Tantra is a spiritual path that starts from the roots of human energy, sexual energy. This is the reason why sometimes it is seen with some skepticism or fear. It is a very delicate and intimate issue of life that involves cultural values such as morality, respect, freedom. It requires a great courage from the seekers on this path, in return, its transformational power goes far beyond the sexual sphere; Tantra, in fact, is a method that aims to a complete spiritual awakening.
This is how Radha speaks about it.
An Interview with Radha, the founder of Tantralife
Om: Who is Radha?
Radha: What do I know! (She laughs) It reminds me of when they asked Osho this same question: “Who are you, Osho?” And he said: “I do not know!” And actually, the more I research, the more I do not know. Yet, from this point of view, I feel more and more relaxed in not knowing it. Since I was a little girl, I remember always feeling that there was a mystery to be solved and that I had to do it. I could not accept that life was only made of “you are born, you grow up, you get engaged, you marry, you have children and then you die”. I wanted to understand where I came from, what meaning this life had. I have not understood it yet but now I’m having fun with it, not understanding. When I was young no, so I researched my way, at the beginning traveling, doing psychedelic experiences and then finally meeting this fantastic Master who is Osho. I was lucky enough to meet him when I was eighteen and the journey with him for me is not finished yet, he is still alive in me today.
Om: What is the most important message left by Osho? If there is one …
Radha: My experience with him, the message he left me, is to live life in the moment, as it is, to live it with joy, not to wonder about the meanings of life but only and simply to live it fully and live it joyfully; to live in the present as far as possible. This does not mean not engaging in the present, because then it is easy to interpret the message as “who cares about the future, who cares about the past, we live day by day”. The message from Osho is: live totally all your choices, even if you’re making mistakes, even if you’re going to end up in the ditch, go totally into the ditch. Dance, laugh, cry with all the totality you know and, if you do not know it, try to know it and expand your way of living.
Om: And in this vision of life, what is Tantra for?
Radha: It is exactly the method that can help you live totally, because it is a method that, although scientific, is so simple that it becomes almost difficult. It starts from the body, from sexuality, and can make your understanding and your expansion even illuminate you. All you need to do is simply observe your sexual energy, perhaps in the sexual act, but not only. When I talk about sexual energy we have to be very careful because our conditioning makes us immediately think about having sex with someone, while I’m talking about sexual “energy”. If you look at it, how it is activated or not activated in you, like when you are about to make love, how you move towards making love… you understand a lot of things about yourself. I use the metaphor of the tree and the roots: the roots are your sexuality. So even in the work I do in Tantralife, the thing I do to start with is to look at the roots with the magnifying glass, sexuality. If the roots work to their full potential then the tree will be solid, will give flowers and fruits, there will be no dead branches. With great simplicity, using sexuality as a litmus test of your life, you can understand a lot of things about yourself and you can move forward on this path. What makes this journey so difficult is that we have been repressed, because we have decided that in culture and society, sexuality must work in a certain way, and we have distorted it. Even in Italy, we live sexuality with a lot of “freedom”, but we do not live it in a natural way. Who is a libertine is not necessarily natural. So the important thing in this work is to bring your attention to the natural aspect of your sexuality in order to live in a total way, more and more total.
Om: So, this does not mean that you don’t have a morality?
Radha: In a sense, it does not mean being immoral, but a-moral. The question you ask is important because what many people ask me and ask themselves is: “So if I live naturally – and it does not mean freely – my sexuality I find myself in situations that are defined as immoral?”. Tantra takes you back to your naturalness, it has no morality, it is a-moral, not im-moral. It is like when a child growing up begins to touch the genitals, this is not immoral, it is a-moral. But we create a situation that in the future will be called immoral if we forbid this child to touch his genitals because it is not right according to our education. When this child is older, he will see touching his genitals as something wrong, immoral. We are certainly extending the concept of morality. The work of Tantra brings you so close to your naturalness that this also takes you away from the canons of morality and immorality, in a space of amorality, right in the middle, where there is no judgment “this right and this is wrong”, “This is negative and this is positive”. This is all the essence of Tantra, non-dualism.”
From an interview to Radha by Om Giampaolo Cantini
