Table of Contents
I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still dont know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Also by Kenneth Ray Stubbs, Ph.D.
Erotic Massage
Secret Sexual Positions
Romantic Interludes: A Sensuous Lovers Guide
The Clitoral Kiss: A Fun Guide to Oral Sex, Oral Massage,
and Other Oral Delights
Male Erotic Massage: A Guide to Sex and Spirit
Women of the Light: The New Sacred Prostitute
(editor, contributor)
Tantric Massage Video
The Essential Tantra
Acceptance
is a central teaching
in tantric traditions
Embracing the whole,
we transcend
the world of duality
Today in the West
tantra
has often come to mean
sacred sex, spiritual sexuality, sexual spirituality
It is in this context that I use
tantric massage:
touching
the sexual and spiritual dimensions
within each of us
with full acceptance
embracing an apparent duality
Volume I -
Tantric Massagepresents specific, practical
massage techniques
for the whole body
Volume II -
Sensual Ceremonybrings to massage and other pleasuring experiences
the context of ceremony,
a meditation
in the realm of the senses
Volume III -
Sacred Orgasmsproposes the encompassing paradigm of the trilogy:
the extent to which
we deny our spirituality
we limit our sexuality
the extent to which
we judge our sexuality
we limit our spirituality
Here, orgasm
is the teacher
PREFACE
This book began twenty years ago as a manuscript that attracted no publishers. So I decided to modify the text into several smaller books and publish them myself.
After seeing that the books had been well received, the editors at Tarcher/Putnam agreed with my proposal to bring three of the books out as a single volume. Presented together in one source, the writings and illustrations support a much deeper understanding of the essential role our sexuality can serve on a spiritual path.
Tantric Massage, along with its earlier edition, Erotic Massage, was the first book to illustrate genital massage. (There is far more censorship and de facto censorship than most people realize.) Intended for present and potential sexual partners, this book focuses on long, flowing strokes to nurture the whole being. The thorough step-by-step massage is gentle rather than athletic and does not require the giver to be particularly muscular.
Sensual Ceremony, exactly as the name describes, brings a meditative, ceremonial context to the sensual and sexual, without requiring a meditation background. Bathing, feeding, massaging, guided inner journeys for modern Western loversthese are all to deepen intimacy and a sense of communion.
Sacred Orgasms is a paradigm with orgasm at the center of the sacred circle. This greatly revised edition presents teachings and a specific set of meditations that a group of five masterful beings communicated to me with the intent that the knowledge be included in this book.
An art section on sexual positions follows that teaches about the heart as much as about sex.
In these quite diverse yet very connected writings, I have shared my realization that the sensual and the sexual, rather than being obstacles on the spiritual path, are actually one with the sacred. I encourage you to explore the many practical techniques and meditations within to discover for yourself this ancient understanding.
INTRODUCTION TO THE ESSENTIAL TANTRA
In tantra, everything is sacred. And there are no sacred cows.
Tantra has never been a chosen path for me. Its just a path on which Ive continued finding my feet.
Over twenty-five years ago, a teacher of sorts began to communicate with me, sort of.
After completing massage school in San Francisco, I began to massage professionally. Massaging men and women, I often would have sexual feelings, not necessarily intense, but still obviously sexual.
These were days of high testosterone levels when I would sit down to meditate and end up masturbating. Quieting my breath and my mind in meditation, I would only become more aware of how horny I really was. Moreover, since massage had evolved into a form of meditation for me, I seemed to be keenly aware of my sexual feelings when giving a massage.
Basically, two main options seemed available: I could suppress and deny my sexual feelings in massage, or I could embrace them consciously. Exploring the latter, I decided to offer classes in erotic massage. Providing sexual entertainment to the public did not appeal to me personally. The thought of teaching anyone nurturing touch and subtle lovemaking in a context of trust, however, felt deeply meaningful.
I began arrangements for giving a weekend couples workshop at a massage and yoga center. Preparing the brochure with some friends, I talked about teaching foot bathing and facial massage to relax the couples and to bring a nurturing ambience to sexual touch. Genital massage would be included. Orgasm or intercourse would not be the goal, just pleasure for the whole body and being.
Genital massage was something absolutely forbidden in massage school and not illustrated in any massage book at that time. Yet, we all knew that sexual partners often explore creative adaptations in the bedroom once they learn some general massage strokes.
While discussing these ideas and preparing the brochure with my friends, I casually mentioned that this would actually be a modern tantra workshop. Precisely the moment I said the word tantra, a clearly audible ringing occurred just exterior to my right ear for about one to two seconds.
The first such ringing had occurred only a few weeks earlier while attending a metaphysical class on astral projection. The teacher would often lead us in a guided imagery meditation to visit with our spirit companions, as she called them. Usually nothing seemed to happen for me, no clear images, no messages, nothing but a nice nap.
Then one evening in class, while we were moving around during a break, out of the blue I heard my first clear ringing. When I told my teacher, she suggested the ringing might be a spirit companion coming close to my energetic field to communicate. After a few more ringings in the next months, I began a journal of the ringings. There were no voices, words, or images. So I wrote what was happening or what I was thinking or saying at the moment of the ringing, treating the sound as an indication to pay close attention to what was occurring.
A predominant pattern became apparent over several years: The ringing occurred most often when I was thinking or talking about tantra.
Tantra is an Eastern spiritual philosophy. Initially coming to us from approximately third and fourth century C.E. India, this experiential examination of existence evolved from many roots in antiquity and was adapted and modified in a myriad of subcultures and religions. Both India and Tibet, both Hinduism and Buddhism, have many variants of tantra. Chinese Taoism and tantra have many resemblances. Indeed, in their popular evolutions in the modern West, these two philosophical systems are often mingled into a single framework.
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