Tantric sex
Often misunderstood as merely sexual, Tantric sex is, in fact, a profound and intricate spiritual practice rooted in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. It transcends physical pleasure, employing sexual energy and ritual in a quest for liberation and higher states of consciousness. This ancient path invites us to explore the hidden depths of human intimacy as a powerful vehicle for spiritual awakening. Tantric sex, or Maithuna and Karmamudra, are ritualistic practices in Hinduism and Buddhism aimed at spiritual liberation, not just carnal pleasure. These traditions often embrace 'transgressive' elements, challenging societal norms and breaking down dualities to achieve profound spiritual insights. Across centuries and diverse traditions, Tantric practices evolved from generating sacred fluids to incorporating semen retention, always seeking to harness primal energy for transformation.
AI Summary
Often misunderstood as merely sexual, Tantric sex is, in fact, a profound and intricate spiritual practice rooted in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. It transcends physical pleasure, employing sexual energy and ritual in a quest for liberation and higher states of consciousness. This ancient path invites us to explore the hidden depths of human intimacy as a powerful vehicle for spiritual awakening.
- Tantric sex, or Maithuna and Karmamudra, are ritualistic practices in Hinduism and Buddhism aimed at spiritual liberation, not just carnal pleasure.
- These traditions often embrace 'transgressive' elements, challenging societal norms and breaking down dualities to achieve profound spiritual insights.
- Across centuries and diverse traditions, Tantric practices evolved from generating sacred fluids to incorporating semen retention, always seeking to harness primal energy for transformation.
Tantric Sex: Beyond the Physical
When we hear 'Tantric sex,' many immediately think of extended intimacy or specific sexual techniques. But at its heart, Tantric sex is a deeply spiritual practice woven into the fabric of Hindu and Buddhist Tantra. It involves utilizing sexual activity within a sacred, ritualistic, or yogic framework—a far cry from mere recreational pleasure.
These practices often include elements that might seem provocative or 'antinomian' to outsiders. Think the ritual consumption of alcohol or offerings of meat to deities. Even sexual fluids themselves can be considered potent 'power substances,' used for ritual purposes, sometimes internally, sometimes externally, all in the service of spiritual transformation.
Ancient Names, Deep Meanings
In classical Hindu texts, this practice is known as 'Maithuna,' meaning 'coupling.' It's a cornerstone of the 'Panchamakara,' or 'Five Ms,' the Grand Ritual of Tantra. For Buddhist tantras, particularly in Tibetan traditions, the term is 'Karmamudra,' meaning 'action seal,' and it's a vital part of the advanced 'completion stage' of tantric practice.
It's important to distinguish these practices from the Kāmashāstra literature, which includes the famous Kama Sutra. While both deal with sexuality, their ultimate goals diverge significantly. As Indologist Geoffrey Samuel notes, while Kāmashāstra focuses on the pursuit of sexual pleasure, 'kama,' Tantric sexual yoga is fundamentally directed towards 'moksha'—the quest for spiritual liberation.
A Journey Through Time
The roots of Tantric intercourse stretch back centuries. In its earliest forms, dating back to at least the 4th century CE and mentioned in texts like the Mahabharata, the practice aimed to generate sexual fluids as revered offerings for Tantric deities. Back then, sexual emission was often not just allowed, but emphasized.
Echoes in Ancient Texts
However, around the turn of the first millennium, a significant shift occurred. Tantra began to incorporate practices of semen retention, techniques like 'vajroli mudra.' These might have been adopted from older, non-Tantric celibate schools, transforming the nature of the ritual itself.
Even earlier, texts like the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad describe various sexual rituals, mostly concerned with fertility and preserving male vitality. One striking passage likens the female vulva to a 'sacrificial ground,' emphasizing the sacred, meritorious nature of sexual union performed with spiritual understanding.
Scholars like Samuel observe that late Vedic texts symbolically equate sexual intercourse with Vedic sacrifice, viewing ejaculation as an offering. While some form of sexual yoga might have existed earlier, substantial evidence for explicit practices in Saiva and Buddhist Tantric circles really solidifies later, around the 7th and 8th centuries.
Despite its depth, Tantric sexual practices were never universally accepted. They were often considered exceptional, even elite, and were certainly not embraced by all sects. Absent entirely from Jain Tantra, and debated even within Hindu and Buddhist traditions, their interpretation and practical significance remain subjects of scholarly discussion.
Yet, for those who embraced it, Tantric literature universally regards emotions, eroticism, and sex as natural and desirable — a direct means to experience and transform the divine within. Pleasure becomes a profound spiritual tool, extending beyond mere procreation to become a path for ultimate fulfillment, famously reflected in the 'kama art' adorning Hindu temples.
Paths of Practice
In Hindu Traditions
As we discussed, 'Maithuna' is the specific Hindu term for Tantric sexual union, always occurring within the context of 'Panchamakara'—the five 'M's' or tantric substances. These include madya (alcohol), māṃsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudrā (parched grain), and finally, maithuna (sexual intercourse).
Crucially, not all practitioners engage in these 'taboo-breaking' elements literally. 'Left-hand path' (vāmācārin) Tantrics might practice them directly, challenging societal norms. In contrast, 'right-hand path' (dakṣiṇācārin) Tantrics often use symbolic substitutes, internalizing the transgressive act rather than physically enacting it.
Historically, these practices weren't without controversy. The 9th-century Hindu philosopher Jayanta Bhatta criticized certain Tantric sects, like the 'Nilambara,' for what he saw as 'immoral teachings' involving 'unconstrained public sex.' He believed such practices undermined fundamental societal values, highlighting the tension between Tantra and mainstream thought.
Some Shaivite ascetics from the Mantramarga school sought supernatural powers by reenacting the penance of Shiva. Their rituals involved worshipping Shiva with substances considered impure, such as alcohol, blood, and sexual fluids, generated through orgiastic rites with their consorts.
The deeper meaning behind these antinomian—or 'against the norm'—elements, like using intoxicating substances and sex, wasn't simple hedonism. Scholars suggest they aimed to break down the perceived distinctions between 'ultimate reality' and the 'mundane physical world.' By fusing the erotic and the ascetic, Tantrics sought to dissolve social and internal assumptions, thereby becoming 'Shiva-like.'
In this spirit of inversion, Tantric yoga sometimes recommended consorts from society's most taboo groups—perhaps close relatives or those from the lowest castes. The goal was to deliberately challenge established social regulations and penetrate conventional boundaries in the pursuit of absolute freedom and transcendence.
In Buddhist Traditions
Buddhist sexual rites, or Karmamudra, are believed to have integrated elements from Shaiva Tantra. One of the earliest mentions comes from Asanga's 5th-century Mahayana Buddhist text, the Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra, which speaks of 'supreme self-control achieved in the reversal of sexual intercourse in the blissful Buddha-poise.'
Scholar David Snellgrove interprets this 'reversal' as potentially referring to the practice of withholding ejaculation. He suggests that if Buddhist yoga could control breath and other natural forces, it was logical to extend that control to sexual energy, making such practices an acceptable path to awakening even in reputable Buddhist circles by the 5th century.
This transgressive spirit extended to deities themselves, like Vajrayogini, who is depicted as sexually suggestive and streaming with blood, challenging traditional distinctions between intercourse and menstruation. Some extreme texts, like the 9th-century Candamaharosana-tantra, even advocated consuming bodily waste products of one's sexual partner, viewing them as 'power substances' to be ingested for spiritual insight.
Japanese Buddhism
In 12th-century Japan, the Tachikawa-ryu school of Buddhism embraced a unique perspective. They didn't discourage ejaculation, seeing it as a 'shower of love' brimming with potential Buddhas. Their rituals involved combining emitted sexual fluids with the worship of human skulls, coating them to create sacred images. However, these highly unorthodox practices were eventually deemed heretical and led to the sect's suppression.
Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhism, the journey into higher Tantric yogas is rigorous, requiring tantric initiation and preliminary practices known as 'ngondro.' These secret, powerful methods are considered the fastest path to Buddhahood, distinct from 'common' Mahayana practices.
The highest of these are the 'Unsurpassable Yoga Tantras,' or Anuttarayoga Tantras, divided into two stages. The 'generation stage' involves meditating on emptiness and visualizing oneself as a chosen deity (yidam) within its mandala, cultivating 'divine pride' through identification with this sacred reality.
The 'completion stage' shifts focus to directly realizing ultimate reality. It incorporates sophisticated techniques working with the 'subtle body'—its energetic channels, vital winds (vayu or lung), and the luminous nature of the mind. These practices, such as the Six Dharmas of Naropa, aim for profound non-dual states.
Within this stage, 'Karmamudrā' refers to the technique of sexual union with a physical or visualized consort, combined with 'tummo'—the practice of inner heat. This potent synergy is employed to achieve a non-dual state of ecstatic bliss and direct insight into emptiness, accelerating the practitioner's journey toward awakening.
Article
Tantric sex
Maithuna, Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India
Tantric sex is any of a range of practices in Hindu and Buddhist tantra that utilize sexual activity in a ritual or yogic context. Tantric sex is associated with antinomian elements such as the consumption of alcohol, and the offerings of substances like meat to deities. Moreover, sexual fluids may be viewed as power substances and used for ritual purposes, either externally or internally.
The actual terms used in the classical texts to refer to this practice include "Karmamudra" (Tibetan: ལས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ las kyi phyag rgya, "action seal") in Buddhist tantras and "Maithuna" (Devanagari: मैथुन, "coupling") in Hindu sources. In Hindu Tantra, Maithuna is the most important of the five makara (five tantric substances) and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra variously known as Panchamakara, Panchatattva, and Tattva Chakra. In Tibetan Buddhism, karmamudra is often an important part of the completion stage of tantric practice.
While there may be some connection between these practices and the Kāmashāstra literature (which include the Kāmasūtra), the two practice traditions are separate methods with separate goals. As the British Indologist Geoffrey Samuel notes, while the kāmasāstra literature is about the pursuit of sexual pleasure (kāmā), sexual yoga practices are often aimed towards the quest for liberation (moksha).
History
Tantric sex
In its earliest forms, Tantric intercourse was usually directed to generate sexual fluids that constituted the "preferred offering of the Tantric deities." There is already a mention of ascetics practicing semen retention in the 4th century CE Mahabharata, although those techniques were rare until late Buddhist Tantra. Up to that point, sexual emission was both allowed and emphasized. Around the start of the first millennium, Tantra began to include practices of semen retention, like the penance ceremony of asidharavrata and the posterior yogic technique of vajroli mudra. They were probably adopted from ancient, non-Tantric celibate schools, like those mentioned in Mahabharata.
The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad contains various sexual rituals and practices which are mostly aimed at obtaining a child which are concerned with the loss of male virility and power. One passage from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad states:
Her vulva is the sacrificial ground; her pubic hair is the sacred grass; her labia majora are the Soma-press; and her labia minora are the fire blazing at the centre. A man who engages in sexual intercourse with this knowledge obtains as great a world as a man who performs a Soma sacrifice, and he appropriates to himself the merits of the women with whom he has sex. The women, on the other hand, appropriate to themselves the merits of a man who engages in sexual intercourse with them without this knowledge. (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 6.4.3, trans. Olivelle 1998: 88)
Vajradhara in union with consort
Jambhala (Kubera) deity in Tibet (18th–19th century)
According to Samuel, late Vedic texts like the Jaiminiya Brahmana, the Chandogya Upanisad, and the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, "treat sexual intercourse as symbolically equivalent to the Vedic sacrifice, and ejaculation of semen as the offering." However, he also writes that while it is possible that some kind of sexual yoga existed in the fourth or fifth centuries, "Substantial evidence for such practices, however, dates from considerably later, from the seventh and eighth centuries, and derives from Saiva and Buddhist Tantric circles."
Tantric sexual practices are often seen as exceptional and elite, and not accepted by all sects. They are found only in some tantric literature belonging to Buddhist and Hindu Tantra, but are entirely absent from Jain Tantra. In the Kaula tradition and others where sexual fluids as power substances and ritual sex are mentioned, scholars disagree in their translations, interpretations and practical significance.
Emotions, eroticism and sex are universally regarded in Tantric literature as natural, desirable, a means of transformation of the deity within. Pleasure and sex is another aspect of life and a "root of the universe", whose purpose extends beyond procreation and is another means to the spiritual journey and its fulfillment. This idea flowers with the inclusion of kama art in Hindu temple arts, and its various temple architecture and design manuals such as the Shilpa-prakasha by the Hindu scholar Ramachandra Kulacara.
Practice
In Hinduism
The actual term used in Hindu classical texts to refer to this practice is maithuna (Devanagari: मैथुन, "coupling"). In the Hindu Tantras, maithuna is always presented in the context of panchamakara (the five makara or tantric substances) which constitutes primary ritual of Tantra. These may also be referred to as "the five Ms", panchatattva or the tattva chakra, which consist of madya (alcohol), māṃsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudrā (pound grain), and maithuna (sexual intercourse). Taboo-breaking elements are only practiced literally by "left-hand path" tantrics (vāmācārins), whereas "right-hand path" tantrics (dakṣiṇācārins) use symbolic substitutes.
Jayanta Bhatta, the 9th-century scholar of the Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy and who commented on Tantra literature, stated that the Tantric ideas and spiritual practices are mostly well placed, but it also has "immoral teachings" such as by the so-called "Nilambara" sect where its practitioners "wear simply one blue garment, and then as a group engage in unconstrained public sex" on festivals. He wrote, this practice is unnecessary and it threatens fundamental values of society. This sect might have been an offshoot of the Pashupata Shaivite school, or possibly a Buddhist cult of Vajrapani.
Ascetics of the Shaivite school of Mantramarga, in order to gain supernatural power, reenacted the penance of Shiva after cutting off one of Brahma's heads (Bhikshatana). They worshipped Shiva with impure substances like alcohol, blood and sexual fluids generated in orgiastic rites with their consorts.
Douglas Renfrew Brooks states that the antinomian elements such as the use of intoxicating substances and sex were not animistic, but were adopted in some Kaula traditions to challenge the Tantric devotee to break down the "distinctions between the ultimate reality of Brahman and the mundane physical and temporal world" (Maya). By combining erotic and ascetic techniques, states Brooks, the Tantric broke down all social and internal assumptions, became Shiva-like. In Kashmir Shaivism, states David Gray, the antinomian transgressive ideas were internalized, for meditation and reflection, and as a means to "realize a transcendent subjectivity".
As part of tantric inversion of social regulations, sexual yoga often recommends the usage of consorts from the most taboo groups available, such as close relatives or people from the lowest castes. They must be young and beautiful, as well as initiates in tantra.
In Buddhism
Buddhist Mahasiddhas practicing tantric yoga
According to English, Buddhist sexual rites were incorporated from Shaiva tantra. One of the earliest mentions of sexual yoga is in the Mahayana Buddhist Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra of Asanga (c. 5th century). The passage states:
Supreme self-control is achieved in the reversal of sexual intercourse in the blissful Buddha-poise and the untrammelled vision of one's spouse.
According to David Snellgrove, the text's mention of a ‘reversal of sexual intercourse’ might indicate the practice of withholding ejaculation. Snellgrove states:
It is by no means improbable that already by the fifth century when Asanga was writing, these techniques of sexual yoga were being used in reputable Buddhist circles, and that Asanga himself accepted such a practice as valid. The natural power of the breath, inhaling and exhaling, was certainly accepted as an essential force to be controlled in Buddhist as well as Hindu yoga. Why therefore not the natural power of the sexual force? [...] Once it is established that sexual yoga was already regarded by Asanga as an acceptable yogic practice, it becomes far easier to understand how Tantric treatises, despite their apparent contradiction of previous Buddhist teachings, were so readily canonized in the following centuries.
Deities like Vajrayogini, sexually suggestive and streaming with blood, overturn traditional separation between intercourse and menstruation. Some extreme texts would go further, such as the 9th-century Buddhist text Candamaharosana-tantra, which advocated consumption of bodily waste products of the practitioner's sexual partner, like wash-water of her anus and genitalia. Those were thought to be "power substances", teaching the waste should be consumed as a diet "eaten by all the Buddhas."
Japanese Buddhism
The 12th-century Japanese school Tachikawa-ryu did not discourage ejaculation in itself, considering it a "shower of love that contained thousands of potential Buddhas". They employed emission of sexual fluids in combination with worshipping of human skulls, which would be coated in the resultant mix in order to create honzon. However, those practices were considered heretical, leading to the sect's suppression.
Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhism, the higher tantric yogas are generally preceded by preliminary practices (Tib. ngondro), which include sutrayana practices (i.e. non-tantric Mahayana practices) as well as preliminary tantric meditations. Tantric initiation is required to enter into the practice of tantra.
Tibetan tantric practice refers to the main tantric practices in Tibetan Buddhism. The great Rime scholar Jamgön Kongtrül refers to this as "the Process of Meditation in the Indestructible Way of Secret Mantra" and also as "the way of mantra," "way of method" and "the secret way" in his Treasury of Knowledge. These Vajrayāna Buddhist practices are mainly drawn from the Buddhist tantras and are generally not found in "common" (i.e. non-tantric) Mahayana. These practices are seen by Tibetan Buddhists as the fastest and most powerful path to Buddhahood.
Unsurpassable Yoga Tantra, (Skt. anuttarayogatantra, also known as Mahayoga) are in turn seen as the highest tantric practices in Tibetan Buddhism. Anuttarayoga tantric practice is divided into two stages, the generation stage and the completion stage. In the generation stage, one meditates on emptiness and visualizes one's chosen deity (yidam), its mandala and companion deities, resulting in identification with this divine reality (called "divine pride"). This is also known as deity yoga (devata yoga).
In the completion stage, the focus is shifted from the form of the deity to direct realization of ultimate reality (which is defined and explained in various ways). Completion stage practices also include techniques that work with the subtle body substances (Skt. bindu, Tib. thigle) and "vital winds" (vayu, lung), as well as the luminous or clear light nature of the mind. They are often grouped into different systems, such as the six dharmas of Naropa, or the six yogas of Kalachakra.
Karmamudrā refers to the female yogini who engages in such a practice and the technique which makes use of sexual union with a physical or visualized consort as well as the practice of inner heat (tummo) to achieve a non-dual state of bliss and insight into emptiness. In Tibetan Buddhism, proficiency in tummo yoga, a completion stage practice, is generally seen as a prerequisite to the practice of karmamudrā.