Spas that Offer Intimacy Workshops and Tantra

Canyon Ranch offers a Sex, Body, and Soul program in Tucson, Arizona. This couples-only workshop led by Dr. Lana Holstein and Dr. David Taylor involves Tantra, creative loving, kissing, couples massage, exploring your sexual potential, the seven dimensions of sexuality, and how to become a multi-dimensional lover. The next workshop is November 5 – 9, 2003. For more information call (800) 742-9000 or visit www.canyonranch.com.

Spa Rio Caliente, Primavera, Mexico. Charles and Caroline Muir intend to teach their “Art of Conscious Loving” seminar at Rio Caliente in February 2004. For more information call (800) 200-2927 or visit www.riocaliente.com. For information on the Muir’s programs call (888) 2tantra or visit www.sourcetantra.com.

Pura Vida Spa, Costa Rica, hosts its 3rd Annual Tropical Tantra Retreat, December 27, 2003 – January 3, 2004. Led by Steve and Lokita Carter, the directors of Ecstatic Living this workshop combine the tropical beauty of Costa Rica with lessons in ecstatic living. For more information on Pura Vida call (888) 767-7375 or visit www.puravidaspa.com. For information on Ecstatic Living workshops call (877) 982-6872 or visit www.ecstaticliving.com.

The Nurturing Meditation

The nurturing meditation is one of the simplest yet most profound of the Tantric secrets for sustaining love’s energy in a relationship. It allows couples to communicate on at least three levels: on the conscious level, skin to skin; on the respiratory level, breath to breath; and on the most subtle level chakra to chakra. Over a period of time such regular communication creates a kind of synergy between the partners’ chakras.

Couples lie together spoon fashion on their left sides (for reasons of energy flow, according to the Tantric texts). Whoever feels the most in need of nurturing, whoever has experienced the most stress that day, should take the inside.

As you lie together, close your eyes and relax. Quiet your mind by focusing on deep breathing. After a while, become aware of your partner’s breath. Two breathing techniques may be performed in this position. The first, used during the first few minutes of the meditation, is called the harmonizing breath. The couple inhales together, holds the breath together, exhales together, and repeats. During this harmonizing breath, the partner on the inside is the receptive body, accepting energy through the back and into the chakras with each exhalation and filling up with that energy with each inhalation.

The second breathing technique is called the reciprocal charging breath. This time one partner breathes in as the other breathes out. During the several seconds that the breath is held, one partner will be holding the inhalation, the other the exhalation. As you practice, the reciprocal charging breath, be conscious of the energy your partner is imparting to you as well as the energy you are giving back.

Before you go on to whatever you have planned for the rest of the day, look at each other. Look into each other. Don’t speak, just gaze upon the face of your partner with whom you now feel so well connected. Notice the light that radiates from your lover’s eyes. This light is another by-product of the nurturing meditation; it is the light of love that comes when harmony exists.

Eye Contact Closing the eyes during lovemaking is common among Westerners, but among Tantrists it is considered to eliminate potential for a much deeper bonding. Closing the eyes shuts out the lover and creates darkness during what is a potentially enlightening experience. Conscious lovers should try to maintain contact with each other in as many ways as possible during their lovemaking, and the eyes offer perhaps the most important way of doing so. In Tantric loving, the eyes are considered a primary organ of intimacy. They are not only the gateway, but also a means of extending and receiving energy, especially from the fourth chakra, from the heart.

The Couple as a Team Remember that the ultimate goal of the Tantric teachings is unity. Sex is one of the most basic, pleasurable ways of achieving unity, but the principles of Tantra can be applied to other areas of life as well.

Tantric couples often meditate together; they share their thoughts, dreams, fears, hopes, and fantasies. They work together-they may share a career, as we do, or they may do the dishes together, or garden together, or clean out the garage as a team. No matter what work you do as a couple, collaboration is a cornerstone of a good relationship. Working together on a project or at job is symbolic of working on the relationship-paying attention to it, and in so doing, paying it homage. As you work together, whether it be on a mundane chore or on some inspired creative endeavor, you will also be working together toward the goal of harmony, that honeyed atmosphere in which love grows and passion is an eternal flame.

Source: As written in Tantra: The Art of Conscious Loving by Charles and Caroline Muir.

September/October 2003

Latest posts by Healing Lifestyles & Spas Team (see all)