Healing With Sexual
Energy
SEX AND SPIRITUALITY
By Walter Last
Sexuality is closely related to spirituality in several ways. In its
negative aspects of lust, sexual excess, degradation and rape, it appears as
the antithesis of spirituality, and in this light it has been seen in the
Christian tradition. However, in its positive aspects our sexuality can open
our heart to love, and enable us to have experiences similar to meditative
states and mystical bliss during or instead of an orgasm and its afterglow. In
a less obvious way, sexual energies can be channeled upward to develop our
energy centers or chakra system and higher energy bodies. According to esoteric
and yoga teachings, this is all part of our spiritual evolution.
The idea of celibacy for priests, nuns and monks is to spiritualize
sexual energies as in meditation, rituals and other devotional practices. While
this generally involves conscious exercises as in yoga, Christian mystics
commonly transformed their energies without conscious awareness through intense
devotion. If religious celibates fight to suppress their sexuality, they
misunderstand the deeper reason for the practice of celibacy, and block their
spiritual evolution on that level. If devotional practices do not lead to the
transmutation of sexual energies then it is much better to find a natural
outlet. Suppression always leads to problems.
There are hundreds of different Tantric, Taoist, yogic and meditation
techniques to transform sexual energy into kundalini
or spiritual energy. Sexual energy is a denser part of our general life force
energy, which can be liberated as kundalini energy
and led upwards. Its ultimate purpose is to facilitate spiritual growth by
developing our chakra system and higher energy bodies.
What is Spirituality?
In this context ‘spirituality’ means to me an effort to speed up our
evolution of consciousness, which then becomes manifest in the functions of our
energy bodies and the formation of higher energy bodies. I see the next stage
in the spiritual evolution of humanity as forming a society based on
cooperation, love and compassion. In some way this is a high ideal of all
religions, but especially expressed in Buddhism and Christianity. Love and
compassion are the expressions of an opened heart center. Therefore the
practice of Karezza is especially relevant at this
time.
Tantric, Taoist and yogic methods try to go further by fast developing
the whole chakra system and a higher energy body, which Taoists call the
immortal body, and which may correspond to the light body of New Age
philosophy. However, apart from achieving various temporary states of bliss and
psychic happenings, few seem to be really successful in this way and also
so-called brain or spiritual orgasms may still be related to dopamine activity.
Tantra and Kundalini
Yoga
Tantra and kundalini yoga
originate from the Hindu tradition. Both methods aim to lead sexual energy
upwards, Tantra in ritualized male-female
interaction, and kundalini yoga in strict individual
practice; both methods entail semen retention. As a reward there may be a brain
orgasm and various states of blissful conditions. Traditionally Tantra was seen and used as a method to enable men to
achieve enlightenment, while women were only used as tools, even if they were
ritually worshipped as Goddesses. This has changed in modern western practices
where women are now complete equals of men.
I see the main problem with these methods as being one-way streets of
energy flow from the base of the spine to the top. This tends to lead to unbalanced
development by over-stimulating the head centers at the expense of the heart
center. Furthermore drawing up too much sexual energy may in time deplete
overall vitality. Also I am not impressed with the abilities of practitioners
of these systems to rejuvenate.
There is probably no problem with these methods for beginners, but
various reports indicate problems may result from continued over-stimulation of
the brain. This seems to be increasingly acknowledged by modern Tantra and kundalini practitioners
who now have added the Microcosmic Orbit to their practices. For an interesting
overview of the modern Tantra, kundalini
and Tao scene see The Quest for Spiritual
Orgasm by Michael Winn (http://www.healingtaobritain.com/p67magazinequestforspiritualorgasm.htm).
Enlightenment is in the Vagina
You
may think I try to be cheeky or provocative with the statement: ”Enlightenment
is in the vagina”, but this is one of the authenticated sayings of the Buddha,
and it leaves us with the problem of how to understand or interpret this. It
seems to turn our usual understanding of enlightenment on its head.
The
actual phrase in Sanscrit is: "Buddhatvam Yosityonisamasritam." This may also be translated as:
”Enlightenment is in the female sexual organ(s)”. This same view is expressed
in various sacred Tantric texts. There appears to be much hidden sexual
activity involving female consorts in some Tibetan Buddhist Sects. Western Buddhists,
on the other hand, apparently do not know what to make of this saying, and
therefore tend to ignore it, although I know of one Western Buddhist in
My
understanding of the first saying is that it refers to female sexual energy
which is required for a male monk to become androgynic,
meaning that male and female energies become balanced in an individual. This
may be achieved by dual cultivation as with Tantra or
having a female consort, or by single cultivation as with energy meditation.
This is really the same process that we also see in Taoist practices and in the
Gnostic Gospels. It has nothing to do with surgical or hormonal gender changes.
The second saying simply means that by wasting our sexual energy with orgasms
we do not have enough left over for enlightenment.
In
the eight century, a female Buddha, Lady Yeshe Tsogyel, achieved enlightenment through mutual Tantric practice. She explains that women must
control their sexual energies just like men need to control their ejaculation
if they would cultivate spiritual enlightenment.
“If
there is leakage of sexual energy, the Buddha Unchanging Light is
slain...Therefore, with the power of retraction, drawing up 'love' with the
base energy of life-force, I held it in the pot of my belly, and maintaining
the recollection of pleasure uncontaminated by lust, divesting myself of
mind-created Samadhi, yet not slipping into an instant of torpor, I experienced
the ascent of Awareness.”
This
passage explains in beautiful simplicity the process of Taoist internal
alchemy: produce a feeling of sexual pleasure, draw this feeling from the
sexual organs into the abdomen, continue to increase it with mindfulness, and
at the same time lead the feeling of meditative bliss from the head into the
abdomen. Energy flow then follows the feelings. In the abdomen the heavenly or
male energy from the head centers interacts or copulates with the female earth
energy of the sexual and base centers.
The
ultimate goal of Taoist energy cultivation is the formation of an immortal
body. This is not a physical body but a higher energy body, a light body. In
the same way as in esoteric Buddhist practice this is achieved by combining
male and female sexual energies so that the practitioner becomes androgynic. This takes place initially in the area behind
the navel where the converted sex energy has been accumulated by practicing the
Microcosmic Orbit or an equivalent method.
Our
major male-female poles are at the top and the bottom of the spine. This is
like an energy axis between two spinning vortices with a secondary male-female
split between the right and left side of our body. The internal alchemy or
inner copulation of these poles then creates the divine child or immortal light
body. To be successful we need not only a strong sexual pole but also a strong
crown or heavenly pole formed by regular meditation and a spiritual attitude.
Lao
Tzu explained the immortal light body thus: It is self-aware yet without ego,
capable of inhabiting a biological body yet not attached to it, and guided by
wisdom rather than emotion. Whole and virtuous, it can never die.
However,
Edgar Cayce warned that if you raise the kundalini
before you can control your sexual energy it simply inflames your sexual desire
and causes problems on your spiritual path. As a general advice this means
practice Karezza or the Microcosmic Orbit until you
can use your sexual energy without being confronted with uncontrollable
desires.
The Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber
A
similar picture emerges from the Gnostic Gospels. Apparently these gospels by
the disciples of Jesus have been rejected by the official Christian churches
because they imply that Jesus had secret teachings for his disciples. These
teachings seem to have been the basis of Jewish Christianity under the
leadership of James the Just, but were lost with the destruction of
(22) "When you make the two into one, and
when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the
upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so
that the male will not be male nor the female be female, ….. then you will
enter (the kingdom).”
This
basically says that we must become androgynic to
enter the kingdom of heaven. There is no chance that the general public would
have understood this. Also consider the following:
(114) Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are
not worthy of (eternal) life."
Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that
she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will
make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."
This,
too, refers to androgyny. The means to achieve this is the Sacrament of the
Bridal Chamber. It is alluded to in various Gnostic Gospels. Jesus taught
various sacraments, the Gospel of Philip, states
that there were the holy baptism, the holier atonement, and the "holy of
the holies," the sacrament of the bridal chamber, in which participants
"put on the light" or "chrism" and return to oneness.
Androgyny is also a central part of other religions where deities in Taoist,
Hindu and Buddhist art are often shown as part male and part female.
There
are no direct descriptions of the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber, but it is
clothed in sexual symbology and seems to have been
practiced as a sacred male-female union without orgasm, also described as pure
embrace or undefiled intercourse. Possibly both methods were used as in Tao and
Kundalini-Tantra practices. Dual cultivation appears
to be by far easier for equalizing male and female energies. However, there is
also the following description which may indicate single cultivation:
Epiphanius mentions a
Gnostic writing called "The Great Questions of Mary" where Jesus gave
Mary Magdalene a revelation on a mountain. According to this Jesus produced forth
a woman from his side, akin to the generation of Eve in the
This
description is interesting as not only the mythical Eve was created in this way
from the androgynic Adam, and together they populated
the world, but also in Hindu mythology Shiva produced his consort in the same
way and they then copulated to produce the world. All of these describe a
male-female split of the divine androgyne, and the
sexual union of both parts then produced an immortal light body, the human
race, or the world.
It
is clear that descriptions of secret teachings such as the above are disguised
so that only the initiated understand the true meaning. From what we know now
we may assume that Jesus demonstrated to Mary how to focus sexual energy into a
male and female energy pole, and then unite these polarized energies to create
a higher energy body. The swallowing of semen could be symbolic for retaining
his seed and actually not ejaculating. However there was apparently a long
tradition in ancient religions, including Gnostics and possibly early
Christianity, to swallow one's semen for ritual purpose. This is called semenatophagy, for more information see http://sacredsemen.com/.
Here
a final quote from the Gospel of Philip: “If anyone becomes a son of the bridal
chamber, he will receive the light. If anyone does not receive it while he is
here, he will not be able to receive it in the other place. He who will receive
that light will not be seen, nor can he be detained. And none shall be able to
torment a person like this, even while he dwells in the world.”
According
to the Gnostic Gospels the main purpose of Jesus was to teach eternal life by
re-creating the divine androgyne, and thus overcoming
the separation of the sexes in the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber. Being born
again in this way with an immortal light body, any successful follower was no
longer a Christian but became a Christ (Gospel of Philip). The real
significance of the crucifixion and the crowning achievement of his life was
the reappearance of Jesus and his continued teaching in the materialized form
of his immortal light body. This was to demonstrate to his followers the truth
of his teachings about the divine androgyne and the
eternal life. Therefore, the real basis of the teachings of Jesus is sacred
sexuality, the same in Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist teachings.
Part 1: THE NEUROCHEMISTRY OF SEX
Part 2: SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
Part 3: BIO-ENERGY AND SEX
Part 4: SEX AND HEALTH
Part 5: SEX AND REJUVENATION
Part 6: SEX AND SPIRITUALITY
HEALING
WITH SEXUAL ENERGY – click here for a
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