Tantric Meditation: What It Is, Benefits, & How to Practice
Tantra is a type of meditation that helps remove the barriers between your body, mind, and spirit. It’s a practice that allows you to drop conditioning and return to your natural state for pure awareness and bliss. Below, I’ll discuss tantric meditation, its benefits, and how you can practice it solo or with a partner.
As someone born into a Tantra lineage, I grew up with it, breathed it, and lived it. Through my experiences, I can tell you that Tantra isn’t a specific system. It’s a relationship with life itself.
Tantra is a meditation practice that’s free of guidelines, and it’s not about sex as commonly believed. It’s playful and allows you to go deeper into your own consciousness for profound self-realization. Through Tantra, you can heal emotions, be more present, improve intimacy, and more.
What is tantric meditation?
Tantric meditation is an ancient science of self-realization that invites us to fully engage with life with all our senses open. Unlike traditional meditative practices, which encourage detachment from the body and sensory world, Tantra teaches that the body is a sacred instrument and gateway to the divine.
Instead of suppressing desires or escaping reality, tantric meditation is an embodiment practice. It’s about deeply experiencing life through breath, movement, sound, and energy cultivation.
Tantra sees everything – our sensations, emotions, breath, and even sexuality – as pathways to awakening. It turns every experience into a doorway to meditation to embrace life.
Vijnan Bhairav Tantra, an ancient Indian text, gives 112 meditative techniques designed to awaken awareness in the present moment to support tantra. These practices include breath, sound, gaze, movement, or even deep surrender.
Tantric Meditation Benefits
While Tantric meditation can support relaxation and stress relief, the benefits go far beyond that. Tantra is an alchemical practice that rewires your entire being.
Emotional regulation and healing - Tantra works with energy rather than resisting it to dissolve old wounds, fear, and suppressed emotions.
Balancing the inner masculine and feminine - Tantra teaches us to integrate Shiva (consciousness) and Shakti (energy) within for a deep sense of wholeness and self-union.
Sensual awakening and deep presence - Instead of rejecting pleasure, Tantra refines it by heightening your senses and allowing you to experience life with more awareness.
Improved intimacy with oneself and others - By connecting deeply with your own body, breath, and emotions, you can experience true intimacy, free from societal conditioning or performance.
Expanding awareness beyond the mind - The practice moves beyond thoughts, helping you find stillness beneath the mental noise.
Releasing shame and reclaiming sensuality - Tantra doesn‘t separate the sacred from the sensual. It dissolves shame and helps you see the body as divine.
Activation of kundalini energy - With deeper practice, Tantric meditation awakens latent energy, bringing bliss, insight, and expanded consciousness.
Tantric Meditation for Couples
Tantric meditation for couples isn’t about sex. It’s about energetic communion, deep presence, and divine union. It’s a sacred practice where two beings come together, not as lovers, but as Shiva & Shakti – pure presence and pure energy.
When practicing tantric meditation with a partner, you’re not focusing on a specific goal. Instead, it’s about feeling, witnessing, and expanding awareness in each other’s presence.
Tantric meditation for couples can include the following:
Eye gazing - Sit facing each other, soften your gaze, and breathe together to break down walls and create deep intimacy.
Conscious breathing - Breathe in sync – one partner inhales while the other exhales to harmonize energy and create unity.
Sacred touch - Light, conscious touch with no goal can heighten awareness and create a deep, energetic connection.
Mantra chanting - Chanting together (e.g., Om Shakti Om) can attune both partners to higher states of presence.
Yin-yang meditation - One partner embodies stillness (Shiva), and the other movement (Shakti) through breathwork or slow, flowing movements.
How to Practice Tantra Meditation
You can practice tantra meditation with a partner or alone, but the core remains the same – dropping the mind and entering pure presence.
You can use the following steps to practice tantra meditation:
Breathe with awareness - Close your eyes. Deeply inhale through your nose, hold for a moment, and exhale through your mouth. Let the breath move through your entire body and awaken sensations.
Engage the senses - Listen to the sounds around you. Feel the air’s temperature on your skin. Bring full awareness to your body and senses, including taste, touch, and smell.
Movement and energy flow - Sway, dance, or simply notice the energy in your body. Let go of rigidity, and remember that tantra is about surrendering, not control.
Use a mantra or visualization - Chant a mantra like Om Namah Shivaya or Soham. Visualize a golden light expanding from your heart and filling the room.
Surrender into stillness - After breathwork and movement, sit in stillness. Let awareness dissolve the mind and rest in the vast silence of your pure being.
Get Support With Tantric Meditation
Tantra isn’t something to learn but something to live. It’s an invitation to step out of your mind’s limitations and experience reality directly, sensually, and deeply – exactly what it’s helped me achieve.
Because Tantra is a way of experiencing life, you won’t find Tantra courses like you would a yoga class. However, you can get support on your journey and explore Tantra more deeply with the following resources:
Listen to The Leela Show Podcast - Episodes that can help you learn about self-discovery, Tantric meditation, and more
Join The Cosmic Circle – A community of like-minded individuals that gives you access to meditation practices, Dharma talk, and interactive workshops
Explore Advanced Tantra Mastery - A one-to-one mentorship for personalized guidance on your spiritual journey
