Four Pathways into Tantrik Practice

The Power of Desire + The Method of Effortless Recognition

We’re often told to fight or suppress our desires — but in the Tantrik view, longing is not a flaw. It’s a sacred force that, when focused and clarified, can guide us deeper into devotion and a recognition of our true nature.

In this session, we’ll explore how yearning itself can be a doorway to deeper understanding. You’ll learn ways to honor your desires without being bound by them, and how devotion can be full of power while free of dogma.

The Power of Knowledge + The Method of Subtle Means

In a culture that pulls us outward into screens, noise, and constant distraction, Tantrik practice invites us to turn inward and listen more carefully. The subtle body — our inner landscape of energy and awareness — is a key to experiencing life with more depth, presence, and vitality. This session will explore how training perception through the subtle body can bring balance in a disembodied world, and how learning to sense these inner dimensions can open the gateway to deeper recognition.

The Bliss of Recognition + The Method Beyond Method

Most manifestation teachings promise you can “get what you want” if you just think positively. The Tantrik view is different: reality is already pulsing with bliss and creativity, and true manifestation flows when we align with that. In this session, we’ll explore a more grounded, non-dual approach to manifestation — one that’s less about craving or control, and more about resting in the bliss of awareness itself. From that place, creation feels less like forcing life to bend to our will and more like joining in the natural creativity that we already are.

In classical Tantrik philosophy, these four ūpāyas are not competing paths — they are approaches that meet the practitioner where they're at. Together, they form a kind of inner maṇḍala of contemplative refinement: desire clarified, knowledge revised, action aligned, and bliss revealed.

Each talk is self-contained, but joining all four will give you a fuller picture — and a taste of the depth and integration you’ll find in Sādhana School, our year-long program in non-dual Tantrik study and practice.

Jacob Kyle is a meditation teacher, writer, philosophy educator, and the Founding Director of Embodied Philosophy. His guiding mission is to re-imagine the modern function of the yoga teacher in alignment with the teachings, texts, and traditions of yoga's profound history. He believes that by building a network of teachers who share a commitment to disseminating the deeper teachings and practices of yoga, we can build a world based on wisdom rather than ideology and divisiveness.

Jacob is a doctoral student at the University of Oxford, researching Abhinavagupta's Philosophy of Language and Meditation with advisor Diwakar Acharya. He holds an MPhil in Classical Indian Religions from Oxford (2023), an MA in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research (2017), and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics (2007). Jacob is a passionate advocate of Kashmir Śaivism and a devoted practitioner of the Śaiva-Śākta Darśana.

Four Pathways into Tantrik Practice

A 4-part series introducing the four ūpāyas (methods) of non-dual Śākta-Śaiva Tantra.

A 4-part series introducing the four ūpāyas (methods)
of non-dual Śākta-Śaiva Tantra.