When I was eighteen, I discovered passionate love. When I was nineteen, I married the twenty-six year old subject of it. When I was twenty-four, I had our third child. Within a month I heard of the death of a beloved aunt, and received a posthumous baby-gift from her several days later.

Discovering Yoga, at 25, helped me to reconcile my shock and grief with the realization that the cycle of sex, birth and death is a perfect mandala (a symbolic circle of one’s divinely transformed inner surroundings). That recognition inspired me immediately to introduce my little daughters to Yoga by mimicking animal poses.

Eight weeks ago, our third grandchild was born. The thirty-eight year old mother had conceived her first child after trying for only two months - making little Tasha the perfect result of romance, love, sex and robust maternal health, due to thirty-five years of Hatha Yoga practice. Sharing these thoughts at a dinner-party led to a spirited discussion of what one friend (a male) called the ‘sexy’ Yogas: Kundalini and Tantra. There was a lot of confusion in the room about the difference between them, however. Most thought that Kundalini Yoga was all about releasing the sexual power coiled at the base of the spine, and that Tantra Yoga was mainly about sustained sexual union without orgasm.

That’s not quite right, but it’s not quite wrong either. Simply put, Kundalini Yoga is, "the source and mainstay of all life which, if we want to stay alive, we must tap into", says H.V. Guenther, Ph.D. in Far Eastern Studies. Kundalini is a most powerful and potentially ‘dangerous’ form of Yoga, because in its purest form (which must include the yamas and niyamas discussed here last month) it needs a great deal of preparation, time, care, control, and careful instruction from a master. It deals with the chakras (seven energy-wheels along the spine) and how to use them in the right order for the "process of waking up from ignorance and delusion, of becoming free from as many limitations as possible, and of eventually reaching the goal of Cosmic Consciousness", says Swami Sivananda Rhada in her book, Kundalini, Yoga for the West. The "serpent" is not so much about sex, as it is about "the transformation of sexual energy (instinct) into spiritual, divine, creative power - the resurrection from death to eternal life" (Elisabeth Haich).

Tantra Yoga, too, is about transformation - and the essentially pure nature of the mind. It is about unifying the female and male energies we all have within us (so that, amongst many other benefits, we won’t ever be lonely). The oft-misunderstood image of male and female deities in sexual embrace, is a symbolic portrayal of that unification. "It is about getting in touch with our essential wholeness - the unity and completeness characteristic of our fully realized potential. On a deeper level, the male figure represents the experience of great bliss while the female is the symbol of non-dual wisdom. Thus their union has nothing whatsoever to do with the gratification of the senses but rather indicates a totally integrated state of blissful wisdom that completely transcends ordinary sense desires", says Tibetan Buddhist master Lama Yeshe.

As concerns energy and the gentle and practical Hatha Yoga, a recent and significant finding was made in regard to the contractions of the pubo-coccygeneal muscles (the perineum between the sexual organs and the anus) of its Aswini Mudra, which apparently acts as an ‘Energy-pump to the Brain!’ That is the amazing result of years of cooperative study between an eminent group of brain-researchers and biofeedback-in-sports experts.

They found that practicing Aswini Mudra causes serotonin, endorphins and endovalium to be released to the brain making you "feel good" and energetic. It also causes dopamine and noradrenaline to shake each other up producing feelings of harmony, peace and expanded consciousness. Doing these Kegel-type exercises regularly enables one to calm down and become more "content" in general, and to significantly improve one’s sex-life (more control over orgasms, better sexual timing, earlier arousal), sleep-patterns, concentration/learning disturbances, digestive processes, hormone-production and menstrual problems.

How to do it? Sit straight, close your eyes and look upwards towards your third eye(between the brows). Tighten the anus and pull up for 10-20 seconds, Inhaling. Exhale, and relax for 10 seconds. Repeat 20-30 times for a period of 5-10 minutes twice a day. You should be feeling better about yourself, and your life, within weeks.

Kareen Zebroff, author of 10 books, is currently writing Better Sex through Yoga with her daughter Petra Zebroff.





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