Ending and beginnings

This will be the last Between The Sheets column as I prepare to take off overseas, and I hope it’s been an interesting read. My aim over the past six months has been to offer a different perspective on sex and shed some light on the hidden, more subtle realities behind the obvious pleasures that make sex so enjoyable.
Tantra explores the idea that sex unites us not only with each other, but also with our energetic bodies and our ultimate ‘life force’. Sure, sex brings intense pleasure, physical release and the chance to connect with our fellow man or woman – but on another level, it can also open a door to help us tap into and harness the energy that flows through every cell of the body.
Sexual energy is one of the most accessible types of bioelectrical energy. If you can use the tips and exercises outlined in previous columns (available on the Star Observer website) to draw this energetic charge out of the genitals and circulate it through the body, you’re on the way to mastering one of tantra’s most important techniques.
Access this energy more regularly and you can boost your overall health, vitality and capacity for joy. You can release emotional traumas that might be holding you back from realising your potential. You can click with your partner(s) on deeper, more fundamental levels of consciousness. And you can experience a taste of a ‘higher’ reality behind the everyday world that’s immediately obvious.
As your practice deepens, you may find you begin to see new attitudes emerging and old prejudices dropping away. Perhaps your attitude to sexuality and your preferences change. Or you’ll be drawn to people based more on how ‘conscious’ they are — or see new possibilities for connecting sexually on more than just the most obvious level.
Of all life’s gifts, it’s love that moves us most — to the highest, the deepest, the most rewarding and the most profound aspects of ourselves. Sexual love offers a powerful means to explore these higher states. And by having an awareness of some of tantra’s teachings on sexuality, we can deepen our connections to others, take pleasure to new heights and increase our capacity to truly love life, our planet, ourselves and each other.