What is Tao Tantric Arts?
Taoism and Tantra are spiritual paths that say yes to life.
Rather than following an ascetic path to awakening (giving up the worldly life and thus reducing desire), these paths find awakening through life. Thus they embrace all aspects of life, including sexuality and love. This is the path of Divine Desire, using passion as a launch pad to spiritual awakening. |
dance movement
sexual energetics breathwork therapy processing sharing holding space exposure healing meditation qigong witnessing ritual whirling devotion ecstatic shaking chanting touch eye gazing massage discourses heart connection circling nature connection inner alchemy love divine union |
Tao Tantric Arts offers workshops and classes with various elements included:
Classes may be from two hours long to week-long workshops. Trainings are longer programs designed to empower participants so that they themselves can begin to share these skills. See calendar for details of upcoming workshops and events.
“The Taoist attitude is to go with life- to go all the way, without any conditions. Wherever life leads, go with it. You come from life, you are part of life, so how could life harm you? There is no need to be afraid.”
- OSHO
- Experiences: a held group is a very special container. In such a setting we feel safe enough to open to new experiences, and thus run new energetics through our systems. Exercises using tools such as touch, eye contact, communication and dance can invite us into new experiences that broaden our outlook on life. Tantra and Tao open us to our natural ecstatic potential.
- Practices: though experiences occur in the workshop space, a practice is something we can take home and bring into daily life. Tao and Tantra offer a wide range of methods to cultivate sexual energy, open new channels, learn to sublimate (life energy upwards), circulate and move energy in concious ways. Practices work over time to alter our consciousness, open energy pathways and bring our physical body into alignment with spirit.
- Meditation: this is the core of Tantra and Tao practices. It is the perfect accompliment to ecstatic techniques and experiences as it brings us back to the source of all experience. Without cultivating the centre, we can get lost in experience. But when the two are cultivated together, we grow both our Shiva (inner witness conciousness) and our Shakti (flows of energy and ecstasy). When these two unite, then we create the inner marriage: our true nature of Nothingness/Silence is penetrated through every aspect of our life, or Everythingness. This is known as an embodied awakening.
- Healing: a journey of embodying spirit naturally means that we begin to drop all that we have been carrying that has been blocking the light within. To open into our totality means leaving behind the conditioning and past attachments that perpetuate habits that keep us smaller than we really are. Tantra and Tao also specifically work to heal the sexual shadow...all of the parts of our sexuality that we have judged, supressed and cut off from consciousness.
- Transmission: when we come together with others and open ourselves through certain exercises and techniques, an exchange known as transmission happens. Each person in the group can act as a "teacher" for us, awakening diifferet parts of our being and different energetics within us. For this reason participants are encouraged to work with different people in the group over the course of a workshop.
- Theory: this helps us to integrate the experiences we have had, understand ourselves and life better, and also motivate us to continue our chosen practices. On it's own, theory is not enough. Tantra and Tao are experiential paths, and so cannot be learned from a book! However, the theories can act as a container of our experiences and help to guide us on our journey. Maps such as the Chakra system and Chinese Medicine Five Elements are examples of such guides.
Classes may be from two hours long to week-long workshops. Trainings are longer programs designed to empower participants so that they themselves can begin to share these skills. See calendar for details of upcoming workshops and events.
“The Taoist attitude is to go with life- to go all the way, without any conditions. Wherever life leads, go with it. You come from life, you are part of life, so how could life harm you? There is no need to be afraid.”
- OSHO