Session 3

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00:00 12fold Lower Belly Breathing
06:20 Mani Mantra (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 
14:05 Awakening the Inner Lover
01:00:10 Meditating in Pairs (experiencing the other with the heart)
01:11:55 Dance (visualisation in pairs)
01:25:10 4 Immeasurables

Recommended reads and ​additional materials:

After each session we will post below a list of additional materials, exercises and bibliography. We will include additional tips and hints, which can help to broaden your perspective on Tantra, deepen your practice, help to eliminate errors and direct your tantric discipline at home. Sometimes we will include links to guided practises etc. If you have any questions then please contact us. 

Contents:
1. 12fold Lower Belly Breathing (changing stale Prana)
2. Mani Mantra (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) ​
3. Awakening the Inner Lover
4. Meditating in Pairs (experiencing the other with the heart)
5. Dance (visualisation in pairs)
6. 4 Immeasurables
7. Further reading

1. 12fold Lower Belly Breathing (changing stale Prana)
This technique comes from Tibetan Buddhist Tantra and is included in Somatic Meditation (Robert teaches Somatic Meditation). Somatic Meditation is a system developed by dr Reginald Ray (tantric master) along with bodyworkers and therapists. You can find this technique in many of his audio programs (for example: 'Awakening the Body'). We've included it in our YouTube channel but only in Polish (below): ​

2. Mani Mantra (Avalokiteshvara Mantra) - OM MA NI PAD ME HUM (or HUNG instead HUM).
There is also a version of the mantra in which we add HRI at (Shri) at the end as in the Amitabha Mantra. The mantra is connected with a deity/personification of enlightened compassion called Avalokiteshvara (or Lokeshvara or Chenrezik). This deity is very popular in Asia or in Buddhist Tantra. The mantra was especially popular in Tibet, where people believed that its positive vibration might empower water with special qualities or create positive karmic imprints in the minds of those who hear it.
We mentioned briefly during the session that the syllables of the mantra are often explained to be connected to the so called 6 lokas (realms of Samsara), which actually refer to states of mind. Tantra explains that these are not distant lands or other dimensions but actually psychological and emotional states, which can be experienced and found as imprints in the human body. These are hell loka (being lost in anger and hate, autodestruction and great pain), hungry ghost loka (suffering due to having too much avarice or craving and not being able to achieve satisfaction), animal loka (being stuck in ignorance, territorialism and habitual patterns), human loka (looking for happiness by the means of autoreflexion, looking for the right style and attitude and connected existential dilemmas), asura or demigod loka (envy, competition and rat race with the intention of being better than others), deva or god loka (selfsatisfaction and pride - rapture and selfabsorption in blissful or peaceful meditative states). According to the Tantra these states or not awakening, but the real compassion towards oneself and others is able to encompass all these states and penetrate to their real nature.
If you are interested in art then you can check out Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezik in Google Graphics.

You can find a professional recording of this mantra below:

 3. Awakening the Inner Lover
​This practice comes from Margot Anand - a studend of Osho, who played an important role in popularisation of Tantra and Neotantra in the West (she authored "The Art of Sexual Ecstasy"). Embodiment is important in this practice so we recommend doing this practice only after initially grounding oneself in the body. It is a very good meditation for cultivating love in one's body and life and we invite you to work with it (as an alternative we recommend Metta/Loving Kindness meditation for oneself that we have introduced during our 1st session).

4. Meditating in Pairs (experiencing the other with the heart)
The basic idea of this exercise comes from one of our teachers - a teacher of Buddhist Tantra dr Reginald Ray (for example it is an important part of his audio course "Tantric Consort - Awakening through Relationship"). Dr Ray uses there a different technique for opening the heart. On the basis of our own experience we've incorporated here a shorter and (for many people) simpler method for opening the heart from kriyayoga (we will show you the Reggie's method during one of the latter sessions). Such meditation is an excellent practice for those living in a intimate relationship. Besides such attitude of meeting others from the level of the heart is something worth cultivating in daily life. You can also use this meditation visualising a partner - for example an ideal one (an image of somebody who you know or it may even change - many people may appear in one session; we are open to whatever our uncoscious shows us). The last variant is useful for working at the level of the unconscious and helps us to prepare for entering in deep and conscious relationship.

​5. Taniec - we've used the following mix for dancing (from around 3:00):
Café del Mar Chillout Mix 9 (2016)
​This exercise is a fruition of Robert's experience in contemporary dancing styles and working with tantric visualisations with regards to movement. The aim of the practice is developing embodied presence mindful of other people and learning to feel and see them more deeply while in movement. The creative aspect of this exercise shows us through play that using our visualisation in an embodied way, we may learn to communicate with others on another level, infulence the energy dynamics of a given situation through movement and awareness (for example encouraging other people to open themselves or stimulating their creativity). Tantric way encourages us to use our natural capacity for visualisation in order to transform our attitudes and relationships.

6. 4 Niezmierzoności - this practice also comes from dr Reggie Ray (it is available to general public in his audio course "Awakening the Heart"), though as in the case of number 4 we've incorporated a different way of somatically working with the heart and also we've added instructions based on our knowledge of Buddhism, from which the practice of the 4 Immeasurables orignally comes. The more traditional form of this practice we've mentioned (which includes the aspect of reincarnation) is to be found in a book called "Brama do Nauk" by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu.

​7. Futher reading:
Czogyal Namkhai Norbu "Brama do Nauk" - a half encyclopedia and half training program. It presents an overview of Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism and Dzogchen Buddhism from the perspective of a master of Dzogchen and Tibetan Buddhism and also a scientist (professor) who studied the history of these teachings. The book contains introductory, essential practises and basic elements of view and meditation of different levels of buddhist and tantric practice and is a wonderful (albeit a little demanding) introductory book for all who are interested in traditional Buddhist Tantra. Unfortunately the English version ("Gateway to the Teachings") will come out in 2021.