by Peter Ferko

Sept. 24th, 2008

I find myself talking about animals a lot in class -- not just down dogs and cobras, but cedar waxwings and my cats, Sonia and Willie. They offer excellent examples of one of my favorite yoga topics: Tantra.

I’ll get to my cat in a minute, but first let’s define some terms. Tantra is the fourth word of the acronym, ISHTA, the integrated science of hatha, tantra and ayurveda. Tantra is a method of practicing yoga that leads to an expansion of the student’s perspective on life, with all of its delights, challenges and decisions.

While many people imagine that Tantra is something involving mysterious sexual practices, in fact, it is the use of a variety of tools to help the yogi connect with him or herself both physically and in more subtle ways. Those more subtle ways include discovering your energetic self, your intuitive self, and with what Yogiraj Alan Finger calls, “universal intelligence.”

The tools of tantra help a student get out of “avidya” – a Sanskrit word that is often translated as ignorance, but is more accurately confusion about what is. Physicists have been explaining what yogis have known for a long time: our world and we are not just solid objects buffeted about by circumstances. We are made up of energy and we influence that energy.

Take my cat, Sonia. She has an uncanny skill of planting herself right on top of what I consider the most important thing in the room. She is tuned into something about my wallet (where is that wallet?), newspaper (um, I was reading that!), MacBook (I’m writing a blog post!) or hat (why is my hat all furry?!) that makes it so attractive! It’s like that common experience of thinking about someone just a moment before they call on the phone. Tantra uses a combination of body, mind and energy work (visualization, sound, breath, etc.) to help students tap into the subtle energy that’s associated with those intuitive experiences. I’ve found that the more I tune into my energetic self in my yoga practice, the more I can bring what I learn on the mat into life. Hatha yoga (the practice of asanas or postures) is a Tantric practice, so you have likely had a taste of Tantra: that calm, clear, connected feeling you have at the end of class.

All the classes at ISHTA yoga draw on the Tantric training passed down from Alan’s teachers. If you would like to try some of our signature classes we have added the following to our Fall schedule: Sweat&Samadhi (Mondays 9:30am-11am with Julie Wilcox; Fridays 4:30pm-6pm with Sarah Platt; Sundays 11am-12:30pm with Kara Sekular) ISHTA DiKSHA (Fridays 9:30am-11am with Peter Ferko); Flo and Restore (Saturdays 4:30pm-6pm with Cathy Lilly).