The essence of the Tantric path begins with transfiguration. In other words, you are truly on this path only when your perception of someone else is changed for the better through transfiguration.
For instance, if a so-called yogi makes love to a woman, he respects Brahmacharya, he transmutes the sexual energy and sublimates it, but he is not capable of seeing his lover as more than a regular woman, then he does not really practice Tantra in the truest sense of the word.
It is whatever else you can think about: Yama and Niyama, Brahmacharya, sexual yoga, but it is not really Tantra.
Only when he is capable of seeing in the woman he makes love to, the cosmic ocean of primordial energy, when this is not just his imagination, but a reality he is experiencing, only when he feels all the powers of the universe manifested through her, can he truly say he is on the Tantric path.
However, this does not mean that this is where it ends. This beginning also has a sequel, and on the peaks of this Tantric system there are very high level meditations on the essential aspects of the Divine.
Consequently, transfiguration is a very important aspect, and its absence leads to a very strange thing, which some people may have noticed.
Although they sincerely follow a yogic path, although they honestly try to practice Tantra, they have various obstacles that hinder them from reaching the truly divine states they should experience if their practice was correct.
For instance, they have to deal with stupid, limiting states brought on by possessiveness.
And this occurs because they forget the goal of the Tantric path, this is a path that is supposed to set one free, not bind them with more chains.
Of course, being free in a relationship does not mean being indifferent to the other persons actions, or feelings, it simply means not becoming dependent on the other.
You can have a very fine and fulfilling relationship with someone, you can offer them all your love and devotion, without adding the chains of indifference or dependence.
This may seem like a paradox to some people, but this path of freedom has the effect of binding some people, only because they are not aware of the fact that their practice is incorrect.
SUBTLE COMMUNICATION HELPS US EASILY BEAR PHYSICAL SEPARATION
In other words, as Rajneesh’s used to say - the steps are love, lovemaking and prayer. So what really happens during these steps?
A person seeks unity, seeks to escape his or her own limitations, but on this path, transcendence is only possible with the help of another person, with the help of your beloved.
In the beginning, the attraction and desire are the signs of coming out from the boundaries of one’s limitations. Why? Because one cannot truly get out of oneself, physically.
The escape, experienced in the sexual union is nonetheless short-lived. Therefore, only when one reaches his or her lover’s soul, when a spiritual communion takes place, only then does the escape through the soul occur, a soul that perceives another soul.
This signals the moment of the first de-conditioning, because this is when you can become independent from your lover’s body.
Why? Because at this time you are already in contact with your lover’s soul and you can now stand physical separation.
Two people who love each other sexually will not be able to stand physical separation, because they did not manage to get out of their bodies and the physical separation leaves them feeling alone and empty.
However, if the two lovers have surpassed this level and have reached the level of spiritual love, they can stay separated for long periods of time, because they will still be spiritually united.
WE CAN OFFER TRUE LOVE ONLY WHEN WE ARE NOT DEPENDENT ON THE OTHER
By transcending physical love you can reach the state of detachment from your body, but you may still be dependant on the other. If for instance, your lover becomes distant, then you are left alone again.
Therefore, this is the next step you must take. When you feel you have reached spiritual communion with your lover, you need to be aware that you also have to go beyond his or her soul.
You need to "use" it, so to speak, as an access gate to what lies behind the soul.
In the beginning, you may get to perceive one’s soul through transfiguration, then through further transfiguration you can go beyond this soul, and see what is above, an essential, archetypal manifestation, an aspect of the divine consciousness, the divine love, a certain worshipped deity, in other words, a higher sphere of consciousness.
Only if you reach this level you can say you have succeeded in becoming free from the dependence on the other’s soul, as well as from his or her body.
Furthermore, even if at a certain point your lover leaves, not only physically but also with their soul, you can still remain connected to what you had before, and this is the real path to freedom.
Once again, we are not talking about indifference, we are not saying that their love is gone, but simply that it has just now, truly begun.
True love cannot occur between two helpless people leaning against each other for help and support.
Because there cannot be true love between a man and a woman who have not surpassed their physical or emotional level, if they are still being dependant on each other, physically or emotionally.
If two powerful people, each cherishing their freedom stay together, then this means that what keeps them together is not dependence, but something a lot deeper: LOVE.
Only when you are no longer dependant on the other can you offer him or her, your true love. Generally speaking, the beginners on the Tantric path easily go beyond the first level, the body, but the ones who somehow manage to go beyond the second level are but a few.
In Rajneesh’s vision, the first step from sexuality to love has been taken, but there is more work to be done.
Even embellished, the soul of another person is seen in a very personal manner, and one starts to be dependant on this beautiful soul.
Thus, when the woman becomes more and more attractive, you still see in her still an individual, a strictly human soul, nothing more, and then you grow attached to her.
Now, there is another step that must be taken quickly, after reaching this stage. In addition, during this step, transfiguration is still the key.
A SEXUAL ACT WITHOUT CONSECRATION IS LIKE A MISSED TRIP
Regardless of the form of Tantra that you practice, right after consecration, you should move onto transfiguration.
What is consecration? It is a draft of the path you are about to go on. No arrow will ever reach the target if not shot in the right direction - the direction of the target.
You should not shoot an arrow hoping that maybe the wind will take the arrow to the target.
Most often, even if shot in the direction of the target, the arrow may not reach the center. Likewise, a sexual act begun without consecration hoping that during the actual act you will manage to give it a spiritual orientation is a tricky thing to do, and it often leads to only one thing: failure.
This is why consecration in the beginning is so important: it prepares the final state, the spiritual fusion, the ultimate aspect into which the two lovers transfigure themselves.
If a clear and precise direction is set in the beginning, then the chances of getting there grow considerably. If lovemaking wanders into a profane direction, known as the ejaculatory orgasm, then this amazing trip is missed.
Consequently, consecrating lovemaking represents the sacred act of offering the consequences of lovemaking or in other words the fruits of lovemaking to the immortal spirit - Atman, present in each of us.
Thus, lovemaking becomes like a sacrificial fire, in which the limiting and restraining individualities of the two lovers are sacrificed, thus granting access to the Supreme Self.
The essence of the Tantric path begins with transfiguration. In other words, you are truly on this path only when your perception of someone else is changed for the better through transfiguration.
For instance, if a so-called yogi makes love to a woman, he respects Brahmacharya, he transmutes the sexual energy and sublimates it, but he is not capable of seeing his lover as more than a regular woman, then he does not really practice Tantra in the truest sense of the word.
It is whatever else you can think about: Yama and Niyama, Brahmacharya, sexual yoga, but it is not really Tantra.
Only when he is capable of seeing in the woman he makes love to, the cosmic ocean of primordial energy, when this is not just his imagination, but a reality he is experiencing, only when he feels all the powers of the universe manifested through her, can he truly say he is on the Tantric path.
However, this does not mean that this is where it ends. This beginning has also a sequel, and on the peaks of this Tantric system there are very high level meditations on the essential aspects of the Divine.
Consequently, transfiguration is a very important aspect, and its absence leads to a very strange thing, which some people may have noticed.
Although they sincerely follow a yogic path, although they honestly try to practice Tantra, they have various obstacles that hinder them from reaching the truly divine states they should experience if their practice was correct.
For instance, they have to deal with stupid, limiting states brought on by possessiveness.
And this occurs because they forget the goal of the Tantric path, this is a path that is supposed to set one free, not bind them with more chains.
Of course, being free in a relationship does not mean being indifferent to the other persons actions, or feelings, it simply means not becoming dependent on the other.
You can have a very fine and fulfilling relationship with someone, you can offer them all your love and devotion, without adding the chains of indifference or dependence.
This may seem like a paradox to some people, but this path of freedom has the effect of binding some people, only because they are not aware of the fact that their practice is incorrect.
Also, after you consecrate, you need to try and identify yourselves with the divine and eternal aspect within. If you have the initiation in Nyasa, the consecration of the centers of force, you should perform it as the first phase.
The man touches the woman's chakras with his right index, thumb and middle finger, united together, using a certain ritual formula, or mantras, characteristic to each center of force.
Knowing that aliments are charged with subtle elements and energies, you can taste some aliments in order to awaken a certain type of energy inside yourselves, a certain type of resonance.
Regardless of the method used, Nyasa implies that the man touches the woman’s chakras and identifies them with the corresponding macro cosmic centers.
Thus, touching Anahata chakra, and saying the mantra for Anahata chakra, or taking a bite from an aliment that activates this chakra, the man must think intensely: "this is no longer the body of a woman, this is a spark of cosmic manifestation. In this very room, I shall partake of a cosmic mystery, a part of the eternal feminine force is now revealed to me."
The woman should also preserve this state of transfiguration all through lovemaking.
LACK OF ATTENTION TRANSFORMS THE DIVINE EROTIC GAME INTO A CASUAL ONE
If the man loses his focus on the state of transfiguration, even for a moment, if he sees a regular woman in front of him, not a spark of the divine light, then lovemaking has turned into a common act and the magic has been lost.
This state of transfiguration needs to be permanent, continuous, and then lovemaking is no longer a meeting between two bodies but between two fundamental principles, the masculine and the feminine.
This depends on the ritual and the fantasy of the two people involved. Sometimes this Tantric technique and pure spontaneity are intermingled and thus, all you do after this state can only be spiritual, because your individual personalities have disappeared and only the Divine has remained.
A transfigured woman may preserve this state of grace through an effort of will, but she may also lose it if she does not have the required focus. Consequently, transfiguration is as much a process of transformation as it is preserving that transformation.
THROUGH SUCCESSIVE TRANSFIGURATIONS, WE MAY ACCESS ALL THE MODUS EXISTENTIA (WAYS TO EXIST)
Thus, transfiguration has a relative tone, not an absolute one. Let’s say that a woman reaches the state of incarnate goddess through transfiguration, thus, although she lives in a physical body she experiences her deity all the time.
Maybe a woman has a predominant activation of Anahata chakra. She becomes superior to other women whose regular predominant level is on Swaddhistana chakra - the sexual center.
However, remember that Anahata chakra in itself is a universe, so this special woman would become a regular woman when compared to all the other beings in existence with a predominance on Anahata chakra.
Thus, she must once again, through a new transfiguration raise her level of consciousness by activating her Vishuddha chakra.
Therefore, one can see the relative character of transfiguration, and the fact that through successive transfigurations a person may climb from a common level to the ultimate state of freedom.
TRANSFUGURATION, FROM A RESONANCE POINT OF VIEW
The universe and the manifested world can be reduced to energy vibrating on certain frequencies.
From this point of view, the consciousness of a person, until he or she reaches complete spiritual freedom, is in a state of constraint, of attachment to an inferior way of being.
The identification of a certain person with an inferior way of being is actually produced through the phenomenon of resonance with the energy characteristic to that particular type of vibration. From this point of view, the transfiguration implies two different aspects.
The negative aspect of transfiguration implies to cut out an inferior resonance and its positive aspect is to create a new and vastly superior resonance.
THE EXPERIENCE OF A SUPERIOR STATE LEADS TO THE SUPPRESSION OF AN INFERIOR ONE
A person who transfigures himself or herself from an inferior way of living, to the condition of a genius, simply shifts, through the phenomenon of resonance, into the sphere of resonance belonging to geniuses.
Although it may appear, at first, that there is a denial of this assertion, this only means that the inferior resonance has been cut and the creation of the superior one is about to take place. However, most of the times the order is reversed: first, the creation of the superior resonance is realized and only then is the old one abandoned.
Therefore, you need to realize that by bringing in the good, so to speak, the evil will be kicked out. However, you also need to be aware of the fact that the evil may put up a "hell" of a fight before it is eliminated. Old habits die hard.
You must also know that a common person's mind cannot stand the experience of emptiness that remains after the inferior resonance is cut, unless this place is quickly filled with a positive and superior resonance.
This is an important aspect as many people trying to eliminate the inferior resonance, do not seek a superior and better replacement, and thus their consciousness quickly returns to the previous state.
Many people say: "I will not open my heart anymore. I do not want to be hurt." They cannot imagine the happiness of a free person. They only seek to eliminate suffering, without replacing it with anything. Thus, the mind cannot get around this and ends up calling back the very thing that caused them to suffer, or the very suffering itself.
An important tip for transmigrating: do not think about the level you are about to pass from, think instead about the superior level you are about to see.
We need to aspire to this new, transfigured state and to will ourselves to be attracted to it with all our force, to allow ourselves be fascinated by it and to simply enter the new universe opening up before us.
Copyright(c) MISA
