Those present at April's Living Tantra group all had some prior experience with Tantra. Intimacy seems to be a recurring theme and for me that relates to vulnerability. In the initial sharing I invited everyone to risk their vulnerability in what of themselves they expressed. All that was said and felt, whether challenges faced or sweet moments of joy, seemed to uplift the group and draw us closer together.
In any pursuit of self-awareness it is easy to be drawn to what seems pure or pleasurably. It can become a representation we display on the outside. So on Thursday evening we played a little game to get some perspective on this. You can contemplate it for yourself:
Imagine, with a group of people, each person holds something they want and something they want to get rid of. For simplicity, to start, each person has one of each and these are exactly the same for everyone. For example, everyone could have one apple representing what they want and one lemon representing what they don't.
The game is to get as much of what you want as possible and as little of what you don't through exchanges with others in the group.
Each time someone receives either of what they want or what they don't, it is recorded so that a total can be calculated of what has been exchanged. After a given period of time of you can see who has what.
The discussion that followed the game held interesting insights. We have a natural tendency to try and give away what we don't want. This game makes me consider two ideas:
- Love is something that can be freely given away - it is not something to hold onto. In the game, if everyone was to be giving away what they wanted again and again and again, there would be a continuous flow of what everyone wants between each other. It is similar in economies with the flow of money: money must circulate for an economy to function and the faster the flow the better the economy.
- Giving away what we don't want has the opposite effect to giving away what we do. It is still a flow but if you compare the two, which is preferable. We can't really just get rid of what we don't want. Sure, someone in the group may decided to take from everyone what they don't want, and metaphorically this is what the 'scapegoat' represents, but perhaps there's another option.
It appears, if we are on a path of conscious self-awareness, we do not escape confronting what we don't want.
- View the Living Tantra archive.
- The next Living Tantra is the 1st of April where we will reflect on this experience and build on it with a new exercise.
Living Tantra is a regular group, meeting on the first Thursday evening of each month. It is for anyone interested in an ongoing practice of Tantra, bringing fullness of awareness into their daily lives. The group provides support, sharing and practice of basic Tantra exercises. It is suitable for anyone wanting an introduction to Tantra as well as for those who already have experience with the practice of Tantra.
Contact me for further information on this or other events.
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