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7 Tantric
Keys of Awakening
 by
Margot Anand
The
practices and rituals you will find here are
doorways that reveal the inherent beauty and meaning
of our ordinary moments.
-
Say
yes to life in all its erotic passion.
-
Go
with the flow of the life force within and all
around you.
-
Trust
yourself, and allow your personal power to
manifest in life.
-
Open
your heart in loving compassion to the self and
others.
-
Authentically
express your creativity and your truth.
-
Look
within to achieve clarity and insight in your
life.
-
Surrender
to your Source and know gratitude, spiritual
peace, and a new capacity to live at your
maximum potential in every moment.
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These
seven Tantric keys can open us up to our essential
selves and unleash in us that abundant, joyous
energy -- EveryDay Ecstasy -- that allows us to be
all that we can be as human beings with our partners
and our children and in our work, our community, and
the world. In the process, we discover the meaning
of elegance, the art of achieving maximum results
with minimum effort. Elegant people are in love with
life. And their love calls them to make
contributions beyond the call of mere duty, to
participate fully, to share their joys, pains,
gifts, and truths with others. And, by their
example, they remind us that beyond our apparent
differences, we are connected in Spirit, We are One.
My
own spiritual journey, which led me to the path of
EveryDay Ecstasy, began in Paris, when I was
eighteen years old. I was wildly in love with my
boyfriend; and the first time we made love, at the
peak of orgasm, my consciousness expanded until,
suddenly, unexpectedly, nothing was left but the
absolute certainty that I was utterly and totally
free and that this absolute freedom was, for me, the
secret of life. This realization set the course of
my life.
This
may seem like an unusual beginning to many people.
Yet most of us have enjoyed one unforgettable peak
moment that leaves us with a yearning for that sense
of ecstasy, wholeness, or exquisite peace.
Unfortunately, our culture does not teach us the
value of such experiences or the skills to cultivate
them. But after this first ecstatic moment, I knew I
wanted to discover how to integrate spirituality
with sexuality in my daily life.
My
studies and degrees in psychology and philosophy at
the Sorbonne in Paris did not bring any answers to
my quest. Later, my practice as a therapist failed
to satisfy my hunger for experiential wisdom. I
turned to the study of bodywork therapies and
self-development groups: bioenergetics, encounter
groups, rolfing, Gestalt, Arica, integral yoga. And
still I found no direct answers that explained the
connection between sexuality and spirituality.
I
set out on a journey to explore the traditions of
sacred sexuality around the world. I soon was
introduced to the ancient Eastern science of Tantra;
like yoga, Zen, and Sufism, Tantra is a spiritual
path to enlightenment. But unlike most mystical
paths, Tantra includes sexuality as a doorway to
ecstasy and enlightenment. The essence of the
Tantric teachings can be summarized as this: Choose
with awareness what gives you joy, and it will lead
you to Spirit. A particularly attractive approach, I
thought, for us Westerners so deeply influenced by
the puritanical Judeo-Christian tradition, which
conceives of pleasure not as a door to heaven but
rather as a shortcut to hell!
What
Is Tantra?
Many
people today mistakenly believe that Tantra is a
spiritual bastardization of sexual therapy, an
excuse to indulge in sensual games, an addiction to
hours of sexual orgasms. Nothing could be farther
from the truth. The Tantric path teaches us to
embrace and unify the ordinary, the erotic, and the
sacred dimensions of life, which all have their
roots in Spirit.
The
beauty and wisdom of Tantra is that it embraces
sexuality as a doorway to the "ecstatic mind of
great bliss". Truly, at the peak of orgasm, we
pierce through the illusion of fragmentation and
separation, and glimpse the unity and
interconnectedness of all beings. And through the
other -- our partner -- we fall in love with life.
Because
sex holds this great potential for opening our being
to the experience of ecstasy, Tantra has for
millennia taught the cultivation of sexual love as
an art, as a skillful spiritual practice. Then, as
now, Tantra challenges the belief promoted by most
spiritual and religious paths that we must suppress
or transcend our sexuality to practice meditation or
awaken our Spirit. Tantra arose in rebellion against
these ascetical and life-negating creeds. It
acknowledges that sex is at the root of life and
that to make human sexuality and erotic union a form
of worship and meditation is to practice reverence
for life, leading us directly through the pleasure
of the senses to spiritual liberation.
Tantra
teaches that we master desires not by avoiding them
but by immersing ourself in them. Once known and
experienced deeply, they can be transcended. In
fact, Tantra teaches that nothing is to be excluded
from our understanding of reality. We need not
suffer by sacrificing pleasures. We can cultivate
them as opportunities for awakening. Tantra teaches
us to embrace every moment in our totality, to
respond bodily, feel from the heart, perceive with
clarity, and be fully present to others and to
life.
Tantra
is a Sanskrit word derived from the root tan,
"to expand". In the process of my study
and practice of the Tantric arts, I developed this
definition: Tantra is the art of weaving the often
contradictory aspects of our self or personality
into a unified whole, for the purpose of expanding
our consciousness. Scholar Ajit Mookerjee defines
Tantra as "knowledge of a systematic,
scientific, and experimental method which offers the
possibility of expanding man's consciousness and
faculties, a process through which the individual's
inherent spiritual powers can be realized."
Create
an Ecstatic Life
What
if you began each day from a state of creative
awareness, with a clear vision of what you want and
how it can be achieved? For example, when you want
to create a perfect dinner party for good friends,
you begin with a vision of a warm gathering filled
with intimate friendship, laughter, and good food.
You begin, first imaginatively, then actually, to
feel and create the atmosphere -- you choose a menu,
the lighting, the dishes you will use, the music or
games you will play. You feel the enjoyment of the
evening itself as you prepare for it and anticipate
it throughout the day. Below is a ritual for
starting your day with clarity, by opening all your
centers.
 This
article was excerpted from The
Art of Everyday Ecstasy: The Seven Tantric Keys for
Bringing Passion, Spirit, and Joy into every part of
your life by Margot Anand. © 1998 by Margot
Anand. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a
division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.randomhouse.com
For
info or to order this book.
About
The AuthorMargot
Anand is an internationally acclaimed teacher of Tantra and
author of the best-selling books The Art of Sexual Ecstasy,
The Art of Sexual Magic and The Art of Everyday Ecstasy. A
native of France, Margot received her degree in psychology
from the Sorbonne in Paris and has had extensive training in
gestalt, Tantra yoga, bioenergetics, massage, and meditation.
Her style as a teacher and speaker is a rare synthesis of
French erotic humor, American pragmatism, and Indian
mysticism. She is particularly appreciated for her ability to
bring healing, lightness, fun, passion and great wisdom to her
events. Visit her website at http://www.margotanand.com.
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