Welcome to the Ecstatic Living & Tantra Blog!

This blog has a purpose - to give you information about our teachings, and to share with you practices and ideas to explore for enhancing your life and loving.

It all forms part of what we call "ecstatic living" - weaving the integration of love, intimacy and spirituality into the fabric of our whole life.

We hope that you enjoy our offerings - may they be interesting and informative, heart-opening and inspiring to you.

Warmly,

Lokita & Steve Carter



Saturday, May 2, 2009

Our Tantra Terminology

Many people think that Tantra is quite exotic and uses complicated terminology from ancient languages, such as Sanskrit. Some people might be put off by this and put Tantra aside as something that's definitely not for them.

It is our mission to make the teachings of Tantra accessible to couples and singles from all walks of life, and hence we use languaging in our workshops and writings that most people are used to. However, when it comes to referring to the genitals, we prefer to give them "tantric" names rather than using their anatomical names penis and vulva / vagina.

By using a tantric name, we ennoble the genitals as powerful parts of our body, taking away the "down there" mystery, and potential shame and judgment.

When you read the practices in this blog (book) you will come across the following two words - vajra and yoni.

Vajra (pronounced "Vashra") is the Sanskrit word for diamond, or thunderbolt. In Tibetan Buddhism the vajra (or Tibetan: dorje) is said to represent indestructibility, spiritual power and firmness of spirit. We like this term as the perfect name for the penis. Sometimes we use the word "thunderbolt" instead.

The other term, yoni, is the Sanskrit word for "divine passage" or "place of origin". This refers to the female genitals. We also like to refer to yoni as the thousand petalled lotus flower.

We have found that after a while even the most cynical students get used to these terms, and accept them as new vocabulary in their language of love.

1 comment:

David Willson said...

And in Bhutan, the Vajra's local name is translated as the "Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom". I kinda like that.