His legacy inspires all who seek a deeper and more meaningful approach to life and spirituality. In Osho’s vision, Tantra is an invitation to explore life with awareness, integration, and love. His interpretation of Tantra is characterized by an unconventional approach, through which numerous meditation techniques and awareness practices are developed.
Tantra is a dynamic path in which vital energy, sexuality, and spirituality converge to create an extraordinary life capable of fully embracing the human experience, its pleasures, and its challenges. Tantra represents a holistic approach to life, integrating all aspects of human existence: the body, sexuality, love, work, creativity, meditation, and the relationship with the divine.
Awareness and presence in the present moment are crucial keys to living a tantric life.”
TANTRA
OSHO
TANTRA: THE SECRETS OF AN ANCIENT DISCIPLINE
I CORSI IN PROGRAMMA SUL TEMA DEL TANTRA
CHIEDI INFORMAZIONI
THE TANTRIC VISION
“This Tantra vision is one of the greatest visions ever dreamed by man: a religion without the priest, a religion without the temple, a religion without the organization; a religion which does not destroy the individual but respects individuality tremendously, a religion which trusts in the ordinary man and woman. And this trust goes very deep. Tantra trusts in your body; no other religion trusts in your body. And when religions don’t trust in your body, they create a split between you and your body. They make you enemies of your bodies, they start destroying the wisdom of the body.
Tantra trusts in your body. Tantra trusts in your senses. Tantra trusts in your energy. Tantra trusts in you, in toto. Tantra does not deny anything but transforms everything.
How to attain to this Tantra vision? This is the map to turn you on, and to turn you in, and to turn you beyond.
The first thing is the body. The body is your base, it is your ground, it is where you are grounded. To make you antagonistic towards the body is to destroy you, is to make you schizophrenic, is to make you miserable, is to create hell. You are the body. Of course you are more than the body, but that ‘more’ will follow later on. First, you are the body. The body is your basic truth, so never be against the body. Whenever you are against the body, you are going against God. Whenever you are disrespectful to your body you are losing contact with reality, because your body is your contact, your body is your bridge. Your body is your temple.
Tantra teaches reverence for the body, love, respect for the body, gratitude for the body. The body is marvelous, it is the greatest of mysteries.”
OSHO, Tantric Transformation
TANTRA IS NOT A PHILOSOPHY
“Tantra is not a philosophy, Tantra is absolutely existential. And remember, when I say that Tantra is existential, I don’t mean the existentialism of Sartre, Camus, Marcel, and others. That existentialism is again a philosophy, a philosophy of existence, but not the Tantra way. And the difference is vast.
The existential philosophers in the West have only stumbled upon the negative: anguish, angst, depression, sadness, anxiety, hopelessness, meaninglessness, purposelessness – all the negatives. Tantra has stumbled upon all that is beautiful, joyful, blissful. Tantra says: Existence is an orgasm, an eternal orgasm going on and on and on. It is forever and forever an orgasm, an ecstasy.
They must be moving in different directions. Sartre goes on thinking about existence. Tantra says: Thinking is not the door. It leads nowhere, it is a blind alley; it brings you only to a cul-de-sac. Philosophy is great – if you are just fooling around, then philosophy is great; you can make mountains out of molehills and you can enjoy the trip…
Philosophy has proved to be the most futile of efforts…but still man continues, knowing perfectly well that it never delivers anything. Why? It goes on promising, but never delivers anything. Then why does man continue with this effort? It is cheap. It does not require any involvement, it is not a commitment. You can sit in your chair and go on thinking. It is a dream. It does not require that you should change in order to see reality.
That’s where courage is needed, adventurous courage is needed. To know the truth, you are moving into the greatest adventure there is. You may be lost, who knows? You may never come back, who knows? Or you may come back utterly changed, and who knows whether it will be for the good or not?”
OSHO, Tantric Transformation
TANTRA: KNOW THE BODY
“So those traditions which are against sex will be against the body. Those traditions which are not against sex can only be friendly toward the body. Tantra is absolutely friendly, and Tantra says that the body is sacred, holy. For Tantra, to condemn the body is a sacrilege. To say that the body is impure or to say that the body is sin is nonsense for Tantra – a very poisonous teaching. Tantra accepts the body – not only accepts it, but says that the body is holy, pure, innocent. You can use it and you can make it a vehicle, a medium, to go beyond! It helps even in going beyond.
But if you start fighting with body, you are lost. If you start fighting with it, you will become more and more diseased. And if you go on fighting with it, you will miss an opportunity. Fighting is negative; Tantra is a positive transformation. Do not fight with it – there is no need. It is as if you are sitting in a car and you start fighting with the car. Then you cannot move because you are fighting with the vehicle – which has to be used, not fought against. And you will destroy the vehicle by your fighting, and then it will be more and more difficult to move.
The body is a beautiful vehicle – very mysterious, very complex. Use it, do not fight with it. Help it. The moment you go against it you are going against yourself. It is as if a man wants to reach somewhere, but he fights with his own legs and cuts them. Tantra says, know the body and know the secrets of it. Know the energies of it and know how those energies can be transformed – how they can be moved and turned into different dimensions.
For example, take sex, which is the basic energy in the body. Ordinarily, sex energy is just used for reproduction. One body creates another body and it goes on. The biological utility of sex energy is only in reproduction. But that is only one of the uses, and the lowest. No condemnation is implied, but it is the lowest. The same energy can do other creative acts also. Reproduction is a basic creative act, you create something. That is why a woman feels a subtle well-being when she becomes a mother: she has created something…
Tantra has no condemnations, only secret techniques for how to transform. That is why Tantra talks so much about the body – it is needed. The body has to be understood, and you can start only from where you are.”
OSHO, The Book of Secrets
TANTRA: A LIVING PRACTICE
Osho also indicated many active meditation practices in the context of Tantra, not just physical exercises but experiences that involve the body, mind, and soul. Through dance, creative expression, singing, listening to sound, silence, and breathing, he created and transmitted precious tools to break the barriers that limit our understanding of reality.
They are practices that constantly integrate physical movement and awareness of the present moment. They are designed to help people release tension, dissolve blocked energy, relax deeply, connect with what is accurate, and experience an inner space of silence and peace.
They are practices that do not require you to sit in silence but rather to move freely, expressing yourself spontaneously and with curiosity.
A dynamic and engaging way to explore yourself, overcome emotional blocks and reach a more alert state of presence.
Rhythmic breathing, emotional expression exercises, or body movements coordinated with music help to go beyond the analytical mind and overcome every barrier to a direct experience of total participation with reality, expanding one’s perception, inner space, and awareness.
What is tantric sex…a sex which is a meditation based on certain techniques?
If you are too technique oriented you will miss the mystery of Tantra. It is pseudo-Tantra that is based on techniques because if techniques are there, ego will be there, controlling. Then you will be doing it – and doing is the problem, doing brings the doer. Tantra has to be a non-doing; it cannot be technical. You can learn techniques – you can learn a certain breathing so that coitus can become longer. If you breathe very, very slowly, if you breathe without any hurry, then coitus will become longer, but you are controlling. It will not be wild and it will not be innocent, and it will not be meditation either. It will be mind – how can it be meditation? The mind will be controlling. You cannot even breathe fast, you have to keep your breathing slow – if the breathing is slow then ejaculation will take a longer time, because for ejaculation to happen the breathing has to be fast and chaotic. Now, this is technique but not Tantra.
Tantra is not technique but prayer. Is not head oriented but a relaxation into the heart. Please remember it. Many books have been written onTantra, they all talk about technique but the real Tantra has nothing to do with technique. The real Tantra cannot be written about, the real Tantra has to be imbibed. How to imbibe real Tantra? You will have to transform your whole approach.
Pray with your woman, sing with your woman, play with your woman, dance with your woman, with no idea of sex. Don’t go on thinking, ‘When are we going to bed?’ Forget about it. Do something else and get lost into it. And some day love will arise out of that being lost, suddenly you will see that you are making love and you are not making it. It is happening, you are possessed by it. Then you have your first Tantra experience – possessed by something bigger than you. You were dancing or you were singing together or you were chanting together or you were praying together or meditating together, and suddenly you find you both have moved into a new space. And you don’t know when you have started making love; you don’t remember either. Then you are being possessed by Tantra energy. And then for the first time you will see a non-technical experience.”