When I realized that I had made love repeatedly, but still had no real understanding of how sexual energy functioned, I decided to begin a sincere exploration into the mysterious matter of sex. What motivated me in my exploration, and kept me going when I felt discouraged, was that here and there in my life were scattered moments of love that were glaringly different from the rest. When they occurred, time seemed to stop, become elastic, and the air, the space around me opened up to reveal a new dimension of sensual perception. It was as if I was suddenly truly alive and an inner body intelligence took over. I hadn't a clue how and why this happened but it gave me hope that there was something fundamental about sex that I had still to discover. Today, I know I am not alone.
While a couple may continue to love each other, the sexual attraction often dies and they stop expressing their love for each other in a physical way. Sooner or later they might even find themselves deciding to separate. And yet for us all the search for this expression of love goes on, generated by a deep longing that seldom goes away. After researching intensively for many years I discovered that it was the experience of Tantra, that of relaxing into the sex energy rather than putting pressure on it, which gave me what I had longed for intuitively throughout my life. It was like finding a series of keys, which opened door upon door. It was a process of uncovering age-old secrets about sexual energy that touched my spirit, bringing me to an unexpected inner peace.
I have a friend who was in a dilemma. In love with two women, he was utterly confused, in distress and agony over which one to choose. He went to a therapist, who asked him, "Who do you enjoy making love with more?" "Cathy," he said. "Then go with Cathy," was her advice. When my friend first told me this story, I was in the doldrums of a long relationship where sex had lost its joy and spark, and I didn't understand his therapist's answer. Now I do. I have learned that whenever sex is fulfilling, the chances of love and a joyful life together are greater. Sexual rapport creates possibilities for intimacy and honesty, and a bonding, loving union. Conversely, where there is dissatisfaction in sex, the seeds of discontent are sown, resentments, frustrations, and fears easily arise, and slowly the love and rapport between partners can break down, ultimately leading to separation.
That is why the two most important words in all languages are love and prayer. In love you become one with a single individual; in prayer you become one with the whole cosmos. And love and prayer are similar as far as their inner workings are concerned.
In inquiring into the phenomenon of orgasm, modern research reveals that an "average" sexually active person experiences orgasmic ecstasy for twenty seconds a week, ninety seconds a month, thus eighteen minutes a year.* And this is based on an orgasm lasting ten seconds. Even ten seconds can seem quite an achievement! So in fifty years of sexual activity we have the privilege of experiencing orgasmic ecstasy for about fifteen hours in total. This is astonishing (and distressing) when you consider how many times you make love and how much additional time is spent dreaming about it and agonizing over it!
Sex in its highest form has an element of the divine in it. It brings you to "here," to the divinity of the present moment where you feel gloriously at ease. Everything rests perfectly in place. It is an orgasmic biological ecstasy which arises out of the dynamic interplay of opposite forces, and which is food for the spirit.
The secret of Tantra, and its prime interest, is that sexual energy is encouraged to be retained in the body. It is not habitually released in orgasm or ejaculation. It remains within the body and is re-circulated, and through this we fulfill our orgasmic potential. In this the second half and ascending phase, sexual energy is given the opportunity to circulate back to its source in the brain, so as to revitalize and nourish the "master" glands (pineal and pituitary) in the body. These glands have a profound influence on health. Sexual activity is known to release many hormonal factors that positively affect body and attitude, and since ancient times sex has been associated with longevity and spiritual illumination. When sexual energy can be re-absorbed, recycled, sex becomes a revitalizing, energizing force. This is known as the spiritual or generative phase of sex, and here the genitals are viewed reverently as generative organs. Accessing this second phase of our sexual energy by allowing it to turn inward and upward, is the revelation of Tantra. It shows us that sex can be directed to create more life, not simply another life.
This spiritual phase of sexual energy arises as men and women learn to relax together during sex. This is contrary to the popular experience of sex as effort, an activity involving tensions and pressures. We believe that the more we do in sex, the more will happen and the greater the reward. We hardly think of taking it easy! What we don't realize is that genuine sexual ecstasy goes hand-in-hand with physical relaxation. The more we relax, the more we feel. In fact, ecstasy and tension are diametrically opposed; tension creates heat and restlessness while ecstasy arises from a coolness and an inner peace. Tension narrows and contracts, while relaxation opens and expands. Tension creates a peak, while relaxation creates a valley-Tension forces a release, while relaxation allows absorption. Relaxation is the whole ambience of Tantra. It means that when we relax down into our sexual energy, instead of building it up to a peak and then releasing it, the outcome will be more life energy and more love. In re-directing sexual energy through relaxation, we can turn it inward and upward, where it is automatically re-absorbed by the body and re-circulated. Tantra refers to this step as placing a foot on the first step of the inner ladder of growth. In time, a neglected energy pathway forges its way open in the core of the body, and we experience this from the genitals upward as a streaming electromagnetic current, a glorious golden light phenomenon. When we encourage the spiritual phase of sex instead of obstructing it as we do in our ignorance, lovemaking becomes a sacred experience filled with wonder.
How often have you said to your lover or yourself, "I want to make love. I just don't have the time." In a sense that is true, because satisfying sex requires time. However, when we do finally make love we are always in a hurry to get to the end part, the orgasm part. When we are striving toward that, we are ahead of ourselves. We are not really "here," we are not even really together. We are almost using each other and our every move or touch is oriented toward our goal. The orgasm has become the only means of fulfillment, and we feel that sex is not really sex unless we "come," unless there is a peak and release of energy.
This urgency for an orgasm operates unconsciously within us, almost like an automatic reflex, seeming to leave us little choice but to head for orgasm, as we usually do. This desire is so strong it seems to be absolutely instinctive, which makes it even harder for us to imagine there might be other ways of making love! And so we repeat ourselves in sex, looking for a certain fulfillment that we never seem to find.
The inward and upward swing of the sex energy required in Tantra happens as bodies and genitals relax, no longer compelled by orgasm, and that same energy spreads and expands deliciously through the body. Yet very few of us have had this experience because we simply get much too tense as we try to control and force the direction of the sex energy. When the same energy is free to move absolutely of its own accord, sex becomes a glorious mixture of rampant passion and sobering silence.
As soon as our level of sexual excitement reaches a certain point, the unconscious tension within each of us is triggered to form an urgent physical desire, which sets up a powerful craving for orgasm. With this forceful injection of tension, we swing automatically away from the here and now, working frantically toward an artificial climax created by a focus in the future. In fact we are not truly present in sex because we have gone in pursuit of a specific outcome. In this way sexual energy fails to be an empowering and moving force, but simply a pleasurable build up and corresponding discharge of tension. This sexual tension unfortunately seldom moves through or out of the body completely. Instead, it lives on as frustrated desire, accumulating with time and continually seeking release. It makes our genitals tough and insensitive while it makes us feel emotional, restless, lustful, or angry. When this accumulated tension is triggered, or thrust forward by sexual stimulation, it adds to the already disturbed energy in the sexual center.
When loving emphasis is placed upon her breasts prior to penetration, the readiness for sex is there, both physically and psychologically, and this is very important. The man will immediately sense that the woman is with him, on his side, moving in rhythmic unison. There will be a feeling of oneness with a deep bodily yes from her, and he won't have to fight for his love, or she struggle to give it. It is true sexual union. Making love in this way, utilizing polarity, begins the process of establishing a powerful energy field between and within two bodies. Bio-electricity flowing within this magnetic field follows a spiral path, and this explains why the movement of the famed serpent power—the kundalini energy, located at the base of the male spine—will be experienced as a forceful unfolding, jerking, rising snake. In complementary style, the root of the female kundalini energy lies not in the spinal base as mistakenly believed, but in the breasts.
Through being able to truly love and satisfy a woman in sex, which represents a man's deepest longing, he begins to feel himself more grounded, mature, responsible, loving, energetic. A genuine male authority and clarity arises. A woman in receiving and returning this love, begins to experience herself as innocent and sweet, the source of love and creation, and a delicate perfumed femininity arises.
In divine sexual union, the positive male pole penetrates the female negative, reaches upward, ultimately penetrating the heart. When this happens, a kind of golden interlocking effect occurs, the penis encased and absorbed gloriously within the heart. This is pure ecstasy!
In conventional sex we do not achieve this sensitivity or aliveness because we are usually not aware, not conscious of what is happening. We are simply doing it, often mechanically or habitually, and hopefully enjoying ourselves, but we are usually lost in the activity of it. In conscious sex we are attempting to be aware of what is happening at each moment, and through this we create the opportunity to have an enriching experience of love each time. This happens because we understand the real nature of sexual energy—that awareness transforms sex into love.
While making love a natural meditation arises. To most people, meditation implies being alone, sitting upright, still and unmoving, but this is only one form of meditation. The movements in sex need not be chaotic but restful. They can revolve around a core of stillness, as in ballet or tai chi or swimming. Contrary to popular belief, meditation can arise most easily during the sex act because its physically pleasurable intensity helps us, even forces us, into the experience of what is happening as it is happening.
When we speak of changing the way we make love, we find that awareness is at the core of it. It is a crucial key to lifting sex to a new height. The first step in awareness is that we must continuously pay attention to our bodies and become aware of precisely what we are doing and feeling as we make love. Slowly, slowly we become alert to each movement, each gesture, each breath. When we learn to watch everything that is happening inside of our bodies, and be with it, the very act of sex becomes our whole focus, or realm of perception. And the very phenomenon of being it and watching it, transforms it.
Sex offers us the opportunity to practice and intensify awareness in order to literally create the present moment. We learn to "be" more in sex, and to "do" less. Out of this the magical Tantric experience emerges. Suddenly when there is no goal, there is an injection of spontaneous and uninhibited life energy. The natural attraction between the penis and vagina is so strong, so full of life, it gives easy access to the present moment.
At the outset of lovemaking, when each person gives the time and attention to his or her own body first, by expanding their inside space, it is as if the air between the bodies that normally separates them actually comes alive, like a magnetic field. You become aware of the life in your own body which radiates outward to communicate with the body and presence of your lover right through the space between you.
To help us shed the tough layer of our insensitive uneducated past, Tantra suggests three ways that we can explore our sexuality to effectively cleanse or de-condition ourselves of unconscious sexual patterns which affect the quality of love in our lives. The Love Keys will assist you in this. The first is to challenge the habit of going for orgasms. Also notice that we are basically absent and ahead, and therefore relatively unconscious, when we do go for it. The second is to make a shift from doing to being in sex. Notice too that even if we are not interested in orgasm per se, we feel nonetheless driven to do something in order to have a sexual experience. The third is to restore our original genital sensitivity (magnetic intelligence) through relaxation and consciousness of the present moment.
The man breathes in through his heart and out of his penis. The woman breathes in through her vagina and out through her heart. Imagine the breath to be golden light as it moves around in a circle. This can be particularly beautiful when the lovers are sitting up together, the woman's legs embracing the pelvis of her man. This intimate exchange where the chest and breasts meet enhances the experience of polarity within the bodies.
In Tantra, we don't exactly concentrate on the genitals, we relax into them. Remember, it is an easy approach and not a forced or tense one. Instead we bring our awareness into them, and begin to get an inner sense and impression of them. This internal focus brings awareness into the sexual act and gradually builds consciousness into the penis or vagina. Imagining a fire or liquid warmth that fills the pelvic area, melting and softening the genitals, can be a helpful image. Our orientation is inward, and by holding the genitals in awareness, almost listening to them as we make love, we start to see and experience them, not ourselves, as the makers of love.
Tension in the anus is associated with insecurity, and men's fear of not getting or maintaining an erection. Tightening the anus will not allay the fear. It will distort a man's energy as he pushes his genitals and pelvic structure forward, so compressing his sexual experience by confining his genital consciousness. By relaxing the anus the whole floor of the pelvis will soften, the sexual energy can fall down and backward into the body so to speak, and he will feel more rooted in the base of the penis. I have heard this feeling described by men as making love from "behind" the penis, and many have found this to be a most significant Love Key, as it helped to increase sensitivity in the penis and prolong intercourse.