| Tantra and the Kama Sutra are often lumped | | | | time. It wasn't until several centuries later that the |
| together by sex writers today. But as you'll find | | | | Tantras were turned into scripture (The tantras |
| out below, the two, very worthy subjects are | | | | were written down beginning in the 5th century, |
| only distantly related!Modern sexual marketing has | | | | and continuing through the 19th century...)To |
| ensured that the first things most people envision | | | | someone who has bought "Tantra for Dummies," |
| when they hear "Kama Sutra" are images of | | | | or any similar books written by a marketing-savy |
| statues with entwined limbs and bodies in exotic | | | | western sexologists with no Tantric background, |
| sexual positions. These images are the frequently | | | | the lack of "tantric" material in the Kama Sutra |
| re-printed photographs of explicitly sensual statues | | | | may be quite a surprise. Vatsyayana, like his |
| in the Dakini temples of Southern India. These are | | | | peers, kept the tantric secrets secret - as oral |
| tantric temples - but the only relationship between | | | | tradition.So don't look to Kama Sutra to spiritualize |
| the pictures and the Kama Sutra is the 30 or so | | | | your lovemaking, but do look to it to understand |
| love positions mentioned in that Text...Many | | | | sensuality and human nature.Look to the Kama |
| illustrated books and websites about the Kama | | | | Sutra for exactly the purpose for which it was |
| Sutra contain only these few chapters - the ones | | | | written: As a manual for satisfying, balancing and |
| on sexual positions, methods of embrace, kissing, | | | | enjoying the realm of the senses.The Kama Sutra |
| scratching, biting, touching...But only getting these | | | | is simultaneously a manual of matchmaking, flirting, |
| excerpts is to limit yourself as a sensualist. The | | | | sensuality in life and in sex, romantic love, human |
| Kama Sutra is much more. But it's not, strictly | | | | nature, attracting a man, turning on a woman, |
| speaking, tantric...Any good lover can tell you that | | | | how to seduce a man, how to captivate a |
| arousal and captivation are more than just sexual | | | | woman, how to get a man or woman to marry |
| techniques, that knowing 30 sexual positions isn't | | | | you, arranged marriages, affairs, gold-digging, the |
| enough to keep a lover thinking about your naked | | | | economics of love, affairs with courtesans, |
| body, even years later... Understanding the mind | | | | keeping the affections of a lover or spouse, love |
| and senses of your lover fosters an eroticism far | | | | potions, charms, and everything in |
| more ecstatic and profound than just learning | | | | between...Mallanaga was brilliant in his insight that |
| techniques... Tantra takes that one step further | | | | sexuality begins before the bedroom -- in the |
| and couples spiritual ecstasy with this sensual and | | | | realm of the senses and in the imagination. He |
| sexual bliss. This step is what's missing from the | | | | expresses that attitude, bearing, and mystery are |
| Kama Sutra..."Kama Sutra" is frequently | | | | as important in love as technique. That simply |
| mistranslated as "the arts of love," but really, | | | | knowing positions and techniques doesn't captivate |
| Kama means "love, pleasure, and the life of the | | | | a lover. You must first capture their sensual |
| senses" and a Sutra is a group of aphorisms - | | | | experience through suggestive conversation, |
| short, pithy sayings.The Kama Sutra was written | | | | smell, and brief touches...This understanding of the |
| by Mallanaga of the clan or sept called | | | | importance of mental and emotional attitude, and |
| Vatsyayana. Mallanaga was a holy man, a seer, | | | | of bodily focus, is distinctive of a tantric. But it is |
| and a sage, and in all of the spiritual senses of the | | | | applied only in its worldly form in the Kama |
| word, a tantric. He worshipped the Divine as both | | | | Sutra.In his own spiritual pursuits, Vatsyayana |
| feminine and masculine, and lived primarily a | | | | applied the same understanding to the pursuit of |
| religious life.He wrote the Kama Sutra for the | | | | Realization and Liberation. He was an |
| ruling class, which at that time in India's history | | | | acknowledged spiritual master of his time. It also |
| was the Kshatriya, or Warrior caste. Based on | | | | seems quite certain from his knowledge of |
| mentions of 1st Century historical figures in the | | | | women and their pleasures that his spirituality was |
| Kama Sutra, and on mentions of the Kama Sutra | | | | sensual, and not celibate.So why did Mallanaga |
| in early 5th Century works, we know that | | | | Vatsyayana *not* include tantric sexual practices |
| Mallanaga Vatsyayana wrote the Sutra sometime | | | | in his most famous work?Because he knew that |
| between the 1st and 4th Centuries A.D.In writing | | | | sexuality is only an appropriate spiritual tool for |
| his treatise, Mallanaga Vatsyayana wrote:"...an | | | | some. He wrote the Kama Sutra for the ruling |
| intelligent person, attending to Dharma (the | | | | class - so they could balance and enjoy their |
| spiritual life and obligations) and Artha (worldly | | | | sensual appetites with their social and spiritual |
| welfare and the obligations of society), and | | | | obligations as rulers. Not to pass on secrets he |
| attending to Kama also, without becoming the | | | | knew would be lost on many of these |
| slave of his passions, obtains success in | | | | students.So feel free read the real Kama Sutra, |
| everything he may undertake"Kama Sutra begins | | | | exploring the power of your sensuality, just as |
| with a salutation to the Divine balance of these | | | | you explore your worldly and spiritual life. And if |
| three principles, Dharma, Artha, and Kama.There | | | | you want something deeper, if you feel drawn to |
| are no tantric sexual or spiritual practices (puja) in | | | | Divine expression within everything - including your |
| the Kama Sutra. There are, however, a few | | | | sensuality - you won't find it in "Tantra for |
| examples of simple magical tantra - the making of | | | | Dummies." You'll find it by learning from real |
| charms, potions, and amulets - in the final | | | | Tantrics!For every student, there is a |
| chapters titled "On Attracting Others".In fact, | | | | teacher.Keep in touch, smile, breathe right, and |
| most of the spiritual and sexual Tantras (tantric | | | | keep your tongue up! |
| teachings) were only oral tradition in Vatsyayana's | | | | |