Exploring Meditation 2: Tantra

While Vipassana style Buddhist practice is about deconstructing our experience to reveal the underlying truth, Tantra instead utilizes imagination to invoke energies to activate and purify our being and vision, challenging a limited sense of Self and opening the door to a more expansive perception. Tantra works with deities, that may sometimes be called Gods and Goddesses (especially in the Hindu tradition), but are not necessarily what westerners would think of when they talk about Gods and Goddesses.

Personally, I like to bring elements of tantric practice into my meditation without strictly following any tradition. Although traditional Tantra is very structured in its practices, the spirit of Tantra is creative and exploratory. On the simplest level this means making and maintaining an altar, visualizing myself lighting up like a Christmas tree while meditating, and feeling into my best self; my divine, radiant, unbounded nature. Using a simple mantra can be great too. Yogani recommends the mantra “I AM”, but insists to not get caught up in the meaning of the statement, but instead to feel the resonance of the sound in your being