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 of it 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 is symbolic for retaining his seed and actually not ejaculating.
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 print-friendly
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