J.X.D.: A tantra massage saloon is rather a psychotherapeutic centre than a brothel.
When you say “tantra in Antalya – Smíchov” it sounds rather funny. Still I found out through my colleagues´ gift who bought me a massage voucher for my birthday that the old Indian meditative art can be more than pleasant even in Smíchov.
When I got my gift voucher from my colleagues for a tantra massage of two hours I got slightly shaky. „Does anyone know this thing? What exactly is it? “I questioned the editors. „Well it´s just a normal brothel “bunga bunga”, “anonymous colleague stated. Just to explain; a term “bunga bunga” was made popular by the Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi. It is an interesting version of commercial sex where a man gets an anal prostate massage done by a woman. As I was silly to believe my colleague and got scared to even enter the tantra centre not to get any object or, being luckier, a finger, up my bottom.
NO WHIPS OR TAWS
I nervously rang the door of a tantra saloon, which operates within a larger concept of the Integrity Centre in a shabby Smíchov street. A girl dressed in ethno shop clothing greeted me and asked to take my shoes off and follow her to a massage room. „Please sit down, your masseuse will be here in a moment.“
The environment was surprisingly new and clean; a darkish room was about thirty degrees warm and was properly cleaned and tidy. In the middle there was a massage futon with a clean ironed ochre bed sheet, a table and two small chairs. There was a statue of Buddha and a number of candles around. All across one wall was a glass curtain and two showers behind it. There were no whips, crosses to tie to though there was a strange kind of double sawhorse made of varnished wood with sharp edges I could well imagine used for a real brutal form of bunga bunga. My impatience was growing. Then about a twenty year old masseuse came in. She had a deep cleavage and nice breasts but impressed me quite normally; neither as a whore nor a hysterical esoteric person. She introduced herself as Anna.
She poured me a cup of tea, we sat down at a little table and she asked why I didn’t take off my jacket. „I couldn’t figure out where to put it.“ „Here is our wooden butler! “She pointed the direction towards the sadistic masochistic looking horse and I sigh with relief. The whole thing was just a hanger for clothes! So what stories are you going to tell me, little girl! I remembered my Indian lover Uma and her talking about Hindu, Shiva and Shakti. And I focused on what Anna is going to say. She told me there are many tantra; tantra of breathing, visualisation, meditation, Buddha and Hindu, but here in Europe is most popular a tantra of sex (vama márga), which is according to traditional classification a tantra of left hand, or Kálí (Mahakala) tantra. But only a part of tantra brought by psychologists and psychoanalysts is really popular, a rather sexually limited one. Here in the centre they of course don’t keep to the Indian tradition strictly but try to imply also gestalt and Dasein analysis
Then I began to melt inside for everything the girl said responded to what I ever hear of tantra. There were no talks about the fact old Indian tantra masters would sometimes sliced a goat´s neck prior to sexual sacrifice and tasted some of the mysterious soma – toadstool – or Indian hashish. „Yeah, India! I wanted to go there with Erasmus! “ It is a study program of foreign stages for high school students and I definitely though completely irrationally based on the information stopped worrying about my a..hole.
ON MORALS
„I shall leave you alone here to take a shower and put on a sarong,“ said Anna as she handed me over the south American cloth to hang around the waist I can never tie properly. I properly bathed and wrapped with a sarong I rang the bell. She appeared in a few seconds looking smart wearing just a kind of white robe with naked shoulders covering her from neck to toe so the naked arms were associating the feeling of nakedness making her even more attractive than if she were naked.
„Let’s start in standing position. You can close your eyes.“ I did and listened to Indie pop mantras that are a bit tacky but not disturbing and Anna began to massage my head. I was just enjoying the touches that were not unpleasant but no big deal. Then the shoulders and back; she undid the sarong and asked me to lie down. So I did and closed my eyes again and enjoyed her massaging me softly yet firmly on various unisexual places that are rarely touched such as inner forearms. I kept thinking what I would write and how to approach the issue. Is it or isn’t it prostitution? In the end will I be offered a sex for extra fee as presumed by a cynical associate editor? And is this not just a soft version of a brothel in a submissive position of a person buying sex? My narcissistic part needs to be adored and get sex as a sign of woman´s adoration; from someone who comes to me for joy and pleasure, not the money.
This attitude is obviously much more expensive than using a paid sex and it can also end up tragically, often by marriage, but that´s the way narcissists do it. I refuse going to a brothel; I don’t want to be that poor no woman goes with me to bed (as if) for granted.
While I was thinking I noticed that Anna breathes rhythmically, slowly and deeply; that is another tantra technique and I tuned with her breath rhythm. As she was taking care of my asexual body placed putting hot towels on my thighs and warming my back with stones, I didn’t have to care about anything, even breathing because I was following her and stopped caring what I am going to write and started floating. In Buddhist terms, duality was disappearing. As I felt a bit of pain in my artistic hip and made a lifting move as if being active, Anna pushed me back to the floor in such a way I was telling myself: „Just you touch her and she will beat the life out of you, son!“ Clearly she had the situation under control, not the way a customer does in a brothel.
All tantra objectives are the same; achieving unity, escaping from duality world of suffering into colourful calmness. Full consciousness of yourself (body) and a small moment without prejudice, neurosis and tensions, fooling mind images restraining us from viewing the world in a natural way (vidžňá). Self-awareness of a civilised man related to a high level of insight and compassion.
SATORI IN SMICHOV
I was feeling excited as a horny dog when Anna told me to turn round to lie on my back. As I did looking through the candlelight she caressed my body with furs and feathers really enjoying her work. She was fully concentrating through her breathing but as I could read from her face and every move, she also enjoyed having me around her finger. Not sexually, but on a personal level of her femininity. She had me totally under control and though she was a complete woman she was totally (see the gender aspect of language) mastering the situation.
Prostitution is a disgusting issue for what happens is deeply unpleasant to one of the participants. Practically no prostitute likes her job despising her clients. I mean I understand if anyone was f…ing me for money I would not like it either. Tantra masseuse totally takes ranks; she touches a man the way a doctor examines an old man´s genitals; no one pushes her to do anything, nor sees her naked and she can enjoy the small touches exciting a man who is a foot taller. There is nothing humiliating about what she does for her or her client who paid for two hours of complete care. And paying for caring is quite normal even with a dentist or psychotherapy. And moreover, there is no endangered vagina as in a brothel possessed by any strange untamed woman. Well especially in a brothel. But really this had nothing to do with prostitution at all.
I closed my eyes and enjoyed Anna´s touches again and she suddenly touched me on my genitals she was avoiding all the time and I enjoyed a complete sinking into ego-less state with a happy ending. I opened my eyes and looked at her. She had a self-confident and satisfied expression in her face as if she just came back from a won battle. And that was pretty close to reality.
She cared for me for a while more, then left and I took a shower and as she was seeing me out told me about experience with people crying, collapsing or send her flowers the other day… I quite understood. Quality of the experience was in the top five per cent of all my sexual experiences and admittedly I lived a lot. When I imagine a poor manager with a frigid wife who married him for his money and keeps him on a short leash with her vagina? She only gives him some in exchange for a gift and has to come three times at least. Then he experiences a similar massage as I did and it changes his life. The intensity of eliminating ego after my Smíchov experience is comparable to inducing with intensive ego erasure by light hallucinogens; mushrooms or a strong skunk from a vaporiser.
DO IT AT HOME
Obviously anyone can have a similar experience to tantra massage with common pair sex, when both partners make an effort, know each other and practise tantra together. The problem is you need a sexually unblocked and active partner, sensitive, excitable partner who is able to think about more than her own orgasm. Scientist claim such a woman lived in the Czech territory back in the 1960s so unless a guy finds an Asian woman, all his hopes for home tantra are pretty much dead.
While I was taking a shower I kept thinking the whole thing really made the best impression. And I also spend my seven months in sacred place in India as I washed over my tantra symbols tattooed on both my arms. And that I would like to see Anna in a different role soon – as my colleague. I wish to become her male counterpart and massage women. What do you think, should I go for it?
