There are over 3700 members of this tribe, and my guess is that there are over 3700 answers.

Some people may laugh about that, but I think it's a good thing, for that means it's very personal and has a deep effect on so many people.

For me, Tantra consists of the world's oldest, continuously practiced spiritual systems. They approaches all aspects of life--including physics, mathematics, philosophy, medicine, theology, astronomy, divination, magick, physiology, etc.-- from a positive point of view as opposed to the negative "life is terrible" or "thou shalt not" viewpoint. Virtually all of the spiritual things believed to have come from "The East"-- from chakras to kundalini, from yoga to ayurveda, from feng shui to acupuncture, from astrology to martial arts--originated with the Tantrics (although many evolved in different ways elsewhere).

Being complete, Tantric traditions have throughly examined the practical and spiritual aspects of sexuality. In the West, most people who talk about Tantra really mean Tantric sexuality or what Osho (Rajneesh) called "Neo-Tantra."

YMMV

#3, huh? Could be like this:

I see Tantra as a set of methods... or rather a philosophical approach to overcome duality.

For me, being a Buddhist, the composite nature of conditional life, aka. "we" being separated from everything around us, is the fundamental cause for suffering. The teachings, meditations and practices of tantric buddhism, as far as I have understood so far, aim towards recognition of our mind as timeless space and bliss.

Although the term Tantra is used within different traditions and systems, I think the transformational and spiritual aspects are sort of common ground.

Best wishes

Tantra is internal practice and cultivation, often involving the use of mantra, visualization, breathing, meditation, contemplation, and devotion. In Sanskrit "Tan" comes from a root word meaning darkness and "tra" comes from a root meaning liberation or expansion, so Tantra can be seen as a method, or methods for expanding the mind and consciousness beyond its own dark forces or unconsciousness. Although Tantra has so many paths and sub-paths its hard to say that any one thing "is" tantra, but I think that many of them share a common fundamental spirit. Tantra is 95 percent practice and 5 percent theory, if any one practices enough, I believe that they will understand what Tantra is. On that note, I have to go and do my sadhana practice, namaskar.

Tantra in a nutshell is:

Quantum-bio-psycho-psychic Mechanics.

The shell is Quest and the nut is Consciousness.




Adesh!

In the smallest nutshell,

Tantra is the art of paying attention.

I like A. Bharati views on tantra in his book _The Tantric Traditions_.

"I believe that the real difference between tantric and non-tantric traditions is methodological: tantra is the psycho-experimental interpretation of non-tantric lore. As such, it is more value-free than non-tantric traditions; moralizing, and other be-good cliches are set aside to a far greater extent in tantristn than in other doctrine. By 'psycho-experimental' I mean 'given to experimenting with one's own mind', not in the manner of the speculative philosopher or the poet, but rather in the fashion of a would-be psychoanalyst who is himself being analysed by some senior man in the trade. ... The tantric adept cares for liberation, like all other practicing Hindus or Buddhists; but his method is different, because it is purely experimental—in other words, it does not confer ontological or existential status upon the objects of his meditations. This is the reason why tantrics are not in the least perturbed by the proliferation of gods and goddesses, minor demons and demonesses, and other creatures of various density and efficacity—they do not attempt to reduce their number, for these are necessary anthropomorphic ways of finding out 'what is inside the mind'. The tantric entertains one or two axioms, no doubt—the absolutistic and the phenomenal-noumenal-identity axioms, but they are not important except as speculative constructs. … All tantrics flout traditional, exoteric orthodoxy, all put experiment above conventional morality denying ultimate importance to moralistic considerations which is not contradicted by the fact that most tantric texts pay initial homage to conventional conceptions of morality; and all agree that their specific method is dangerous, and radical, and all claim that it is a shortcut to liberation."

This seems like one of the better descriptions (from my point of view), with the important caveat that psychonaut is a better metaphor than psychoanalyst.