Suta reflects on a juicy summer, looks forward to a busy Autumn, talks about his  joy of helping people to open and expand through the body, and reveals what Choose Bliss Now is really all about……

Watch it here….

Stuck? Stagnant? Low energy? Looking for more connection with yourself, others or the divine? Watch Suta’s video on how using the Chakra system can help you break through limitation and live life more fully.

Watch Suta’s video blog from the first Osho Leela Tantra Festival!

And some feedback from the event…….

Suta

Welcome to my Tantra-talking, sky-walking, heart-stroking, fire-stoking blog!

Much has happened in the weeks since the last instalment. I had the pleasure of going to work in Latvia for the first time. I followed an invitation from my friend Abhika to lead a group there in the capital city of Riga. I found it a most interesting place and was very impressed by the people who came to our workshop. The venue for the weekend was a very high quality, beautiful Ayurvedic spa recently opened by a delightful young couple, Laxmi and Krishna. For some of the participants this was their very first workshop of any kind and yet everyone really dived in, opened deeply and had a LOT of fun! This was my first time working ‘through’ a translator and I really enjoyed it – it gave a spacious, ‘breathing’ quality to presenting. I look forward to returning to Latvia next year.

Next stop was Croydon Hall to lead two six day groups with my beloved teacher, Sarita. The first week was the second run of the Tantra-Man Tantra-Woman experience (see my blog on the School of Awakening site – ‘The Evolution of Tantra Man’ for the story of its creation last year). This year we had a smaller group and a smaller team but the process has been refined, extended and improved so is now a powerful, alchemical journey.

The beauty of Croydon Hall in the summer time

We were blessed with perfect Summer weather which showed the grounds of Croydon Hall at their full glory. After a day together the men and women are separated for three days. I love this time of being with the men as they bond, share, and pass through many physical and energetic exercises that support the honouring and expansion of their sexuality, creativity, power and consciousness. Over the years I have noticed that men are really ‘coming on’ in their ability to connect with each other with honesty and heart and a greater willingness to embrace both their strength AND their vulnerability. It is a very touching experience for me to witness this and gives me hope for the journey we men need to embrace at this time in our evolution.

After resourcing with our own sex for some days the men and women are reunited in a beautiful and deep ritual. The last days of the group are given over to learning and practising two Tantric massages – the Taoist Sexual energy massage and the Shiva-Shakti Kashmiri Massage. Although very different, both these are powerful, intimate and supremely pleasurable sessions that go beyond mere healing and into the realms of Tantric transmission. Sarita emphasised the importance of the preceding days being a vital preparation for the massages. The energetic space and lineage from which they come must be respected, otherwise some of their potency is diluted and the magic is reduced to technique. So if you really want to get the full benefit of these sublime transmissions, experiencing them on the group is the best way.

After relishing a day off with a refreshing walk through the surrounding countryside, the next group started arriving for level 1 of the Couples Training. Partners came from all over the UK, India, Spain, Norway and the USA – even Australia (!) to be ‘in’ on Saritas last level 1 (from next year the first three levels of the training will be run by Roxana or Fiona, with different male teachers from the School).

As ever it is my privilege and joy to see couples taking the ‘rollercoaster ride’ through some of the difficult patterns that may have been causing some dissatisfaction or stagnation in their relating, and come into a greater depth of love and appreciation for themselves and their beloved. This time there were a few surprises – a number of people were clearly having Satori experiences – moments of enlightened perception and clarity ….. and, more down to earth, one couple managed to collapse their bed during one of their ‘love-appointments’ !!

Praful and Peru

We were also gifted with a live concert of beautiful music by Praful and Peru. Praful is a highly talented blower of saxophones and flutes whose music I have admired for some years. Peru is a more recent discovery for me and this was my first time seeing her live. My goddess! She is a force of Nature when singing – together their performance was an exquisite transmission with a strong Tantric flavour that complemented our group-work perfectly. Check out their CD ‘Breathing Love‘.

The group was truly a delight with most of the couples already expressing an intention to go ‘all the way’ to level 7 in 2012.

The Summer is a relatively quiet time for me in terms of leading events. I am looking forward to a six day silent retreat in July, followed immediately by DJ-ing/facilitating an experience of Ecstatic Dance at the Quest festival in Newton Abbot, before going on to Sheffield to run my favourite of my own groups, ‘Exploring Feeling Really, Really Good Through Tantra’. The highlight of the Summer is the Tantra festival at Osho Leela, a potent mix of the great and good of the Tantra world, which looks like it will be a very juicy event. I hope to see you there, or somewhere else on the travelling Tantric express!

With lots of love

Suta

Verica and Suta

I am recently back from running a group in Norway, a beautiful country whose people are a delight. After a year’s absence it felt really good to be working again with my dear friend Verica, and meeting for the first time Espen, our talented co-teacher. The theme for this group was Stepping into Love. We brought this about by working with the principles of men becoming empowered in the solar plexus (third chakra) to embody and radiant the sun/fire energy, while the women found ways to rest back into the devotional energies of the heart (forth chakra), so as to be able to receive and reflect their male counterpart with cool, moon energy.

The group went deep and powerful very quickly. As we went on together, we used energy circulation, times with men and women being separated, massage, emotional release and voice work to open up and enter into the quality of being with one’s self and being together, that was full of ease and grace – ahhhh - exquisite!

Many participants shed tears as they expressed deep gratitude for the opening and inspiration they experienced on the weekend. I love this immediacy and vitality of working face to face with people. When working with individuals or groups, my intention is often to hold the space in such a way that we can open up and, open up, as deeply as possible in a manor that is easy and light, yet also meaningful and touching.

One of the main ways to encourage this to happen is by working with the body. Our bodies, every body, yes, including this very body you are sitting in now, are extraordinary! And, everyday. Something so much there as a fact of our earthly existence, it can be easy to totally take these beautiful creations for granted, which are simultaneously, the incredible result of millions of years of evolutionary refinement, AND, a doorway to the divine, a portal to spiritual realms. At the esoteric heart or core of many spiritual traditions and religious practices, even those that seem to have a somewhat negative view of sensuality and the body, are found meditations, rituals and teachings that use the body as doorway to spiritual opening. Why is this?

Certain aspects of the lived human experience are mediated through the body – the breathing is now, we are feeling NOW! So the body can be a doorway to the present, to presence. By resting or returning our attention to this, we can enter more fully into this moment. This can be a refreshing change from the realm of the mind, where we can spend much of our time and become so readily identified with.

I look forward to many more opportunities to help people feel this deep and simple truth – that the body and the divine are one.

With love,

Suta

Hello again!

After a long, cold winter the days are finally becoming longer and lighter heralding the coming of Spring with its  infusion of life-giving energies. This time of year can re-awaken our excitement for  life,  our desire to live and  do things – some of you may already be feeling this to be very inspiring.

In life,  in relationship, many people are longing to experience Passion. This is a dynamic, even intense sense of  desire, enthusiasm, eagerness, lively positive interest that, when we feel it, can be  FANTASTIC! It is like a tide  of life-force that can empower and expand us to act with vigour and spontaneity, such that we surprise  ourselves and others.

The poet Yeats wrote “A passion driven man sings out sentences that he never thought”. So this has been the muse for poets , the fuel for warriors and the bonding for lovers throughout the ages…..    ……and yet how often we seem to settle for a life or relationship that is humdrum, bland or even tedious. Over time we can settle into patterns of behaviour and relating that are certainly        comfortable  and functional but rarely thrilling.  When we are first getting to know someone there can be a strong desire which combined with the sense of newness, can make each meeting seem fresh and exciting.

In this first phase of relating passionate sex can seem to happen more easily. How come we allow our passion to fade? More importantly how might we ‘ignite that spark’ again? Well, as I always say – it begins with a choice – you look at your ability to be passionate in your daily life and perhaps consider how willing you are to become a passionate lover …someone who may be able to evoke that in another, and commited to making that last. I recommend that over the next week you take a few minutes to write a ‘passion statement’ every day. You answer a question like ‘Where do I find passion in my life? or ‘What made me passionate today’?

The teachings of Tantra remind us that energy can flow very powerfully between polarities, for example masculine and feminine. David Deida states in a very compelling way that many contemporary couples aim to create a kind of gender equality. This may mean the man becomes more caring and sensitive and the woman takes some of the decisions, or is the ‘breadwinner’. This is a healthy cultural development but it can tend to de-polarise the couple which would diminish the erotic charge between them. Thus in effect they suffer from becoming too balanced!

In my years of attending and leading Tantra groups I have heard the call from women that yes, they want men to be sensitive, listening and caring, but also there is a yearning for something wild or passionate from men. Many women are wanting to be ravished!!

They want demonstrations, from men, of feeling or being crazy with love and desire for them. This would convey an invigorating sense that you could ‘get carried away by the moment’ or ‘swept off your feet’.

Taken.

Claimed.

This can be a sublime form of excitement – fiery , raw and vital! Men often claim they want a ‘hot’ or ‘passionate’ lover and yet they are not being that themselves. Many men become more animated and vocal watching sport than they do having sex!

What can we actually DO to open up the possibility for passionate meeting? As ever there must be some degree of willingness to at least play at this in our intimate moments. For the masculine partner to be more assertive, directional, even powerfully animalistic (whilst also remaining loving) whilst the feminine partner allows herself to surrender.

Although we usually think of passion as flourishing in spontaneity, in most relationships it also requires some degree of vulnerability and trust. So I invite you to consider the suggestion that a great way to increase sexual passion is to make time for that in your life.Actually schedule time for intimacy and /or pleasure. Pick dates, times and durations of ‘love appointments’. Be realistic, but also slightly challenging in what you plan. Then be aware that you may find all sorts of excuses to get in the way of actually showing up at the date. Keep the date anyway!

When you are first dating someone you are usually very excited and looking forward to the time together. You prepare accordingly. We shave, bathe, wash, wax and dress the body so that physically we look and feel special. We also mentally prepare with positive expectations and planning. This gives your partner and your own mind and physiology the message that this is a special,valuable and important occasion. Prepare for a love appointment in this way too.

Once in the date you give (and hopefully receive) focussed attention. You allow yourself to become fully absorbed in the moment. This is demonstrated through the presence in your eye contact, touch, listening. Use this time to enhance and deepen your connection - emotionally, spiritually, energetically as well as physically.

You can find new ways to enjoy physical contact. Surprise each other by sharing new visions and fantasies. Above all have an attitude of appreciation, even adoration for your partner …. and express that! As one of the Tantric scriptures says: “Where man and woman worship one another is the play of the divine”.

Yes go ahead and use words to tell them what it is you love and enjoy about them – you may compose or find some erotic prose or love poetry, or song or just say something simple but with heartfelt sincerity but also let yourself be spicy, naughty, outrageous!

To give you some more inspiration, I’ll leave you with this from Karen Karison:

“I love being lost in the sound that mud makes when it is soft and wet and begs your fingers to stay a little while longer, and please play some more in my earth. Smell this beautiful terafirma consuming you, begging you to forsake the skillful architecture of your hands to make a more marvelous mess, and I love you saying, ‘Look, I have found this branch of myself that I can use to dig your sweet red clay to death’ and I say ‘Yes, dig me baby. Dig me as if planting love like crocuses beneath the window of my hips.”

There is a groundswell of activity happening in the Tantra world, which will lead to it becoming more and more visible and increasingly widespread as time goes by. At the beginning of January, I attended for the first time the gathering of the ‘Tantra Union’. This is a meeting of many of the most well known, well established and respected teachers of Tantra in the UK. These two days gave me a chance to get to meet and meditate with and exper ience some of the flavour of different teachers work and, equally importantly, brainstorm ideas to raise the profile of Tantra. I especially enjoyed the company of these fine and talented people, and getting a renewed appreciation for the diversity of perspectives that come under the umbrella of ‘Tantra’.

Sarita opening up my Chakras at the media weekend

Two weeks later I was at another Tantric gathering as the School of Awakening (meaning Sarita, and many of her most experienced teachers, apprentices and trainees) hosted a weekend, at Croydon Hall, for the media (there were two camera crews plus several print journalists, click here for the SoA blog). This included my first filmed interview and facilitating a day of Singles Tantra and a Couples day for the media to observe or participate in. My pubic hair finally made it onto film after years of trying!! See the handsome man Sarita is demonstrating the Chakra massage on to your left……

The event was considered a great success by all - to such a degree that some of the journalists were so deeply touched by the sacred and beautiful atmosphere that permeated the work that they wanted to book themselves onto a longer residential group!

One aspect of my work that I’m really beginning to enjoy (slightly to my own surprise) is giving talks and interviews – I gave my first Tantric massage talk in January, and am really look forward to doing that again on 9^th February. As well as being filmed at the School of Awakening media weekend, I also gave my first radio interview this month! It will air on Sarah Scarlett-Williams’ Vivacity show at 12pm on 10th February, on Bristol Community Radio. Check out the start of my career as a radio star!! We’ll have the podcast available to download on our website shortly after the show.

As I write about all this media exposure and exciting future plans, I realise that I am part of a growing wave of practitioners and teachers who are feeling ready now to respond to the Call: the vision of practices and principles from Tantra starting to be more widely understood, more easily accessible and sought out by greater numbers of people of all ages and walks of life, as their life enriching value and benefit is generally recognised and appreciated. This means sharing the work with more passion, professionalism and integrity, and a willingness to explore new ways to describe what we do, so that an ever wider spectrum of people are getting exposed to this ancient wisdom that has so much to offer the modern world. So who knows – in a few short years we may be seeing Tantra much more frequently on the TV, radio and certainly the internet, maybe nightclubs/dance parties with Tantric themes or ambience, and Tantra classes becoming as common as yoga is today. You heard it here first!

Feeling really, really good!

Also in January, two more groups had the chance to experience ‘Feeling Really Really Good Through Tantra‘ – one at Osho Leela and one in London. This group process is really developing into a “delightful, fun, nourishing, stimulating, refreshing” structure. The people who come to participate are consistently describing experiences of great insight, profound yet simple joy, liberating spontaneity and delightful fun! I love running this workshop!! The next opportunity to experience this aspect of my work will be another residential weekend at Osho Leela from April 9-11, and in Bristol on 24/5 of the same month. See our calendar for all the details.

Love and blessings,

Suta

www.chooseblissnow.co.uk

Hello hello!

I wish you a happy New Year!

A very happy new Now!!

A blissful new You!?

This is the time when many of us have been reviewing the last year, and recalling all that which we are grateful for, pleased with, proud of and also perhaps that which we are willing to let go of and move on from. The beginning of a year can be a time of seeding a new vision for how we would like our life to be, maybe setting goals or an intention for something different, something new to develop. Since I last wrote some of my dearest friends, have just become parents for the first time. Visiting them and the baby was a powerful reminder of how magical it is to be alive and what a gift that is. This tasting of the wonder and ever-renewing freshness and ‘Newness’ of existence was a bright light during this darkest time of the year. We are all born in Wonder and as long as we live, there is always the possibility, moment by moment, to experience Life in a fresh, new way. It is one of my joys in doing the work that I do, to offer this possibility, of creating situations or experiences where you can step off the treadmill of momentum, or whatever box of limitations you feel yourself to be bound by, and rest or expand INTO something different, something more enjoyable, more fulfilling, more satisfying to who you really are.

In December there were more lovely and powerful events. I can honestly say that the quality of what I’m offering through groups and individual sessions is becoming more refined, more subtle yet also more potent. I am noticing that people feel this in different ways – for you that may mean the experience is more fun, enables greater insight, creates new understandings or simply feels really good and has you smiling from ear to ear with your eyes and heart shining! This was certainly evident in those who came to the End of Year Trancedance (see our Facebook page for Amala’s review) and the Tantra Touch evening co-led for the first time with the wonderful Tina Malhotra.

The Tantra Men’s Circle completed its first season. Pretty much all the men said they had noticed many positive changes in their energy, the way they experience the body and pleasure, feeling more powerful, more expansive or more at ease. There was much enjoyment in just being together as men, sharing time and the recognition of telling and listening to each others stories. I love this growing aspect of my work and look forward to working with more men in the upcoming season. Also particularly satisfying was the weekend group Explore Feeling Really, Really Good Through Tantra where, as the title suggests, the lovely bunch of participants danced, played, and acted their way through an easy going journey (pictured right), which had them saying things such as:

Enjoying a hug and Feeling Really, Really Good!

“I felt very energised for a couple of days afterwards. It has helped me feel positive about myself”

“Amazing and blissful as ever and very soul expanding”

“I felt very relaxed and generally in love with the world.”

I also really, really enjoyed this group (witness my smiling face at the beginning of this post!), and am very happy to be offering it again later this month in London, with Abhika (click here for all the details).

There are always opportunities for YOU to experience these kind of feelings.

Seek them out.

Make time for them.

You’ll be happier and the world a better place.

I look forward to seeing you in the Bliss Zone sometime soon!

With love,

Suta

www.chooseblissnow.co.uk

Welcome to my blog for November!

Another month deeper into the season of dark nights (and days!). Since I last wrote there have been several noteworthy events in this Tantric life …… ……

I had the pleasure of returning to Croydon Hall with Sarita of the School of Awakening for a six day couples group that is level 2 of the three year training. This workshop explores the theme of ‘Male-female balance’ using the chakra system as the map or guide to the territory. Over the years I have come to appreciate the depth and profundity of the chakras as a way of understanding the way energy and consciousness manifest through the physical body and our behaviour, and also love many of the practical methods and techniques that we can draw upon to help bring us back to wholeness, health and vitality. So to spend six days immersed in this was something I had been really looking forward to. The group surpassed my hopes and was a delight. It was such a joy to see the couples deepening in their love ….and opening new dimensions in their erotic connection and expression with their beloved. Truly heartwarming stuff – and a testament that this Tantra stuff really works!! Oh and not forgetting the party – this was great fun with some wonderful characters emerging out of the dressing up and role play – proving that personal development doesn’t always have to be serious - in fact insight and learning can also happen with mirth and hilarity!

Back in Bristol the Men’s Tantra Circle has been continuing with the journey going deeper. There was also another highly enjoyable evening of ‘Tantra Touch’. I was very happy that my dear friend Tina was able to join me for the session and will be bringing her tremendous warmth, playful heart and general gorgeousness to these events in future as my assistant. I am thrilled to have her on board as she is such a wise, encouraging and loving being. Here in Bristol we were blessed that another radiant friend, Amala, had organised a high energy evening for friends and lovers of the spiritual teacher Osho. This included some sublime live music by the band Presence and Sarita acting as a focaliser for some seriously high-voltage energy. This was a very beautiful evening with many gathering from far and wide to dance and celebrate together. It seemed like we were being bathed in a pure, spiritual light that night and the ripples of this event could be felt around Bristol for several days afterwards! I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the magic.

Finally at the end of the month I was in London to hold another event with Sarita. This was a two day course called ”the Ecstacy of Tantra”, organised by Alternatives. We had a great team of experienced helpers to support us on this workshop, and in all there were about 55 people , including many newcomers, taking a fast and deep journey. Again we were working with the chakras as the map to a journey that took us through many states – sexy, playful, dynamic, tender and magical. The group really opened up and dived right in, opening up a tangible feeling of ecstacy and wonder in a short space of time. I am noticing that people are really able to move through their limitations and let go of their stresses quickly these days, and reconnect with and remember our true nature. More and more people are exploring new ways, answering some calling……if you are reading this article its likely that you are too…..keep going , probing , exploring…. resting ….listening! 

With love til next time,

Suta

www.chooseblissnow.co.uk