Tantra

What is tantra?

Tantra is an esoteric tradition aimed at spiritual expansion and liberation through practices. It is not a religion of its own but an approach found within Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. What the West calls tantra is almost always neotantra: a modern current that singled out one aspect.

Where the word tantra comes from

From Sanskrit, and the translation already says something about the intent.

The Dutch-language encyclopedia parses it as tan, to expand, and tra, instrument or liberation. Within Buddhism it is mainly Vajrayana that was shaped by the tantric scriptures, in Tibet and also in China and Japan.

That same source makes a distinction that matters most on this page: right-hand tantra actually emphasizes “the control and transformation of the sexual energy that is dangerous to spiritual development.” Western interest goes the other way. “In Europe and especially in the Netherlands, thanks to the sexual loosening since the 1960s, a particular attention has arisen for one of the aspects of left-hand tantra.”

Why what is called tantra here is usually neotantra

Because it is a Western current that invokes the tradition without taking over its core.

Neotantra is described as “a Western new religious movement partially based on Eastern spiritual traditions of Tantra,” and it emphasizes the sexual elements. A difference the English-language entry highlights: “not all of the elements of Indian tantric practices are used in neotantra, in particular the reliance on a guru.”

The criticism is there too. Religious scholar Hugh Urban argues that modern practitioners confuse tantric bliss with plain orgasmic pleasure. Geoffrey Samuel is milder and argues that neotantra is creatively assembled from Buddhist and Hindu sources, with themes of real depth.

That does not make neotantra worthless. It does make it something other than what it points to, and that is why this page exists alongside the practice.

Where this fits on this site

What I do is neotantra, and then the part about attention and pace. What that means concretely, and how such a meeting goes, is worked out on the page what is tantra. This glossary page only gives the origin and the boundary.

Sources

• Tantra (yoga). Dutch-language encyclopedia. Provides the parsing of the Sanskrit as tan “to expand” and tra “instrument, liberation,” the description as an esoteric tradition aimed at spiritual expansion and liberation, the finding that tantra is not a religion of its own but occurs in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, the link between the tantric scriptures and Vajrayana, the distinction between right-hand tantra with “the control and transformation of the sexual energy that is dangerous to spiritual development” and the left-hand variant, and the sentence about the Dutch attention to that aspect since the 1960s.
• Neotantra. English-language encyclopedia. Provides the description “a Western new religious movement partially based on Eastern spiritual traditions of Tantra,” the emphasis on the sexual elements, the difference that “not all of the elements of Indian tantric practices are used in neotantra, in particular the reliance on a guru,” Hugh Urban’s criticism that modern practitioners confuse tantric bliss with plain orgasmic pleasure, and Geoffrey Samuel’s counterargument that neotantra is creatively assembled from Buddhist and Hindu sources.

Related terms

• Aftercare. Giving attention afterward, which is more self-evident in neotantric practice than elsewhere.
• Consent. The agreement that is the starting point in every form of touch.
• Sexual response cycle. The model of the phases, which the slowing-down works on in practice.
• Breathwork. The breathing exercise that is a given here, with what the research measures about it.
• Yoni. The Sanskrit word for the vulva that is common in tantric practice.
• Yoni massage. The slow massage of the yoni that comes from the neotantric corner.