Yab-Yum Explained: Why This Tantric Position Is So Powerful

When exploring the world of Tantra, you have likely seen the iconic image of a man with a woman sitting in his lap, facing him, locked in an unbreakable embrace, staring deeply into each others eyes. Yab-Yum is a traditional Tantric posture performed between two people, where one partner sits cross-legged while the other sits on their partner's lap facing them, as part of tantric yoga involving deep intimacy. There is also a Yab-Yum tantric position that involves intercourse. It is designed to awaken deep intimacy and support the merging of sexual energy with superconsciousness.

Yab-Yum also invites you to explore the balance of opposites. Sitting in Yab-Yum with your partner is a way to experience totality (unity and polarity) within yourself. It also encourages the alignment and activation of all seven chakras between partners.

In this article, we’ll explore what Yab-Yum truly is, the intention behind it, and how you can practice this powerful posture to experience sacred union.

Yab Yum Iconography, Meaning, & Background

Yab Yum is a living metaphor of how opposites dissolve into one another. Divine Masculine and feminine, form and emptiness, stillness and movement, all merge in the embrace. The posture creates continuous full-body contact with the pelvis to pelvis, chest to chest, lips close enough to share the same breath. This intensifies arousal, but it also forces partners to remain present. The posture itself is a discipline, training lovers to hold intensity without spilling over.

On the symbolic plane, Yab Yum shows what happens inside every practitioner, where the inner masculine unites with the inner feminine. When these qualities no longer fight for dominance but instead entwine, the psyche experiences non-duality.

Yab Yum Tantric Practice Background

Historically, Yab Yum appears in both Hindu Tantra and Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhist practice. In India, Kaula and Shakta lineages developed sexual rites where couples used controlled intercourse, breath, and mantra to circulate sexual energy upward through the spine, transforming it into heightened states of consciousness. As these teachings traveled into Tibet, they were absorbed into Buddhist Tantra, where sexual intimate union became a literal practice (known as sexual yogas, kept secret and taught only to initiates) and a symbolic shorthand used in temple art.

In Tibet, monks and yogis used the imagery meditatively. In some traditions, Yab Yum is never enacted physically but only contemplated as a mandala of union. Gazing upon a Yab Yum thangka while reciting mantras, the practitioner internalized the image of the union of compassion and wisdom happening within their own subtle body. But in certain advanced lineages, the posture was enacted.

Why Is Yab-Yum Such a Powerful Position To Practice as a Couple?

1. Deepens Emotional and Energetic Connection: In Yab-Yum, the physical closeness and mutual eye contact create a space of presence and vulnerability.
2. Balances Masculine and Feminine Energies: Yab-Yum symbolizes the union of Shiva (pure consciousness) and Shakti (creative energy). When practiced consciously, it helps each partner embody and harmonize these inner energies.
3. Awakens and Aligns the Subtle Body (Chakras): The posture naturally aligns the chakras of both individuals, creating a powerful channel for energy to flow. This can lead to the expanded states of awareness and a felt sense of sacredness within the physical connection. Practiced with intention, Yab-Yum is meant to encourage spiritual awakening as a couple.

Yab-Yum Practice as Mirror and Teacher

 

 

 

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One of the most overlooked aspects of the Yab-Yum tantric sexual practice or meditation position, perhaps because of the discomfort that it may sometimes evoke, is that it is a powerful mirror. Whatever is unresolved within you, the posture strips away distractions, leaving you face-to-face with your beloved and also with yourself. In the stillness of the gaze, there is no hiding.

Yab-Yum gives you the courage to be truly naked and seen. During Yab-Yum you touch reality, that is, you enter the realm of non-differentiated awareness. This happens through the practice of surrender, which means every thought that arises, every feeling that dances across your skin, every uncomfortable tickle of doubt, you welcome it in.

Yab-Yum Position: Practical Instructions

How to Practice Non-Intercourse Yab-Yum

1. Choose a quiet spot where you won’t be interrupted. Lower the lights, light a candle, or add something simple that makes the space feel calm and intentional.
2. Take a moment to say why you want to do this together. It can be as simple as wanting to connect, feel closer, or sit in stillness. Breathe together a few times to settle in.
3. One partner sits cross-legged with a straight spine. The other sits on top, wrapping their legs around the partner’s waist so you’re chest to chest. Use pillows or props to make it comfortable.
4. Synchronize your breath and inhale and exhale at the same pace. Let the shared rhythm bring you into a calmer, more connected state.
5. Look into each other’s eyes with a soft, relaxed gaze. There’s no need to force it; just allow yourselves to relax into presence with one another.
6. Imagine energy moving between you in a loop up the spine of one partner and down through the other.
7. Rest your hands on each other’s hearts, bellies, or faces. Notice the warmth and contact without rushing toward anything sexual.
8. When you feel complete, bring your foreheads together. I would recommend for the first time doing this position for about 10 minutes, and going deeper for longer as you become more comfortable with it. Share a moment of gratitude before slowly releasing the posture.

Yab Yum Chakra Breathing With a Lover

(This Partner version of Chakra Breathing has been developed by Dhyan Maneesh)

1. Sitting comfortably back to back with your partner, breathe first up and then down the chakras . Although you focus on your own breathing, the presence of your partner will support and enhance your experience.
2. Turn around and sit in the Yab Yum position. One or both persons may need a pillow to give support under the bum. Breathe up and then down again, this time with even more totality. When you reach the sixth chakra, bring your foreheads together to enhance the opening of your Third Eyes and deepen the intimacy. Be as wild as you want: really let go!
3. Lie down together, front to front in the Lover’s Embrace position. Breathe into the first chakra and then into the other chakras, continuing all the way up to the seventh. As you start coming down the chakras again, imagine you are inviting the quality of light and benediction from the Crown Chakra to bless your union.

How to Practice Yab-Yum During Tantric Sex

1. Choose a private, comfortable place where you both feel safe and at ease. Lighting, blankets, or cushions can help set a relaxed atmosphere.
2. Talk openly before you begin. Agree to go slowly, stay connected, and check in with each other for consent and comfort.
3. The base partner sits cross-legged with a tall spine. The receiving partner sits on their lap, legs wrapped around the waist. Adjust with pillows or supports to make sure both bodies feel stable and relaxed.
4. If you choose to include penetration, let the receiving partner guide entry slowly and consciously. Take your time adjusting until both of you feel supported and comfortable. Pause here for a few breaths before introducing movement.
5. Match your breathing so you move with the same rhythm. Use the breath to stay calm and aware of each other.
6. Keep a soft gaze with one another. Eye contact can help maintain intimacy and emotional connection throughout.
7. As you move together, picture your sexual energy circulating in a loop between you both.
8. Keep your hands engaged; resting on hearts, backs, or faces. Touch slowly and deliberately to stay present.
9. Let the receiving partner set the pace and rhythm at first, adjusting as needed. Keep movements slow, intentional, and tuned into each other’s comfort.
10. When finished, pause together. Rest your foreheads against each other, breathe, and share thanks before easing out of the position.

Advanced Yab Yum Practice: Bandhas, Sound, & Sublimation

Bhandas - Energy Locks

Once the posture feels natural and the body is able to settle into stillness without distraction, Yab Yum can be taken into more advanced territory. In the Tantric traditions, this often meant introducing the bandhas, energetic locks that contain and redirect arousal. The pelvic floor can be lightly drawn upward in Mula Bandha, creating a sense of lifting at the base of the spine. When done together, both partners feel a gentle magnetic pull rising through the body, a current that refuses to stay trapped in the genitals.

As breath deepens, the belly can hollow slightly on the exhale in Uddiyana Bandha, which helps energy surge upward into the chest, quickening the heartbeat and amplifying warmth across the ribcage. At the throat, Jalandhara Bandha, a subtle tucking of the chin, creates the final lock, sealing the circuit so that arousal does not scatter but flows into the skull, where it can be experienced as lightness, pressure, or even a feeling of the crown opening.

Read: Bandhas 101: An Introduction to Yoga’s Energy Locks

Sound and Mantra

When two bodies are pressed together in Yab Yum, every vibration travels through bone and tissue, resonating in both nervous systems. Long toning on the exhale, “ahhh,” “mmm,” or seed syllables like OM creates a shared hum that softens the mind and steadies the breath. Sometimes the voices fall into unison, sometimes they weave around one another, but the effect is a vibration that makes the embrace feel like one body instead of two. When mantras are used, they are rhythmic anchors that carry energy up through the chakras.

Orgasm & Semen Retention

Perhaps the most transformative aspect of advanced Yab Yum is the practice of orgasm retention and sublimation. Instead of racing toward climax, lovers learn to hover at the edge, to stay with the swelling intensity and allow it to rise rather than spill out. This is where the bandhas and the breath become indispensable. As arousal builds, both partners draw the sensation upward, inhaling as if the fire in the pelvis is traveling through the spine into the heart, exhaling as if the warmth spills gently across the body. For men, this often means learning to separate orgasm from ejaculation, keeping the charge circulating without release. For women, it can open the body into rolling, full-bodied orgasms that move like waves instead of sharp peaks. The result is a state where pleasure feeds presence instead of extinguishing it.

Invitation

With time, with this practise you may begin to sense a field of love that is greater than either of you carrying you both. In Yab-Yum, the beloved in front of you dissolves into the Beloved that is everywhere, the Beloved who is within the earth beneath you, the wild and pulsating stars above, and in the quiet breath you share.

Sitting in this sacred position is a gift you can give to one another to deepen your relationship, or a gift you open yourself to in order to come into true union with the world around you.

Author

Danelle Ferreira

Danelle Ferreira is the creative force behind the Tantra Essence blog, where she passionately explores and shares the transformative power of Tantra based on the life’s work and writings of Ma Ananda Sarita. As the editor and manager, Danelle works closely with Sarita to curate content that delves deep into spiritual growth, self-discovery, and the intimate connections that Tantra fosters.