Again and again the word "tantra" causes defense or suspiciousness up to fear. Does it mean group sex or uncontrolled orgies? Do I have to be afraid of sexual contact with other participants during the group process? Do I have to strip to the buff when joining a tantra group? Many unsettled ideas spuring the phantasy spook around in people's minds. Additonally there are media reports stoking fears. Indeed you can find anything on the tantra "market": from uncontrolled sexuality to extreme abstinence represented by straight tantric meditation. What is real tantra? What is the difference between BeFree tantra and other tantra schools?

The text below will address the following questions:

What is Tantra? Where does it come from? »
Where does the name BeFree Tantra come from? »
What happens in BeFree Tantra seminars? »
What is special about BeFree Tantra? »

The origins of Tantra are found in India. Tantra itself is not a religion; it does, however, permeate the two religions which originate in India, Buddhism and Hinduism. The historic beginnings are not exactly clear. Sometimes it is dated at 7000 BC, in other places it is said to be 300 BC. “Tantras” are the ancient texts, passed down through the years, which in Hinduism take on the form of a conversation with questions and answers between the male and the female deities. The Buddhist tantras are formulas similar to mantras and later on also teaching discourses. The content of the tantras were secret and only passed on from teacher (guru) to pupil in various levels of initiation. As a whole, these texts are basically an instruction for practice. The aim of this practice is the student’s ultimate liberation from earthly attachment and return to unity. The overcoming of the polarity in the material world doesn’t happen through rejection and asceticism or renouncing sensuality, but through the affirmation of all aspects of being. It even goes much further - the body, sexuality, human entanglements, all become means to liberation and release. Once a person, through daily practice and the instruction of a Tantra master, is re-connected to his/her divine source, i.e. enlightened, he/she has achieved the tantric goal.

In this day and age western Tantra schools are often accused of not having anything to do with the original Tantra path. The so-called “Neo-Tantra” is devaluated to pure wellness events. If you do, however, take an honest look at Tantra offerings, you will find that there are still many Tantra schools that serve the tradition of Tantra and its original goal, even if unconsciously. The methods and tools have perhaps adjusted to the spirit of time, yet all tantric searchers who want to go beyond simple life support are led to spiritual practice. It is unimportant whether you follow the more modern, more easily-comprehensible instructions of spiritual teachers (e.g. Eckhart Tolle or “A Course In Miracles”)  or hear and experience the eternally unchangeable truth from the ancient texts. It is still valid today that Tantra is no religion. Therefore everyone and anyone is welcome – whether those coming with their own specific religious tradition, and all those whose path does not include any defined form (religion) on the search for that which is greater as well as all who calling themselves atheists – all are warmly welcomed in Tantra. There is nothing which cannot be used on the journey to self-recognition. BeFree Tantra continues this original Tantra tradition. The freeing of human beings from their earthly attachments, which leads to bliss and freedom – that is the goal. BeFree Tantra is a Tantra path to freedom. It uses life and the practice in daily life as the supreme teacher. Tantra seminars, other events and the training to become a BeFree Tantra teacher show the way and accompany the “Tantra student” as long as he or she wishes and needs it.

As Tantra is all-embracing and addresses and moves people as a whole, each participant is touched on different levels, depending on his or her personal stage of development. Tantra picks people up where they are. There is no judgement, only an invitation. As “wholeness” is universally existent, unlimited and un-limitable, everything is offered all the time to everybody. Only your own limitations determine the “dosis,” or make a selection. The aspects or levels of the Tantra work listed below mix and rarely appear in their pure form:

Tantra as pleasure

It is possible that participants come simply to treat themselves to a good and fulfilling break from daily life, without pursuing any other goal. Because of the higher level of consciousness during Tantra seminars, this is an automatic “side effect” of tantric work. It is fine when someone comes for this reason and receives what he/she is looking for. In the long run the deeper levels of the Tantra path will open for him/her and he/she will experience the strongly transformational positive power in all aspects of his/her life. All senses are included in the tantric experience: smelling, touching, seeing, listening and the tantric taste as a whole as well as in concrete things. Tantra – in its pure original form – is heavenly enjoyment and pleasure. And this can begin with the enjoyment of the fruit of this earth. The consciousness of lack which nearly everyone has stored in every pore of their body (There’s too little of…, Don’t have enough….) comes very close to being completely dissolved in the light of the tangible abundance of being in Tantra seminars and rituals.   

Tantra as aid in life

Tantra offers a holistic aid in life for the modern person. Aid in life refers to all influences helpful in releasing personal restrictions, pain, suffering, limiting thought and behaviour patterns, disadvantageous ties to past childhood experiences and life history. The result is a higher quality of life and more joy in living. Concretely, this can mean finding a new life partner in a seminar who is standing at a similar stage of development. Or a transformation in life towards more awareness and a fulfilling sexuality through learning and practising Tantra rituals. The heart may open (again) for love, during which sexuality addresses and permeates the entire human being. It may mean that the victim role and the game of guilt (“Something external is keeping me from being completely happy.”) is let go and the person grows into taking full responsibility for himself or herself. Women come to know their true female sexuality which they can implement in daily life instead of being steamrolled by performance-minded and overactive physicality. Old wounds from sexual abuse or other painful sexual experiences can close while simultaneously a new sensitivity and sense of free abandon awakens. Apart from breath, energy and body work, family constellations according to Bert Hellinger are very helpful. The most beautiful Tantra massages and Tantra rituals are namely ineffective in the long run if the conditions are unfavourable to the flow of love on a deep psychic level. We therefore have couples for example, who experience that although they still love each other they cannot come close (anymore). Singles believe to be free for a new partnership but an unconscious entanglement in their family system holds them trapped in singleness despite all good intentions. A woman who as “father’s daughter” (father is more important than mother) longs for stable happiness in love, will have to learn to stand in the circle of women in her family system to experience her full power as woman. Sexual problems (disinclination, erection problems, orgasm problems, etc.) of men and women are also an essential source of self-liberation. This is what Regina Heckert has specialised in with her constellation work. Tantra as aid in life facilitates a deep inner cleansing and liberation from old burdens and unnecessary residual waste of life so that the path to present happiness becomes free. The speciality in Tantra is that along the way many miracles and ecstatic experiences await.

Tantra as Expansion and Refinement

“There has to be more than what I’ve known so far!” This motivation brings people to Tantra who don’t fit into the two categories above. Intuitively they feel that life, love and sexuality hold more than what they have experienced so far. They are ready for tantric expansion. This expansion is a widening of consciousness which applies equally to body, mind and soul. As at birth, each person is continually emerging, step by step into ever new, further spaces. Unnecessary limitations are constantly being left behind. The journey goes more and more inward. The external, visible body is the starting point. Being aware of this in practical daily life demands consciousness from the mind in return. The mind commands most people and chases them all over the place, when it is meant to be a useful tool in dealing with the practical things in life. On the Tantra journey consciousness is drawn from the mind and anchored in the body. Again and again. The more this can happen, the freer the person becomes from their “mind cinema”. Perception becomes more and more refined. Soon the inner body can be perceived as a fine stream of energy. This is where the joy of being begins – a great journey of discovery beyond the busy-ness of the external world. To get to know and to control the thoughts and to stretch the perception of the inner body into the entire day requires clear tantric training. Here begins the path of daily spiritual practice and meditation, which is tailored individually to each Tantra student. Refinement of a person – or as it is said in the books, “the tantric transformation” – becomes a self-imposed spiritual exercise. A new view of the world develops. This path of transformation also contains perhaps painful stages of inner maturing. The so-called “ego” fights vehemently against its own dissolution. However, this is necessary if the original goal of Tantra through all time and space is striven for. You will find concrete exercises for this purpose you find in our Love School Online, for example the Light Lingam Meditation for sexual healing of women or the Gentle or Still Penetration. This requires sensitivity while it also develops sensitiveness. Every form of meditation is supportive. Here sexuality leaves the orbit around the materialistic planet Earth. It weaves itself with meditation and spirituality to a new level of being. It loses its pure animal purpose in favour of the development of the energetic body and higher consciousness.

Tantra as Gate to Presence

The gates to presence are open in each moment. Tantra is one of these gates. Whoever walks the path of liberation inevitably arrives again and again at the one place which holds true happiness and fulfilment: here and now. No matter how many challenges this path may present: it is lined with gems and consolations by the experience of pure presence. The Tantra student will swing back and forth for many years between the slavery geared by the mind and the oasis of completion. The more you entrust yourself to “Be-ing” and feel “Be-ing,” which means awareness and feeling the inner body and its depths, the more the “deliverance” from unfavourable bonds, entanglements, attachments occurs. Tantra trains the “muscle of presence” in its students with the practice so warmly recommended, until one day they are strong enough that remaining and dwelling in the here and now for long periods of time becomes normality. Then external incidents have lost their power to control life. An inner serenity recognizes everything as in-different (without a difference), feels it and no longer becomes attached to it. This is where the greatest freedom which can be experienced in the body begins. Now one is in the centre of this world but not of this world anymore. The inner home, the true homeland, the true self, has detached the mis-identification with body and mind. The external world has been recognized as “dream”. The eternal constant is and remains.

Tantra as Self-Awareness

The one who has come this far experiences temporary or sustained enlightenment. Enlightenment is nothing more than the recognition of what is eternally constant, unchangeable. There is no difference anymore between self-awareness and the realisation of God. The unity, the original goal, has been reached. Life pulsates in initial purity. Nothing is separate or different. The external mirrors the internal. Illusions have lost their might to bind the soul. The soul is free-flying. There are no more words, no imagination, no pictures. In the awareness only the shapeless behind and in all forms is still there.

Every German Tantra school follows the same path, however has – depending upon the personality of the teacher – a different emphasis. As the participants also have different preferences, every person will find just the Tantra teacher who fits best. The best idea is to follow your own intuition while reading the promotional material or webpages. Sometimes it is recommendable to take part in an individual seminar or event to receive a first impression of the person you are considering entrustring yourself to.

Learning Tantra Online through the School of Love

BeFree Tantra is the first and so far the only Tantra school offering Tantra School of Love Online. Here the visitor can acquire practical Tantra knowledge on his or her own. The School of Love offers comprehensive information material which is constantly being added to. Tantra Download makes learning material available as picture series, films and film clips and written Tantra massages and Tantra rituals. For many the Tantra School of Love Online is an encouragement to participate in a Tantra seminar or serves as an accompanying aid for Tantra students.

A Woman’s Lust – the female dimension of sexuality in woman and man

One emphasis of the BeFree Tantra School is the woman’s lust. Insights from over 20 years of tantric work with women serve to help women in this world to a fulfilled sexuality instead of continuously losing themselves in male oriented conceptions. From the holistic point of view however “A Woman’s Lust”  

also applies to men. It is about the equally integration of relaxation, of tarrying and of deep immersion into physical love. For men this means a sigh of relief and an escape from overly imposed responsibility and unnecessary pressure to perform. The feminine side of sexuality has fallen prey to the overactivity in the world. To reawaken and liberate it in man and woman not only brings harmony to man and woman as individuals and their beautiful interaction, but transforms the whole planet. In the tension between “pursuing a clear goal” and “letting it happen,” the cosmic dance unfolds which both poles require equally to raise in the stream of love beyond it.

Constellation Work on Sexuality, Love, Partnership, Ability to Relate

For over twelve years the head of BeFree Tantra School has specialized in constellation work according to B. Hellinger on topics which repeatedly surface in Tantra seminars. Sexual disturbances are looked at in symptom constellations. Disinclination and sexual blockages indicate particular dynamics in a family system (like death in childbed in earlier generations, unconscious bonds to ancestors, nuns and priests in the family system, identification with unmarried relations, etc.) The possibilities of constellation work as fundamental base for the Tantra path are so complex that it is only possible to hint at the many possible scenarios. 

The Inner “Prayer” in Tantra Rituals

Coming from the small I (the ego), transformation is limited. Therefore those searching for happiness are only left with entrusting themselves humbly to the Greater (Life itself, the Divine, the Unspeakable). In religions this is called prayer. However, the inner prayer is not dependent on the form of any particular religion. It will direct more and more into shapelessness and become shapeless anyway. At the beginning the connection spoken in inner words is necessary. However, it will gradually become a wordless meditation.  In Tantra rituals of the BeFree Tantra School the access to this source of transformation is trained deliberately. BeFree Tantra is no religion and does not stand for any particular religious orientation. Every human being enters this inner space in his own way. The deepest intimacy possible in Tantra encounters is an inner prayer revealed to each other, and not necessarily a sexual peak experience. However, where the two come together, heaven and earth, prayer and lust of the senses, meditation and sexuality, the liberated soul cheers.