When motivated by neediness
If our involvement with spirituality is motivated by the feeling that we need to receive more love, light, forgiveness, grounding from sources believed to be exterior to us, though we may enjoy many miracles, healings and expansions of awareness, still, we may well be reinforcing a self-image of neediness.

Is it me that's missing from my life?
If, for all my seminars and therapy, my relationships, my accomplishments fail to provide lasting, soulful fulfillment, if I continue to feel that something vital is still missing, chances are it's me, my True Self that's missing. And life will surely continue to bring ever more dramatic life situations that challenge, "Hey, Pal, just how much help does the GodLife you are really need!" We are invited, as the Psalmist of the Old Testament suggests to "...be still and know, I am God." (Ps 46:10)

Living the ‘law of our heart'
It has to be true: Our life hasn't really begun until it is our God-given uniqueness that authors our interactions with the world about us - in career, relationship and recreation. Our Beloved Creator clarified through the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write in their hearts..." (Jer.31:33) Having the courage to live in alignment with the 'law of our heart', is the challenge and perhaps the grandest opportunity offered in this season of personal and global transformation.

Looking for a relationship that will feed us
In terms of committed, intimate relationship, the challenges created by a need-driven self-identity will certainly be intensified once the initial glow of falling in love fades. As we know, combined consciousness amplifies experience. We become 'energy vampires', always looking for a relationship we can feed off, that will balance the qualities we believe to be absent from the GodLife we really are.

Plagued with complex issues of abuse, fear, and co-dependency, western society's high divorce rate reminds us that, as a culture, with all our growth in awareness, the ability to sustain long-term, intimate relationships still eludes us.

Growing interest in Tantra
Looking to the East for help in relationships has evidenced a growing interest in Tantra in this country and in Western Europe. It's an ancient yoga practice, whose principles and practices are designed to assist 'Tranticas' experience their own God/Goddess energy, always available through the body's seven major energy centers (chakras) to facilitate harmony and deepen intimacy, passion and unity awareness.

It originated from dialogs between the God Shiva, and the Goddess Shakti, where the delights and benefits of erotic love were passionately described. Tantra lessons were developed over the years, offering a bonafide spiritual path for those who preferred a 'regular life', not requiring monastic isolation from community.

God created pleasure
According to Tantra beliefs, God created sexual pleasure so that committed, loving couples could utilize this divine gift to balance the many challenges and painful experiences of life. It was a practical, playful way of allowing spiritual ecstasy to become a present reality in day-to-day experience, with unity consciousness and enlightenment as the ultimate goal.

Intimate love considered a high art form
Expressing love for God/Goddess as manifest through one's Beloved, was considered a high art-form, one of sixty-four arts every conscious person was invited to master. It was viewed as a sacred sacrament which would bring deep bonding to the partners in spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical union, and generate a tangible spiritual force they called harmony to permeate the home, the community, and the world.

Pleasure in the scriptures
All this may seem very strange to someone steeped in the Christian tradition, where Jesus' invitation, "It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Lk.12:32) seems to have been carefully swept under the carpet. Prefaced by the encouragement to "Seek first the kingdom..." one might logically conclude that Jesus intended the process of Self-awakening to be, well....holistically pleasurable. The Psalmist expands, praising God, "...in thy presence is the fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Ps.16:11)

As I see it, making that shift, making the commitment with yourself and your Beloved to establish a true relationship with Self in each other, and in All-creation, is what Tantra is all about.

Simple meditations provides partners with a growing sense of intimacy and unity. It's the sense of deep connection we all long for. It's that aspect of a relationship, that if not fulfilled, keeps our hearts yearning for more.

Tantra has many levels of study, but each level offers the same fundamental rewards:

1. Increasing the flow of Pure God Energy/Awareness between couples.
A major cause for relationship breakdown comes from couples starving the relationship of quality energy and attention. The low value assigned being with our Beloved shows as we take care of family and business demands first. Spending quality time with our partner often comes last in the day, if at all. Realistically, how can we expect much from our love-life if we feed it only 'energetic left-overs' of our day?

Tantricas make a commitment to practice sharing from the level of the God/Goddess within, at least once a day. A smorgasbord of rituals, breath exercises, toning, visualizing opens the way for every embrace to consciously convey heart energy with one's Beloved.

2. Healing the trauma and abuse of past relationships.
Tantra teaches that we store the energy of unresolved relationship issues around corresponding chakras in our body. Blocked energies to do with sexuality are stored around the genitals. Tantra teaches that those blocked energies limit our ability to be consciously present with our Beloved, to enjoy the inherent orgasmic quality of Pure God Life which, when unblocked, would naturally emanate from our Divine Self all the time. Couples dedicate themselves to being partners in this healing process.

Priority is given to healing the wounded Goddess within the woman, believing that as the feminine orgasmic potential is released, she more powerfully, intuitively transmits the healing quality of pleasure-filled love to the male. Women often report dramatic, liberating experiences with the orgasmic qualities of the God/Goddess within, opening the way for greater empowerment, healing, and creative expression.

3. Experiencing the meditative mind.
With ego in charge, romance becomes goal oriented. Couples refrain from passionately embracing each other unless they can go all the way, going for the 'Big O'. Tantra invites couples to a deeper, more satisfying level of being, adventuring in the senses God gave us to enjoy His Presence in form and expression. Couples employ ancient tones and mandalas to activate the chakras, increasing the ability to receive and transmit the various qualities of Sacred Ecstasy. In meditative mind there's no goal, only enjoying, becoming more present in the moment.
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Re-awakening our spontaneous self
Our culture has admonished, "Love isn't real if it isn't spontaneous." Yet through our schools, churches and institutions we've learned to be masterfully un-spontaneous, conforming to scholarly expectations, religious requirements, business practices that rarely honor our God-given uniqueness, let alone encouraged it. Expecting to be instantly spontaneous in an area that has been judged, condemned and abused more than any other, just isn't very realistic.

Tantricas use a paradox that works: Planned times of practicing the Presence of God results in greater spontaneity. After a challenging day, couples find their fatigue and stress quickly dissolve, giving way to a glow of loving radiance. Passion is awakened, and a fresh vitality is gifted as if from nowhere.

The next major step in awakening
We know the power of consciousness and intention. We know that nothing real changes unless awareness shifts. Our children and grandchildren will surely inherit the same relationship stuff that we did unless we do something to break the cycle.

I believe that seeking conscious, loving relationship, and the assistance Tantra offers, may well be the next major step our awakening western society takes as we claim and celebrate the power, the potential and pleasure offered us by our Beloved Creator through intimate relationship. Re-phrasing an old saying, "Where divinity is seen and honored in one's Beloved, passion and mastery are birthed in relationship, harmony and Self-empowerment are born in the family and Sacred Community blossoms into ascended global reality."

This is a summary of the booklet,
Sacred Sexuality: An Introduction to Tantra