By Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson

Most classical Tantric texts seem to have been written primarily with men in mind. For example, the Gheranda Samhita, a 16th-century Tantric/Yogic text advises: “By virtue of this Yoga, the Bindu-Siddhi (retention of seed) is obtained, and when that Siddhi is obtained what else can he not attain in this world.”1 Similarly much of the popular mythology about Tantric sex focuses on prolonged lovemaking and concomitant male staying-power (retention of seed), as if that were the defining feature of the Tantric experience. In Tantra: The Art of Conscious Loving, Charles and Caroline Muir contend that tantric practitioners believe that the age-related prolongation of the refractory period is a sign of “the second chakra’s depletion” due to the “too-frequent expulsion of the life essence contained in the man’s semen.” 2 While we are aware of one contemporary neo-Tantric teacher who claims that female ejaculation causes cervical cancer, injunctions about control of the bindu, ojas or semen are almost always directed at men, as are virtually all the other instructions in the classical texts. (more…)

orgasm, relationships, sexuality, tantra,