Hi ZN:
*Hi there. I appreciate your comments, yogani 
The fact that you are coming down as much as going up in your practice is most likely the key to your balance.
*Yep. To me, working polarities up and down/reversing polarities in and out and arriving at the point where there is a multiplicity of and no direction of flowā¦ is balance. However, I found that to resist the sway of the snake is NOT balance - it is the dance which manifests the rhythem.
This is similar to the use of spinal breathing in AYP, though we avoid the crown until much later ā using the third eye instead. Your spiraling approach is fascinating, and is consistent with the swirling of energies that occurs as the ida and pingala nerve channels are awakened in conjunction with the spinal nerve (sushumna).
*Most of my practice is using the third eye, lately. I receive, um, communion with HEr through the crown, and, to me, this is the Ultimate balancing point.
Is there a particular part of your routine that you would say is involved in the cultivation of inner stillness (our unbounded, unshakable inner witness), or do you see this as happening throughout your routine? This gets to a central question that arises when considering all chakra/energy-based paths.
*I never considered this really as a āgoalā, more as an outcome? To me ācultivationā and āstillnessā seem somewhat of an oxymoron. In direct answer, if you would call āinner stillnessā BLISS, well, yes. No time, no space, everything in a point yet expanded into infinity ā¦ this would be a sorry description, but the best simple description I can come up with at the moment.
*It comes for me, when I have the opportunity to spend an entire afternoon in meditation, with no distraction. Iāll go, say, 45 minutes and then a 15 minute break ā¦ then another 45 etcā¦ for hours sometimes. Itās really great, but, for me, requires a rare day where I can afford to play, all by myself
*The corollary to this, by the way, is the activated side, where the obviation of time/space/physical/whatever allows for the more shamanistic practices of moving between, um, quantum vectors?
In AYP we view the cultivation of ecstatic energy and the cultivation of inner silence to be the two essential poles of enlightenment.
*I donāt like to think in terms of enlightenment, but I entirely agree that balancing the polarities is the crux of the issue
This is analogous to setting up for the shakti and shiva union, which leads to the inner rebirthing process and outflow of vast quantities of divine love through our nervous system. Unlimited outflow of divine love into the world is the final stage of all that we are doing in yoga.
*Ah. I have had the good fortune to enTwine with another, telepathically. There is no Shiva without Shakti, he told me 
It is much easier to make quantum leaps working tantric as an additional balance, no question.
*āIām other youā
So, you can see why I ask about the cultivation of inner silence.
*To me, silence Flows, it is more like the creek which runs than the flower in the garden.
To tie back into the subject of this topic, it is certainly possible to accomplish full ecstatic awakening using sitting practices alone, such as those in AYP, or other methods like those ZN has been so kind to share.
*Yep, Iām an object lesson, for better or worse!
The purpose of the tantra lessons in AYP is to provide additional means for those who are sexually active, to whatever degree. In this way, our normal sexual activity can become a periodic aid to spiritual development, rather than be a drag on it. Tantric sexual practices are not a replacement for sitting practices, of course. And neither are sitting practices related to the cultivation of ecstatic energies alone a replacement for methods such as deep meditation and samyama, which are for the cultivation and expansion of inner silence.
*The way I see it is that the analogy would be the tantric/kundalini equivalent of the āafterglowā of physical sex, but I donāt consider myself enlightened, so take it for what itās worth
*Also, for me, my sitting practices are tantric practices.
I keep bringing up the inner silence component of yoga because it is easy for any of us to forget about it in the face of the huge energy shows we are capable of stimulating within ourselves. So this question about inner silence is not pointed only at you, ZN. It is a reminder to all of us who are inclined to ātrip the light fantastic.ā
*Iām a lush, I admit it freely!
It is the blending of these two qualities within us (silence and ecstasy) that will bring us home.
The guru is in you.
*Except when SHe kicks you in the back ā¦
Love,
ZN
Hi ZN:
Yes, sitting practices are certainly tantra also ā a more refined kind, which is actually the heart of tantra. It is called āSri Vidya,ā which means āglorious knowledgeā ā knowledge of the inner union of our divine polarities.
If inner silence comes with your practice, who can argue? Presumably it is found in your daily activity as well. That is the test of any yoga practice ā an abiding blissful stillness that elevates the quality of our life. Enlightenment or not, it is quality of life we are all after, yes? And that overflows to others, which is the real fruit ā that infectious bubbling love that can change the world.
So do carry on. There is nothing better to be a lush for than advanced yoga practices. 
The guru is in you.
Hi, again. I thank you again for your generousity in conversation, yogani.
Sri Vidya. I did a search on this (the net is so wonderful, as a construct and tool!) and found this link:
http://www.meaus.com/What_is_Sri_Vidya%3F.html
Very interesting, and yes, I would say that this describes fairly well my experiences and thoughts. I canāt say if thatās what you had in mind, as this is the first Iāve heard of the term, but it is consistent with the way I have tried to describe the unspeakable in the past.
I just do stuff I am not a very disciplined person. (Obvious!)
But, back to where I chimed in here ā¦ what Iām trying to say, is that, to me, the physical sex side of tantra is just an analog for the real tantra, which is the, um, result of the physical without the physical ā¦ the mental (?) communion ā¦ which is the enTwining of the polarities represented in action by shiva/shakti.
It is I think much easier done than discussed, really.
(And, practice is sooo much fun.)
Love,
ZN
Hi again ZN:
That is some article on Sri Vidya you found. Quite scholarlyā¦ Your own description of what is happening inside is much better.
Here is a much shorter (and hopefully easy to understand) discussion on Sri Vidya from the AYP tantra lessons:
http://www.aypsite.org/T25.html
ā¦and also several colored versions of the Sri Yantra diagram, which is discussed in the lesson:
http://www.aypsite.org/sriyantra.html
Here is a blank one for anyone who would like to color their own!
http://www.aypsite.org/sriyantra-blank.html
(click right on it to print it)
Those who have either of the AYP books will notice that the āimprintā (logo) of AYP Publishing is a rainbow colored Sri Yantra. This is a portrait of the human spiritual anatomy from the inside. I think its descriptive relevance will increase in the years to come.
Having a basic familiarity with Sri Vidya and the Sri Yantra can be useful for understanding our inner dimensions and processes in relation to the cosmos, presuming we have the bhakti, practices and inner experiences that directly manifest within us what the wisdom of Sri Vidya and Sri Yantra describe ā human spiritual transformation.
This is why we say that tantra is about much more than sex. It is about getting divinely irradiated and transformed from the inside. 
The guru is in you.
Hi again
Sri Yantra, yes ā¦ the āphysicalā depiction of HEr. The pattern is what the movement of the Flow feels like to me. I use it somewhat like a sort of meditational sigil.
A friend of mine from Bangalore sent me a beautiful version which I use as wallpaper on this computer. If there is a means to post it, I would be happy to share it with yāall.
Love, ZN
Hi ZN:
You can upload the image to the āfilesā section of the old Yahoo AYP forum here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AYPforum/
Just put the link to it here and anyone can download it.
The guru is in you.
PS ā You can also put it in the āphotosā section where it can be viewed online, but there may be less resolution in a download from there.
Hi,
I put it in both photos and files (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AYPforum/files/)
Love,
ZN
It is a nice one ā¦ Thanks much!