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

Understanding Buddhist Sexual Yoga
“The bliss experienced when the tip of the male sexual organ
is in the lotus is the ultimate realization.”
- Kṛiṣṇācārya, The Yoga of the Jewel Garland
Sexual yoga (Karmamudrā – lit. Action Consort or Seal) is one of the most treasured practices of
the Buddhist tradition. For over a thousand years it has been honored and taught to remove
emotional and mental obscurations and attain the Great Bliss of enlightenment.
Buddhism is not a disembodied “science of mind.” Its teachings are meant to be sensuously
understood and lived through the body. It is a system for totally transforming your body, speech,
and mind into a whole new kind of being. Enlightenment does not mean simply a clear and
peaceful awareness – it is the ecstatic intensity of being fully alive. “Mind” in Buddhism really
means the “heart-mind,” as pre-modern cultures knew the “mind” to reside in the heart center.
Buddhism is a path of the heart. Tantric Buddhism teaches the loving and intimate embrace of
life - it values the feeling of connectedness to everything, flowing joyfully with the creative
processes of reality. It offers fearlessness, empowerment, and inconceivable bliss.
Sexual yoga is vitally important to Buddhism. It prevents the path from falling into either the
extremes of scholarly dryness or meditative detachment. Sexual yoga is intimate, juicy, creative,
and fun. As the most important practice of Tantric Buddhism in India, all the great Tantric
masters practiced it with their consorts and taught it to their students. Buddhist sexual yoga
comes from the Tantras themselves, the sacred revealed texts of the Tantric path. Over the
centuries, as Tantric Buddhism passed into Tibet, these practices were not lost but overshadowed
by other teachings and practices, and often frowned upon by monastic or governmental
authorities as a threat to moral order. But the power of the sexual practices never diminished -
they are as valuable today as they were a thousand years ago.
Most importantly, as the siddhas knew, the other Buddhist practices find their true power when
combined with sexual yoga. Sexual yoga is part of a system of practice called the Four Yogas
(Catur Mudrā – lit. Four Consorts or Seals): 1) deity yoga (Jñānamudrā), 2) subtle energy yoga
(Samayamudrā), 3) sexual yoga (Karmamudrā), and 4) nondual yoga (Mahāmudrā).
Traditionally, these are not performed as four separate practices – they are practiced
simultaneously and are totally integrated with each other. Like four pistons of an engine, they
gain their power by working together.
We are all on a path to bliss - that is our destination. As the Hevajra Tantra (The Laughing
Adamantine Tantra) teaches, “The world is pervaded by bliss” - it is the true nature of all things.
Once your emotional and mental obscurations are cleared, you see reality clearly, and dwell in
an effortless state of bliss. The permanent, changeless bliss of ultimate reality united with everchanging
worldly bliss is called Great Bliss (Mahāsukha). Awash in this ocean of bliss, you act
joyfully to bring all beings into its embrace. Sexual yoga is the most powerful and effective
practice ever created for attaining the Great Bliss.
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