Thursday, August 7, 2014

On Spirituality and Sex

We ran an interesting poll in the community, Spiritual Networks. The question read, "Does Spiritual Awakening Strengthen or Weaken the Sex Drive?" Some 40 people participated and told us about their experiences. For those who participated in the on-line survey, the majority felt it was strengthening the drive (10 people), whereas 6 reported an unchanged drive. No-one voted for weaken, though in the commentary a couple reported a lower sex drive, at least temporarily.

Sex is a complicated issue for us spiritual folks. So many things are coming together, our biological drives, our longings to express love physically, the hostile stance of most religions vis-a-vis sex, and the different sexual experience of men and women.

The reason for posting this question was the idea that a spiritual path is all about activating and intensifying the movement of energy up our spine which has its root in the sexual organs. It stands to reason that as the chakras open up, at least initially, you would experience the sex drive more intensely.

Actually, the commentary was all over the place. We had a few respondents who reported being sexual abstinent to intensify the spiritual experience. Some reported that the drive was the same, but that the actual sexual experience was so much more intensive as you suddenly activate higher energy frequencies in the sexual union.

A few respondents pointed out that the answer to that question very much depended on your starting point of your spiritual journey; others conjectured that whatever you experience is very much a function of your own belief system.

There seemed broad agreement that sex can be used to experience the highest feeling of unity and love, and it can be exploited by your ego to send you on a meaningless pleasure trip. The different experience of women and men also was briefly discussed; someone pointed out that the restrictive religious rules over the millennia were all male dominated. Perhaps it is a good time now for a refreshing female perspective :)

So where does it leave us? Well, chances are you just cannot sideline your sex drive as many gurus advocate. Suffering is meaningless. If your body and soul tell you to explore your sexual drive then you probably should do exactly that. Express yourself, experiment, but don't lose your Self in this bodily experience either. Expressing yourself sexually is the same spiritual mission statement as everything else about your life: your spiritual path is unique and the Tao will let you know what mission life has in store for you  - don't be surprised if a few lessons take place in the bedroom as well :)

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