Monthly Archives: November 2014

Tantra, Christianity, and Sex

Hi everyone, my name is Dave Miller and I’m the author of Christian Tantric Meditation Guide, now available at Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com in paperback and ebook forms. I’m here today to answer some questions that people have been asking about Christian Tantric Meditation. It seems that Christian people ask the question, why include Tantra, Non-Christians ask why include Christianity, and a lot of people ask whether this practice involves sex in any way.

To answer the first question, Tantra includes several practices that can be easily adapted to almost any religion or tradition. The concepts of energy centers and flowing breath energy are actually common to many if not all human cultures and religions, including Christianity. The practices of self emptying, Divine Communion or Guruyoga, and Compassion are also common to many if not all cultures and religions.

To answer the second question, which was why Christianity, Tantric Guruyoga meditation can be practiced with saints in mind or teachers or revered ancestors, or even Deities from other traditions. In practicing Christian Tantric Meditation, we visualize Jesus the Christ as our Guru and connection with Divinity.   We also visualize 3 energy centers or chakras rather than the 7 usually visualized in Yogic or Tantric practices. These chakras correspond to the mind, center of thought and hope, the heart, center of love, and the core, center of faith and wisdom.

Now to answer the third question, what about sex? Its true that there are many books and programs that describe Tantric practice in sexual terms. Those practices generally involve Chakras associated with sexual energy. Again, Christian Tantric Meditation utilizes Mind, Heart, and Core Chakras. With regard to sexuality, in Judeo-Christian Scripture the creation story tells us that a whole being adam was divided into male and female counterparts, Adam and Eve. Scripture also describes the female aspect of God as being Sophia or Wisdom. Christian Tantric Meditation recognizes that we are made in the image of God, having both male and female character attributes. So in meditation, we strive for developing wholeness and balance within ourselves, Consciously, Spiritually, physically in terms of taking care of ourselves, and in relationships also.

So, I hope this little video blog was helpful in answering questions you may have regarding CTM. If you have any other questions, feel free to visit our contact page at ecumenicalwellness.org/contact-us, and there is also a Facebook group called Ecumenical Meditation Insights for sharing meditation techniques, questions, and experiences as well. For people local to Atlanta Georgia in the US, we are now offering meditation workshops in Gainesville and Cumming Georgia, visit ecumenicalwellness.org/workshops for more details. If there is an interest in workshops outside of the Atlanta area, visit the website and let us know, we’re always willing to share.

Post Election Compassion

In counseling we teach that we cannot change others, but we can improve our relations by changing ourselves. This is usually expressed in terms of building healthy boundaries, but I believe we can cultivate compassionate relationships by exercising compassion AND healthy boundaries. 20140704_181100_1

It gets complicated when we want others to be more “like us.” In counseling we call that triangulation – bringing in a third party rather than dealing directly with another person. That creates difficulties when conservative factions triangulate to what they consider “principles” (You should have more principles!) and liberal factions triangulate to what they consider “caring for others”  (You should have more empathy!)

Maybe when we triangulate we are expressing frustration with our own limitations as human beings. “I’m not good enough on my own – you should be good too, then maybe things will get better!” “I’m not helpful enough on my own – you should contribute more, then maybe things will get better!”

As a counselor, my advice to both parties would probably be to work on building and maintaining healthy boundaries. By over-identifying with “principle” a person can feel burdened by the sin of their own inherent humanity – unrighteousness. And by over-identifying with “caring for others”, a person can become burdened by the sin of own inherent humanity – vulnerability and need to care for self.

So the question remains – can we forgive and have compassion for each other? Can we recognize and have compassion for “those who suffer for righteousness sake”, even when they triangulate their frustrations toward others? Can we recognize and have compassion for “those who suffer on behalf of others”, even when they triangulate their frustrations toward others?

This is the root of compassion – appreciating the suffering that the other endures. And it is easy, very easy, to recognize suffering, because for the most part the sources of suffering are projected onto others. In the US, just watch Fox or MSNBC news for a few minutes, and every time someone says “should”, translate the phrase into “I wish I could”.  “Obama should build a wall to protect us” turns into “I wish I could build a wall.”  “Boehner should help undocumented workers” turns into “I wish I could help undocumented workers.”  Every time someone says “should” they express their own suffering, which presents an opportunity to increase compassion.

Of course, compassion and safe boundaries need to go hand in hand. This is part of what is unique about the compassion meditation process described in the book “Christian Tantric Meditation Guide.” In some   compassion meditation protocols questions about abuse are greeted with either silence or “just be more compassionate.” If we are going to practice compassion for our enemies, we need to do so from a safe distance.

What are the benefits of compassion?  When we develop self awareness and compassion – toward ourselves, our loved ones, our enemies, and universally, when someone looks us in the eye and says “you’re not good enough!” which we may interpret in each our own way – instead of being defensive and resentful, from a safe and respectful distance we can smile back and say “I’m human, and that’s OK. Have a blessed day!”