Tantra / Tantric ???
There are many types of tantra and tantric pleasure techniques developed in Asia, especially in India, China and Japan. Just the mention of the word tantra or tantric is anathema to some people. They dismiss or shun it without knowing how the words are used. Actually, tantra in the raw means ritual power, regardless of if it has to do with sexual aspects.
Originally tantra was used in the south India and in the Ramayana, the masters of it was Indrajit the son of Ravana, the villain of the story. His main tantric act was a war ritual, which if he was allowed to complete the ceremony, he would defeat the hero of the story, who was Rama. Indrajit’s uncle, a man named Vibhishana, alerted Rama about Indrajit’s tantric expertise. He advised Rama to kill Indrajit before the ritual would be terminated. This was done by Rama’s brother Lakshman. Where did Indrajit do the ceremony? To the South of the Indian subcontinent in an island-nation which no longer exists, which was called Lanka.
Later in India, particularly in the south, there arose many tantrics but mostly these were magic men, ritual priest and magic women. It has little to do with sex. It has to do with power and desire for control or nature and other humans. However gradually interest in using the rituals to format sexual acts came to be.
In India everything done may be done after a related ritual act. This includes sexual intercourse. In fact, even prior to the birth of a child there is a ritual act or tantric engagement. The conception of the child was done only after a ritual. Over time people began to think that sexual involvement means tantra or that the sexual interplay is a form of tantra. Is it?
I remember when I was in a Vaishnava sect where the founder of the organization, made a rule that all initiated member should observe a fifty (50) count chanting of 108 prayer beads before participating in sex for the purpose of begetting a child. Was that chanting a sexual ritual? Technically speaking it would be termed that because it is a religious orientation, a self-ceremony.
In the Puranas there are many stories about queens who went through an official, nationally declared ritual ceremony before entering a bed chamber for sexual intercourse with the king with the expressed desire to produce a male heir to the throne. Is that tantra?
The ceremony was public sometimes with all citizens knowing that the queen would be the subject of the ritual and then soon after would be involved in sex with the king. That is similar to the modern idea of a marriage ceremony in a church and a honeymoon soon after, where all adults understood what that meant. See the video at the web address below. Is that tantra or tantric sex?
My view is that it is a form of self exploration. Is that tantra? But what is self? Is it a composite? Is it an illusion?
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p083xmcz/the-tantra-teacher-giving-millennials-orgasms-in-singapore
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Very useful and insightful break down of this concept that is ordinarily considered very esoteric indeed, based on the connotation associated with it, and depending on the results that are sought after.
All traditions have until recently had some forms of ritualistic practices aimed at gaining some results for individual or group/ community welfare. Many societies around the world still have areas where such practices exist. In the Western World, it was the case with paganism prior to modern religions. And, in other places, shamans of sorts still exist.
That said, even within strict modern religious practices that shun such practices, prayers can be considered a form of Tantric practice. There is that innate tendency within the human psyche to believe that it can somehow, through some sort of ritual or alchemy or incantations expand the influence, powers, or possibilities if its coreself or soul (religious) over it's allowed opportunities by nature.
I see it as an attempt to cross the barrier between so-called magic and manifest reality. So, whether sexual desires/satisfaction are involved or not, all practices such as black, white, purple, pink, or whatever color magic stem from the same human aspiration of desire satisfaction. Invariably, demands will be for producing wealth, triumph over the enemy, health, and or reproduction to which sex is directly related.
