Karmamudrā is tantric yoga involving sexual union with a physical partner, or a visualized simulacrum thereof. The aim of the practice is to control one's sexual energy, and the most advanced forms of yab-yum

Yab-Yum

Yab-yum is a common symbol in the Buddhist art of India, Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet representing the male deity in sexual union with his female consort...

 practice are often done mentally, without using a physical partner. Like all other yogas, it cannot be practiced without the basis of the inner heat yoga, tummo

Tummo

Tummo is one of the methods of the Kagyu Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism used to recognize the ultimate nature of reality...

, of which karmamudrā is an extension. This sadhana is subsumed within the Six Yogas of Naropa

Six Yogas of Naropa

The Six Yogas of Nāropa , also called the six dharmas of Naropa and Naro's six doctrines , are a set of advanced Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices and a meditation sādhana compiled in and around the...

. The iconography of yab-yum and the maitrī

Maitri

Maitri is India's second permanent research station in Antarctica. It was built and finished in 1989, shortly before the first station Dakshin Gangotri was buried in ice and abandoned in 1990-91...

 practice of Karmamudrā engenders cognition of the upaya

Upaya

Upaya is a term in Mahayana Buddhism which is derived from the root upa√i and refers to a means that goes or brings one up to some goal, often the goal of Enlightenment. The term is often used with kaushalya ; upaya-kaushalya means roughly "skill in means"...

 doctrine of interpenetration.

Reaction

The practise is controversial as it often has involved immature girls. In cases where Western women have served as consorts to lamas, some have asserted that it only benefited the tulku

Tulku

In Tibetan Buddhism, a tulku is a particular high-ranking lama, of whom the Dalai Lama is one, who can choose the manner of his rebirth. Normally the lama would be reincarnated as a human, and of the same sex as his predecessor. In contrast to a tulku, all other sentient beings including other...

s. Some emperors also enjoyed Karmamudrā. Bhutanese

Bhutanese

Bhutanese may refer to:* Something of, or related to Bhutan* The official national language of Bhutan, Dzongkha * A person from Bhutan, or of Bhutanese descent...

 king Jigme Dorji Wangchuck

Jigme Dorji Wangchuck

Jigme Dorji Wangchuck was the Third Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan.He began to open Bhutan to the outside world, began modernization, and took the first steps toward democratization...

 banned the practice in his nation. Today there are sometimes court cases about it between the tulkus and their female followers.

Other religions

There are Taoist sexual practices

Taoist sexual practices

Taoist sexual practices , literally "the bedroom arts", are the way some Taoists practiced sex. These practices were also known as "Joining Energy" or "The Joining of the Essences"...

. Sexual rites are also practised in some Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 temples.

See also

• Padmasambhava
  Padmasambhava
  Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
  
  
• Panchamakara
  Panchamakara
  Panchamakara, also known as the Five Ms, is a Tantric term referring to the five substances used in a Tantric puja or sadhana:...
  
  
• Shaktism
  Shaktism
  Shaktism is a denomination of Hinduism that focuses worship upon Shakti or Devi – the Hindu Divine Mother – as the absolute, ultimate Godhead...
  
  
• Sexual Yoga