An article by Tantra teachers Anjori and Dhairya about the work they do in the beautiful heated pool in Miasto
We have just completed the warm water Tantra workshop for couples at Sagar, in the warm pool in Miasto. We are both, Anjori and I, full of gratitude for this experience.
It was a very diverse group; each couple with its own authenticity – that authenticity you still have when you have either recently met your partner, or don’t know whether to continue to stay together… or if you do know what’s important for each one, or when you realize that you are not always ready to be open to each other.
Tantra is an absolutely unique approach to life. In essence, it consists of saying YES to what is in the present moment. Osho says: Tantra says yes, 1 and this is one of the jewels of Tantra. It is so simple, yet not very easy to practise. We are not used to being authentic, or to saying yes to what is present in the moment. More often, if something is difficult or inhibits us, or makes us feel vulnerable, we tend to do all we can to distance ourselves from it, deny it or hide it.
Tantra is an energetic approach to life, not a therapy. However, it is deeply therapeutic, life-changing and transformative.
Tantra means becoming sensitive to our own energy system, open and attentive to the inner flow which is constantly present.
The more we get used to being aware of our energy system in the present moment, the more authentic we can be.
Working with Tantra in the Sagar pool is an enormous gift. In the water, Tantra becomes a dance. The water caresses us and surrounds our bodies, connecting us directly with our inner flow. It is as if a synchronicity is being created between the water outside and the energy flow inside. This inner flow is amplified, and it becomes easier to connect and become aware of it. It brings joy and fun. The water intensifies our experience with Tantra and facilitates the process.
We work in the pool in either the morning or afternoon, and sometimes in the evening, but not the whole day – which would be too much for the system.
This kind of workshop is beneficial for both couples and individuals.
Tantra for couples
It’s much easier to practise our exercises and the Tantric Circulations, which are meditations originating in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, in water. On a physical level we are less affected by gravity, and this gives us a feeling of weightlessness. In water we can also feel freer in our movements as a couple; our bodies feel softer. It’s easier to become more ‘fluid’ with our partner. It’s a great joy to flow together.
Water also opens us up to becoming more sensual and ignites the sexual charge within us.
Water also helps us go more inside ourselves. It’s a very Tantric phenomenon. Water helps us feel the connection within ourselves, while at the same time we are embracing our partner and melting with them.
This is one of the examples of the polarities we explore in Tantra: To melt into the other and at the same time to be with ourselves.
In The Tantra Vision Osho says:
Even while making love to a woman outside, Tantra says, remember the inner. Make love to the woman outside, but remember the inner. Let your consciousness move inward – forget the outer woman completely. In the moment of orgasm forget the woman or the man completely. Close your eyes and be in, and let it be a meditation. When energy is stirred, don’t miss this opportunity. That is the moment when you can have a contact – an inward journey.
Ordinarily, it is difficult to look in, but in a love-moment, some gap, you are not ordinary. In a love-moment you are at your maximum. When orgasm happens, your whole body energy is throbbing with dance; each cell, each fibre dancing in a rhythm, in a harmony that you don’t know in ordinary life. This is the moment: this moment of harmony, use it as a passage inward. While making love, become meditative, look in.
A door opens at that moment. This is the Tantra experience. A door opens in that moment, and Tantra says that you feel happy only because that door opens and something of your inner bliss flows to you. It is not coming from the outer woman, it is not coming from the outer man; it is coming from your innermost core. The outer is just as excuse. 2
Several couples have shared that simply through working in the water, they came across areas where they were stuck with their partners, and by simply being in water, in a flow together, that blockage dissolved. An alchemical effect was created! This is another example of this energetic approach: Tantra does not focus on the problem, but through exercises and by sustaining the flow of energy, barriers are broken.
Osho says in Tantra: The Supreme Understanding:
When you love, you have to become nobody. If you remain somebody, then love never happens. When you love a person – even for a single moment love happens and flows between two persons – there are two nothingnesses, not two persons. If you have ever had any experience of love, you can understand.
Two lovers sitting by each other’s side, or two nothingnesses sitting together – only then the meeting is possible because barriers are broken, boundaries thrown away. The energy can move from here to there; there is no hindrance. And only in such a moment of deep love is orgasm possible…
In love you are not, the other is also not: then only, suddenly, the two disappear. 3
Individual Tantra
When working with individuals, we are dealing with the same authenticity. Here the work with male/female polarities is emphasized. It’s no longer about ‘the other’. Freedom comes when we begin to have a clear experience of the merging with our inner opposite sex. Suddenly we can see: “Wow, that’s what I have always projected outwardly, and that’s what I have always wanted, my whole life.” When we meet our inner opposite sex, we can suddenly feel this wholeness, completeness, without the need for ‘the other’.
Here is a beautiful passage from Osho about this:
One day you will be mature enough to recognise your own woman or your own man.
And that day is the day of great celebration, because you are free from the other. You have found the other within yourself; now there is no need to be dependent on anyone. The man is free, the woman is free – and this does not mean that you cannot love, you cannot have friends on the outside.
In fact, now you can very easily have very smooth-going friendships, very beautiful love affairs, because it is no more a necessity for you. As far as you are concerned, you are fulfilled. Now it is not a need such that you have to be dependent. 4
Sensuality
Working with Tantra in water has an immense effect on sensuality. Our sense of feeling is aflame and we can sense the positive vibrations that reach our bodies and our entire energy system. When we are in water, we are continuously caressed by this feminine element. Without effort we can enter the flow, and become softer, sensitive to our energy system. In Individual Tantra Workshops we practise the Tantra Circulations within ourselves. Water enhances the ignition of inner currents. One is ignited, one feels joyful. The waves of the water have such a relaxing vibration that we become more sensitive to ourselves and others.
The heart
The water also caresses the chest area, the heart. The heart receives nourishment and begins to open up on its own. The water element can support us, in a very intimate way, in connecting with our inner quality of self-love. In water we connect to the heart naturally.
Balance
A fundamental principle of Tantra is basically this: Polarity. This leads to seeking balance in life. When there is polarity, our life energy really becomes a part of our lives. Tantra is above all about becoming aware of this polarity and then seeking a balance between the two ways in which our life force expresses itself energetically:
There is a masculine way of expressing ourselves, which is outgoing and active. The attention goes outwards and is focused with determination. It’s goal-oriented.
Then there is the opposite pole, the feminine way of expressing ourselves; letting go, non-doing, relaxation, intuition, inclusivity, enveloping. The movement here goes inwards.
In our lives today there is a huge imbalance because it’s the masculine way of expressing ourselves, which is direct, that is prevailing. There isn’t much inclination towards non-doing, towards relaxation, towards connecting inwards.
Water is a feminine element. And taking part in a workshop in warm water is an opportunity to bring balance to our life if it is very ‘masculine’. It reminds us that there is also a feminine way of living our life. We enjoy being in touch with our bodies and ourselves, we start to slow down, we soften inside and naturally become quieter.
Joy
Osho says: Joy is the stuff which the existence is made of. 5 When we are in contact with our life force we are connected to this quality of joy. Tantra in water strengthens the connection with joy even more. It also helps connect with the innocence and playfulness of a child – as when Osho says that all his efforts are just to bring us back to that childlike innocence.
The venue
Sagar in Miasto is a very unique facility. For some mysterious reason, as soon as we enter the building, we immediately feel that it becomes easier to go inside. Moreover, the building is aesthetically so beautiful, built in wood and stone reclaimed from the area around Miasto. One naturally relaxes inside this building. The wide windows give us the feeling of being part of the landscape around us: the small forest and the fields where deer often come in search of food and graze quietly, as if nothing could disturb them.
Meditation in Sagar in the evening is an incredible space…
Sagar is like a container: beauty, aesthetics… At night it provides the energy to relax. It’s a very feminine feeling to be in that mysterious space; slowing down and simultaneously being open to the mysterious. Looking out into nature at night while dipped in the pool is a great nourishment for our being. Especially in those moments when we are lucky enough to be at Miasto during full moon. Floating in the pool while the light rays of the full moon hit the surface of the water is another way of calming our system and ‘coming home’.
Tantra in warm water offers great support during times in our lives when we are under stress, or simply need to relax and connect with ourselves. Or when we need to make a change, or need to get a deeper understanding of what is happening at work, in a relationship, or in life in general. Thanks to the warm water and the exercises we do with the Tantra approach, we go inside and start to connect with that space of YES that we mentioned earlier, and with relaxation. From here we begin to become aware of what is happening… and then something alchemical can bring understanding and healing.
Meditation
Since this work is based deeply in meditation, there is an element of meditative practice throughout the workshop. Both Anjori and I, as well as many participants, have expressed amazement at how much deeper meditation goes when we practise it in water. It’s as if there were fewer boundaries or obstacles. When we are in the water there’s a feeling of relaxation. We can even have the perception that physical boundaries are dissolving – and from there our meditation can start to go deeper.
Sagar is a truly unique space, not easy to find anywhere else in the world. It’s a place where we can let go, relax, go within. An extra dimension towards meditation, wholeness and the search for oneself.
Sources of Osho’s quotes
- Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, Ch 5
- The Tantra Vision, Vol 2, Ch 1
- Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, Ch 1
- Sermons in Stones, Ch 20
- The Tantra Vision, Vol 2, Ch 9
Upcoming workshops
- Individual Tantra: 2-6 January 2025
- Tantra for Couples in Water: 4-6 April 2025
- Tantra for Couples in Water: 17-20 July 2025
- Individual Tantra in Water: 17-19 October 2025
For more information from Miasto, Tuscany, Italy: oshomiasto.it
This article was first published in the Italian Osho Times oshotimes.it, translation by Osho News – Images thanks to Osho Miasto and Pramad
Comments are closed.