Seven chakras in meditation into blue background
TANTRA AND YOGA ARE BASICALLY DIFFERENT
They reach to the same goal; however, their paths are not only different, but contrary also. So this has to be understood very clearly. The 200 hour yoga teacher training certification program process is also methodology; yoga is also technique. Yoga is not philosophy, just like tantra — yoga teacher training in India depends on action, method, technique. Doing leads to being in yoga also, but the process is different.
In yoga one has to fight; it is the path of the warrior. On the path of tantra one does not have to fight at all. Rather, on the contrary, one has to indulge — but with awareness. Yoga is suppression with awareness; tantra is indul-gence with awareness. Tantra says that whatsoever you are, the ultimate is not opposite to it. It is a growth; you can grow to be the ultimate. There is no opposition between you and the reality. You are part of it, so no struggle, no conflict, no opposition to nature is needed. You have to use nature; you have to use whatsoever you are to go beyond.
In yoga you have to fight with yourself to go beyond. In yoga, the world and moksha, liberation – you as you are and you as you can be – are two opposite things. Suppress, fight, dissolve that which you are so that you can attain that which you can be. Going beyond is a death in yoga. You must die for your real being to be born. In the eyes of tantra, yoga is a deep suicide. You must kill your natural self – your body, your instincts, your desires, everything. Tantra says accept yourself as you are. It is a deep acceptance. Do not create a gap between you and the real, between the world and nirvana. Do not create any gap. There is no gap for tantra; no death is needed. For your rebirth, no death is needed – rather, a transcendence. For this transcendence, use yourself.
For example, sex is there, the basic energy – the basic energy you are born through, born with. The basic cells of your being and of your body are sexual, so the human mind revolves around sex. For yoga you must fight with this energy. Through fight you create a different center in yourself. The more you fight, the more you become integrated in a different center. Then sex is not your center. Fighting with sex — of course, consciously — will create in you a new center of being, a new emphasis, a new crystallization. Then sex will not be your energy. You will create your energy fighting.
