Păo Shan is enthusiastically committed to integrating life energies. He is a lay-ordained Sōtō Zen Monk, yoga teacher, meditation guide, and Indic tantrika.
His direct connection with Indic tantra began in 2020, when he met his tantric teacher, Swami Ravi Rudra Bharati (formerly Rudolph Ballentine, MD), founder of Dancing Shiva Tantra Monastery & Healing Center in Black Mountain, NC.
He then spent two and a half years living full-time at SokukoJi Buddhist Monastery, MI, meditating for six and a half hours every day. He was lay-ordained as a Sotō Zen Monk in 2021. His Zen teacher, Sokuzan, holds lineages in both Tibetan and Sōtō Zen Buddhism. The mind-training Păo Shan received throughout his time at SokukoJi allowed him to discover a clarity of negotiating with his existence as consciousness, simultaneously experiencing both itself and the human form it currently inhabits. Dedicated to body~mind~spirit integration, he found his practice also needed to fully include our innate, human, sensual and erotic life-force energies.
Păo Shan presently facilitates group exploration through his Meet-up Group, The Himalayan Tantra Men's Healing Tribe (see below) and also offers private "sacred intimate" sessions where meditation, sexuality, the healing power of pleasure, integrating physical, mental, spiritual, and erotic energies are celebrated and explored.
What is Tantra?
Tantra is an ancient body of practices and philosophy that chart a path of personal transformation and spiritual attainment. It is sex and body positive, honoring the physical along with the spiritual.
Emerging from the mists of prehistoric South Asia, it has, over the millennia, woven together threads of the highest and most abstract of Vedic wisdom with the magic and earth-based intuitions of tribal shamans.
The Himalayan Tantra Men’s Healing Tribe is a group of men who are interested in cultivating and exploring erotic energy, understanding the spiritual dimensions of their sexuality, and enjoying connection and camaraderie with other like minded men. We host daytime, evening, day-long and extended weekend gatherings to delve into these topics and share conviviality.
Dancing Shiva Tantra Monastery & Healing Center
Dancing Shiva Tantra Monastery and Healing Center is the home of Pǎo Shan's tantric teacher, Swami Ravi Ruudra Bharati. It is nestled in the misty Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina just east of Asheville. Its focus is authentic classic tantra, emphasizing the inner marriage between each person’s inner Shiva (“masculine”) and Shakti (“feminine”).
