Asian Nomad

The overwhelming nature of sexual passion has caused it to be deified or divinized or alternatively feared as evil and demonic. It may seem odd that the same physiological act can raise us to the heights of spiritual exaltation or plunge us into guilt-ridden misery. The awe-inspiring force of desire and sex has played a role in religion, magic, mysticism, occultism, symbolism, and the whole spectrum of human psychobiological interaction with the transpersonal. Creation myths are often about divine couplings, and cyclic fertility rites dramatically reenact this original creative act.

In magical theory the opposites which exist at the universal level also exist in us as microcosms or miniature copies of the universe. Each of us as human beings contains all the opposites, symbolized as male and female, sun and moon, conscious and unconscious. In balancing and reconciling these opposites we achieve a higher unity. In marked contrast to the general religious suppression of Eros, tantra does this by glorifying our erotic and sexual nature.  Sexuality is a sacred ritual of union through the sensual and ecstatic celebration of differences. It is the life force. Through the sexual act we seemingly transcend our isolation and physical boundaries, share in a greater reality. We discover, if only momentarily, that the Other seems to become part of oneself. Hence, the erotic language of mystics describing the apprehension of ultimate Unity, the promised reward God offers the righteous.

If this search for the Beloved is the major sexual goal, and if it can be gained only partially and fleetingly with a human partner, then it is quite natural to think of the lasting and blissful union of the soul with God in sexual terms, as many mystics have done. This concept of the soul’s union with God as a sexual union is paralleled in the romantic ideal of love with a human partner as an act of worship. The overwhelming nature of desire leads us to experience it as a supernatural force. The soul abides in the heart of the flesh. In the ecstasy of sexual union we rise to the supernatural level, are possessed by a male or female deity, and mingle with the divine.  Orgasm corresponds to the soul’s ecstasy possessed by God.

Tantra is perhaps the oldest form of Eastern alchemy. According to tantric philosophy the whole universe is built up of and pervaded by basic forces which are in intimate and intricate union. These forces, named Shiva and Shakti, are personified as male and female deities. Of this divine pair, Shiva is the subordinate one, for it is the Female Principle that ultimately underlies all manifestation. There is a tantric saying, “Shiva without Shakti is a corpse.”

The core experience of Tantra is revelation of its sexual secrets. Sexual union symbolizes the quintessence of the elements. Sacred sex reveals eternal truth and transcendence. It is a way of redemption — union of the personal self with the transpersonal Self. The Diamond Body is the crystallization or stabilization of the archetype of the universal Self as a permanent part of the individual psyche.

Tantra is a philosophy, a science, an art, and a way of life in which sexual energy is consciously and creatively utilized. The hidden potency of the sexual act is the blueprint or seed of all creatvity. When we understand the practical teachings of Tantra, a whole new perspective and experience of life opens. Tantra is a process that fosters the holistic harmonization of the male and female elements of our psychobiological self, ameliorating the war of the sexes. Through rapport and empathy we come to understand the Other. Empathy needs a face! Devotion needs a face.

Psychologically, there is a harmonization of the inner-mate archetypes of Anima and Animus, soul-figures which function as guides to deeper regions of the psyche. They lead to wholeness, integration, self-actualization. In Jungian psychology a man’s inner feminine self is termed anima or soul; a woman’s masculine component is called animus or spirit. Their merging creates a psychological and spiritual androgyny, another expression of wholeness.

Taoist Secrets of Love is not just another flowery philosophical treatise on the ecstasies of oriental love. Rather it is a pragmatic handbook that distills the secret teachings on sex of four different living Taoist masters sought out by Mantak Chia during fifteen years of travel and study in the Far East. As he put it, “I read a ton of books telling me how great esoteric love-making was, but none of them explained precisely how it was done. So I decided to write it myself.”

The quest for sexually fulfilled love has taken on the dimensions of a religion amongst those who are too liberal or too scientific to believe in any traditional version of God. The power behind this belief in romantic love, in an ultimate commitment to one person, is the power of sexual experience. If offers something tangible to be shared, a sacrament that is personal and present.

The Taoists offer neither religion nor marriage as the solution to stability, unless it be the marriage of subtle energies they identify as yin and yang. They simply encourage each individual to cultivate his natural inner life-force, or chi. It is in this context the ancient Chinese developed highly refined methods of increasing sexual vitality for the single and the married man. There are two main ways that these energy cultivation methods can be used and this book will accordingly attract two distinct kinds of students.

The first student seeks worldly happiness in the form of physical, emotional, and mental satisfaction. This includes any layman interested in strengthening his personal love relationship, in alleviating sexual frustration, in relieving boredom with sex, in curing impotency, wet dreams and premature ejaculation and in general increasing his longevity and good health. If he is disciplined and does the practices taught in this book, he can attain all of these benefits.

The other student considers himself on a spiritual path and wants to somehow integrate his sexual desires with his meditative practice or spiritual beliefs. The students already drawn to study the Taoists secrets of cultivating sexual energy with Master Chia have come from an amazingly broad range of spiritual disciplines, including every type of yoga: Kundalini, Hatha, Kriya, Tantric, Siddha and martial artists as well as T.M., Zen, Buddhist, Sufi, Hindu, and Christian adherents. The suggestion is that many Americans, however satisfied they are with their basic spiritual beliefs, feel the need to better integrate their sexuality with their spiritual growth.

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