Celibacy / Is it relevant?
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Dec 19, 2017
MiBeloved 5 years ago
Once one crosses the hurdle of concentrated sexual energy, other unwanted features arise. These were not even in consideration before celibacy was mastered. But celibacy for the purposes of higher yoga is misunderstood, where people think it has to do with abstaining from sexual indulgence.
Because sex control is usually a feature of fundamentalist religions, celibacy has a bad name. It was condemned from day one as something which involves repression. Beginning with Sigmund Freud, there was some analysis where it was discovered that sexual repression leads to bigger problems for the individual and for the society.
In higher yoga, the moral principles (yama) and the approved behaviors (niyama) are seen in a completely different way.
How so?
Let us take celibacy for instance. In higher yoga, that is still a stipulation but with a completely new meaning, which is that the individual has to alter the psyche so that it no longer stockpiles hormones for sexual expression. If the hormones are still being created in the body, and if these liquids are not being stockpiled or expressed, then what is happening to that energy, because something just cannot disappear just like that.
What happens is that the hormones are produced just the same during the advanced practice but they are spread out in the psyche evenly and do not accumulate in the sex organ area of the psyche. Asanas and pranayama practice combined, or done in separate sessions, are the way to cause this energy to dissipate as fast as it is formed by the specific glands which are involved in that.
When this is done successfully, then there is no need for repression or expression of the sexual energy because there is no build-up of it. It no longer has special emphasis.
Instead of a high charge of energy which is expressed through sexual attraction and behavior, instead of a high charge of energy which arcs across to the base chakra and causes kundalini to rise through the sushumna nadi central channel, there is instead a continuous release of energy so that what was a climatic experience changes into a steady flow of higher awareness.
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As there are pleasure points in the material body and in the psyche or psychological body, so there are some very insensitive areas in which there is hardly any sensation. This becomes evident mostly in the elderly years of a body, when one notices that certain areas lose feelings gradually. Then physicians say that there is nothing they can do about it.
Usually such areas were insensitive anyway, even in childhood, but since they functioned sufficiently, one did not notice it. In the elderly years that ignorance goes away as the body comes down with irreversible ailments like arthritis, hunch back, curved neck, greying of the hair, loss of acute hearing, chronic constipation, urinary track disorders, genital dysfunction and other such inconveniences.
My feet may be stricken with arthritis but who cares, so long as my genitals remain functional for indulgence?
As a yogi however, in higher yoga, this is a big deal. It is more like:
My genitals function normally for indulgence, in fact the older the body, the more enjoyment I get but my yoga guru asked me why it is that I fail to give some of that sex energy to the arthritis parts of my body.
What would it matter if I were to move some of those hormone energies into the feet? Would that alleviate or reduce the arthritis condition? Would I still get the same pleasure in the feet that I would get if my body did the usual and conserved this energy in the genital area?
What, if any progress, would occur in my meditation practice, if I could distribute the hormone energy evenly through the blood stream without any special focus on the genitals which are the nature-given glands for sexual hormone usage?
unlimitedsun 5 years ago
Thank you very much for any explanation, teaching, discourse on celibacy. This topic is at the forefront. It is a sticky and hairy issue to say the least, just like a titillating itch that will not abate. What to do even if one is not inclined? Sabotaging nature is not an option, but working along permissible guidelines only.
The general process of the practice of yoga is regularly discussed, but that has no value so long as in the end celibacy in the flesh, abstinence in the subtle and chastity of the mind is achieved.
So this discussion never gets old, in the sense it may take time to clearly realize that higher celibacy and mundanely conditioned practice of celibacy are very distinct.
This confusion or lack thereof brings along a host of misconceptions such as vampirically hoarding seminal fluids with avarice, taking them to be precious and supposing that they will somehow raise to the top crown and bring about enlightenment, even as they exacerbate lust or sexual desire or desirability (at least initially).
Furthermore this approach of celibacy is practically unique in the spread fund of knowledge that is made generally available and it is not intuitive, but based on real achievement of this grand objective. So it is a rare approach, that appears extremely difficult to attain.
It is my wish that more of a dialogue can be generated among those who are concerned at this level, as a higher perspective tends to resume this attainment in a nutshell simply as a result of the practice. It is critical enough to waste more time on it.
It is an essential key that may not be gotten by one like myself who upon opening the Pandora's box years ago has irresponsibly and impulsively enjoyed its treasure trove of pleasures. But is there true hope any?
Alfredo 5 years ago
unlimitedsun wrote:
[But is there true hope any?]
Alfredo's Reply:
There must be or we would not be talking about it or people like the Acharya would not have been successful at it.
In my case, there is undoubtedly progress at the physical level, but much work to do at the subtle one. I am always cautious, but hopeful, knowing that nature and kundalini have the upper hand.
As also in my case, this is clearly my objective, Brahmacharya, and although technically or socially married, sex is long gone from the picture, on agreement. And by the way, it is a total fallacy that a couple can't live without it, on the contrary, the quality of life and care for each other is the same or better without it, but it remains a personal choice.
It is very important, as you well know, the social settings in which one allows himself to fall into. For although it may remain a personal choice, there is much hoopla about sex in this sex-crazed society we live in, and people merrily flaunt their so-called exploits as if it were some trophy, when it mostly shows their animality or removal from the spiritual side of things.
unlimitedsun 5 years ago
The accomplishments of the Acharya along with the advancements of those who are serious is one thing, but there are those who are still full of doubt and hesitant; they see the path as non-realistic and aloof from their ordinary Joe's stand point.
MiBeloved 5 years ago
A record still will be left of it. In science they are far away from just cell phones and email but still they forge ahead even though the average Joe has no understanding of what they are doing.
Yogic research was always like this. That is why even the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras are still an enigma to most persons. It goes right over their heads.
This is not for everyone and still it must be here as a record.
Jettins 5 years ago
After reading this post I wonder... How does concentrated sexual energy manifest itself in the astral? Encounters with a succubus, unconscious or forced sex? What is the meaning of refusing sexual encounters in dreams and in the astral realms? I don't know the knowledge on this topic I should say that right away, I only have my own insight and it might not apply to everyone. It seems to me that not everyone who drinks alcohol is or will be an alcoholic. By this I mean that not everyone has the same issues? By the way I don't drink.
MiBeloved 5 years ago
Jettins' Query:
How does concentrated sexual energy manifest itself in the astral? Encounters with a succubus, unconscious or forced sex? What is the meaning of refusing sexual encounters in dreams and in the astral realms?
MiBeloved's Response:
The astral world has less social restrictions or stated in another way, social restrictions are not as easy to enforce in the astral world. Hence this means that there is excess of any activity there, sex included.
Refusing encounters in dreams or in the astral realm has the same meaning as refusing the same in the physical world. Whatever type of result in the form of resentment or so which you would get here, you would get there as well.
Just as one can get arrested here for rape or some other type of sexual abuse, so one can be arrested by ghost police in the astral but just as one can avoid arrest here, one can avoid the ghost police there. It is very similar.
If someone is having sex with someone’s spouse in their house, then if the offended spouse comes to the house, where can the offender hide; perhaps in the garage or in a closet, or in the attic or basement.
But in the astral world if this happens, the offender can hide in a trillion dimensional levels and not be found. So in the astral world morality is hard to enforce. Therefore the astral bodies take advantage of that.
Jettins 5 years ago
Ok, thanks for answering the questions, I have one more. What is the purpose of avoiding sex completely in physical reality? Why do you guys really do it? It's probably a very basic question, but I am interesting in your motives.
unlimitedsun 5 years ago
Now you talking...!
MiBeloved 5 years ago
Jettins' Query:
What is the purpose of avoiding sex completely in physical reality? Why do you guys really do it? It's probably a very basic question, but I am interesting in your motives.
MiBeloved's Response:
Sexual indulgence is a gravity system, just as the earth has this pull on each of us. If the earth did not have such a pull we would float off into space. So sex is a gravity system which keeps us reincarnating in physical bodies.
There is a class of angelic beings who are involved in sex and who are not taking these bodies. They reside permanently in the astral heavenly world. But they are different. We are a certain type of soul which is pulled into opportunities for physical sexual indulgence. This happens to us because of the kundalini/sex system in our psyches.
In order to go higher than the astral heavens, we have to get rid of that sex gravity system.
It is not really sex which is the problem, it is the kundalini, but it so happens that sex is the chief most compelling expressive aspect of the kundalini. That is why it is singled out.
devaPriya Yogini 5 years ago
It's relevant in my life and has changed me thoroughly and all my ideas about relationships...well i've been celibate for three years but now that i read your writings, finally finding such a teacher as you, I understand much better as to why i was so compelled and in longing for so long of this freedom and control...Now i am much more proficient at the energy conversion, thanks to you Michael and clear about the how's and why's of romantic sentimentality. Im studying your book Celibacy of the Mind Emotions and Energy as well as celibacy for the householder.
Alfredo 5 years ago
Jettins,
I am a student yogi, and a newbie at that, but allow me to give my perspective.
It is not very deep, but I have been trying the celibacy path before for years, constantly falling off the wagon. I had the desire, but lacked the tools to even start. Without those tools your chances are practically nil, for you are against Kundalini and its tremendous power of inertia. That is what monks and other celibate priests are against, and why the success rate is so small.
So, what a yogi of my type wants is the state of Urdvharetas, to preserve the seminal energy as ojas (vigor in Sanskrit, the sap of life), and bring ojas up the spine (sushumna nadi) to enliven the crown chakra with tejas and produce mystical yogic results and spiritual advancement.
The tools, again, are critical, as given through the Acharya here, based on the Bhastrika pranayama and accompanying asanas, to affect a hormonal dissemination, and prevent the accumulation of the sex hormones in the region of the sex chakra, so that kundalini does not continue its merry-go-round with its pet project, if you know what I mean. Instead, now this energy is canalized through sushumna, at first, towards the head.
Jettins 5 years ago
Alfredo,
Yes, I hope you achieve your goals!
Alfredo 5 years ago
Juan,
Thank you very much for the encouragement, I know is sincere and it is appreciated here. The same goes for you. Please keep enlightening us about the astral.
