If you’ve ever tried to meditate and found yourself frustrated, lost, or questioning why you can’t just “get it right,” you’re not alone. Meditation is often portrayed as a simple practice, yet many people struggle with it—sometimes to the point of giving up.

Many think they don’t have time for meditation or get frustrated because their mind won’t calm down. But there is much more to this than meets the eye.

2. Meditation Causes Us to Become Aware of Our Deeper Feelings and Thoughts

A busy mind can be an unconscious strategy to avoid feeling deeper emotions. Meditation brings these to the surface, which can be uncomfortable, especially if you have unresolved emotional pain or trauma.

Solution:  Approach your meditation practice with compassion. If difficult emotions arise, let them. Trust that this awareness is the first step to healing. Understand that discomfort is part of the healing process.

I've had clients who struggled with meditation because it brought up painful memories. By gently allowing these emotions to surface, they found that the act of sitting with them was deeply healing.  

Working with the foundational tools of Ecstatic UnionTM allowed them to dissolve the root causes and find greater freedom and peace.

4. Not Finding an Effective Technique or Understanding How to Implement Meditation

Meditation involves shifting awareness beyond thoughts—whether it’s focusing on the breath, body sensations, or a mantra. If you’re not using a technique that resonates with you, it’s easy to feel lost.

Solution: Experiment with different techniques until you find one that feels right. Whether it’s breath-focused meditation, guided visualization, or mantra repetition, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. And different tools at different stages of the journey may be helpful.

It took me years to find the techniques that worked best for me. Once I did, my practice deepened significantly, and the benefits became more apparent.

I have found Mantra Meditation to be one of the most effective and powerful practices.  The foundational practices I emphasize for Stage 1 development will strengthen the effectiveness of the Mantra Practice, which I usually introduce in Stage 2.

6. The Deeper Process of Meditation is Bringing Awareness to That Which Was Previously Unconscious

Meditation isn’t just about relaxation—it’s a journey of spiritual awakening. It helps us purge unconscious patterns, fears, and false identities, leading us closer to our True Self, where unconditional love, joy, peace, and freedom reside.

Solution: Commit to the process. Understand that meditation is a tool for spiritual growth, and the discomfort you feel is part of shedding layers that no longer serve you.

The deeper I went into my practice, the more I realized that meditation was peeling back layers of my identity. It was removing all that I was not so that I may directly experience my True Nature. It was both liberating and challenging, but ultimately, it led to a truer understanding of who and what I am.

Final Thoughts: Commit to the Journey

Meditation is more than just a tool for relaxation; it’s a powerful practice for self-discovery, healing, and spiritual growth. The challenges you face are part of the process, and by understanding and addressing them, you can deepen your practice and experience the true benefits of meditation.

As you connect with your True Self, you find peace and joy become your new normal. The ups and downs of life no longer pull you off center, and you remain calm, no matter how chaotic the world may seem.

Through my Ecstatic Union™ approach, I help students find clarity and confidence on their path of healing and spiritual awakening.  With the proper foundational mindsets and practices, they are prepared to navigate this process.  And my 5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening and Personal Transformation offer guidance to navigating the different stages of development along the path.

Do you ever wonder why chronic headaches, fatigue, or that nagging back pain seem to linger, no matter what you try? What if the root cause isn’t physical, but emotional?

Emotional pain is an inevitable part of the human experience. Whether it stems from grief, heartbreak, trauma, or stress, we often think of emotional pain as being confined to the heart or mind. But can emotional pain manifest in physical symptoms?

Science and holistic healing practices suggest a profound connection between our emotions and our physical health. In this article, we’ll explore the mind-body connection, how unresolved emotional pain might lead to physical symptoms and practical steps you can take to begin healing both body and mind.

The Mind-Body Connection: An Ancient Truth Meets Modern Science

The idea that emotional pain can affect physical health isn’t new. Ancient healing systems like Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine have long recognized the intricate link between emotions and the body.

However, modern science is now catching up, with research revealing how stress, trauma, and unresolved emotional pain can manifest physically.

The idea that emotional pain can affect physical health isn’t new. Ancient healing systems like Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine have long recognized the intricate link between emotions and the body.

However, modern science is now catching up, with research revealing how stress, trauma, and unresolved emotional pain can manifest physically.

For example:

• Chronic Stress: Prolonged stress can lead to tension headaches, digestive issues, and even heart disease.
• Trauma: Studies show that traumatic experiences can alter the brain and nervous system, leading to chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome.
• Grief and Heartbreak: The term "broken heart syndrome" describes a real medical condition where intense emotional pain causes symptoms that mimic a heart attack.

These examples illustrate the undeniable connection between our emotional and physical selves.

How Emotional Pain Manifests in the Body

When we experience emotional pain, it’s not just "all in our head." The body stores emotions, often in ways we don’t consciously recognize.

Here are a few common ways emotional pain might show up physically:

When we experience emotional pain, it’s not just "all in our head." The body stores emotions, often in ways we don’t consciously recognize.

Here are a few common ways emotional pain might show up physically:

1. Muscle Tension and Pain
Stress and unresolved emotions often cause muscle tension, particularly in areas like the neck, shoulders, and back. This can lead to chronic pain or even conditions like tension headaches and migraines.

1. Muscle Tension and Pain
Stress and unresolved emotions often cause muscle tension, particularly in areas like the neck, shoulders, and back. This can lead to chronic pain or even conditions like tension headaches and migraines.

2. Digestive Issues
The gut is sometimes called the "second brain" because it’s so closely linked to our emotional state. Anxiety, stress, and unresolved trauma can cause issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), bloating, or stomach pain.

3. Fatigue and Low Energy
Carrying the weight of unresolved emotional pain can drain your energy, leaving you feeling fatigued or physically weak. This can also impact your immune system, making you more susceptible to illness.

4. Chronic Pain Conditions
Chronic conditions like fibromyalgia or unexplained joint pain are often linked to emotional pain or trauma. When emotional wounds go unaddressed, the body may manifest the pain physically as a way of demanding attention.

Understanding how emotional pain shows up in your body is the first step. Tools like Tantric Awareness and energy healing practices, which I teach in my Ecstatic Union™ system, can help release these patterns and restore balance.

Why Does Emotional Pain Cause Physical Symptoms?

The mind and body are deeply interconnected. When we experience emotional distress, the brain sends signals to the body, triggering a cascade of physical responses. Here are a few key mechanisms:

1. The Stress Response
When we’re emotionally overwhelmed, our body enters a fight-or-flight state, releasing stress hormones like cortisol. While this response is helpful in short bursts, chronic activation can wreak havoc on the body, leading to inflammation, muscle tension, and suppressed immune function.

2. Nervous System Dysregulation
Trauma and unresolved emotional pain can disrupt the autonomic nervous system, keeping it stuck in hyper-arousal (fight-or-flight) or hypo-arousal (freeze). This imbalance often manifests as physical symptoms like chronic pain or fatigue.

3. Emotional Energy Storage
Many healing traditions believe that unresolved emotions are stored in the body as energy. For instance, anger may be stored in the liver, sadness in the lungs, or fear in the kidneys. While this may sound metaphysical, research on somatic experiencing and body-focused therapies supports the idea that the body holds onto emotional trauma.

The Role of Awareness in Healing Emotional Pain

One of the first steps in addressing emotional pain is becoming aware of how it’s showing up in your body.

Tantric practices, yoga, and mindfulness techniques emphasize the importance of reconnecting with your body to process and release emotional pain.

Awareness is the cornerstone of healing. In my Ecstatic Union™ system, I teach a simplified, grounded approach called Tantric Awareness, which helps you reconnect with your True Self and process emotional pain without overwhelm.

This practice combines grounding, emotional clarity, and presence to help you face emotional pain without getting stuck.

One of the first steps in addressing emotional pain is becoming aware of how it’s showing up in your body. Tantric practices, yoga, and mindfulness techniques emphasize the importance of reconnecting with your body to process and release emotional pain.

Awareness is the cornerstone of healing. In my Ecstatic Union™ system, I teach a simplified, grounded approach called Tantric Awareness, which helps you reconnect with your True Self and process emotional pain without overwhelm. This practice combines grounding, emotional clarity, and presence to help you face emotional pain without getting stuck.

This practice combines grounding, emotional clarity, and presence to help you face emotional pain without getting stuck.

1. Identify the Pain
Take time to tune into your body. Are you experiencing tightness, discomfort, or pain in specific areas? Notice the sensations without judgment.

2. Link Emotions to Physical Symptoms
Once you’ve identified where the pain is, ask yourself: "What emotions am I holding here?" You might find that certain physical sensations are tied to stress, sadness, or unresolved anger.

3. Practice Tantric Awareness
Tantric Awareness teaches us to hold space for our emotions without becoming overwhelmed. By staying present and fully experiencing the emotion, we can allow it to move through us, rather than storing it in the body.

Effective Methods for Releasing Emotional Pain

Healing emotional pain requires a holistic approach that addresses both the mind and body.

 
Once Tantric Awareness is established as the foundational practice for healing, then we can use selective other methods to help bring layers of emotional pain into awareness to be released and healed.

Here are some helpful methods that complement the core practice of Tantric Awareness:

1. Breathwork and Pranayama
Conscious breathing techniques, like those introduced in my Clear the Path Guide, help calm the nervous system, release tension, and create space for emotional processing.

2. Energy Healing
Practices like Reiki or chakra balancing, integral to the Ecstatic Union™ framework, help release stored emotional energy and restore harmony to your energy system. For example, Reiki sessions may bring feelings of lightness and clarity as emotional blocks dissolve.

3. Body-Focused Therapies
Somatic experiencing, massage, or yoga can help release tension and stored emotions from the body. Yoga and movement practices help integrate emotional healing into the body—a key part of the system I teach.

4. Journaling and Self-Reflection
Writing about your emotions and experiences can provide clarity and create an outlet for processing pain. For instance, you might write about a recurring argument with a loved one and uncover deeper feelings of fear or rejection tied to past experiences.

5. Guided Support
Working with a healer, therapist, or coach can provide personalized guidance to navigate deeper emotional wounds.

Final Thoughts: Healing the Whole Self

Emotional pain is not something we can simply "think" our way out of. It impacts every layer of our being—mind, body, and spirit.

By understanding the connection between emotional and physical pain, and by taking steps to address the root causes, we open the door to true healing and transformation.

Emotional pain is not something we can simply "think" our way out of. It impacts every layer of our being—mind, body, and spirit. By understanding the connection between emotional and physical pain, and by taking steps to address the root causes, we open the door to true healing and transformation.

The healing journey begins with awareness and the willingness to take the first step.

The healing journey begins with awareness and the willingness to take the first step.

Download my free Clear the Path Guide to discover practical steps for releasing emotional pain and moving forward with confidence.

Prefer to read it? See below:

Introduction to Healing vs Spiritual Awakening

Hello there! This is Jeff Craft, or Kali Das, and just wanted to make a video for you today sharing some information with you that’s been very important to me.

So what I’m about to share is incredibly important for those on a sincere spiritual path to understand.

When I finally got this distinction for myself, it really made a huge difference in my own spiritual path. And so I wanted to talk about this because I think it’s really important.

So like many people on the spiritual path, I began my journey wanting to improve my own life, to have better relationships, to feel less anxious, to find more confidence in myself and many other benefits that I’m sure I was thinking of at the time as well.

And so I discovered a lot of great healing methods in the early part of what became my spiritual journey. I learned many healing methods that were often framed in spiritual terms. And it was a really important part of starting my own journey.

But as I went deeper into the spiritual path, I began to realize that there’s a very important distinction between this stage of healing that I am describing just now, and the deeper process of spiritual awakening that an authentic path actually invites us to step into.

There are many great practices and techniques for overcoming almost any problem that you can think of, such as anxiety, low energy, lack of confidence, addiction, conflict in relationships, greater financial success, many other things.

There are lots of different challenges that we as humans commonly experience. And finding ways for us to balance those things out can be really helpful.

So when I first started what became a spiritual journey, these types of methods, self-help practices and focuses on those kinds of challenges and overcoming those kind of challenges was also really important and helpful for me at the time.

They have a lot of practical value and on a spiritual path, I think it’s absolutely critical for us to find ways to harmonize our day to day lives.

But for those of us that are sincere about spiritual awakening and discovering the deeper essence of spiritual truth, which is the goal of spiritual practice in a more traditional sense, we must also at some point make an important distinction between the types of healing or personal transformational practices that I’ve just described and distinguish that between the practices that focus on the goal of spiritual awakening.

So if you haven’t already seen my video on the essence of spiritual awakening, I encourage you to check it out for a deeper explanation. But as a quick review, I’ll remind you that the goal of an authentic spiritual path is to discover your True Self.

And that the True Self is described as being pure awareness or pure consciousness, and the deeper understanding is that the person that you have imagined yourself to be in the world is not your truest self.

It is, of course, an experience that you are having that is valid and real. But your truest essence is beyond that. It is pure awareness or pure consciousness.

And so on a spiritual path, we’re actually seeking to discover our true self beyond the body, beyond the thoughts and the story of the person that we’ve known ourselves to be in the world.

There’s a larger picture that we’re opening into that helps us to understand by direct experience that our true essence is this pure awareness or consciousness beyond the experience of just the character in the world that we have been experiencing and so this is where the distinction becomes important.

The Focus of Personal Healing and Transformation

Healing or personal transformation practices are primarily designed to benefit the person that you know that has been living in the world. They are designed to improve health, reduce anxiety, to become more confident, to have better relationships, and all the other benefits that we can think of.

And I’ve already mentioned they’re designed to benefit the person that you have known yourself to be in the world. And again, I emphasize these are helpful and beneficial to the person that you experience yourself to be in the world.

I’m not making any kind of statement that they are in any way wrong. I’m going to tell you actually, they are very helpful.

And there’s also a way of understanding these methods in the context of how they support the actual process of spiritual awakening. I’ll talk about that more in a future video.

So they’re not in conflict with each other, but we want to get the right orientation to understand how they work together.

How Spiritual Awakening Differs From Healing

But the important distinction is this: Healing. or personal growth and transformation are focused on improving the life of the person that you are in the world. However, an authentic spiritual path is about realizing that you’re not actually the person living in the world, but instead your pure spirit or pure consciousness or pure awareness.

So the deeper path of spiritual awakening actually has nothing to do with making your life better and everything to do with discovering the deeper truth of who you are.

Personal healing and growth can be very helpful and important, and I actually encourage giving it attention on the spiritual path.

But for those who are seeking the direct experience of spiritual truth of Self and reality, I think that it’s very important to realize that personal healing and growth is only a small piece of the puzzle. It’s designed to benefit the person you are in the world, which the spiritual teachings actually ultimately say is not our true self and not our true essence.

We’re trying to discover what’s beyond. So we want to also really anchor in and commit to the discovering of the deeper truth of Self as spirit, awareness or consciousness as our deepest primary goal for our spiritual path.

So this is the important thing to take away. Yes, healing and personal growth are beneficial for helping us live a more harmonious and healthy life. But the benefits this brings are for improving the life of yourself in the world.

While these benefits are important on a practical level, it’s also important to recognize that the goal of an authentic spiritual path is to awaken to the direct experience of your true self as awareness or spirit or pure consciousness which exists beyond this person that you’ve been experiencing in the world.

So personal healing is for you in the world, and spiritual awakening practices are for you to discover your true self beyond the limited experience of the person in the world.

If we want to go deeper on an authentic spiritual path, it becomes increasingly important to make this distinction so that we’re clear on which goal we’re addressing with the different practices that we do.

Are we doing something that’s designed to harmonize the life of our self in the world? Or are we doing a practice that’s actually designed and focused on helping us discover that true essence of who we are at the level of spirit or consciousness or awareness?

As we progress on our path is going to need to be at least a slow, maybe sometimes a little faster, but for most a slow shift to focus more and more on discovering the true essence of self and reality as spiritual truth and less and less need to focus on the harmonizing of our life in the world.

And ultimately, we’ll discover that our daily life actually starts to take care of itself the more we focus on the deeper spiritual truth.

So there’s still not a conflict and both need to be addressed. But it is really helping us clarify and make a distinction about what we’re actually trying to accomplish with the real goal of spiritual awakening versus personal growth.

And we’ll also talk later, like I said, about how they fit together because they’re both important.

But we want to put them all in context together.

So, again, if you resonated with this, please leave some comments and maybe even find an opportunity to share this article or video with some like-minded friends as well.

Thank you very much. Namaste, and have a great one.

What are your thoughts or experiences related to personal healing versus the process of spiritual awakening?

Prefer to read it? See below:

Hello there, this is Jeff Craft or Kali Das, and I wanted to take a moment today and talk about the essence of spiritual awakening and part of that conversation also overcoming one of the biggest obstacles.

There are, of course, some other obstacles, but this is one of the biggest obstacles.

It took me decades to really get clear on this. And so even if the topic sounds familiar, I encourage you to hear me out, because the success of the spiritual path really depends upon being able to be really clear about this.

So it wasn’t until after I met my guru that I really got what spiritual awakening was about. But understanding the true goal of spiritual awakening and the spiritual path is essential to making progress.

And one of the biggest obstacles to the spiritual path or to the spiritual process of spiritual awakening is not understanding what spiritual awakening is or not emphasizing it enough.

The reality is most people have actually heard the essence of the truth. But sometimes it seems so simple, so obvious, that we forget the importance of it.

I began my spiritual path over 30 years ago. Hard to believe over that period of time I’ve read and heard the essence of spiritual awakening explained what feels like probably a million times.

But especially in the beginning, I brushed it aside and I thought, “oh, yes, I get that”. And then I would order 10 more books from Amazon about healing, chakras, spiritual development, various different things and continue to study and read.

Even after I met my guru in 2002, he clearly explained the essence of spiritual awakening to me and it sank in deeper, and it definitely planted a lot of seeds, But I still had the habit of continuing to search for other answers.

And so I want to share the essence of spiritual awakening with you today. Yes, you’ve probably heard it before, but I want to emphasize that this is really the main goal of what the spiritual path is trying to accomplish.

A Big Obstacle to Spiritual Awakening

The biggest obstacle to spiritual awakening is actually not knowing what spiritual awakening is or forgetting what the goal of spiritual awakening is.

So spiritual awakening and the spiritual path are not about chakras and psychic development and experiences of other dimensions. It’s not even really about healing or personal empowerment in the way that we often think about it.

Now, these things can be helpful. Healing, personal growth, even developing intuition all have their own value and they can be beneficial in many ways, but they by themselves are not actually signs of higher consciousness or spiritual development.

And so, as I know from my earlier days especially, it’s very easy to get distracted by different concepts like chakras developing intuition, energy, healing and forget the deeper goal of the spiritual path.

When we forget the deeper essence of the path, then other pursuits can become distractions even while appearing to be on the path so they can serve the process of spiritual awakening.

If you remember what the actual goal of spiritual awakening is and understand how they support the process, though.

So What is Spiritual Awakening?

The essence of spiritual awakening is this: Your true essence is not as a person living in the world, but instead your true essence is the awareness or consciousness which allows you to experience being a person world.

So your true, essential nature is defined as a being of awareness or as pure consciousness.

Now, most people may have even heard this, and maybe even you have. But what typically happens is that we can habitually continue to think of ourselves as a person in the world. We focus more on our essence in the world or the character that shows up in the world.

But it’s not until we really get the truth of this simple statement and invited it into our direct experience that we begin to make lasting progress on the spiritual path. That your essential essence, your true self, is pure awareness, pure consciousness.

Reflecting on Your Own Experience of Self

So if you take a moment to contemplate your own experience of being alive, reflect on yourself as a child. On yourself, as in your teenage years. Reflect on yourself at various times between then and up to the present moment.

If you reflect, you’re going to agree that the person that you know yourself to be in the world has changed in many ways. Your body has changed life experiences have changed. Your attitude about life and others and yourself has changed.

And as humans, we have all grown and evolved. And I’m sure that you have too. But most people base their sense of identity or self on the experiences that they have in life that are happening to the person in the world, they think of themselves as their name, their body, their experiences.

We think, for instance, I’m male or female, I’m short or tall. We give ourselves lots of descriptors and we think about ourselves as I am these things that reflect how I show up, how this person shows up in the world.

But if you pay attention, this version of you is changing over the years.

So the question becomes, “which version of you is the real you?”

Of course, the current version of yourself in the world might be a reasonable answer. Of course, the emphasis of being here, being now, being in the present moment.

But there’s a deeper essence of who you really are. And the various spiritual traditions point to something else as being the real you.

So as you reflect over that timeline of your life in the world, I invite you to step back for a moment. Your body and your character, as you’ve shown up in the world, have changed. But if you pay close attention, there’s a deeper sense of self that has remained constant.

In childhood, in high school and various ages and experiences of life, there is an underlying sense of “me” that does not change. A part of your essence that has been witnessing and experiencing the unfolding of your body and mind in the world, that unchanging sense of self.

The “witness”, the experience of which is said to be your true self, your true essence. The true essence is not the body, the mind, the emotions, the thoughts, or the story of the life that you’ve been experiencing in the world.

Your true essence is the consciousness or awareness in which the world arises.

The Initial Moment of Spiritual Awakening

So the essence of spiritual awakening is when you have a direct and clear experience that your true nature is the witnessing consciousness. That your true identity is not the person you have been experiencing the world, but your true identity is pure consciousness or awareness.

That’s the essence of spiritual awakening.

So it’s said that when we have that first direct moment of I am not this being, I’m not this body, I’m not this person in the world, that there’s this other part of me that’s consciousness, the witness that experiences this.

And there’s a feeling of there being a little separation, even ever so slight in the crack of your experience of life.

That’s when spiritual awakening begins: when you have a strong enough experience that I am not just this person. I’m not this body. I’m not these thoughts. I am consciousness. I’m awareness. I’m spirit. I’m something beyond what this individual self in the world is.

So realizing this to be your true experience by direct experience is the first moment of spiritual awakening. And then the remaining steps on the spiritual path are to continue to cultivate that truth, which deepens spiritual awakening and changes your relationship to life and self.

So cultivating awareness of your essential nature as awareness is what brings deeper, sustained peace, love and joy. And it also is what brings about the transformation many people experience on the spiritual path.

The Most Important Focus to Deepen Spiritual Awakening

So the advice from spiritual traditions is simple: focus on cultivating the direct experience of yourself as consciousness, awareness or spirit.

If you make that your number one focus, all remaining spiritual knowledge will unfold and reveal itself
through the process.

Other topics may be helpful and interesting, but it also is easy to get distracted.

And so if we continue to remember the primary goal, then we use other teachings, other practices, other perspectives, and we give them a litmus test.

We can keep asking:

• Does this serve me discovering the truth of myself?
• Does this serve the path of discovering a deeper relationship to myself as consciousness, as awareness?
• Does it deepen my process of spiritual awakening?

And from that perspective, the spiritual practices we do and the things that we study and learn, it should be in support of cultivating awareness of the true self and deepening that awareness. If we are truly focused on spiritual awakening.

The processes of healing and other topics, again, can be interesting. They can be helpful, they can be fun. We’re not saying they’re wrong, but we want to give them context.

We must keep this question in mind as we explore different practices and topics: Does it serve deepening of self-awareness?

Focus on What Really Matters

So I encourage you and invite you to really contemplate the possibility that your true self is really the awareness or consciousness in which your life has been arising.

And if you’re serious about the spiritual awakening and deepening spiritual path, then I invite you to really take this in and let it plant that important seed that’s going to help you focus on the one goal that really matters.

Your true self is not the body, the mind, the person that you have been experiencing in life. Your true self is pure awareness or pure consciousness.

And the “true self” nature is that of love and being in peace. Like that’s the essence of what we’re doing.

So healing, developing your intuition, exploring different spiritual practices can all be part of that spiritual path. But for real progress to be made, they must be used in context to support that simple and single goal of spiritual awakening.

The essence of spiritual awakening is to cultivate the direct experience of yourself as pure awareness and then deepen it until it remains a constant lived truth.

And when we get distracted by other concepts and we forget that when we forget that the essence, the goal of spiritual awakening is that simple, then we can become distracted and it becomes an obstacle for us.

So thank you for your time. Again, if you resonate with this message, just leave a comment below and I hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful day.

What are your thoughts or experiences about the Essence of Spiritual Awakening?

Prefer to read it? See below:

Introduction to Tantric Myth #3: You Need A Partner to Practice Tantra

Hello again, this is Jeff Craft or Kali Das! And this is the third video in my series on tantric myths.

Myth # 3 Is The Idea That In Order To Practice Tantra, You Have To Have A Partner

And so, myth number three is the idea that in order to practice Tantra that you have to have a partner. 

This myth goes back to a connection with myth number one, which is the idea that Tantra is about sex or sacred sexuality. And so, it’s very common then for people to think that they are going to be excluded because they don’t have a partner to practice sexual practices with.  

This is a huge myth. It’s also a very unfortunate myth because there are so many people that are single or that maybe even have a partner, but their partner isn’t really interested in the practice, so they have imagined that they are not eligible to explore tantra.  Even if you want to approach Tantra in terms of sacred sexuality, of exploring, healing around sexuality, you can still do it by yourself.

And in fact, it can really be an advantage sometimes to not have a partner when you start to practice tantra.  As I mentioned in myth number one, Tantra really is not about sex but there are some legitimate, and helpful healing sexual practices that are connected to the sacred sexuality, which can be linked into Tantra. 

And even if you’re exploring down that path, it’s oftentimes a wonderful opportunity when you’re not with a partner to be able to really focus on yourself, your growth on better understanding yourself, involving yourself,  and looking at some of the various experiences that you may have had around your own sexuality, your relationship patterns,  and using it as an opportunity to really do your own inner work so that when you do finally attract another partner into your life, that you are able to show up as a more whole individual that is able to really be in relationship to somebody in a more mature way.

So that’s one of the potential advantages. Now, the other part of it of course, is that if you’re in a relationship right now and your partner doesn’t want to practice, then I would also give you a very similar concept, which is that if you are feeling called to grow, to evolve, to heal yourself, to explore your spirituality, to explore a healthy relationship with your sexuality in becoming more self-aware, less shame, those types of things then even if your partner is not wanting to participate, that there are safe ways that still honor the commitment that you may have with your partner to continue to do the work.

So, the invitation is to not let your partner’s lack of interest hold you back from pursuing something that you know that your soul knows is going to be good for you. So, I invite you to consider that as part of this as well.

Balancing Of Masculine And Feminine

Now the other thing that happens when we start looking at this as a reflection of sacred sexuality, which is where this misconception comes from, is that sometimes thrown into that are the ideas that in Tantra that we’re doing all this focus on masculine and feminine balance. And if you don’t have a male and a female, then there’s this big problem, right?

So that becomes blended into this myth around needing a partner.  Tantra does work with the balancing of what we can call masculine and feminine, but there are two different layers of it. There is one layer where we’re looking at it as a spiritual process, this Yin Yang kind of thing where we’re understanding that there’s sort of a masculine and a feminine dynamic or expression in terms of how spirit or consciousness or God operates. And in that realm, we want to understand that we’re using it as a function of speech. And less so as a literal male and female kind of thing.

You know, the idea of God when we start to look at God as consciousness is that there really is no gender. So, the masculine/ feminine thing, if we take it too far into the direction of the spiritual aspects of things, it can get in the way.

Where it can oftentimes be helpful though is in relationships. Now, one of the ideas that Tantra talks about is that there’s this masculine and feminine energy, which is true and that we all have both in us. Also, true. 

So whether you’re male or female, you have the capacity to experience masculine and feminine energy flowing within you, which also means that ultimately it’s not about your gender, your gender identity or the anatomy that’s on your body that indicates your gender, that is in any way indicative of whether masculine and feminine energies are flowing in you.

They’re both flowing in you. Now, there may be little different blends that we naturally are comfortable with, but the invitation is whether you’re a male or female to find your own healthy relationship with both layers of that expression. So, for instance, there’s a common idea at least when I was growing up that the boys are oftentimes told that they need to be tough. They shouldn’t cry. They shouldn’t show emotions. Suck it up. And if there’s enough experience around that then a young boy could grow up into a man who feels very uncomfortable with experiencing emotion. 

Now the invitation in Tantra would be to kind of let go of that conditioned judgment and just allow yourself to have an authentic relationship with your emotion. If you feel emotional, allow it to be okay. Allow it to be safe.

This doesn’t mean that we need to take that guy and make him, you know, super sobbing and crying at hallmark cards and, you know, take it to that level. Now, if that’s part of his natural expression that unfolds, once he’s given permission, that’s fine, but we’re not creating an expectation around what it’s supposed to look like. We’re just inviting our connection to it to honor and accept that part of ourselves and then find a balance so that we’re not always pushing just the masculine button or just the feminine button. But that we’re able to find ways to easily and peacefully flow between different layers of our expression. So, that becomes part of it.

And the similar kind of thing sometimes happens for women, especially women who might be in the corporate world where the masculine more directed energy is oftentimes helpful in that environment, at least in the past. In order to be able to compete and to stay connected to the processes that are happening of being a leader or a manager or those types of things, there is a more masculine energy that is sometimes actually needed for that and to be able to develop the skill to use that masculine energy in a healthy way is also a good thing in and of itself.

But when the process of that condition becomes such that you’re in that masculine directive energy all the time as a woman and you don’t have an opportunity to relax back into just being into a more soft, intuitive feeling space where you can be more peaceful and more at home and that part of yourself, then there can be an imbalance created. And so again, the invitation for the female would be how do you find the balance between those two places.

How do you make sure that you don’t lose your feminine essence because you happen to need that masculine energy in your career, for instance?

How do you make sure that you don’t lose your feminine essence because you happen to need that masculine energy in your career, for instance?  

So, those are just a couple of examples. They’re obviously not the only examples that are out there. And as part of this idea of the masculine and feminine and the needing of the partner, there’s also a linked myth that is sometimes people will teach or think that same-sex attracted people, gay men, lesbian women, that they can’t practice tantra because, well, it would be two males or two females and therefore that balance wouldn’t happen and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And that is also not true. Because again, we have this access to masculine and feminine energies within ourselves. Similar dynamics are happening in relationships and same-sex couples in terms of the various needs of finding intimacy and different fears that we may have around deepening love and intimacy and connection.

And so there tends to be a way that polarity naturally shows up even in same-sex relationships.  Without going into any kind of stereotypes about what that may look like or be like, the natural human expression of those balances and how that works in relationship often translates into same-sex relationships as well.

And in addition to that, Tantra as we talked about in myth number one, isn’t ultimately about sex to begin with. So you can explore so much of the tantric traditions in terms of creating deeper self-awareness, deeper empowerment of yourself, greater confidence and healing your limitations and creating greater joy, love, freedom, vibrancy in your life that have nothing to do specifically with sexuality. Although all that stuff can play into it. But you can do so much great work and growth and evolution and self-discovery, whether you’re in a relationship or not, just through your own practice, through your own intention, through your own methodology and learning to embody these principles for yourself.

Whether or not you have a partner or a friend or anybody else that wants to go along for the ride, you should not limit yourself or think for a minute that you cannot explore Tantra without a partner. It’s just simply not true. 

So, thank you very much for watching. Look out for video number four and go back and watch number one and two if you haven’t already, and you can click below and make some comments for this and also find the link to my website if you’d like to learn more about what it is that I do. 

Namaste.

—

So, how can you go deeper into a genuine Tantric spiritual path?

If you are interested in exploring a path of transformation, growth, and evolution that weaves Spirituality, Sexual Wholeness, and Conscious Relationship together, then check out my Tantric Transformation Foundations Online Class series that will get you started on a path of personal evolution. It will give you a whole new way to understand your Self, your Relationships and your Sexuality that will take you towards greater joy, vibrancy, love, and abundance.

To Get more information about this classes Series, Click Here.

Prefer to read it? See below:

Hello, it’s Jeff Craft, or Kali Das again! This is the second video in my series on common tantric myths.

Today’s Myth Is That Tantra And Yoga Are Two Different Things

I will commonly hear people that come to some of my tantric workshops, or tantric meditation groups say things like, “Yes, I practice Yoga in the morning, and then I practice meditation”, or, “I practice Yoga and then I do my Tantra”. These statements imply there is a split or difference. But, even meditation is a part of Yoga practice.

The simple truth to this is that Tantra is actually a form of Yoga, when it is properly understood.

The meaning of “Yoga”, comes from the Sanskrit word means “union”. That is what Yoga means. It references the deeper intention that Yoga has of connecting what we have imagined our individual self to be and creating a union between that individual identity and the more universal consciousness that we could call God, or spirit.

That is where the union comes, that is the Yoga – the yoking of our individual self into this larger experience of consciousness, or God, or divinity, or however you want to call it.

That is what the real idea of what Yoga is. It is a systematic approach of self-evolving, self-awakening, self-healing that leads us from a state of suffering, of feeling separation, of experiencing attachments in the world, and leading us into a deeper space of presence, of love, of peace, that actually evolves from within our own being, within our own heart, within our own consciousness.

Yoga is ultimately connecting us back to the truth of ourselves that we have forgotten about. That is what Yoga is really inviting. Yoga is that process and Tantra actually invites the very same process. It just goes about it in a specific way.

There are lots of different forms of Yoga, but there are two primary approaches to rediscovering and reconnecting with that deeper peace that is our true Self.

Two Primary Approaches To Rediscovering And Reconnecting With Our True Self

The yogic teachings present as the highest outcome that the only thing that really exists is God. We can also call God as “consciousness” because it doesn’t have to be any sort of religious or spiritual idea.  It is ultimately the essence of your True Self we are seeking.

Through Yoga we are trying to discover that. When we fully discover God, which is all that exists, it is the true nature of self as consciousness and awareness. In the process of discovering that the only thing that really exists is God, there are these two tracks, these two basic approaches.

There is a traditional yogic approach, which we could call an ascetic kind of approach. This approach goes about the idea of saying “the only thing that exists is God, God is pure consciousness, and therefore all of the things of the world are not God, because they are not pure consciousness. They are, in fact, illusions.”

This is the idea – a sort of a non-dual approach. The only thing that exists is God, this whole world that we have, and that we have been experiencing is all an illusion. It is this place that causes suffering for us, because we get attached, and therefore to ease the suffering of my being, I am going to reject this illusion, I am going to release all of my attachments. That becomes part of the process.

This is a legitimate path. Although it probably doesn’t appeal to you as you are listening to this, it is a legitimate path. However, it is a very challenging path. This is the kind of path that will lead people for their spiritual practice to abandon their family, go live in a cave, give up all their money and wander the streets begging for food, these types of things, as symbols and intentions around letting go of attachments. That is one particular path.

Tantra is another path or another philosophical approach. What Tantra does is it comes back to the original conclusion, and it says “Yes, the only thing that exists is pure consciousness or God and if that is true, that means that everything that I experience in the world is also pure consciousness, it is also God.”

So, instead of going about the process of rejecting the world, it actually embraces the world as being a sacred experience, an unfolding of the divine consciousness or divine being. Rather than rejecting it, it shows how can we peer beyond the veil and experience the presence of the divine right here in this world, in our bodies, in our food, in nature around us, in other people, in our desires, in our sexual experiences, in our creative endeavors, in our sense of purpose in the work that we do in the world.   It asks “How can we begin to invite our life to become the actual spiritual process? How can the experience of living be converted into a spiritual path?” That is what Tantra really invites us to do.

There are many practices that begin to connect us to deeper presence, deeper embodiment of energies, deeper embodiment of experiences, and invite us to step beyond the limitations and the judgments that we may have for the world around us. We can begin to see the sacredness, to find the beauty, to find the acceptance of what is, and to be fully present and alive in the world.

Tantra ultimately invites us to be as alive, as blissful, as joyful, as loving as possible, while also being as peaceful and relaxed as possible. That becomes the invitation that it has. It is a specific path, a specific form of Yoga, but ultimately leads back to that same place of there being just one God, or one consciousness. It just goes about it through a different path.

What both systems will ultimately agree upon is that once you get to the final conclusion of really seeing and experiencing directly that everything that exists is pure consciousness and God, or that nothing that exists out here in the world is consciousness or God, that once you get to the nothingness or the all, that it all kind of melds into the same thing.

If none of this is God, and you find God beyond that, then you also experience the paradox of everything being God. If you go about the approach of getting there because you are trying to weave everything into being sacred, you get there and everything becomes God, you also again experience the paradox of it not being God at the same time. You get to experience both sides of the same coin operating in truth at the same time.

That is an explanation, a rather deep explanation on the non-dual approaches of Yoga, and how Yoga and Tantra are really the same thing.

Meditation, Yoga, and Tantra

As a side note, meditation is deeply, deeply connected to Yoga and Tantra as well. It is not correct to make a distinction between Yoga and meditation – they are both part of one single system. What most people think of as Yoga today, when you hear the average person say, “I’m doing my Yoga, I’m doing my Yoga class”, what they are actually referring to is what would more correctly be Yoga asana, or the postures that are connected to the Hatha Yoga system.

It can be helpful, I think, to make distinctions, at least in your own mind of understanding that all of these techniques, the postures, the breathing practices, the meditation techniques, and various other kinds of approaches to Yoga are all really connected to a single system, including Tantra being part of the yogic process.

That concludes the second of the myth-videos around Tantra, and look for the third one soon!

Namaste.

—

So, how can you go deeper into a genuine Tantric spiritual path?

If you are interested in exploring a path of transformation, growth, and evolution that weaves Spirituality, Sexual Wholeness, and Conscious Relationship together, then check out my Tantric Transformation Foundations Online Class series that will get you started on a path of personal evolution. It will give you a whole new way to understand your Self, you Relationships and your Sexuality that will take you towards greater joy, vibrancy, love, and abundance.

To Get more information about this classes Series, Click Here.

Prefer to read it? See below:

Hello, this is Jeff Craft, or Kali Das, and I am making a short video for you. This is going to be the first in a series of videos, where in each video I am going to be talking about a common myth that is associated with Tantra. This is the first video, and the first myth that I want to talk about is the idea that Tantra is about sex, or about sacred sexuality.

Is Tantra Only About Sacred Sexuality?

If we go back and look at the teachings of Tantra – if you look back to the sacred texts that are associated with them, you will notice something surprising. I know I was surprised when I first began to really dive deep into those texts, and the thing that is surprising is that sex is almost never mentioned.

Probably much like yourself, I first learned about Tantra as being a sexual practice as well, focused on creating more pleasure and better orgasms, and more stamina for men, and more pleasure, connection, intimacy, and those types of things. That was the way that it was introduced to me, and when I really started to go study it in a deeper way, I discovered that it was actually hard to find comments or mentions about sexuality in the original texts that are associated with Tantra.

As part of the myth that comes along with this idea of Tantra as sacred sexuality, some practitioners that teach Tantra will also insist that the Kama Sutra is a Tantric book. That really is also a myth. The Kama Sutra discusses lots of other things in addition to sex, but it ultimately is kind of an ancient version of The Joy of Sex. It shows positions and it shows other types of things about seeking pleasure in life.

In the Kama Sutra, there is some talk about there being 64 different arts, and again those tend to come more from Kama Sutra, and other types of cultural references, as opposed to truly being something that is specific to Tantra. It doesn’t mean that we can’t take those things into our tantric practice. We can make the Kama Sutra relevant, we can make the 64 sacred arts relevant to tantric practice, but they are not necessarily what they are often presented to be by some tantric teachers.

We are wanting to understand that these are just little pieces of things. When you dive deep enough, there are a few places in these original texts that do talk about and reference sexuality and rituals involving sexuality. But when you really understand the intention and the implication of why they are doing these sexual rituals, you will understand that there is a completely different context to what it is often associated with Tantra in our current time.

The authentic Tantric rituals that involved sexual activity are actually used as ways to expand ourselves into a deeper connection with divinity, with God. That was ultimately the higher intention of them. People would prepare for these rituals over periods of time so that they were actually not really so focused on the personal pleasure.  Instead, they were focused on using sexual activity as a gateway into the bliss of divine consciousness.

That was really the invitation that it was used for, so it was used with that intention of connecting more deeply to divinity, but not necessarily with the intention of having better orgasms, or having more sex, having more interaction, etc. In fact there are a lot of rules that were laid down about who was really eligible to even interface with these particular activities, and they are probably more restrictive than some of the modern tantric ideas that are associated with sacred sexuality might lead you to believe. There were restrictions on who could interact with who, it was preferred that someone actually interact with their spouse, and not with a stranger. Of course, there were some other things that happened in that as well. It is not 100% black and white, but that is the general idea of it.

So, when we are looking at Tantra, we want to understand that the original intention in those sacred sexual practices, that are truly documented, was a gateway to divinity.

There are literally thousands of other tantric practices that have nothing to do with sexuality at all. Deciding that this one slice, this one sexual practice, is really the whole truth of Tantra is similar to imagining, for instance, that the purpose of Christianity is to drink wine – that practicing Christianity is about drinking wine.

Of course, I am referencing the idea of communion in Christianity. Whether you are Christian or not, you probably know and understand that there is a symbolism that is involved in the sipping of the wine. We are not chugging wine at a communion, we are taking sips. There is an intention of connecting more deeply with what is described as being the “blood of Christ”. To be inviting that intention of a deeper thing, because the wine has been blessed, we are bringing that blessed energy in with the intention of connecting to Christ through the communion process.

If someone came running up to you and telling you that to be a practicing Christian, all you have to do was drink wine, you would, of course, think they were crazy! Understandably so. There is a similar kind of mistake happening around tantric practices, where this one practice has been taken out of context and has been told to us as being the main practice.  The mistaken notion that in Tantra you practice “this sexual thing”, like that’s the focus, and it is skipping over the original intention. There is a sacred intention behind the idea of communion, and there is also originally a sacred intention behind the use of sexual energy when it was used as part of a Tantric practice. But “sex” is not the totality of practice, or even connected to the deeper Intention of Tantra.

That is the end of myth #1. Feel free to make some comments below, and click on the links to my site and check out other things that I have going on, and look for myth #2 coming up soon!

Namaste.

So, how can you go deeper into a genuine Tantric spiritual path?

If you are interested in exploring a path of transformation, growth, and evolution that weaves Spirituality, Sexual Wholeness and Conscious Relationship together, then check out my Tantric Transformation Foundations Online Class series that will get you started on a path of personal evolution. It will give you a whole new way to understand your Self, you Relationships and your Sexuality that will take you towards greater joy, vibrancy, love, and abundance.

To Get more information about this classes Series, Click Here.

It has happened to the best of us. We get into a new relationships. We are excited, thinking we have found “The One”. Things are going great. And then one day, we wake up and realize that our life and relationship has become a little bit boring. Maybe routine.

We seem to have created routines. Maybe the sex life isn’t as active as it used to be. Maybe we’ve even put on a few pounds.
Certainly there are different versions of “routine”, but you get the idea right?

Sometimes people even mistakenly wonder if they are losing their spark, or falling out of love. You also may realize you still love this person, but you are just confused, thinking “Things use to be so exciting. And now, we just watch TV and eat dinner. What happened?”

How it happens

Now, let’s step back to the beginning of the relationship. If you are like most couples, that “New Love” stage is pretty exciting. You are discovering new things about each other. You are excited to better understand your new found soulmate. You want to know about their passions, their interests and their philosophies on life.

You are attracted to them, and desire the joy of physical connection, pleasure and passion.

You are also inwardly projecting your future together. Imagining your “happily ever after”.

Everything is new, and exciting and you are so high on love.. You feel indestructible and on top of the world.

And then, as time goes on, you better know the other person. You don’t need to hear again about the time your partner won a basketball game, or got drunk at prom.

In the beginning, there was so much undiscovered. And now, there is an inner mental file system labelled “All the things I know about my partner”. It has key memories they have shared. It includes what to expect when you make love. And there is also a slowly building special list of the things your partner does that irritates you.

And as you begin to feel more and more that you “know your partner”, you become less curious. And you begin to operate off of what you already know.

And as you do this, the level of excitement and the spark begins to lessen. And one day, you find yourself living in a routine where it’s rare that anything new and exciting is discovered or experienced.

But the routine becomes comfortable. So, at first it feels like stability and safety. Until the day it starts to feel restrictive. Until the day you start to wonder if something is wrong. Until the day some impulse inside you wants to find excitement again, and you struggle to figure out how to make it happen without upsetting the stability of the relationship.

The Key to Exciting Relationships is not intuitive.

What has frequently happened below the surface, is we have learned that the other person is a certain way. And they have learned we are a certain way. And we become acutely aware of trying to remain the person that our partner loves.

One common fear is that “if I change, he or she won’t love me anymore.” It’s not rational. And it may not even be conscious. But, there comes an unspoken agreement that “we need to keep things and ourselves the same so we are stable.  I may lose you if I change.”

And this is where the trouble begins.

The nature of life is to grow, evolve and change. When we conspire against the natural order and try to keep things too consistent then we stagnate. And we also become afraid of anything that is unexpected or too far from our comfort zone. In this way of experiencing things, change brings fear. And in order to avoid fear, we cling to routine and the expected. Because change is threatening to “safe and comfortable”.

But when we do this, our Soul suffers. In order to not grow and change, we must pretend that our desires, passions, hopes, dreams and basic unmet needs don’t exist. We have to ignore our disappointments, not feel our inner sadness, or anger or frustration. We must disconnect from our own Inner Truth in order to keep things “safe”.

This is a problem for two reasons.

For one, you suffer. Life loses its passion. You sacrifice excitement for safety.

And two, your partner also suffers. Life loses its passion for your partner as well and he or she sacrifices excitement for safety.

So what is the path out? What’s the path back to excitement in a relationship that also honors the needs of both people to create some stability in the relationship?

Let’s go back to the early stage of the relationship for a clue. You were both excited to discover new things about each other, and to learn everything you can about the other. You were both excited to experience the “newness” of what is undiscovered and possible in the new relationship.

What would happen if you were excited to discover new things about your partner again? What would happen if within the familiarity, trust and stability of a loving relationship, you both also focused on growing, evolving and experiencing new things?

What if you set aside that fear of change, and decided to follow your heart’s desire towards a new adventure, new career, new hobby, or new course of study?

What if you risked stability and shared your inner fears instead of ignoring them?  What if you uprooted the limiting beliefs that had kept you feeling small, afraid and insecure and replaced them with confidence, radiant self-love and passion for life?

And what if your partner also did the same?

As you allow yourself to grow, to evolve and to connect with your Soul’s inner truth, life reawakens. Vibrancy and excitement returns to you.  Clarity dawns and you find yourself enthusiastically in the flow of life again.  Life IS Change, Growth and Transformation.

And as your partner also chooses to grow and evolve, the same happens for him or her.

And here’s the bonus: As your partner is growing and evolving, he or she is discovering new passions, new potentials, new experiences, new levels of success and new capacities for love, excitement, joy and aliveness. This means that as your partner grows and changes, you get to re-discover new things about your partner on an ongoing basis. Instead of thinking “I know everything about my partner”, you welcome discovering new things about them as they share their inner world and new adventures with you. Just like in the earlier, exciting stage of relationship you get to discover new things about your partner on a regular basis again.

And of course, your partner gets the excitement of rediscovering the new versions of you that evolve over time as well.

You get to support each other through the process. You get to share in the excitement of new levels of joy, freedom and success that you partner achieves. You get to watch the person you love blossom and flower into an even happier, more vibrant person.

The experience of life and relationship becomes exciting again.  If you are both evolving and enjoying life, you infuse your relationship with the excitement and aliveness that it brings.

Here is the nutshell overview: By committing to a process of growth, healing and self discovery, you will bring passion back into your life. If you commit to this with your partner, you both reawaken passion for life. And that passion for life is brought into the relationship, which feeds the relationship. Plus you also get the excitement of experience both life and your partner as something which is evolving and transforming, rather than “static”. All within the safety and trust of a loving relationship.

So the unintuitive way to keep your relationship exciting, is actually for both partners to give attention to their own individual growth. To keep allowing yourself to imagine even higher potentials of success, love, adventure, purpose, abundance and joy, and then using the methods and healing practices that will help you keep evolving.

As you do this, you get your own exciting individual journey, and you also get to share the excitement of watching your partner grow as you offer support.

Of course, as the passion returns, you will find some common experiences to share together also.  It will feed the relationship one way or another.

So, how do you go about the process of growth, healing and self discovery?

If you are interested in exploring a path of transformation, growth, and evolution that weaves Spirituality, Sexual Wholeness and Conscious Relationship together, then check out my Tantric Transformation Foundations Online Class series that will get you started on a path of personal evolution. It will give you a whole new way to understand your Self, you Relationships and your Sexuality that will take you towards greater joy, vibrancy, love, and abundance.

To Get more information about this classes Series, Click Here.