Lovely poem!!
re: celibacy, you raise a very good point. Yes, there are different forms, which is why I specified "tantric." On the one hand there is the type of "celibacy" in which all sexual feelings are repressed and ignored while lifting lots of weights, digging ditches, building houses...
LOVE your avatar!!!
Indeed tantra has been misunderstood and misrepresented both in the east and the west. Others have offered scriptural references, above. To put it simply, from my point of view as a tantrika for 32 years:
Tantra is a nondual approach to spirituality wherein we weave...
hmmm, kind of depends on your definition of "religious" and "marriage."
I voted #1 because I consider myself spiritual/religious and in my wild youth when I was definitely NOT "religious" but certainly "spiritual," I engaged in a great deal of premarital sex (tantric and otherwise). Then I...
Due to the unfortunate and insidious influence of gnostic dualism, "spirit is good and flesh is evil" which has somehow become pervasive both in western and eastern religious traditions, spirituality has been divorced from sexuality, resulting in dysfunction, estrangement from each other and...
Thanks for your kind words, Parsifal! It is always delightful to meet fellow lovers of God.
By the way, with regard to Iridescence's comment about celibacy, it is certainly possible to be both tantric and celibate. I am a tantrika and was happily celibate for 14 years before I met my partner...
Thanks! I think, however, that my views are a bit disturbing or even offensive to some. In any case I don't have a lot of time to spend here, but I will check in occasionally. Very nice forum.
I don't have much time to spend on this forum. I have already shared what the Lord put on my heart to say. Thank you very much for your indulgence. Please accept my apology if anyone was offended by our frank discussion of the Lord's incredible, unfathomable, infinite Love for His devotees...
My teacher also has problems with the way Tantra is viewed in the west, as do I. Not sure where you got the idea that "what I am talking about" is Vamachara, unless you are simply referring to the sexuality, which is what was under discussion in this thread. (I'm not advocating rituals in...
My point re: Swami V. is simply that his comments about the nature of conjugality clearly show that he did not know what he was talking about in that particular regard. Therefore he was teaching "how to get beyond" something that he had not experienced and probably was not qualified to comment...
Whether or not it is the result of "several lives of devotion," it does not alter the fact that we are here now, completely God-obsessed, and when we hear the flute we must run into the forest to join Him. We aren't thinking about our past lives, just Him.
Yes, kundalini should move upward. It...
I LOVE your blog, and agree 100%. Iridescence, please email me. I've been at this for 20 years and I have some yogic information that you may find extremely useful in your relationship with Him. I would also like to introduce you to some other yogis who are unashamed lovers of God and you would...
Swami Vivekananda was a celibate monk, so it is not surprising that he had a limited understanding of "earthly conjugality," never having experienced a loving spiritual and sexual relationship in which one loves the other as oneself and delights in their pleasure above one's own. Swami V...
I agree that Madhurya-Bhava requires a certain amount of spiritual maturity to fully appreciate. At the same time, it is a grace rather than an achievement. The Lord blesses whomever He will with this grace as He pleases.
You say "will result in strengthening one's sexuality" as if that is a...
iridescence said:
"He has helped me in the process of abandoning not only the
varieties of religion, but also the temptation to buy into the idea
that such religions are somehow necessary for me to connect with
Him in the first place.
I learned that I wasn't created for the sake of being...
As a fellow lover of God, I have wrestled with this issue (madhurya-bhava and what is "acceptable") myself in the past and can sympathize. I recall many years ago in college when I attended the Hare Krishna sangha, when I was still very new to the idea of a Personal God, having rejected...
I happened across this forum while doing a Google search on "bhava" and was delighted to find the thread by iridescence discussing madhura bhava, one of my all-time favorite topics as a lover of God. To introduce myself: I am a Sister in the Community of Francis and Clare, a nondenominational...