What is Tantra? And How Can We Use it in Modern Life
An Embodied Path to Access the Divine
When most people hear the word Tantra, they immediately think of sex. While Tantra does include sacred sexuality, this is only a small facet of a much larger spiritual path—one that is deeply nuanced, reverent, and ancient.
Tantra is a non-dual spiritual tradition that recognizes the sacred in all things. Rather than renouncing the body or the material world, Tantra invites us to use them as gateways to the divine. It is a practice of union—not just between two lovers—but between the soul and the body, the visible and invisible, the mundane and the miraculous.
In contrast to ascetic spiritual traditions that reject desire or sensory experience, Tantra says: “Here, in this body, in this life, in this breath—this too is God.
The Lotus in the Muck
One of the most powerful metaphors in Tantric philosophy is the image of the lotus flower. The lotus, revered in yogic traditions, rises from deep, dark, murky water to bloom in the sunlight. Many divine traditions say we need to rise above the muck to access God and divinity. In Tantric philosophy we see that the stem is rooted in muck—but the muck is not seen as a problem. In fact, the lotus draws its nutrients from it.
This is the essence of non-dual Tantric philosophy.
If we see the muck as the chaos, emotions, relationships, and complexity of everyday life—and the light as divine consciousness—then the lotus shows us that our liberation is not found by avoiding the world, but by using it as fuel to access the divine.
It is through the raw material of life—the challenges, the desires, the joys, the heartbreaks, the body, emotions, pain and pleasure—that we receive the nutrients our soul needs to rise, evolve, and blossom.
What is Non-Dual Tantra?
In non-dual Tantric philosophy, the divine is not up in the heavens or far away—it is immanent, right here, within every cell of our being, and every experience of our lives.
Tantra teaches that our body is not an obstacle to enlightenment—it is the vessel through which we awaken. Salvation, in this tradition, does not come through transcendence, but through embodiment.
In this view, spiritual lessons are not reserved for the meditation cushion. They come in the form of relationships, parenting, creative expression, work, touch, breath, and even heartbreak. Life itself becomes the temple. And the practices of Tantra invite us to be present with it all, to feel it all, and to discover the divine in it all.
Tantra in Modern Life
So how do we apply Tantra to our daily lives?
Start with the body. Tantra invites us to listen more deeply—to feel, to move, to breathe with awareness. A simple breath, taken in presence, becomes a sacred act. A touch, felt fully, becomes a prayer.
It can look like:
Practicing breathwork or mantra with full body awareness
Eating or making love mindfully, with reverence and presence
Honoring emotions instead of pushing them away
Seeing beauty in ordinary moments
Letting your pain break you open to teach you something sacred
Tuning into the Shakti, or divine feminine force, moving through you
And yes, Tantra includes sacred sexual practices, but not in the sensationalized way modern media portrays it. These are practices rooted in presence, devotion, and union—ways of weaving together the physical and spiritual into one lived, ecstatic experience.
Returning to Wholeness
At its heart, Tantra invites us back to wholeness. It reminds us that we do not need to escape our humanness to find God.
It reminds us we can find the divine through our humanness. Through the breath. Through the body. Through the heartbreak and the love.
Tantra says: nothing needs to be excluded.
The pain, the pleasure, the stillness, the longing—all of it is holy ground.
May we use the muck of life to rise toward the light and blossom like the lotus flower.
With love,
Meredith
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