Tantra Tai Chi

Tantra is a spiritual path from India that uses sexual energy as a driving force for awakening into higher consciousness. The raw, pulsating energy experienced in the body is called "Shakti," a divine representation of the animation of spirit in material form. Tantric mythology marries Shakti energy to her counterpart, Shiva, the maintainer of pure consciousness.

Tantra does not separate body and soul; it is an approach to living that links the physical universe to the cosmic whole. The Sanskrit word Tantra refers to a "weaving," perhaps meaning the fabric of life itself, or an "expansion" that merges the physical and spiritual dimensions, as Shakti merges with Shiva.

The coming together of Shiva and Shakti mirrors and celebrates the original and ongoing creation of life itself. The creative Source, having separated from Itself to know Itself, now embraces Itself in order to experience Itself.

While there is ample data regarding the origins and development of Tantra as it shaped itself differently into Hindu and Buddhist thought, the actual facts are difficult to ascertain after so many centuries and, perhaps, millennia. There is a vast collection of cryptic material, an extraordinary variety of complex readings available. At the heart of it all, however, is the emphasis on practice as superior to scholarly knowledge. Practice may take the form of meditation with elaborate visualization requirements, or it may be a ritual to initiate the symbolic sacrament of mating between Shakti and Shiva.

Increased sensual delight is not the goal of Tantra. Yet it is through the senses and the breath that Tantra exposes and incorporates the attributes of mind. Lovemaking that draws on tantric attitude and training becomes in itself a meditation, an exquisite anchor that enfolds the lovers not only into one another but into the present cosmic moment of creation itself. This centering on the subtle nature of being provides a reliable doorway into transpersonal states of consciousness as well as into the loving reality of relationship. During such practice, one workshop participant, married fifteen years, tearfully reported the joy of seeing the face of her partner "as it was on our wedding day."

Tai Chi (also spelled Tai Ji) is a "qigong" exercise from China. The word qi (pronounced chee) means energy, and gong means practice, or training. Tai Chi uses flowing movement and internal focus to increase and balance the direction of energy through meridian pathways in our bodies. Acupuncture is based on these same meridians; good health is considered dependent on keeping the passages open.

Like Tantra, Tai Chi draws on a philosophy of oneness (the "Tao") which is approached through the harmonization of yin and yang, two dynamic principles that comprise the polarities of all experience.

The origins of Tai Chi are obscured in antiquity. Somewhere, or perhaps in several places at once, someone, or several different individuals, realized that purposeful, slow and centered movement could enhance well-being and strength. The power of controlling energy through Tai Chi is so great that it became the basic martial art of China. Various styles were perfected and continue to evolve today. Daily practice of Tai Chi can result in longer, more active living, with increased vitality, greater flexibility and less stress. With its emphasis on being deeply grounded in the midst of action, Tai Chi, like Tantra, invites practitioners to achieve a strong internal focus.

Tantra Tai Chiª was recently developed as a partnered practice that blends the softness of Tai Chi movement with the excitement of tantric sexual energy, quickly resulting in an intimate and emotional connection. The purpose of this "sexual warm-up" program is to bring your mind's attention to your body's presence. When you become mentally and physically centered in your body, you become more open to your naturally joyous state of being. You enter into the "here and now," where only Love is present. Past and future disappear, only the eternal moment exists. When you move into this sacred moment in the presence of your beloved partner, you share together the Love that lives within each of you.

Throughout all of the Tantra Tai Chi movements there is an emphasis on sexual energy. You tighten the sexual muscles (called "pubococcygeal," or PC) in order to bring your attention to this vital area of your body. Both Tantra and Tai Chi recognize the sex center as a powerful energy vortex. Called the first chakra in Tantra, and the Hui Yin point in Taoist Tai Chi, the sex center is the starting place, the gateway to potent currents of life-force (energy) that can be experienced throughout your body.

The Heart Center, located in the center of your chest, inside your rib cage at breast level, is where you experience personal emotion as well as devotional spiritual love. Tantra Tai Chi teaches you to connect the Sex Center and the Heart Center. When this link becomes activated, energy flows freely between the two centers. Love and sexuality become joined, giving birth to a high state of intimacy that nourishes and fulfills your soul.

The movement of energy between the Sex Center and the Heart Center is the basic premise of Tantra Tai Chi. As the movements begin to blend the sexual and spiritual energies, love becomes a tangible feeling within you. A spiritual opening takes place in the center of your head. In Tantra Tai Chi, this center is called "Bindi." The movements that help you focus your attention in these three centers are called Sex, Heart and Bindi.

The intention of the basic Tantra Tai Chi movements is to encourage you to explore sacred intimacy. Sacred intimacy is that experience you have when you have dropped all your masks and stand revealed as your authentic self. Underneath all your pretensions and projections, you are a beautiful divine being, perfect and whole. Through Tantra Tai Chi, you can let go into truly being who you are and share your perfect presence with your beloved. This is the greatest gift you can give one another.

How does all of this relate to lovemaking?

Tantra Tai Chi brings your mental attention inside your body. Taking this skill into the bedroom will change forever how you make love. By focusing on the Sex, Heart and Bindi centers during lovemaking, you transform the paradigm of sexual activity from a direct linear release of tension (climax) to a slower journey of blissful orgasmic expansion as you and your beloved dance and swirl between each of the centers.

Passion requires the on-going tension of repeatedly separating and coming together. Tantra Tai Chi provides you with specific positions of separation ("Solo Stillness") and togetherness (the "Connected Pose"). Alternating during lovemaking to consciously go within one's self and then returning to eyes-open connection helps raise sexual activity to levels of intimacy that take you beyond yourselves into spiritual realms of unconditional ecstasy.

Ecstatic moments dissolve your personal boundaries, allowing you to soar into the Oneness to which you belong. Such moments may take place spontaneously during lovemaking, especially when the partners are new, exploring one another's mind and body with hormonal urgency. As the years pass, many couples accept a lessening of sexual interest as a natural pattern of marriage. However, they continue to desire intimacy and, not knowing how to achieve it, they separate, perhaps hoping to find it elsewhere. Through Tantra Tai Chi, couples learn to consciously create and sustain a dynamic shift into that longed-for state of union. Lovemaking becomes a rewarding practice of deepening awareness, both in and out of the bedroom.

Tantra Tai Chi can help you experience the richness and rapture that your relationship can provide. When you and your beloved enter together into sacred intimacy, you contribute to global transformation by making the reality of Love more available for everyone, everywhere.

Diana Daffner

Certified T'ai Chi Chih instructors, Diana and Richard Daffner developed Tantra Tai Chi TM as a tool for guiding couples to experience higher states of love. They lead seminars and couples retreats to promote spiritual, emotional and sexual intimacy as well as a weekly program of coaching by telephone. Information about Tantra Tai Chi can be found on their website: www.tantrataichi.com

Click the link below to support the work of our volunteer Internet publication: