Tantra And The Pursuit of Happiness

“That is happiness; to be dissolved into something completely great.” - Willa Cather (American novelist)

There is a certain something that everyone wants, consciously or unconsciously. Every soul has an ultimate goal, whether the soul knows it or not. Yet, this goal does not get the kind of importance it deserves. Few understand it, even fewer know how to go about getting it - happiness.

When people are asked what happiness means to them, they hum and haw a while before responding with something like money, a bigger house, a sexy wife, an influential husband, the latest sports car, more parties, more drinking…. These things seem to define happiness to the average person.

In the pursuit of happiness, people race - against time, against the Jones, against life itself. Does happiness really mean partying all night, every night and blowing up pots of money on designer clothing?

Ancient tantra states that happiness is a state of mind – that you can be happy no matter what your situation in life is - if you choose to be happy. Happiness does not come to you - you can call upon it whenever you choose to. You have to make it happen. Those who believe otherwise have allowed society, peer pressure or their own misgivings to delude them.

Happiness has nothing to do with what you own, which religion you follow or which community or country you are from – or, for that matter, with whether you believe in God or not. You are responsible for your actions and you choose to be anything you want.

As Charles Schulz, the creator of the popular Peanuts comic strip, said, “My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?”

Being happy is a continuous process. It does not stay with you if you do not maintain it, but you need not run after more money, parties or sex to get it. True, the scriptures of ancient tantra reveal that sexual pleasure is the highest form of pleasure that can be achieved in the tangible, material world that we know of today. It is the last bastion of happiness for the earthly body.

Nevertheless, continuous sex without the right kind of awareness and expertise will severely damage one’s psyche… maybe even to the extent of lunacy. The mind is far more expansive than the body; while the mind hungers for more, the body cannot keep up.

Tantric sex demands that the mind have the right level of consciousness. Unfortunately, today everyone has lost sight of that fact. Most have mistakenly identified frequent sex with happiness, whether it is meaningful or not. Society has become more permissive, and sex has become e a commodity without value. Today, sex is an empty promise.

Attraction is an inescapable fact of life. A beautiful flower, a beautiful landscape, a beautiful sunset, a beautiful man or woman – each evokes attraction. When we chart this attraction to its essential core, we are pursuing real happiness.

Tantra and Happiness

The person you feel passionate for must also reciprocate those feelings. If you already have that special someone, that relationship must grow in a positive direction.

We all want such feelings to be mutual. If you like a flower, you want to take it home. If you like a sunset, you want to capture it on film. If you love a person, you want to be with that person all the time. Ancient tantra has always advocated balance and harmony. When two people get together too, there should also be a balance.

It is a lie that the more sex and sexual partners you have, the more your awareness grows. If this theory were true, prostitutes and gigolos would be far more aware and far happier than the rest of us put together. For them, sex is work, and there can be no true pleasure in the act when it is carried out in the name of work. Awareness cannot be brought about by having meaningless sex. Tantra states that only when two people have compatible levels of consciousness can they dance their way to higher levels through sex.

Tantra advocates the concept of gender in terms of consciousness - the masculine consciousness and the feminine consciousness. In the case of a couple with alternative sexuality, one partner will always have a slightly more masculine consciousness while the other has a more feminine one, regardless of their gender. One balances the other, and when the two come together in harmony, there can be nothing more fulfilling.

To achieve happiness, one must delve into the divine, mystical secrets that the art of Tantra has given to us. In this quest, we must understand our Chakras – those apparently inexplicable centres in our bodies that can heal and empower us. Chakra is a Sanskrit word that actually means ‘energy wheel’, and Tantra has deciphered these esoteric centres of the human body for us to understand.

Every human being has been gifted with Seven Chakras:

• Muladhara (the Root Chakra)
• Swadishtana (Hara Chakra)
• Manipura (Solar Plexus)
• Anahata (Heart Chakra)
• Vishuddha (Throat Chakra)
• Agnya (Third Eye Chakra), and
• Sahasara (Crown Chakra)

Each of these ‘energy chakras’ plays a specific part in our development, and must be activated one by one using special techniques and processes of Tantra. Else, we cannot ascend to the highest level of complete consciousness. When activated, the chakras enable us to become fearless, even in the face of adversity. Inner strength and stability result.