Don't attack the symptom

What do you do when you feel horny as you discover yourself checking out someone attractive? For some that is just what being human is all about; we accept the feeling, may or may not do something about it, but then move on with our life. But for others that feeling in fact does pose a problem; it is that spiritual super ego talking, you are not your body, and therefore we have no business getting sexually aroused when we see a soul-sibling.

Sex is an energy that is running through us, just as all other desires, our ambitions, our fears or our anger fits. As long as we are alive, some desires will always be lurking above or beneath the surface. From a spiritual perspective it would be nice if we could channel all out devotion, energy and desires only towards love and God; but how exactly does one do that?

A spiritual path is about redirection, reorientation and redefining of what is useful to us and what not. This process is very subtle. When exactly do you transcend a desire and when do you repress it? I sometimes meet people in the spiritual community who are so soft-spoken, so loving and so positive that I ask myself, could they perhaps repress some of what truly matters to them? Well, spirituality is a marathon and not a sprint.  There always is a way to find out; when you are repressing your core desires, you may be struggling to be successful in the "real" world; monsters may suddenly pop up and you have some shadow work ahead of you to get the authentic but repressed desires back out in the open. Maybe you are often sick, then too you have to go back to the drawing board. All for the simple reason that along the Way success, consistent behaviors and health will naturally follow.

When you judge or attack a feeling that has popped to the surface, you are fighting symptoms and not the root cause. Deep down in the subconscious there is an energy that needs to bubble to the surface so please let it pop up without having an opinion on it. Sure, there may be desires that you have to repress in the end; there certainly are desires that you should express and then there are desires that you can channel in a different direction. A spiritual path is all about making spiritually kosher what otherwise may prevent you from progressing along the Way. Be patient, be bold and be willing to experiment. You be the authority on what works for you and what doesn't. But never judge or attack yourself in any way. Accept whatever it is that lies beneath, be aware of it and then see what life encourages you to do with it.