by Ana Stoian | Aug 13, 2023 | Eroticism, Leadership, Relationships
Many years ago I found a statement in an ancient text that, at that time, transformed my life completely: “The Tantric practitioner is and always remains in the beginning.”
It is quite easy to notice that in the beginning of something that is good for us and that makes us happy, everything is so amazing and uplifting, but after a while, it starts to decrease in intensity. According to the Tantric teachings – this process can be turned around. We can remain in this fresh and reinvigorating energy of the beginning if we know how to revive it.
by Ana Stoian | Feb 4, 2022 | Consciousness, Leadership, Relationships
Usually, we associate success with doing or achieving what we think we want. Very often we spend little, or no time at all, on finding out if there are more appropriate goals for us in the world, or if what we are already engaged in is actually what we truly need or want. This is a common issue for many people.
I’ve seen situations many times where someone achieves something good and yet there is no happiness in it for them, no satisfaction, and if they look carefully they realise that even from the beginning they didn’t actually want it. Of course a question arises: “But why did you work to achieve that?”. The answer is usually something like: “You see, in the beginning I thought I wanted it”.
What do we really want?
We feel some superficial impulses, we allow ourselves to be impressed and influenced by others’ successes, dreams or wishes and so build our own goals following suit. When we start an important action, how much time did we spend to clarify it? Usually, I dare say, it is very little.
Many of these wishes are based on conjuncture, superficial choices, and don’t find a deep and sustainable support in our being. This is the reason we find ourselves pushing and forcing ourselves towards this kind of (wrongful) success, usually ruining all the other aspects of our life in the process.
In other situations, one might have a very good idea, for example, to do some work for the benefit of others. It can be an honest desire and he goes for it, full engines on. But on the way, the person can become awfully busy doing this work, after a while finding that he has become an unhappy character in his ruined personal life. In this situation, it is difficult to find enough strength to finish the wonderful project he started initially. He achieves a partial success but with a lot of extra costs, ones that are sometimes so ‘expensive’ they can even cancel the benefit of that partial success.
Following our heart’s desire
To avoid these tragic situations, it is worth questioning what we truly aim for. This is valid for short-term goals as well as for the long-term ones. Always finding deeper aspirations and aiming to follow them, instead of picking up something that very often comes from the ‘environment’, allows us to choose our rightful goals by listening to our heart and thus correctly start the journey towards rightful success.
by Ana Stoian | Feb 4, 2022 | Consciousness, Leadership, Relationships
The first part of this article concluded by demonstrating the need to disrupt our deep-seated illusion that success is what brings us happiness, by successfully silencing the inner agitation of the reasoning process – the so-called mind. Which apparently brings us back to the same old paradigm, that success comes before happiness, which proved already to be an error. How do we unlock this?
The key to this dilemma is to simultaneously enter a state of deep relaxation, whilst holding a perfectly controlled attention. This, by default, dispels inner agitation and allows our inherent happiness to freely flood into every experience of our life.
What does that mean practically?
If you carefully look inside, you will discover something very peculiar: when you try to focus your attention intensely to solve a problem or complete a task, you become more and more tensed, eventually getting exhausted by the effort. While when you want to relax, in fact you end up choosing to drift into a semi-conscious, or even totally unconscious state – such as watching tv, drinking alcohol etc. – as a way of trying to run from the tension that otherwise appears. This is the reason why we cannot stay focused for a long time and yet, we relax very ineffectively, unable to regenerate or fully enjoy.
These two faces of the coin are valid for most people today: we get tense when we pay attention, and we associate relaxation with a state of unconsciousness.
The vicious circle
I’ve heard people saying: “I’m so stressed I cannot even enjoy my holidays or my weekends”, “I come back from holiday more tired than when I left.” It is a vicious circle that perpetually amplifies today, and referred to as burnout syndrome. A syndrome that is nothing but the expression of a wrong correlation between relaxation and unconsciousness, and between attentiveness and tension.
by Ana Stoian | Nov 3, 2021 | Consciousness, Spirituality
Read here the first part of the article …
#4.Tantra Yoga: a spiritual system based on universal laws and principles
The set of spiritual laws and principles upon which the Tantra Yoga system laid its foundation is structured in a complex network. These principles mutually support and develop each other, constituting a solid foundation upon which human consciousness is able to expand its state of awakening towards Reality.
Genuine Tantra Yoga will always start from fundamental laws and principles that allow a universal understanding, which remains the same in every age, culture or context. This is the reason why we can find traces of this system in almost all places on Earth, even under different names.
Within the Tantra Yoga system, the practitioner goes from conscious experience to realising the laws and principles that exist beyond these experiences, thus gaining gradual control over all aspects of life. There is no need for blind faith or dogmas because the practitioner of this system will replace them with the unshakeable certitude of experience.
This is the only reason why tantric practitioners eliminate taboos and preconceived ideas: not as a form of spiritual anarchy – as it is often superficially presented – but as a side effect of such an approach to evolution that allows the profound understanding of all laws and principles.
This is the path to freedom and perfection in a systematic and objective way.
#5. Tantra Yoga is a system of gradual transformation through inner alchemy
The spiritual journey in Tantra Yoga can be described as a continuous state of awakening that naturally leads to the expansion of the consciousness though the inner alchemical transformation of all that is inferior.
The Tantra yoga practitioner cultivates the courage to look at each life experience as it is, without trying to adjust it to his own convenience. The essential capacity of being and remaining aware and lucid in the middle of the most intense experiences represents a “philosopher’s stone” that triggers alchemical transformations within, leading to a gradual transformation of the entire character of the practitioner.
The Tantra Yoga system does not look at transformation as the result of privileged circumstances, but as the result of the preparation through gradual, successive transformations.
The aim of the Tantra Yoga system is to become able to gain complete control over our choices, irrespective of exterior conditions. For example, one can be happy in special conditions but the successful practice of the Tantra Yoga system will teach you to be and remain happy in all conditions. And that is possible when we discover that in our true nature we are happy.
This characteristic of the Tantra Yoga system makes it very difficult to formalise it, because alchemical transformation always starts from inside and leads towards the outside. The outer reality is a mere mirror of our inner realisations and the tantric practitioner uses the world only to learn about himself/herself. This is also a deeply moral attitude that would naturally solve most of the moral crises we have in the world today.
