Some people have the idea that if they are really interested in spiritual awakening they should no longer focus on relationships, and yet something keeps bringing them back into relationship. How can relationships be a vehicle for spiritual awakening?

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Celibacy: Sex Is Not Compulsory

Most of the sex advice books written during 1960s underlined the idea that the world could be saved by sex - without, of course, enduring the messy and inconvenient complications of an unwanted pregnancy. Many therapists of that era encouraged their neurotic and mentally disturbed patients to 'find themselves' and become better balanced individuals through positive experiences of sex. Sometimes, surrogate partners would be provided for the purpose. We liked to believe then that much mental illness as well, resulted from long-held repressions, and that these could be released through sex.

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The mysterious Tradition of Tantra

This article attempts to outline, in an extremely general way, some basic ideas of the Tantric tradition. Even though the author has a rich personal experience in some of the practical aspects of TANTRISM, the intention here is not to expose a personal view, but to present the Tradition in its most pure form, without any kind of "western interpretations" that most of the time kill and destroy the authentic meaning. This is done with the sincere intention to revive, mostly from the practical point of view, this lost Tradition and to reveal the true face of TANTRA Science.

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Tantra: Sanctified Sexuality

The TANTRIC philosophy itself includes in its theory all the levels of the Universe and gives a paramount importance to astronomy, biology, parapsychology, anatomy, meditation, medicine, music, art and even sexuality. In fact, the sexual experience, considered to be a unification of the Everlasting Male (+) and Everlasting Female (-) principles, has a very important place in TANTRIC techniques and procedures which are often profoundly erotic.

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Sex magic (or sex magick) is the use of sex for the purpose of magick, and is thought by many to be the most powerful of all magick. In accordance with most Pagan and Wiccan beliefs, sex magick is not limited to heterosexual individuals. Sex magic - Practice. This branch of magick takes many forms but always involves a preparation of a proper and sacred atmosphere (as with other magick), pre-cleansing of the body and mind, banishment of evil prior to beginning the ritual, focusing upon the ritual/out ...

Including:

Sex magic - Practice Sex magic - Great Rite Sex magic - Books on sex magick
Sex magic - Books on Sex Magick by Aleister Crowley

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Tantra: Returning to origins

TANTRA YOGA considers that the human being has an extremely complex body and mind. The usual consciousness of wakefulness is considered to be only a very small fraction of our native intelligence, fruit of a very long period of evolution and development of the human being. The practitioner tries to follow the same road of evolution but in an opposite direction. He must go through all stages in inverted order and leave them behind, until he finds the starting point or the unique origin. This is logical if we realize that TANTRA considers the human being to be a summary of the Universe and therefore all the cosmic elements have their correspondent in the visible and invisible man.

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Tantra: Experimental duplication

TANTRA Science relies upon the practical realization of its teachings. Here we are not dealing with endless talking and argumentation but instead with engaging ourselves fully and thoroughly in an exceptional practice which can lead the practitioner to Freedom, Pure Existence, Super-Consciousness, Beatitude and super-normal powers (SIDDHIS).

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Tantra: The Libido - thirst for Unity

Another aspect which is important in TANTRA YOGA is that the libido, when manifested as sexual drive, is not at all considered to be only sensuality but, at the innermost levels, as the soul's ardent yearning for spiritual perfection. Here the erotic impulse appears as the psyche's abyssal thirst to reach perfection through unity of complementary polar opposites. In this way, re-born as a genuine Androgyne of the Secret Tradition -- magical child of SHIVA and SHAKTI -- the Individual Spirit will have access to the highest levels of Consciousness.

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Tantra: Why sexuality?

In the act of lovemaking the couple embodies the dyadic wholeness of the Supreme. TANTRIC sexual union resonates with the very foundational energies of the Universe: it captures, magnifies and re-directs the essential Cosmic Power of Life. It is therefore not by chance that sexual intercourse brings the most intense emotional experience that the human being can have while in the flesh. Therefore TANTRA uses it predominantly to create that overwhelming unifying energy. The erotic impulse stirs up the KUNDALINI energy so that it can rise, through the subtle duct of power along the spine, to the highest center of power above the head. This process renders the adept immortal:

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Tantra: Orgasm and ejaculation

Stated with extreme simplicity, orgasm is an intensely beatific state of consciousness and canceling of ego, with profound harmonizing, relaxing and regenerative effects. Male and female ejaculation is only a complex physiologic process of explosively energetic discharge with a dim manifestation of a brief, incipient orgasm, experienced in a selfish unilateral way. During ejaculation, the energy is quickly wasted and for no purpose (except when conception is wanted).

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Sacred Sexuality: The Principles and Practices of Tantric Yoga

We are in a season of accelerated personal and global awakening, a season that calls us to be clear about our values, our priorities, our soul purpose for this incarnation, and fundamentally, to be clear about our self-identity. But as metaphysics and mysticism go mainstream, great discernment is called for lest we bring along our old separate, fear-based self-identities that manifest the illusion of all lack and limitation.

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Tantric Celibacy: Going All the Way With Tantric Celibacy

Tantric yoga, as a system of rituals, exercises, and philosophical teachings, was developed over the past 2,500 years in a practical search for profound feeling and awareness. Just as a modern scientist might spend years on a single research problem, tantric yogis might dwell on a certain feeling for hours a day, plumbing its every nuance and what it told them about existence. They became experts in the arts of feeling and concentration.

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The central teaching in Tantra is that all of life is sacred, especially our sexuality. This is because Tantrism views the sex power as being the same inner energy that powers our enlightenment. The practitioner of sexual Tantra attempts to use the powerful sexual force as an agent for awakening and transcendence.

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Tantra Yoga

Tantra Yoga is probably the most misconstrued of all yogas. Most people perceive it as purely sexual, and although sex is a part of it, its key principle is actually consecration. This means to make everything you do, sacred or holy. It encourages a ritualistic approach to life. In this way, it draws our attention to our actions in all states, whether asleep or awake. Purity, devotion and courage are essential to Tantric practices.

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Brahmachari is a sacred word in India. A Brahmachari literally means a person who singlemindedly follows the path to reach the eternal Brahman. While people in India commonly use the word to mean bachelor, a Brahmachari traditionally referred to a disciplined young man in the priest caste who has taken oaths to refrain from any kind of physical pleasure (traditionally sex, partaking of meat, intoxicating substances, and gambling) that are perceived to distract the Brahmachari from attai ...

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This branch of magick takes many forms but always involves a preparation of a proper and sacred atmosphere (as with other magick), pre-cleansing of the body and mind, banishment of evil prior to beginning the ritual, focusing upon the ritual/outcome, climax, post-ritual celebration and giving thanks and praise to the goddess and god figures. Sex magick can be practiced solo, as a couple or as a group. One particularly interesting form of ritualistic sex magick is based upon the polyandry concept of one female having sexual relations w ...

See also:

Sex magic, Sex magic - Practice, Sex magic - Great Rite, Sex magic - Books on sex magick, Sex magic - Books on Sex Magick by Aleister Crowley

Read more here: » Sex magic: Encyclopedia II - Sex magic - Practice

While the narrator is often exasperating about his rather prurient interest in his fellow-guests' sex lives, he does seem similar to other central characters in James' fiction who try to discover the truth from often misleading bits of information. But after a while his theories begin to drive everybody, including the reader, a little nuts, as those theories constantly shift and grow incredibly complex. So when Mrs. Briss dismisses the narrator as crazy, she might gain some sympathy from many readers. Of course, it's possible that Mrs ...

See also:

The Sacred Fount, The Sacred Fount - Plot summary, The Sacred Fount - Key themes, The Sacred Fount - Critical evaluation

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Bullfighting goes back at least to Minoan Crete, where the bull-leaping ritual practiced by youths of both sexes is memorialized in the famous wall-frescos at Knossos. The frescos offer no hint of struggle or violence, and the Lunar Bull was a sacred animal commemorated in ritual and legends such as that of the Minotaur. Modern archaeologists tend to emphasize the danger involved in this athletic skill and may underestimate the extent to which the bull cooperated. The killing of the sacred bull (tauromachy) is the essential central ic ...

See also:

Bullfighting, Bullfighting - Where bullfighting is practiced, Bullfighting - Origins, Bullfighting - Styles of bullfighting, Bullfighting - Spanish, Bullfighting - French, Bullfighting - Portuguese, Bullfighting - Cultural aspects of bullfighting, Bullfighting - Social aspects, Bullfighting - Influence in art, Bullfighting - Criticisms of bullfighting, Bullfighting - Famous bullfighters, Bullfighting - Bullfighting Terms

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New Age appropriations of tantra usually disregard requirements involving guruparampara and ritual conduct, though they otherwise adopt many of the terms and concepts of Indian tantra. In these circles, "tantra" is often a synonym for sacred sexuality, i.e. a belief that sex ought to be recognized as a sacred act which is capable of elevating its participants to a higher spiritual plane. At other times "tantra" comes to mean a set of techniques for cultivating a more fulfilling sexual or love relationship, like the otherwise unrel ...

See also:

Tantra, Tantra - History of Tantra, Tantra - Hindu tantra, Tantra - Tibetan tantra, Tantra - Japan's Shingon sect, Tantra - New Age tantra or Neo Tantra, Tantra - Tantric practices, Tantra - Tantra in the modern world, Tantra - Hindu tantra, Tantra - Buddhist tantra

Read more here: » Tantra: Encyclopedia II - Tantra - New Age tantra or Neo Tantra