The Tantra Immersion is a multi-level, holistic course that creates the conditions to reveal our true nature. This immersive course is based on the teachings of Hridaya Yoga which was started by Sahajananda in Mazunte, Mexico. They stem from classical Tantric teachings and help us uncover who we really are.
Continue readingJanuary 9-Feb 26, 2019
Morning class:
Tuesdays 10am-12:30 pm AND Sunday Jan 13 + Feb 10, 5-8:30pm
Evening class:
Tuesdays 7-9:30pm AND Sunday Jan 13 + Feb 10, 5-8:30pm
“Fuse the powers of the sacred heart with the energies of the body, and you can transform everything.” ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The Tantra Immersion is a holistic course that creates the conditions to reveal our true nature. The immersive, multi-level course is based on the teachings of Hridaya Yoga which was started by Sahajananda in Mazunte, Mexico. They stem from classical tantric teachings and are oriented towards uncovering who we really are.
You’ve felt that gnawing that says, “There’s more than just work and sleep!” Come find out what you’re looking for, what else is possible. The teachings of Tantra give us specific practices, techniques and understandings of how to find the deeper answers from within and how to orient ourselves toward a more holistic life.
Many of us want to go deeper into our Tantric journey and don’t quite know where to start. The Tantra Immersion begins with Module 1 and will deepen into future courses that give you a step-by-step path into the unknown of spiritual awakening.
Module 1 begins a life-changing journey where fundamental spiritual topics are introduced in both theory and practice. This includes tantric yoga, meditation and esoteric knowledge of the intimate inner workings of the physical body, energies and chakras (energy centers), emotional patterns and tendencies, mindfulness and exploration of consciousness – including subconscious tendencies and expanding our conscious awareness, as well as the revelation of our ultimate nature.
While practices deeply affect our human development, a contemplative attitude and an awareness of our spiritual essence are foundational to the teachings.
Note: this course is nonsexual. There are no intimate or sexual teachings in the Tantra Immersion.
Hridaya Hatha Yoga is a unique practice which teaches us how to open to the limitlessness of energy and consciousness. What we consider to be just “our energies” are revealed as being universal, unlimited and available all the time. Ultimately, the practice opens our Hearts deeply, bringing the perspective of Advaita, the vision of non-duality into everyday waking life.
The Tantra Immersion offers the gifts of deep relaxation, letting go of daily stresses, creating a whole new set of conditions for personal transformation, and an opening to realize the sacredness of the body itself. Learning to become aware of subtle energies, the chakra system and kundalini allows a profound body-emotion-mind rejuvenation. Module 1 is a transformative program that can jumpstart the process of deep purification on physical, psychological, emotional and energetic levels.
A note on accessibility: The practices in this class are accessible for most bodies and abilities. As our focus is on much more than the physical body, practices can be modified to fit practitioners’ abilities. Practice duration will increase during the seven weeks of the course. Instructors are happy to offer individual modifications as needed. Please contact us if you have questions about your accessibility.
Accessibility in our space: Our entrance and practice space is wheelchair accessible and students are welcome to sit on chairs, on the floor, or as needed for their physical abilities. However, the bathroom is not ADA and not able to accommodate a wheelchair at this time. (We are intending to remedy this in 2019.) If you are concerned about your accessibility needs in the space, please contact us.
The Tantra Immersion is a 7-week course with 9 immersive classes. Each class includes a foundational teaching of Tantra, exploration of our daily life awareness, and one or two techniques. The teachings and practices deepen in future modules, creating us a holistic approach to integrate Tantra into our whole lives – both in our time on-the-mat, away from life’s demands, as well as in the midst of our relationships, work, community and personal growth.
We highly encourage a commitment to a daily practice for everyone in this course.
After you complete Module 1 by attending at least 80% of the course, you’ll be able to attend consecutive modules. You can also take Module 1 again at half the price to deepen your Tantric life.
Module 1 begins at the basics with questions like, “What is Tantra? What is Yoga? What is Nonduality? What do they mean in my life?” We focus each class on a specific value of Seattle Tantra, like love, interconnectedness or play, to bring these teachings to life. All of our techniques are rooted the message of the Consciousness of Oneness, and our highest priority is to offer this message, beyond dogma and biases. Students are encouraged to listen from the heart, to experiment with the teachings and to remember that we’re always pointing to the depth of uncovering our limitless being.
Aspect 1 – Exploring the Values of Seattle Tantra
Aspect 2 – Classical Tantra techniques like asana, pranayama, kriyas and mudras
Aspect 3 – Advaita Tantra teachings on the Consciousness of Oneness and the expansion of daily life awareness
All participants will be given a course book to continue your studies and help support your practice.
“There are many mysteries to be unraveled, but the most important is the mystery of our being.” – Sahajananda, Hridaya Yoga
Yes, and it’s not like what you might think of when you think of American yoga. Hridaya Yoga is a deep, internal practice which fuses the power of the sacred heart with the energies of the body. It is a deeply purifying, relaxing and internalizing practice that includes the body, breath, heart and mind.
No, there is no sexual touch or nudity. We will discuss elements of relationships connection in future Modules. The Tantra Immersion is a nonsexual course which teaches a breadth and depth of Tantra practices.
No. Module one is the first course and is required for all students wanting to enter the Tantra Immersion.
Yes. We’ll offer Module 1 a few times before we offer Module 2 so that dedicated groups of students can move into successive modules. Modules will continue progressively as there is interest. The depth of Tantric teachings is nearly bottomless.
If you have a yoga mat, please bring one with you. We have some for public use at Seattle Tantra. Please bring your course booklet at each teaching and a journal or notebook to take notes.
Please arrive on a relatively empty stomach as some of our practices cannot be done within 2 hours of eating.
Jan 8 – Feb 26
Tuesdays 7-9:30pm AND 2 Sunday evenings 5-8:30p (1/13 + 2/10)
OR
Tuesdays 10am-12:30pm AND 2 Sunday evenings 5-8:30p (1/13 + 2/10)
Students from both offerings will participate together in the two Sunday classes.
Module 2 is anticipated to begin in June 2019. Students enrolled in either the first or second offering are also invited to join our practice classes in March. Details TBD.
$179 Early Registration – Before Jan 1, 2019
$229 Regular – After Jan 1, 2019
Limited scholarships are available. Please ask for details.
Seattle Tantra Center
9414 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle
www.seattle-tantra.org
Is there a linear path to spirituality?
Grace discusses the messiness of the “path” of spirituality and why there is no “right way” to be on your journey.
Ready for a silent retreat but just not sure how to start?
Just for you, take a nibble of silence with the One-Day Silent Retreat.
When was the last time you spent a full day dedicated to being quiet, present and opening the heart?
Join this one-day Silent Retreat and give yourself a unique and profound opportunity to quiet the mind, rejuvenate the body and open the heart.
Come learn and practice silent meditation on the heart, calm and interiorized Tantric hatha yoga and techniques for daily life awareness which can lead to more moments of stillness, surrender, and joy in everyday life. This is the path of the Spiritual Heart.
We will explore The Spiritual Heart and it’s physical, emotional and spiritual implications, which can eventually lead us into the essence of our Being, our True Self. By cultivating an opening to this depth of our very Self and learning how to settle ourselves in this powerful center, we can drastically change our relationship to ourselves and to the world, giving us more space to be present, rooted, trusting and connected.
Using techniques from various esoteric tradition, we′ll learn how to create the best conditions for a life of presence, including cultivating awareness, mental concentration, opening the Heart and applying these techniques in daily life. The Tantric Yoga practice engages not only the physical body, but the entire being. Postures and breathing practices are performed with awareness, turning physical practice into blissful meditation.
No previous meditation or yoga experience is necessary as this retreat is designed for beginner and advanced meditators alike. All bodies and abilities are welcome. The day’s atmosphere will be one of love and spiritual growth.
Come for a day of silence and take peek into the deeper dimension of your being. If you’ve yet to experience the intimacy of silence, you will never forget the gateway it can be to Love, presence and surrender.
Snacks and tea provided. Please bring your own lunch.
VALUE
Pre-register $55
At the door $60
Scholarships and assistantships available. Please ask.
Ever wondered how to tap into the magic of Tantric sex? It’s much easier than you think. Join Seattle Tantra teacher, Grace Bryant, for this introductory workshop on Tantric Ritual, one of the fundamental building blocks of the powerful practice of Tantra. Through theory and practice, you’ll learn how to create rituals that can open the door to more presence, connection, intimacy and much, more.
Please note: There is no nudity or genital touch in this workshop.
All are welcome, no previous experience necessary.
REGISTER HERE!
To learn more about Grace and Be Whole Be Happy, head here
Join us at Moksha Tantra for a rare chance to be supported in deepening your practice.
A deep spiritual practice develops higher states of observation and consciousness in us, freeing us from the trance and robotic reactivity of the personal ego. Also said, it turns unconscious patterns into conscious actions and it shifts our relationship to everything in our world. This, in turn, leads to an increasingly-richer and deeper experience of every aspect of life, opening to inner radiance, clear inner guidance and the uncaused happiness that is the true nature of the soul.
In this class series, Grace & Hafizullah will offer perspectives, tools, specific techniques using sound, breath, focalized awareness, light, “deity,” and “subtle energy” for those wishing to deepen the “moksha” (liberation) aspect of their tantra practice. Through their 55+ combined years on the spiritual journey, they will share with you from their personal experience what it takes to shift into more and more liberation.
The first class on October 13th will be a chance to set-up, maintain and commit to a practice and what elements you’d like to incorporate. We’ll look at what gets in the way of committing to practice or what gets in the way of taking that practice to deeper and deeper levels. With a dedicated four-hours together, there will be time to develop or reformat your existing personal practice, connect with others and create accountability around your practice and grow in your confidence as an aspirant and Tantrika.
Saturday, October 13th, 2-6pm @ Moksha Tantra Center
Follow up classes will be scheduled in the autumn
Cost: Donations of $20-60 welcome
Register HERE!
Join in the magical ritual of kirtan, or devotional singing.
All voices, songs and traditions are welcome.
Grace will lead this monthly night of chanting (bhajans) to different names and forms of the Divine.
Please bring your voices, any instruments you’d like to play, and an open heart.
No religious or spiritual belief is necessary to enjoy the vibration of Mantra, sacred sound, and the harmony and joy that making music from the Heart brings.
Cost: Donation Only
What is a Kirtan?
By Grace
Kirtan is a beautiful meeting of community to sing, dance and rejoice in the Divine vibration. I will lead a number of songs that you can join in or sing call-and-response style. The words and melodies are simple and there’s no need to “be a singer” to join us. All voices and bodies are welcome. The intention is to create vibration from the Heart, to join in Love and offer our spirit to the Great Spirit.
I have always found Kirtan to be so uplifting, so rejuvenate my body and attitude, to remind me of my connection to the everything.
There will also be a time of open expression where you can sing, lead a song, poem or something else that inspires you in the spirit of Bhakti, devotion to Love.
Come sing with us! I hope to see you there!
Moksha Kirtan – A Night of Community Music
Cost: Donation Only
Come sing with us! Join in the magical ritual of Kirtan, or devotional singing. All voices, songs and traditions are welcome. Grace will lead this monthly night of chanting (bhajans) to different names and forms of the Divine.
Please bring your voices, any instruments you’d like to play, and an open heart. No religious or spiritual belief is necessary to enjoy the vibration of Mantra, sacred sound, and the harmony and joy that making music from the Heart brings.
Moksha Kirtan – A Night of Community Music
Cost: Donation Only
Come sing with us! Join in the magical ritual of Kirtan, or devotional singing. All voices, songs and traditions are welcome. Grace will lead this monthly night of chanting (bhajans) to different names and forms of the Divine.
Please bring your voices, any instruments you’d like to play, and an open heart. No religious or spiritual belief is necessary to enjoy the vibration of Mantra, sacred sound, and the harmony and joy that making music from the Heart brings.
by Jenny Jnani Hale
In spiritual circles, it’s fashionable to exhort women to “surrender.” The neo-Tantrics will explain that expanded orgasms lie just the other side of surrender, and that resisting surrender makes a woman “unfeminine.” Fundamentalist Christians and Muslims will point to verses requiring women to “submit” to their husbands (in exchange for protection and being guided to God, of course).
What about men? Do men get a pass in this “surrender” business?
Obviously, to reach transcendent states in which the ego is dissolved, everyone, whether male, female or gender-fluid, will need to make the ultimate surrender – relinquishing the separate self.
The oft-forgotten secret?
This ultimate surrender is waaaay easier for someone in a female body than someone in a male body, at least on average. There are always individuals who buck the trend of their biological gender.
There are spiritual traditions which make it clear that this gender difference was well-known to the ancients.
In Kabbalah, women have only two observances – a morning consecration, and a weekly ritual of lighting the menorah on shabbat evening. These two small rituals are enough to keep a woman on track, because she is naturally much more connected to the Divine, and less likely to stray from the path. Men, on the other hand, have a dazzling array of practices designed to remind them at every turn that they are here for a Divine purpose, not for personal accomplishments.
In traditional Tantra, every woman, no matter how uneducated, is to be treated as a manifestation of the goddess of instantaneous enlightenment. In some cases, the texts go so far as to say that without the assistance of a woman, a man practicing alone can never reach the highest states of liberation.
In modern times, we can make hypotheses about why this gender difference might occur. We now have some understanding of the effects of hormones on perception and motivation, and the personal testimonials of transgender people who have experienced both versions of reality in the one body.
At the base of the gender difference are the effects of the male hormone, testosterone. Women also have some testosterone, but at much lower levels than men. Testosterone mutes the proprioceptive feedback which forms the basis of interpersonal visceral empathy. In more simple language, testosterone makes us less aware of what is happening both within our body, and within the bodies of the people around us.
Adrenaline also has this effect, which is why stressed women feel so much more isolated than women who have a lot of social support and control of their time. Studies have shown that even spiritual seekers, such as students studying to be ministers, can be made to ignore a person needing medical help if they believe they are late for an exam. Adrenaline is a gender-neutral empathy-suppressant, though. Both men and women suffer from a reduction in empathy and compassion when stressed, regardless of their baseline levels.
One of the major ways to offset the effects of testosterone is to generate more of the “bonding hormones,” such as oxytocin and vasopressin. These hormones are stimulated by physical touch, affection, emotional closeness, trust, and spending a lot of time together.
Given this hormonal recipe, it is easy to see why people in male bodies could get deep spiritual benefits from the loving presence of another person (generally assumed to be of the opposite gender, but unless that person is a highly advanced practitioner with good detachment, personal preferences, cultural taboos and sexual orientation would still play a part).
Neural entrainment is another valuable tool which has been used since time immemorial to help bridge the spiritual gap.
When two individuals consciously “connect,” with or without sustained eye contact, their brain waves synchronize. This process allows someone who is very familiar with a particular state to induce that state in another person, even if that person has never previously experienced that state. In spiritual circles, this is referred to as “initiation”, and is often supported by rituals, which subconsciously encourage the person to be open to receive the new state.
When men are initiated into deeply connected states of consciousness by women, they can attain the same effects as monks who have meditated alone in caves for years on end, within a very short span of time.
In our Western culture, however, we glorify the ruggedly individualistic state in which the average man finds himself. Mainstream media encourages women to “lean in,” to adopt more individualistic traits, to be less receptive and empathetic, and put their own interests first, in order to “make it” in an economy organised around individual men. We lack language to express the ways in which people rise together to accomplish things beyond what can be accomplished as isolated individuals, and we attribute successes to individual leaders, not to well-interconnected teams.
Even in spirituality, the vast majority of publicly visible spiritual leaders are in male bodies. There are more books by male spiritual teachers than females. The work of female spiritual leaders and teachers is often misattributed to their male teachers or disciples. Looking at the available corpus of works and biographies from spiritual leaders, one could be forgiven for thinking that spirituality is generally a masculine pursuit, with women only contributing via fundraising, housekeeping/secretarial services for the Great Leaders (being their consorts in non-celibate traditions), and cleaning the houses of worship.
It is almost impossible for someone raised in such a culture to spontaneously realize that the average woman starts her spiritual journey several stations down the track from where the average man starts, simply by virtue of her biology.
So, if you find yourself in a female body, in a spiritual tradition or community run by men, this is your get-out-of-jail-free card. Your inherent connection with the people around you, and your inner wisdom, will be of more use to you than following instructions that are designed by men for men.
Does a particular practice feel rigid, constraining, or limiting? Allow yourself to explore what happens when you gradually release arbitrary constraints. Do you find yourself sinking deeper into communion, or does the laxity allow you to get distracted?
This is not carte blanche to declare yourself to be your own guru, and not in need of teachers any more. Everyone needs guidance, as the pitfalls on the spiritual path are many and varied.
This is simply a reminder that if you are in a female body, you might not need to do so much, or such highly structured practice, in order to reach the same results as someone in a male body might require. Sinking in may benefit you more than pushing through. Connecting with the Universe may work faster than seeking to transcend it. Honoring your inner wisdom may be more effective than painting by numbers.
And if you are in a male body, you just might be able to save yourself a few years of pushing through and practicing hard, if you can find a woman who is willing to initiate you to the level of consciousness she has already attained!
By Jenny Jnani Hale