacity of propelling us from a full body experience of ecstasy into an out of the body merging with the cosmos. We literally, “toss attachment for body aside” as we plunge into the free-fall known as orgasm.

Once we have learned the language of orgasm, then we can apply this same principle to meditation in general. Looking at a sunrise is enough to bring it on. Walking through the forest is enough to help you take flight. Sitting on your meditation cushion can become ascension from the finite to the infinite. The language of orgasm is the same language of mystic experience of all kinds.

The first step is to be in a full body aliveness.

The 2nd step is to be in a deep let go, surrendered and in trust of what is arising.

The 3rd step is to move beyond body and mind.

The 4th step is to dissolve into the whole.

Down the ages, mystics have described the experience of enlightenment in very similar ways. Some of the main descriptions which are used are:

“There is no more I as separate from the whole.”

“There is oneness with all that is; I am the tree, I am the rock, I am the rivers and the oceans, I am the whisper of the wind in the trees.”

“Body dissolves into pure light”

“It is the ultimate orgasm with the universe”

You can begin this meditation by learning the language of orgasm, and then apply this quality to as many areas in your life as you can. The sutra in this way will become such an alive and vibrant door for you, that one day, whenever you are ready, you will know the fullness of the blessing that the sutra is describing. You have nothing to lose but your inhibitions, and a whole universe to gain.

Like to try more meditations like this? There’s still time to join Sarita’s Vigyan Bhairav Tantra club! Read Roxana’s blog on her joy of being part of this unique experience. We are currently in the phase where Sarita is speaking live in the video chat room on specific facets of tantra every two weeks. When this is over we will most likely have these live events every 4 to 6 weeks and questions on any facet can be asked of Sarita. And remember, you can jump in at any point – the modules don’t need to be taken in any specific order.