Great-Bliss-Tantric-Sex-and-the-Path-to-Inner-Awakening

joy and bliss. Sahajayoginīcintā speaks of the love of the yogi towards his consort, saying, “With
gentle and sincere speech, he draws her into her heart.” And the Hevajra Tantra says of the
yoginī, “She must love the yogi.” Strikingly, the text uses a Sanskrit word for pure love, “priya,”
rather than the more common word for erotic love, “kāma.” For Tantric practice to be successful,
the love between you and your consort must be strong, pure, and heart-felt. Through Tantric
practice, your love for each other blossoms. Erotic desire and love fuse into loving erotic power.
Communication
Tantric lovemaking gives each person the opportunity to share each other’s needs and desires,
likes and dislikes. The more you know your own body’s pleasures and can communicate that
with your lover, the more fulfilling lovemaking becomes. Embracing communication takes away
any expectations of yourself or your lover that you are supposed to know how to please each
other without saying anything. It takes the guesswork out of sex and gives you both the
opportunity to delight each other skilfully. Communication, both verbal and nonverbal, is a
continuous process that deepens your connection to each other.
Intimacy
As love grows, intimacy naturally develops. Tantric practice cuts lustful craving and grasping -
each of you become more purified and transformed, your emotional and mental obscurations fall
away, and you see yourself and you lover for who you really are. You become intuitively
attuned, conscious of and responsive to each other’s needs and desires. Your eyes, breaths,
movements, and subtle energies intertwine, and the power of your connection intensifies.
Mutual Bestowal of Bliss
In much of Tantric literature, the female consort is praised as the foundation from which
enlightenment arises. Because of a woman’s natural capacity for bliss, she holds an especially
exalted position in Tantra. Yet women and men remain equally necessary for each other’s
liberation. The Hevajra Tantra describes both women and men as equal bestowers of bliss,
celebrating the woman’s lotus as “the one who grants the bliss of Great Passion,” and honoring
the man’s vajra in similar terms as “the one who gives the Four Blisses.” Honoring each other as
wellsprings of bliss builds respect and devotion and binds you both together in practice.
Communion
Through practice, communion occurs, what Śabara calls the “Fusion of Identities” (Ātma
Melaka). You attain a mutual harmony, an integrated connection, and an intuitive knowing of the
other’s needs and desires. You and your lover are “one” and “not one,” “two” and “not two.”
Communion is not the end of your differences but the celebration of them in a dynamic blending.
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