Meditation as taught in most yoga classes invites us to follow the path of Patanjali's method, which starts with Pratyahara, meaning "to relieve your senses of their external distractions." Put differently, it's a practice of isolation, one in which we go inside, separating our awareness from a world that Patanjalian yoga (indeed, most yoga) sees as illusory.

Tantrics take a different path, an expansive approach that affirms the reality of this world and everything in it as expression of divine energy. Rather than isolating the senses and thereby the self from experience in this world, in tantra we open to the fullness and wholeness of it all. It’s about embracing the fullness of our energy, in this realizing that pure joy resides within.

What is the actual practice? One of the many approaches within tantra taps into the 8^th century Vijnana Bhairava, which offers 112 techniques for opening to ecstatic awareness. The different techniques are tailored to different emotional, mental, ...