TANTRA is an Oriental philosophy from thousands of years. Based on a set of writings called Tantra, which according to tradition were written by Buddha (480-400 BC.). While others claim that the Tantric religion and metashamanismo Tantric Buddhism, existed before and possibly in relation to the Bon religion (in Tibet) and the seeds of Taoism (which appeared in China).
Tantra is one of the trends in contemporary Hinduism and is the main practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
The objective of Tantra is the reintegration of the individual in the pure primordial awareness (which would be Shiva in Hinduism, the original source). To achieve this objective it is necessary to go, in reverse, the path of the demonstration. And in the same tradition Śakti, energy, is the vehicle through which the individual consciousness merges with the pure consciousness or divinity. The back end of the road is known as the awakening, a state of “Superconsciousness.”
In the Occident the concept of Tantra is developed by writers of new era, from the late twentieth century, end up replacing the original concept of Tantra as it is known in India, China and Tibet, by the new Tantra or Neotantra.
This exclusively Occidental phenomenon is aimed at a new not repressive spirituality based on the sexual aspects of human beings.
It is largely a set of sexual practices usually associated with the metaphysical and magical thinking.
In the Occident, what is known as Tantra, which actually would Neotantra. It is the practice that seeks to awaken the Kundalini or sexual energy. Whereby in Hinduism it is known as Maithuna.