Nov. 3, 1999
What's the secret to keeping a long marriage happy and sexually ecstatic?
When the latest issue of People magazine asked Rita Wilson this
question, the actress (who has been married to multiple-Oscar-winner Tom
Hanks for 11 years) replied, "You gotta talk, you gotta listen, you
gotta laugh. And ... you gotta have lots of tantric yoga sex!"
Perhaps it's amusing to picture her Forrest-Gumpish husband tangled in
sacred coital union for hours, but Hollywood-watchers who admire the
Hanks-Wilson union as one of the most joyous star marriages will
undoubtedly take notice. Tantric sex classes, offered nationwide through
the Learning Annex and other numerous
alternative adult-education organizations, may find their enrollment
rosters swelling.
The 2,000-year-old Buddhist and Hindu techniques enjoyed by Hanks,
Wilson and other "tantrika" practitioners espouse a radically different
approach to bedroom-romping than Western linear, product-oriented models.
Tantra seeks to "prolong the act of making love and to channel, rather than
dissipate, potent orgasmic energies," claims Nitya Lacroix, author of "The
Art of Tantric Sex," on her tantra.com Web site. "There is no goal in Tantra,
only the present moment of perfect and harmonious union."
Hanks and Wilson aren't the first celebrities to reveal themselves as
Tantra devotees. Jazz-rock star Sting, who is married to actress-producer
Trudie Styler, "boasted that he could make love for more than five hours at
a time," claims a Sept. 21 article in the Newcastle Chronicle
and Journal. Speaking with more modesty and reverence in the Oct. 1
New York Post, the ex-Police man also noted that "tantric sex is an
opportunity to give devotion. It is the thing that human beings do
together that gives them the most joy. It creates life. It's a chance to
give thanks to your partner. It is a very powerful thing."
Who's next, we wonder? Will Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver
soon tout Tantra? Maybe "Viagra" Bob and Elizabeth Dole? Will Tantra
instructors replace marriage counselors?
Probably not. But in today's fast-paced world where knowledge systems
often arrive and disappear quickly, it's comforting to observe an ancient
body of wisdom that lingers on and on, on and on and on and on and on ...
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