In the first level of tantra, we are opening to bliss, love, and presence. While we use different tools from various types of yogas and traditions, they are all oriented in the exact same direction: discovering our true nature, awakening the love within, awakening the bliss, and awakening the presence.

Our true nature, we could say, is composed of these three distinct qualities.

To understand how these qualities function together, we can look at them through the lens of energetic alchemy:

• Presence: This is the masculine aspect—the steady, aware container.
• Love: This is the feminine aspect—the radiant, flowing essence.
• Bliss: This is the expression of the alchemy when the tantric union, the yin and yang, takes place.

Bliss is not separate from the others. It is simply the color of love and presence when they merge as one.

Once this inner union is realized, your practice ceases to be a series of exercises and becomes a living experience of pure essence.