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How to begin serious tantra yoga study

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In order to begin serious study in any field, it is a good idea to adopt three basic attitudes. The first one, an "I-know-not" attitude, will help you to stay humble and keep excessive expectations in check. The second one, mental determination, will carry you through unforeseen difficulties. The third one is an attitude of honesty with yourself in regards to your fitness for the task. Let an experienced teacher help you with all three, especially with the last one.

Having discussed a bit about preliminary attitudes let me mention the basic initial steps of the spiritual path. First of all, you must start a REGULAR personal practice of meditation and asanas. You should also study and begin to pay serious attention to tantra yoga ethics. Without taking enough time for your contemplative life there is little hope of spiritual development—it will be wishful thinking only. The best time to begin your practice is always TODAY.

The second most important part of the spiritual path is finding and becoming surrounded by the right kind of people. You must gradually reduce, even abandon associating with people who do not wish to see you dedicated to spiritual and ethical growth, who want to consume your emotional and mental energy or who continuously abuse your good will. Such relationships are a waste of time and energy. The best way to become free of this burden is by developing new contacts, new friendships, and new relationships with those who are honest, hard working, good-natured and who are seriously and regularly practicing spiritual and ethical disciplines. Let the good gradually squeeze out the not so good. We tend to pick up the qualities of those who are around us. Associating with the right company and reducing contact with bad company will help create the environment conducive to your spiritual growth.

The third most important step for your spiritual development is finding a competent teacher. He or she need not be perfect. He or she just needs to have enough knowledge, training, and discipline to guide you until you are self-directed, ready to move on your own. (Do not underestimate the time this takes!) Besides giving you diks’a (initiation into energy practices), necessary instructions and guidance for your spiritual journey, the teacher is also the best spiritual company you can have. Moreover, dedicated, hard working, honest, and spiritually oriented people tend to gather around the true spiritual teacher. Thus, meeting a competent teacher is almost a perfect guarantee of success.

The tantra yoga spiritual path is not really difficult for those people who are  disciplined about their lifestyle. If you meditate and practice asanas regularly, adhere to moral principles, and follow the advice and instructions of your teacher, the results are sure to come. They may come too fast and overwhelm you a bit or they may come slower than you expect and test your patience. I know of no instance in which within six to nine months, a regular, sincere spiritual practice did not bring a noticeable achievement on the Path. Start with confidence!

You are required to complete the preliminary practices, i.e., basic insight meditation, basic asanas, and tantra yoga ethics before beginning advanced study. The preliminary practices can be carried out from information and instructions on this web site without direct supervision. In fact, prospective students should do preliminary practices on their own for about six to nine months in order to test their interest, motivation and endurance. This lays an important groundwork for more advanced practices.

Once you have completed this self-directed practice, you can ask yourself if you would like to go deeper. Going deeper means learning advanced meditation techniques (there are several initiations imparted at various intervals), learning and practicing asanas that were specifically prescribed to you and that accurately address your physical and mental constitutional issues, studying the theoretical foundations of tantra yoga in more depth and, perhaps, eventually dedicating yourself to an even deeper study in order to become a teacher.

Be aware that it takes time to develop a relationship with your teacher—do not rush it. Do not fantasize that your teacher is perfect—this is the ego’s ploy to destabilize, even ruin your spiritual path. I have not seen one perfect guru yet...

Keep humility, endurance and patience foremost in your mind, proceed with due caution and all will be fine. The Universe is sure to take care of you!

— Anatole

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