Tantric sex is any of a range of practices inHindu andBuddhist tantra that utilizesexual activity in aritual oryogic context. Tantric sex is associated withantinomian elements such as the consumption ofalcohol, and the offerings of substances likemeat todeities. Moreover, sexual fluids may be viewed as power substances and used for ritual purposes, either externally or internally.[1][2]
The actual terms used in the classical texts to refer to this practice include "Karmamudra" (Tibetan: ལས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱlas kyi phyag rgya, "action seal") in Buddhist tantras and "Maithuna" (Devanagari: मैथुन, "coupling") in Hindu sources. In Hindu Tantra, Maithuna is the most important ofthe five makara (five tantric substances) and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual ofTantra variously known asPanchamakara,Panchatattva, and Tattva Chakra. InTibetan Buddhism, karmamudra is often an important part of thecompletion stage of tantric practice.
While there may be some connection between these practices and theKāmashāstra literature (which include theKāmasūtra), the two practice traditions are separate methods with separate goals. As the British IndologistGeoffrey 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).[3]
In its earliest forms, Tantric intercourse was usually directed to generate sexual fluids that constituted the "preferred offering of the Tantric deities."[4][5] There is already a mention of ascetics practicingsemen retention in the 4th century CEMahabharata, although those techniques were rare until late Buddhist Tantra. Up to that point, sexual emission was both allowed and emphasized.[4] Around the start of the first millennium, Tantra began to include practices of semen retention, like thepenance ceremony ofasidharavrata and the posterioryogic technique ofvajroli mudra. They were probably adopted from ancient, non-Tantric celibate schools, like those mentioned inMahabharata.[4]
TheBrhadaranyaka 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.[6] One passage from theBrhadaranyaka 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)[7]
According to Samuel, late Vedic texts like theJaiminiya Brahmana, theChandogya Upanisad, and theBrhadaranyaka Upanisad, "treat sexual intercourse as symbolically equivalent to theVedic sacrifice, and ejaculation of semen as the offering."[6] 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."[8]
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.[9] In theKaula tradition and others where sexual fluids as power substances and ritual sex are mentioned, scholars disagree in their translations, interpretations and practical significance.[10][11][12]
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 spiritual journey and fulfillment.[13] This idea flowers with the inclusion of kama art in Hindu temple arts, and its various temple architecture and design manuals such as theShilpa-prakasha by the Hindu scholar Ramachandra Kulacara.[13]
The actual term used in Hindu classical texts to refer to this practice ismaithuna (Devanagari: मैथुन, "coupling"). In theHindu Tantras,maithuna is always presented in the context ofpanchamakara (the fivemakara or tantric substances) which constitutes primary ritual of Tantra. These may also be referred to as "the five Ms",panchatattva or thetattva chakra, which consist ofmadya (alcohol),māṃsa (meat),matsya (fish),mudrā (pound grain), andmaithuna (sexual intercourse).Taboo-breaking elements are only practiced literally by "left-hand path" tantrics (vāmācārins), whereas "right-hand path" tantrics (dakṣiṇācārins) use symbolic substitutes.[14]
Jayanta Bhatta, the 9th-century scholar of theNyaya school ofHindu 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.[15] This sect might have been an offshoot of thePashupata Shaivite school,[16] or possibly a Buddhist cult ofVajrapani.[17]
Ascetics of theShaivite school ofMantramarga, in order to gain supernatural power, reenacted the penance ofShiva after cutting off one ofBrahma's heads (Bhikshatana). They worshipped Shiva with impure substances like alcohol, blood and sexual fluids generated in orgiastic rites with their consorts.[18]
Douglas Renfrew Brooks states that the antinomian elements such as the use of intoxicating substances and sex were notanimistic, 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 mundane world". By combining erotic and ascetic techniques, states Brooks, the Tantric broke down all social and internal assumptions, became Shiva-like.[19] InKashmir Shaivism, states David Gray, the antinomian transgressive ideas were internalized, for meditation and reflection, and as a means to "realize a transcendent subjectivity".[20]
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 lowestcastes. They must be young and beautiful, as well as initiates in tantra.[21]
According to English, Buddhist sexual rites were incorporated from Shaiva tantra.[21] One of the earliest mentions of sexual yoga is in theMahayana BuddhistMahāyānasūtrālamkāra ofAsanga (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.[8]
According toDavid 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.[22]
Deities likeVajrayogini, sexually suggestive and streaming with blood, overturn traditional separation between intercourse and menstruation.[21] Some extreme texts would go further, such as the 9th-century Buddhist textCandamaharosana-tantra, which advocated consumption of bodily waste products of the practitioner's sexual partner, like wash-water of heranus andgenitalia. Those were thought to be "power substances", teaching the waste should be consumed as a diet "eaten by all the Buddhas."[23]
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The 12th-century Japanese schoolTachikawa-ryu did not discourage ejaculation in itself, considering it a "shower of love that contained thousands of potential Buddhas".[24] They employed emission of sexual fluids in combination with worshipping of human skulls, which would be coated in the resultant mix in order to createhonzon.[24] However, those practices were considered heretical, leading to the sect's suppression.[24]
In Tibetan Buddhism, the higher tantricyogas are generally preceded by preliminary practices (Tib.ngondro), which includesutrayana 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 maintantric practices inTibetan Buddhism. The greatRime scholarJamgön 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 hisTreasury of Knowledge.[25][26] TheseVajrayāna Buddhist practices are mainly drawn from theBuddhist 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 toBuddhahood.[27]
Unsurpassable Yoga Tantra, (Skt.anuttarayogatantra, also known asMahayoga) are in turn seen as the highest tantric practices in Tibetan Buddhism. Anuttarayoga tantric practice is divided into two stages, thegeneration stage and thecompletion stage. In the generation stage, one meditates on emptiness and visualizes one's chosen deity (yidam), itsmandala and companion deities, resulting in identification with this divine reality (called "divine pride").[28] This is also known asdeity 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 thesubtle body substances (Skt.bindu, Tib.thigle) and "vital winds" (vayu, lung), as well asthe luminous or clear light nature of the mind. They are often grouped into different systems, such as thesix dharmas of Naropa, or the six yogas ofKalachakra.
Karmamudrā refers to the femaleyogini who engages in such a practice and the technique which makes use ofsexual union with a physical or visualized consort as well as the practice of inner heat (tummo) to achieve anon-dual state of bliss and insight intoemptiness.[29] InTibetan Buddhism, proficiency in tummo yoga, a completion stage practice, is generally seen as a prerequisite to the practice of karmamudrā.[30]
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