Love, Sex and Beyond

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Love, Sex and Beyond.”

Ultimately everything boils down to whether we can love unconditionally. At least that is one way of describing the spiritual path.

What we commonly call love is often little more than a sentimental emotion peppered with a good dose of self-interest. The situation is still less appealing when we consider sexual love. In practice, sex and love can be almost mutually exclusive. Love is a matter of the heart, one of the major psychospiritual centers of the body – the fourth cakra. Sexual impulse is anchored by the second cakra which is located in the genitals. If we can engage in sex with an awakened heart, sexual love is indeed a possibility, but our culture deemphasizes the heart and overemphasizes sex.

Since ancient times, Yoga masters have recommended sexual abstinence (called bramacarya) during the first twenty-one years of one’s life. During this time, children and adolescents learn to properly harness the awesome power of the libido. Then, as adults, they are not ruled by the second cakra but engage in intercourse in a wholesome, balanced fashion as an expression of mutual respect and love.

For many people, sex is mere entertainment – a diversion from boredom and everyday anxiety and frustration. The problem is that it proffers only a trickle of pleasure, which cannot satisfy us deeply. We use sexual gratification as a substitute for real happiness.

Yoga is not opposed to pleasure, only to our enslavement to it. It also recognizes that the enjoyment we derive from our senses or the mind is nothing by comparison with our innate bliss. When we are in touch with our true nature, everything we experience is filled with delight, as bliss eclipses both pleasure and pain.

The Yogic path demands of us that we transmute ourselves at all levels. It is not enough to restrain our thoughts; we must also rid ourselves of negative emotions and cultivate positive emotions like love, compassion and kindness toward all beings. This involves regulating our sexual impulses and using that energy to fulfill our spiritual destiny.

- Georg Feuerstein

The homework is to explore your relationship to pleasure and pain on all levels.

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003