Tantra

Integral Yoga:
Tantra Is the Science of Transforming Ordinary Lovers Into Soul Mates
 
"In the East, we have developed a science: if you cannot find a soul mate, you can create one. And that science is Tantra. To find a soul mate means to find the person with whom all your seven centers meet naturally. That is impossible. Once in a while, a Krishna and a Radha, a Shiva and a Shakti. And when it happens it is tremendously beautiful. But it is like lightning – you cannot depend on it. If you want to read your Bible, you can't depend on it that when the lightning is there you will read. The lightning is a natural phenomenon, but not dependable. 
 
"If you wait for your natural soul mate to meet with you, it will be just like waiting for lightning with which to read your Bible. And you will not be able to read much either. For a moment it is there, and by the time you have opened the Bible it is gone. 
 
"Hence, Tantra was created. Tantra is a scientific approach. Tantra is alchemy; it can transform your centers, it can transform the other's centers, it can create a rhythm and harmony between you and your beloved. That is the beauty of Tantra. It is like bringing electricity into your house. Then you can turn it on and off whenever you want. And you can have a thousand and one uses of it; it can cool your room, it can heat your room. Then it is a miracle. These seven centers in you are nothing but centers of body electricity. So, when I am talking about lightning, don't think of it only as a symbol – I mean it literally. 
 
“In your body, there exists a subtle current of electricity, very subtle. But the subtler it is, the deeper it goes. It is not very visible. Scientists say that all the electricity that is in your body, if put together, can be used to light a five-candle bulb. It is not much. Quantitatively it is not much, quantitatively the atom is not much, but qualitatively… If it explodes, it has tremendous energy in it. 
 
“These seven centers, these seven chakras Yoga and Tantra have talked about down the ages, are nothing but five knots in your body electric current. They can be changed; they can be rearranged. They can be given a new shape, form. Two lovers can be transformed so deeply that all their seven centers can start meeting. 
 
“Tantra is the science of transforming ordinary lovers into soul mates. And that is the grandeur of Tantra. It can transform the whole earth; it can transform each couple into soul mates.” 
 
Osho

Tantra Trusts In You – In Toto
 
"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

Tantra Says, First Purify the Body
 
"Tantra says, first purify the body – purify it of all repressions. Allow the body energy to flow, remove the blocks. It is very difficult to come across a person who has no blocks, it is very difficult to come across a person whose body is not tight. Loosen this tightness; this tension is blocking your energy, the flow cannot be possible with this tension. Why is everybody so uptight? Why can't you relax? Have you seen a cat sleeping, dozing in the afternoon? How simply and how beautifully the cat relaxes. Can't you relax the same way? You toss and turn in your bed; you can't relax. And the beauty of the cat's relaxation is that it relaxes utterly and yet is perfectly alert. A slight movement in the room and it will open its eyes, it will jump and be ready. It is not that it is just asleep. The cat's sleep is something to be learned; man has forgotten. Tantra says: Learn from the cats – how they sleep, how they relax, how they live in a non-tense way. And the whole animal world lives in that non-tense way. Man has to learn this, because man has been conditioned wrongly, man has been programmed wrongly." 
 
Osho

Saraha Is the Founder of Tantra
 
"Saraha was born about two centuries after Buddha; he was in the direct line of a different branch. One branch moves from Mahakashyapa to Bodhidharma, and Zen is born – and it is still full of flowers, that branch. Another branch moves from Buddha to his son, Rahul Bhadra, and from Rahul Bhadra to Sri Kirti, and from Sri Kirti to Saraha, and from Saraha to Nagarjuna – that is the Tantra branch. It is still bearing fruit in Tibet. Tantra converted Tibet, and Saraha is the founder of Tantra just as Bodhidharma is the founder of Zen. Bodhidharma conquered China, Korea, Japan; Saraha conquered Tibet. 
 
The songs of Saraha are of great beauty. They are the very foundation of Tantra. You will first have to understand the Tantra attitude towards life, the Tantra vision of life. The most basic thing about Tantra is this – and very radical, revolutionary, rebellious – the basic vision is that the world is not divided into the lower and the higher, but that the world is one piece. The higher and the lower are holding hands. The higher includes the lower, and the lower includes the higher. The higher is hidden in the lower – so the lower has not to be denied, has not to be condemned, has not to be destroyed or killed. The lower has to be transformed. The lower has to be allowed to move upwards…and the lower becomes the higher. There is no unbridgeable gap between the devil and God: the devil is carrying God deep down in his heart. Once that heart starts functioning, the devil becomes God. That is the reason why the very root of the word devil means the same as divine. The word devil comes from divine; it is the divine not yet evolved, that's all."
 
Osho

Tantra
The Highest Insight
Jewels From Beyond

http://keithdowman.net/mahamudra/sarahas-royal-song.html

"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

"Tantra has no condemnations, only secret techniques for how to transform.“ 
 
Osho

Note

Tantric traditions have been categorized as left and right hand pathes or black, red and white tantra.

Red tantra includes the sexual act as a tool for enlightenment. In it's origin this was a sadhana for a master and a disciple or disciples.

Tantra yoga and kundalini yoga are called white tantra. The sadhana is yoga practice & meditation. Tantric kryas work with our sexual energy, which is our life force or cosmic energy.

Usually the basic difference between tantra and yoga lies in surrender and willpower.

Brahmacharya is mastery of Brahma. Many yoga traditions advice celibacy, to not disturb the sadhana and loose energy in outward activity. They use techniques to control the mind.

Tantric traditions accept the feminine divine energy and its forms and use techniques, that work with the energy and surrender to it, as a tool to attain the nameless.

The concepts of unity and multiplicity do not bring integration;
Only through awareness do sentient beings reach freedom.
Cognition of radiance is strong meditation.

It cannot be denied nor yet affirmed,
And ungraspable it is inconceivable.
Through conceptualisation fools are bound,
While concept-free there is immaculate sahaja.

Make solid your vision of all things as visionary dream
And you attain transcendence,
Instantaneous realisation and equanimity;
A strong mind binding the demons of darkness
Beyond thought your own spontaneous nature is accomplished.

The Royal Song of Saraha