Tantric Text Archive
Tantra is perhaps the oldest spiritual tradition in the world that includes sacred sex teaching.
While Tantra's scope far exceeds sex (many Tantric schools have no sexual component at all),
its teaching of liberation IN the body and IN this world make clear that sex, desire, and material
pleasures do not obstruct spiritual experience. Indeed, Tantra often uses these as vehicles to
enlightenment because they challenge us to integrate the spiritual & material,
so that we may live the two together. Sacred sex is but one of these vehicles.
This all-accepting approach to enlightenment is expressed in a rich assortment of scriptural
references to sacred sex. Many of these are presented in this archive. But Tantric texts also
relate to sex indirectly. In its native India, Tantra is known as the 'left-hand' path,
where left signifies female (as opposed to the 'right-hand', or male, path to enlightenment).
This aspect of Tantra honors the divine feminine in life, beginning with Goddess as Mother of Creation,
right down to the desire & sensuality that we associate with feminine spirit. A Cosmic Mother giving
birth to creation is implicitly sexual, as it requires a divine sexual act to bring it about.
Thus sacred sex is not only embedded in the essence of life, it is the very
catalyst for life (for more on this, see
How Sex Became Sacred). Examples of hymns
praising the Goddess are included in the archive.
[Note that sacred sex itself, independent of Tantra, treats God & Goddess as equal co-creators of
the universe; one is not favored over the other — in fact, they are two aspects of one Divine Being,
ever in Sacred Sexual Union.]
The following collection of excerpts and quotes are taken from Indian & Tibetan
Tantras dating nearly 2000 years old (oral traditions date back further, and Tantra holds itself as
an eternal teaching).
The Society for Sacred Sexuality wishes to acknowledge
Rufus Camphausen for his work in compiling many of the Tantras
included in this archive. To learn more about Tantra and its relation to sacred sex,
visit the topic in our Learning Center.
If you know of a Tantric scripture with sacred sex references that you would like to see in our archive, please
.
Click on a link below to read the excerpt, or simply scroll down to view all.
Tantric Text Archive
Shaktisangama Tantra
Kaulavali Nirnaya Tantra (1)
Yoni Tantra
Kalachakra Tantra
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
Hevajra Tantra
Chandamaharosana Tantra
Guhyasamaja Tantra
Satchakra-nirupana Tantra
Mahanirvana Tantra (1)
Kaulavali Nirnaya Tantra (2)
Kamakhya Tantra
Kularnava Tantra
Mahanirvana Tantra (2)
Shaktisangama Tantra
Shakti [the Goddess] is the creator of the Universe,
And the Universe is her fascinating body;
Shakti is the basis of the entire world;
She is the intimate substance of any body.
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This Tantra extends the above idea to all women.
Kaulavali Nirnaya Tantra
(circa 1600 CE)
"Respect and consideration for women mark the precepts.
All women are to be looked upon as manifestations of the Great Mother."
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Yoni Tantra
(circa 1600's)
The creation, maintenance, and destruction of the universe — all originate in the
Yoni.
....
Absorb yourself in the yoni through meditation,
with yoni on the tongue,
yoni in the mind,
yoni in the ears,
and yoni in the eyes.
All spiritual practice is useless without the yoni.
Therefore...worship the Yoni.
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Kalachakra Tantra
"The Lotus-flower, the sex organ of the woman, is an ocean filled with Bliss.
This Lotus-flower is also the empty space where the Impulse to Enlightenment rises up.
When the Scepter - the male organ - unites with it,
their mixture is like the Elixir arising from the combination of nutmeg and myrrh.
From their union a Pure Knowledge arises, which illuminates the nature of all things."
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Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is a classic text on Tantric style meditation.
It lists 112 distinct meditations suitable for different types of people.
Several directly refer to sexual desire or practice (or can be applied to it).
At the start of sexual union
Keep attentive on the fire in the beginning,
And so continuing,
Avoid the embers in the end.
When in such embrace
your senses are shaken as leaves,
Enter this shaking.
Even remembering union,
Without the embrace,
Transformation.
....
Or suck something and become the sucking.
....
Wherever satisfaction is found,
In whatever act,
Actualize this.
....
Feel the fine qualities of creativity
Permeating your breasts
And assuming delicate configurations.
....
With your entire consciousness
In the very start of desire, of knowing, know.
All meditations in the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra are based on sacred sex principles;
we therefore include the entire text in our archive.
View it here.
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Hevajra Tantra
(circa 700 CE)
The following quotes present a basic Tantric idea: use worldly things to transcend this world,
and gain higher consciousness.
"One must rise by that by which one falls."
"By whatever thing the world is bound, by that the bond is unfastened."
"Beings are bound by passion and are released by utilising passion."
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Chandamaharosana Tantra
(circa 700 CE)
The man sees the woman as a goddess. The woman sees the man as a god.
By joining the diamond scepter and lotus, they offer themselves to each other.
There is no other worship than this.
....
Kissing and embracing, he should always worship Vajrayogini.
Physically if he can, or mentally and verbally if he cannot.
The aspirant who satisfies me wins the supreme attainment.
I am identical to the bodies of all women and there is no way that I can be worshipped except by the worship of women.
Visualizing that she is fully my embodiment, he should make love to his woman.
Because of uniting the vajra [ lingam ]
and padma [ yoni ], I will grant enlightenment.
....
Be gracious, beloved, and give me pleasure with your diamond scepter (lingam).
Look at my three-petaled lotus (yoni), its center adorned with a stamen.
It is a Buddha paradise, adorned with a red Buddha,
A cosmic mother who bestows bliss and tranquility on the passionate.
Abandon all conceptual thought and unite with my reclining form;
Place my feet upon your shoulders and look me up and down.
Make the fully awakened scepter enter the opening in the center of the lotus.
Move a hundred, thousand, hundred thousand times in my three-petaled lotus of swollen flesh.
....
She should have him suck her Lotus and show his pleasure.
Inhaling the fragrance, he should enter with his tongue, searching for the Red and White secretions.
Then she should say to him: Eat my essence! Drink the Waters of Release!
....
The practice of Candamaharosana
Will not be accomplished by asceticism.
As long as the mind is not purified,
One is fruitless & bound by chains of ignorance.
One who, possessing desire, represses desire,
is living a lie....
Therefore, one who desires the Supreme Attainment
Should practice what is to be practiced.
To renounce the sense objects
is to torture oneself by asceticism — don't do it!
When you see form, look!
Similarly, listen to sounds,
Inhale scents,
Taste delicious flavors,
Feel Textures.
Use the objects of the five senses —
You will quickly attain supreme Buddhahood!
When I teach avoidance of sexual union,
It is so that weak worldly beings will abandon it.
I teach whatever will mature worldly beings.
One & all will become Buddhas
By the dance of the magical displays of a Victorious One,
By various diverse methods.
In all the discourses & Abhidharma texts,
Women are disparaged,
Spoken for the sake of disciples of various capacities-
The real truth is taught secretly.
'Why do the early disciples & others slander women?'
That is common to the early disciples & others
who live in the realm of desire,
Not knowing the path of liberation
That relies on women & bestows everything.
....
Women are heaven; women are dharma (truth);
and women are the highest sacrament.
Women are Buddha; women are the sangha (community);
and women are the Perfection of Wisdom.
....
Take refuge in the yoni of an esteemed woman.
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Guhyasamaja Tantra
(circa 350 CE)
When the diamond [ lingam ]
is connected to the lotus [ yoni ]
in the union of both polarities, one worships the Buddhas and the diamond beings with the drops of one's semen.
....
Do not suppress your feelings,
choose whatever you Will,
and do whatever you desire,
for in this way you please the Goddess.
No one succeeds in attaining perfection
by employing difficult and vexing operations;
but perfection can be gained
by satisfying all ones desires.
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Satchakra-nirupana Tantra
Like a cobra that has cast its coils
spiraling conch-like
three times and a half round Shiva,
her mouth laid on that other mouth
that leads to bliss,
the Enchantress of the world,
slender as a lotus stem,
bright as a lightning flash,
lies sleeping,
breathing softly out and in,
murmuring poems in sweetest meters,
humming like a drunken bee
in the petals of the muladhara lotus —
how brightly Her Light shines.
....
When Parvati drinks the seed of Shiva, She acts as a snake goddess coiled around the Lingam.
She drinks the soma directly from its mouth.
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This quote is included because it addresses the notion of good & evil. In doing so,
it refutes the common religious argument denouncing sex.
Mahanirvana Tantra
(circa 1600 CE)
"According to human knowledge the world appears to be both pure and impure,
but when Brahma-jnana (supreme enlightenment) has been acquired there is no distinction between pure and impure.
For to him who knows that the Brahman is in all things and eternal, what is there that can be impure?"
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This Tantra echoes the above idea.
Kaulavali Nirnaya Tantra
(circa 1600 CE)
"To the pure in heart, everything is pure."
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Kamakhya Tantra
(circa 1300's)
"The true devotee should worship the Mother of the Universe
with wine, fish, meat, cereal and copulation."
[This is a reference to the "five M's" of Tantra, that are often used in various practices.
They are considered taboo in traditional Vedic/Hindu life, but are welcomed by the Tantric as
ceremonial. The five, in Sanskrit, are:
Maithuna (sexual union), Madya (liquor), Mudra (bean or cereal), Mamsa (meat), and Matsya (fish).]
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Lest people get the impression that Tantra is no more than hedonism,
the Tantras make it clear that it is not merely by engaging in these acts that one attains liberation,
but rather by the Tantric teachings employed in the practice of them. The following verse is an example.
Kularnava Tantra
(circa 1300 CE)
"Fooled by ignorance, certain people, deprived of the [authentic Tantric] tradition,
imagine the nature of Kuladharma [a Tantric path] according to their own mind.
If merely by drinking wine, men attained fulfillment, all addicted to liquor would reach perfection.
If mere partaking of flesh led to the high state,
all carnivores in the world would gain great merit.
If liberation were ensured by sexual intercourse with a woman,
all creatures would be liberated by female companionship."
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Mahanirvana Tantra
(circa 1600 CE)
Truth is the Supreme Enlightenment....
Truth is the most excellent.
Therefore has it been said by Me that in the current Kali Age
Kaula ways [a Tantric path that includes sexual union] should be practiced truthfully and openly.
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