Kundalini and Sex Drive

[Surya]

This may appear to be a problem but is really a blessing. One who can move beyond sex / girlfriends has won half the battle in releasing oneself from the cycle of (physical) birth and death. It is attachment to physical, ephemeral things that binds us to this earth. By not thinking about / desiring girls and sex, you are freeing up life energy to use towards spiritual awakening of kundalini. I am struggling with this at the moment, and have been reading the works of Swami Sivananda, who gives advice on how to move beyond the physical and sublimate sexual energy (through celibacy, or brahmacharya).

Hello, Surya.

This is a belief held by some traditions, but not by all. Taoists are at least not final in that matter. They don't demand celibacy as a precondition for deeper practise, and have demonstrated methods that transform the sex drive from animal over human to spiritual, as a bodily expression of higher love and energy work.

The Tantrics even mix devotional practise and sex.

From what I've read it is not necessary to shed sex from your life to become enlightened. Some practises try to use the additional energy as some kind of booster stage in their enlightenment work, but I personally believe that this is neither necessary nor desirable, as the body has its own pace for this that cannot be overridden without paying a physical, maybe even emotional or mental price.

This is my personal belief, but depending on who you ask you will get a different answer. There are millions of ways to attaining the Tao.

Regards,
Oliver

Of course, Oliver you are right . There are many ways to attain moksha / enlightenment / tao, and celibacy is not a requirement of all paths. It comes down to whatever works for the particular person, or whatever their Guru teaches them. For me, I have found celibacy to be useful in uncluttering the mind. It is a struggle but I believe it is worth it. The traditions which permit sex in a spiritual context do warn against regular emission of semen, as this is where the energy drain occurs. The tantrics especially stress this; the left-handed tantric rituals involving sex stress that semen must be retained (even where it is emitted - notably in amaroli vajroli mudra, the semen is actually sucked back in after emission). I guess it comes down to using that sexual energy with intent and not wasting it wantonly. But again, that is my view only .

[Korpo]

I guess it comes down to using that sexual energy with intent and not wasting it wantonly.

Yes, it does. For example the Taoist school I feel drawn to focuses on the fact that sexuality should not bring imbalance or agitation, but should be lived within a stable relationship. There are celibates as well, of course. And they are so if they desire so.

Actually it can benefit spiritual practise, but only - I think - if compatible with a person's character makeup. If you have to repress it heavily, it's doing the damage emotionally that then wastes energy into blockages and repressed personality shadows on the emotional level. This may not necessarily be felt on a physical/etherical level, but can return to bug you when working with the emotional body, I'd think. The physically saved energy may amount to comparatively little in the long term. But if you do not desire sex much, why not save the effort? If you can do it, and desire to invest this elsewhere this is a good, personal decision. Making the expressed decision may even help feed this energy into the spiritual.

As for semen retention and retrieval - both have extremely varied results depending on the physical capabilities inborn into a person. Some may easily damage their reproductive tract even by retention just because they have a more susceptible "apparatus". It's even a worse situation with retrieval, as this can induce heavy infects - for the persistent the technique is more easily mastered than done without damage. Some people are perfectly fine, but it needs proper supervision. And basic functioning of the hormone system "down there" is a precondition for a healthy and vital life, as the body depends on it. It's a very complicated field.

I guess I agree with you that if someone truely has less desire in sex this can save energy that can be cultivated, because then it is not agitated energy. If someone is simply hurt and is further repressing that pain and becoming oblivious to it, then celibacy is just a rational construct to repress the problem further, and the healing of the original issue just gets harder over time.

Regards,
Oliver

[Nnonnth]

guess I agree with you that if someone truely has less desire in sex this can save energy that can be cultivated, because then it is not agitated energy. If someone is simply hurt and is further repressing that pain and becoming oblivious to it, then celibacy is just a rational construct to repress the problem further, and the healing of the original issue just gets harder over time.

To me this is obviously true, agree 100%. Celibacy as a sexual strategy must not be equated with running away from the issue!

I think the addition of the Pleiadean ideas (which I hadn't heard of) into the discussion is very valuable. For myself I have always thought that it was not a sustainable strategy for the race and planet as a whole, not to engage in sexual acts, which have a rejuvenating effect.

In western magic, which I practise, there is a good deal of similarity with some ideas Zachary is mentioning. In particular the usefulness of menstrual blood in magic is well known - some magicians have called it 'the red gold'.

I think we must be careful to separate two rather different issues here - the goals of practicing in a sexual context, and the prerequisites for such a practice. One thing in my mind is certain, and that is that *no* spiritual sexual practice - from celibacy to alchemy to shamanic orgies! - can possibly proceed without certain things being in place first, namely a person who has no fears or hangups about the subject and is capable of making rational decisions on it, with their whole mind and body.

That said, I am not absolutely certain, and never have been, that emphasis on retention isn't ultimately an escapist strategy. The Pleiadean doctrine of healing the planet via sex is more in line with what I naturally feel than any taoist or tantric approach I know of. Sigh, more books to read sometime!

best NN

[CFTraveler]

There is one quote that sort of disturbed me. Not having read the article, I'm not sure if I'm understanding it right, but here goes:

In the article it mentions women being able to retain egg and mentrual blood which is still apparently a theory but the practices actually reduce the amount lost in the menstrual cycle.

OK, for all you guys: How a woman's reproductive cycle works:
First of all, when the egg matures, one or two a month, it comes off the ovary and goes into the uterus. If fertilized, we know what happens. If not, it produces a hormone that takes all the excess endometrium and blood vessels that have formed (which is why women get bloated before their period) their uterus was geting ready for a possible baby, and produced the support system it would need. If it doesn't, all this must be shed, and a period is the (sometimes painful, since blood vessels break in this process) detachment of the endometrium (the inside skin layer) and it's shedding. The blood is what happens when the vessels break, and the clots are the endometrial tissue itself, which is thin at this point.
I can't imagine it being possible to 'hold' an egg which is no longer connected to the ovary, it would just rot and cause sepsis and probably killl a woman. And 'keeping blood in?' Please look up 'toxic shock syndrome'.
Not everything that 'sounds good' in energetic terms is translatable to the human body.
The only way to stop a woman's cycle is to stop a woman's cycle- have her not have female hormones. In other words turn her into a boy. Why would you want to do that?
It is useful to remember that in most ancient cultures 'being a woman' was viewed (and still is in some circles) as a disease, and the thinking that led to this idea sounds like that to me. But then again, maybe they're thinking in benevolent terms, since periods are painful for many women. Who knows? I know that I wouldn't want to stop being a woman even if it's painful.

[Zak]

Thinking back I mis-worded that terribly. I'd have to re-read the article but I think it spoke of perhaps stopping the menstrual cycle or perhaps slowing it down.

I said retain because in my mind it was the equivalent to the male practice of retaining semen. So I thought retaining egg... Yes of course it would rot, again excuse me for not thinking about that one first before writing it.

I do believing some miraculous things can happen outside of the western medical view when dealing with spirituality and energy work. Specifically china. With the practice of Falun Dafa (a somwhat cultish qi-gong prctice) there have been 100's of reports of women having already gone through menopause coming (scientifically a woman is born with X number of eggs and when they are all used up around the age of 50 then menopause happens) suddenly begin menstruating again which is connected to the youthfullness the practice offers those who practice it.

[CFTraveler]

I can see how that would work (although I can't imagine why women would want to menstruate at an old age ) Other than to feel 'womanly' and youthful. My mom, who is in her late 70's, never had any negative effects with menopause (no hot flashes, no severe mood swings (other than average ).
The wording alarmed yes, didn't mean to pick on you. I could see in my imagination young girls trying to stop their cycles, seeing them as 'something wrong'. Maybe I'm too sensitive to the way western culture objectifies women and teaches young girls to hate themselves for having curves, and the old idea still present in western medicine that there is something essentially wrong with women (note the work 'hysteria' comes from 'hyster', which is 'uterus'), and the way only 20 years ago gynecologists saw the uterus as a throw-away organ, hence the all-purpose 'hysterectomy'. Thank God that mentality is going away, or so it seems anyway. So yes, I'm sensitive to all those issues, which is one issue, really.

[Argeroth]

Having sex unto itself may be habit forming. It does not help that at least in my part of the world we a groomed from a very young age to have a pre-defined set of value's regarding sex... that being said...

For me I've learned to see the male and female orgasm as a type of pressure release valve. When we become aroused our energy system activates accordingly. As we focus on the sensations of a 'sexual' experience we draw more and more energy into our lower chakra's and then finally ... poof.. the pressure valve triggers and a host of other chemical and biological changes.

I feel that when we take part in that connection we transmute our energies and convert them into what ever energies we need to maintain the sexual connection. The more time we invest the stronger the energy center becomes unfortunately it may grow to become unbalanced with the others...

I truly feel that raising the kundalini within ourselves brings us to an point that can be equated to a 'next step' in our evolutionary. Where we go from there not quite sure!!! To do this we need to learn to control our energies and use them to grow. If we continually 'release' it would make sense that our progress will only go so far. By consciously following the path of raising our kundalini energies we choose active a set of characteristics in ourselves, our body chooses to redirect those energies in order to form and strengthen our pathways, instead transmuting it for other biological processes

[Zappy]

I am 16, used to looking at girls in the way of "i'd hit it". After kundalini came apon me, it all changed, I do not even care about sex really anymore. Its more of just finding some one that would love me unconditionaly. Problem is I am 16, thats not what other teenagers want, so I just deal with it.

[CFTraveler]

I am 16, used to looking at girls in the way of "i'd hit it". After kundalini came apon me, it all changed, I do not even care about sex really anymore. Its more of just finding some one that would love me unconditionaly. Problem is I am 16, thats not what other teenagers want, so I just deal with it.

Luckily, you are not pressured to have sex like girls are, so you can take it easy and decide what is best for you, choosing not to discuss it if you don't have to.

[Zak]

In my opinion in our society there is equal pressure for guys to hae sex at a young age. It's the other end of things though, there is pressure for guys to find someone who reflects their alpha male characteristics.

As for sexuality and energy work like kundalini, I highly reccomend reading anything on tantra or daoist sexual alchemy. If you are taking a spiritual path you can either turn away from sex or you can intgrate the spiritual side of sex which in my opinion is the most complete and healthy way of dealing with it.

The orgasm isn't just related to the lower chakra's. One can learn to raise that energy and have whole body orgasms which don't create the unbalance that regular genital orgasms do.