Tantra is ultimately a yoga or union of our consciousness with the pure awareness of all. It builds upon the traditions of Hatha yoga, Kundalini yoga, and is the source of many yogic traditions along with its unique ritual practices.
There are many different kinds of yoga, each of which has overlapping features with other yogas, but a specific defining feature that defines it as its own class of yoga.
Hatha yoga is the yoga of mastering polarities through physical techniques. Bhakti yoga is the yoga of devotion, characterized by surrounding the ego to love and worship. Karma yoga is the yoga of action and service - you can practice this yoga in action in your every day activities and work. Kundalini yoga is the yoga of raising your kundalini and activating the dormant serpent energy at the base of your spine, uniting the finite with infinity.
Other important paths of yoga are :
-Kriya yoga: the yoga of Paramahansa Yogananda, purification of the blood and direct control of drawing the life force up and down the spine, stillness of mind
-Siddha yoga: the yoga of developing occult powers
-Raja yoga: the yoga of Royals, mastering the mind like a King masters his Kingdom
-Sahaj yoga: allowing the kundalini energy to flow gracefully and with ease
-Dhyana yoga: the yoga of meditation, mindfulness and concentration
-Traatik yoga: the discipline of gazing of a sacred object or image of a teacher
-Yantra yoga: focusing the mind on sacred geometric representations of the cosmos, chakras and dieties
-Nada yoga: the yoga of the primal vibration of sound and resonance
-Ashtanga yoga: the yoga of Patanjali, the classic 8 limb practice of the sutras
-Gyan yoga: the yoga of wisdom and discernment
-Samkhya yoga: dualistic yoga of discerning the manifest from the unmanifest, spirit and matter through deep contemplative meditation
-Mantra yoga: the yoga of mantra recitation, transforming the physical chemistry of the body and brain
-Japa yoga: meditative repetition of mantras and divine names
-Laya yoga: dissolution of the individual consciousness - the plant goes back to the seed
-Guru yoga: a tantric devotional practice where the student unites their mindstream with their teacher
-Anubhava yoga: the yoga of perception and experience from personal observation
Tantra yoga is a synthesis of all of these with the defining features of enjoying the dance of polarity, uniting Shiva (masculine) and Shakti (feminine) and activating the kundalini energy to sublimate and transform the lower into the higher.
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