Odd guest post from Rachel.

I asked Rachel to share about Tantra Heart in a way you and I could understand. I asked Rachel “to tell us a story.”  She did. Beautifully. Enjoy. Thank you Rachel.

Why would evidence of my high school boyfriend surface right now, why on the exact morning I’d chosen to put the word out that my Tantra teachers are coming to town?  Falling asleep last night I had committed to today, to NOW, as my diving board into the wet world of marketing a Tantra retreat. I awakened, the recipient of a Facebook note from my high school boyfriend’s 22-year-old son, who wondered what his father had been like in high school—his father, whom I last saw in 1984.  Today, of all days.  That’s ODD.

“I want what they have,” I recall thinking, as Richard and Antoinette Asimus of Tantra Heart greeted me at the door of the retreat center in Ohio seven years ago.  Although we were just introducing ourselves, I could feel that they loved me.  I felt that they truly saw me.  I felt that they were thrilled that I was joining them on retreat.  There were 23 other people on retreat with me…but I felt recognized.  It was in their eyes, and their touch.  I wanted to dwell in that world.  They lived in a sphere of love. I was stunned to find out that they’d been together almost 40 years.

So how fascinating, my 30-year-old memory, laid before me right now:  my first real, reciprocal love.  Untainted by bills, shared toothpaste tubes, butter wrappers on the countertop, muddy shoes, crying kids, or snoring.  We had lived with our respective parents, didn’t drink, smoke, or have sex…so we never got in trouble.  We never had a fight.  We just had fun.  It is all coming back to me now, as a result of his son’s curiosity about me, apparently a result of his father’s equally unsullied memory of who we had been.

From my Tantra point of view, my former boyfriend, still 18 in my mind, reminds me how, ideally, we could see our partner.  How we can see our partner, I am convinced: with a peaceful, open heart.  With practice—Tantra Heart practice.  Even if they have been with us for 30 years.  Even if they are dead.

We can see our partner, by choice, suspended in time and space, at that extraordinary moment when we met and realized, We are One–yet while suspended in time, alive because we are seeing their inner light, and not the outer costume we wear when we participate in our daily dramas, forget to turn on the dishwasher or close the garage door or make a bad investment.  Those dramas that keep us distracted from who we truly are to each other–what happens when they fall away?  What truly matters?

When I look at the photo of my high school boyfriend—now middle aged, middle-waisted, hair hanging on for dear life where it was once hanging in his eyes—what do I see?  I see an 18-year-old boy, exuberant with victory, music, new love.  And I feel within myself the unbridled innocence and potential, devoid of my cynical “knowing” about how relationships can erode.

That is what the Tantra Heart level one is about: freedom.  Freedom from our stale perceptions.  Freedom to feel the passion of first love, now and forever, whether one is partnered or not, freedom to tune in to the Life beyond the drama, the Source beyond our personal resistance.  Freedom to see complete strangers, neighbors, coworkers, our children—everyone!—with that sense of Oneness.  And the freedom to feel this Love within and know that it’s even not about those other people at all.

I am convinced Tantra Heart is not only the world’s most delightful path to personal happiness, but that it is a huge step toward world peace.  And if we can’t have peace within our own hearts, how can we have peace among nations?

The potential to create heaven on earth does, indeed, exist.  Here.  Now.  Call me ODD, but that’s where I want to live.  And we have the tools and technology to build it.  Would you like to join me?

Rachel invites your questions about whether this workshop is right for you: please email or call Rachel Fiske at rtfiske@aol.com or 312.305.4260 for more information

Glad you were in my neighborhood. Feel free to drop by anytime. I would love to hear from you in the comment section of this blog or on Facebook or Twitter! Odd Loves Company and Odd loves you and you and you

Katybeth