Tantric Friendships

Tantra Yoga doesn't immediately call to mind friendship, but this aspect has been overlooked. Tantra Yoga is an ancient practice of exercises involving breath, movement, mantras, yantras, concepts, visualizations, meditations, energy exchange, diet, sexual specifications, good deeds, and more. Many Tantric schools and practitioners are not focused on sexuality at all, and many are celibate. Yet lately, Tantra has become associated unduly with sex, and with romantic relationships.

That leads some people to think they can't practice Tantra without a partner, but Tantra can be done totally alone, whether involving sexual arousal or not. Tantra can also be done with non-sexual friends, or family, and this is something I'd like to promote, as that form of love is deep, and profound, and is not getting the attention it deserves in the Tantric Community.

The Tantric Community is growing fast, and please contact me for links to some of the best new online ways to find others interested in Tantra, whether teachers, or others interested. I'd like to take this occasion to remind people that Tantra can be done with groups which are not poly, and it doesn't require any sexual focus at all. Some people may be scared off by seeing the connection between the open minded, sacred poly community, and Tantra. Those of a more monogamous, or disinterested persuasion can feel pressure, being on a different wave-length, and may need to look into the dynamics of a group they are signing up for first.

It's a combination many enjoy, the poly and Tantric, but groups can share in that expansiveness, and diligent yogic practice, without having to feel they or their partners are going to be hit on. LucidPlay group events, for example, are not focused on the erotic at all, but on the other aspects of our psyche, while of course, letting those connections between interested parties arise on their own if desired. Lectures by traditional Tantric Yogis can also be attended, but they do leave the attendees stiffly sitting in chairs, thinking in the linear rational area of the brain, rather than connecting on the flowing energetic plane with other participants can, as a workshop can do.

Tantra is just as useful to do with friends as it is with lovers, or those we feel juiciness with, and it doesn't cause a danger of falling into attraction, but can be very clean and simple. A lot of Tantra Yoga can be done facing each other in the lotus position, sitting on the floor, legs crossed, or a reasonable facsimile. Simply doing them next to each other in sync is wonderful, as you are both experiencing your totality, and the totality sensation of being one with the world.

You can also do exercises that exchange your energies, feel them together, program them, query them, guide them, bless them, and more. To learn about how to do this, you can follow along with my DVD, Tantra: Clarity of Interaction. If you are bringing your friendship to be guided consciously by the spirit beyond your egos, you may find it flowing more smoothly to lead you to synchronicities that network you with opportunities to serve the world, be rewarded for that lovingly, improve your friendship and take it to higher levels, tingling and frequency raising, electricity that can be put into projects you are working on together, or using Quantum Tantric Activism to send what you generate out to influence the overall field of consciousness that manifests in our society, person by person, group by group, without clear distinction, yet with clear distinction as well.

It is this paradox of the individual and the whole, the pulsation between those two aspects of the manifestation of consciousness that Tantra is dealing with. Friends can do exercises that bring their attention to their individuality, and to their friendship. Just as in romantic partnerships, they can look at their relationship not only as a duality, but as a triad, a bridge forming a union between the two.

The more individual pole of the magnetic conduit of the spine is considered in Tantra to be at the base of the spine, where the root chakra lies. A chakra is an energetic whirlpool in which more subtle energy is swirled down into the more solid body. Friends can focus on the root chakra, clenching muscles in the lower pelvis, for example, directing their attention on that aspects of themselves, using their eye direction to inhabit their base.

They can then direct their eyes to the heart, where the union of their friendship can be seen to lie, the love that draws them together, the union, the flow, the merging between the individual and the universal.

They can they direct their eyes to the crown of the head, where their higher selves can access the source of all. And they can turn their eyes up and down, up and down, quickly, clenching the muscles at the base when they are turned downwards to then push the energy back up to the crown. They can coordinate this with their breath. This is one simple exercise that can be done together to gain awareness of the way both friends can be lead as closely as possible by the higher self, and by love, and by thriving of the embodied self.

Then, energy can be exchanged between the hearts, or circulated around the bodies, or both friends sending the energy up together along their spines in sync. These are nice ways to experiment with, and can be done at any age. Friends then have a way to express the love for each other in ways not often given in our society. This can be a beautiful thing.

And friends can make their friendships more sensitive to energy flow, and their dynamics, and can include the whole self, not just the personality, by doing such Tantric exercises. They can align their frequencies more harmoniously, encourage each other to keep up their practices, take each other through guided imagery, create an energetic harmonic that amplifies the expanded states, and be able to relate without words or the need for entertainment.

They can even go beyond words, into the silence together, and may develop more telepathy, and the ability to do interesting projects such as dual hypnogogia, synced lucid dreaming, aura viewing, and healing.

Don't limit Tantra! Run with it.