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

Sexual Arousal
You begin the sacred play of sexual yoga with sexual arousal (rata avasthāpana). Recognizing
each other as god and goddess, you awaken your senses, and fill your body with erotic pleasure,
building a foundation for inner awakening. Sexual arousal includes: 1) eye gazing (dṛiṣṭi), 2)
meditative breathing (vāyu yoga), 3) stimulating the Five Senses (Pañca Indriya), 4) dancing
(nāṭya), and 5) foreplay (Nava Puṣpa and Krama).
Eye Gazing
When you gaze (dṛiṣṭi) into each other’s eyes with love and devotion, you establish a deep
personal connection from the outset. Delighting in the senses, you penetrate beyond them into
your partner’s true self, and make your connection sacred. The Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra
instructs joyfully, “Gaze steadily at each other with mutual desire.” Eye gazing is a meditative
practice that bonds you together in sacredness and helps prevent falling into lust.
Meditative Breathing
Meditative breathing (vāyu yoga) practices with your lover support you in transforming foreplay
into sexual yoga. These include: 1) deep breathing, taking slow and deep breaths, and 2)
synchronized breathing, breathing at the same time as your lover. While you try to hold these
practices as long as you comfortably can, they work well even for just a few minutes for initial
attunement. Deep breathing increases your presence of awareness, meditative focus, and
heightened sensitivity. Synchronized breathing begins the process of deeper physical, emotional,
mental and spiritual union with your lover, and lifts your minds into meditative absorption.
Stimulating the Five Senses
You want to stimulate all your Five Senses (Pañca Indriya): 1) touch, 2) hearing, 3) smell, 4)
taste, and 5) sight, allowing them to soak in pure erotic love. Sensously touch each other’s whole
bodies. Say sweet words to each other. Take in your lover’s scent or offer fragrant flowers. Feed
each other small delicious bites of food, and kiss each other with your tongues. Dazzle each other
with the beauty of your bodies. These acts awaken each sense, heightening its potential for
pleasure during lovemaking. Sahajayoginīcintā writes, “When one enters the palaces of the sense
organs, experiencing abundant delights, this very world attains the one taste of Great Bliss.”
While Westerners would normally think of stimulating the senses as part of foreplay, in Tantric
traditions it is a preparatory step to foreplay.
Dancing
Dancing (nāṭya) is a joyous expression of your divine sexual powers. In dancing for each other,
you incite in your imaginations the limitless possibilities of ecstatic embrace. Dance is a magical
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