I have been practicing Tantric Massage in London since 1992, but it was some years later that suddenly everyone seemed to know the word Tantra, because the singer Sting had publicly claimed that he practiced Tantric sex.
In an interview with Sting in The Guardian on 12 November 2003, the author writes:
‘Sting says he is a lifelong risk-taker. He calls it “following his truth ” and it is why he resigned from a secure teaching job to try to make it in a band. His parents didnt follow their truths, he says and that is, ultimately why they died. “My father couldn’t express his love for his wife. My mother couldn’t express that she needed intimacy and she had the perfect right to find that wherever she could. We were conditioned as a family not to express ourselves “…….
Sting is a famous proponent of tantric sex. I ask him to give the frustrated Guardian readers a few tips. He looks indignant and says its about ‘ a journey’, not “fucking for eight hours”. OK, I say. “I try to be lighthearted about it” he says “but at the same time, there is some serious information about couples and how they can relate and sex is only a tiny proportion of it. Its about ritualising a period of the day with your partner; it can be looking at each other, touching each other, running a bath, a massage, deeper levels of connection. Sex is only the surface. Once you really connect, telling the truth, talking, all of that. Tantra is much too complex for me to discuss. But its about reconnecting with the world of Spirit through everyday things. My church happens to be the person I live with. She is my connection to the sacred. I dont know how that’s going to look in print.”
Following is an amusing interview with Michael Parkinson, asking Sting about Tantric sex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWID3OUgufk
One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth.
Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) ‘The Mystical Experience’
Taking a break from tantric massage, I have been staying at the ashram of a wonderful teacher in Northern India and very rarely left the ashram, apart from a trip to Rishikesh and a dip in the Ganges. The following video may give you an idea of what life outside of an ashram in India may be like. It is called India Driving, and it is from Youtube. Make sure you turn on the volume on your computer, and for those of you who have been to India, it will remind you of how the hooter is the most necessary indicator for driving in India:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM&feature=grec
Lily has now left us, and will no longer be available on Fridays.
I like the picture below – it is in total contrast to the video above and is a reminder that India is a land of paradoxes…….. it is also a reminder to us all that what we seek may already be there inside of us, we just need to learn to look in the right direction.
