Practices to Unite Heart and Body
By Dawn Cartwright
This is taken from our spring 2015 issue. | Subscribe in time for the summer issue and three more.
Extraordinary gifts await the single person who embarks on the Tantric path. Clarity, self-love, strength and luminescent attractiveness effortlessly appear in those who learn to harness the most life-arousing of all energies, the sexual, in solo practice.
The Tantric iconography includes images of two deities, Shiva and Kali. We see Shiva in repose at Kali’s feet, her right foot upon his heart. Shiva is our body, inert without energy. Kali is energy itself, bringing life into lifeless matter. Heralding two ports of entry onto the Tantric path – the body and the heart – these two practices revive and join the two in you, as a gift to yourself. Remember, without Kali, there is no Shiva. And without Shiva, no Kali.
Tantra Heart Practice
1. Place your hands on your heart. Notice the rise and fall of your body as you breathe.
2. Inhale 2-3 seconds beyond what is habitual, as you expand your heart into your hands.
3. Exhale slowly and without force, as you pull your navel toward your spine and slightly upward.
4. Focus your attention on the sensations in your heart.
5. When you feel ready, open the door to love. Allow your attention to melt into your heart as you make a connection with the subtle feelings of love and connection. Continue the breathing practice as you allow feelings of love to come into focus in your heart. How does it feel to meet love outside the typical relationship context?
6. After 10-15 minutes, turn your attention to your breathing once more. Allow the feelings of love and elation to fill your body. Breathing in, fill your body with love. Breathing out, let go, feel more.
7. Continue 10-15 minutes, then lie down and drink in what you have experienced.
Tantra Body Practice
1. Close your eyes. Relax your body and turn your attention inward.
2. Place your hands on your navel. Notice the rise and fall of your body as you breathe.
3. Inhale 2-3 seconds beyond what is habitual, as you expand your navel into your hands.
4. Then, exhale slowly and without force, as you pull your navel toward your spine and slightly upward.
5. Focus your attention on the sensations in your navel and pelvis.
6. Relax, melt your shoulders away from your ears. Let your knees fall open. Soften your jaw.
7. If you find yourself distracted by thoughts, breathe more deeply, exhale more completely.
8. When you feel ready, open the door to your physical sexual feelings. Allow your attention to melt into your lower belly and genitals as you make a connection with the subtle feelings of sexual arousal. Continue the breathing practice as you allow feelings of sexual arousal to come into focus in your body.
9. Relax the sexual muscles, meet yourself with openness and acceptance. How does it feel to meet your sexual energy outside the typical sexual context?
10. After 10-15 minutes, turn your attention to your breathing once more. Allow these feelings of sexual aliveness to fill your body. Breathing in, fill your body with sexual arousal. Breathing out, let go, feel more. Just as Kali, pure energy, fills Shiva, the inert, your energy fills your body.
11. Continue 10-15 minutes then, lie down and drink in what you have experienced.
Dawn Cartwright is a Tantric visionary, sacred writer, world traveler, and innovator in bioenergetic Tantra fusion. Dawn will teach, ‘Sacred Sexuality, How We Love, 2-Nights of Tantric Bliss’, in the Wicklow Mountains, May 8th-10th, 2015.
