All profits donated to the charities of Amma.
All profits donated to the charities of Amma.
Sex. It’s a powerful, primordial force, not only for human beings but for most created beings. Many see sex as standing in opposition to spirituality. Certainly, sexual scandals have brought down many a spiritual leader. Yet others see sex as a beautiful expression of spirituality. That topic is vast and complex, but in this blog, I want to look at one particular concept: that to develop higher consciousness, we must transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy.
This idea is only a half-truth, and like all half-truths, is, well, only partially true. It is at least equally untrue–even though it has important practical value. Sound confusing? Read on…
Before we dive into the need to transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy, let’s take a quick look at “truth.” Then we might be able to understand what’s really going on when it comes to energy.
There is ultimate truth and there is relative truth. Ultimate truth is THE ultimate reality, known fully only by those who have realized the highest possible perspective encompassing the wholeness of existence. In other words, it is a fully enlightened, holistic view of things that comprehends all perspectives.
Relative truth is circumstantial. It depends upon your position in time and space and your state of knowledge, development, and consciousness. Relative truth may be true for one person and entirely untrue for another. It may even prove ultimately false, even though it may serve a highly useful purpose at some states of development. You may say:
Relative truth = a practical falsehood
Let’s look at an analogy to understand this. If I say that “the sun will rise at 6:15 am today,” and it does indeed rise at 6:15 am, I have spoken the truth. Yet I have not spoken an ultimate truth but a relative one. Why? Because the sun doesn’t rise at all. The “ultimate truth” is that the earth spins on its axis as it revolves around the sun. Saying the sun rises at 6:15 am is quite accurate experientially for those living on earth. It is useful, but it is a relative truth–and from the perspective of ultimate truth, complete nonsense.
So you can see there is quite a difference between relative truth and ultimate truth. These two statements are based on two entirely different paradigms of understanding the earth’s relationship with the sun. One paradigm is practical yet distorts the actual reality. The other arises from a holistic and ultimately truer perspective. And it embraces the other paradigm for its practical usefulness.
Now let’s consider the idea that to grow spiritually, you need to transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy. This concept suggests that sexual energy is somehow more basic than spiritual energy. It implies that sexual energy is the “stuff” from which you can, with effort, generate spiritual energy.
How absurd! Was the universe born of sexual energy? If God and spiritual energy exist at all, aren’t you a creation of that supreme energy? Then how is it that you personally need to generate universal spiritual energy from a much more finite source, your sexual energy? Clearly something is amiss in this concept.
Nonetheless, from the perspective of a person embarking on the spiritual path, this view may make sense and even jive with everyday experience. If you’re feeling distracted from your spiritual practices and ideals by sexual thoughts and desires, it may make total sense to say you need to transmute that seemingly potent sexual energy into spiritual energy.
As you continue to grow and deepen in your spiritual experience, sure enough, you may find you’re less subject to lustful thoughts and desires. Through meditation and other spiritual practices, gradually, the wildness of those sexual impulses seem tamed as your spiritual experience deepens and intensifies. You feel you are able to live your ideals with more integrity. Indeed, it seems you do transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy. You may also notice that when you expend sexual energy, there is a dip in your inner, spiritual experience. So it also seems important to conserve sexual energy to transmute it into spiritual energy.
Much like observing the sun setting and rising, this is a truth that is entirely valid and useful. Nonetheless, it remains nonsense from a higher, more holistic viewpoint: Spiritual energy is not created from sexual energy. So what is really happening here?
Simply put, the ultimate truth of energy is that ALL energy arises from and within consciousness. Silent, unbounded, infinite, pure consciousness is the One, Pure, Immutable substrate of all existence. That is your inmost higher Self, pure divine Spirit. And stirring within Itself is energy, Prana.
Tantric systems I am aware of view Prana as an inherent inseparable potentiality of consciousness. Primordial Prana is Shakti, as in the Tantric concept of Shiva (silent wholeness of pure awareness) – Shakti (the creative energy/potentiality of consciousness). The concept of Shiva-Shakti does not convey two, but rather the nature of the One. That is, creative energy is inherent in consciousness.
Further, Shiva-Shakti is within you. Shiva, pure consciousness, the Self of all, is your inmost Self though hidden by a veil of ignorance. Likewise, Shakti, the primordial creative energy of the universe is within you. It is also in latent form due to the veil of ignorance (and the obstructions in your energetic or pranic body). Yet, as you can realize your higher Self, so Shakti, the creative potentiality of consciousness, can fill and course through your being as immeasurable, pure, creative energy.
Again, this is only a manner of speaking. Shiva-Shakti are not two, but one. When consciousness is FULL, energy is FULL and vice versa, because That is one and the same.
Now we can begin to understand the relationship between sexual and spiritual energy. Sexual energy is not the primordial energy from which spiritual energy is created. Rather, spiritual energy, Shakti, gives rise to sexual energy. Sexual energy is a certain vibration or expression of Shakti. In fact, sexual energy is a vastly diluted and diminished expression of Shakti. Sexual energy is Shakti, as it is limited by and “shines” through the lower chakras.
Your energy body or pranic body (pranamaya kosha) is said to consist of the chakras and some 72,000 nadis or subtle channels through which prana or Shakti flows. Yet in most of us, that system of chakras and nadis is constricted, clogged, and obstructed as a result of living out of balance, in violation of life’s subtle laws of nature, due to ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and fear. As a result, we experience only a minute fraction of our potential consciousness and energy. That universal consciousness-prana (Shiva-Shakti) that is our own nature is squeezed into nearly unrecognizable form, shining dimly through the lower chakras as limited ego-mind and limited energy.
So it is not that you transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy. Rather, what is more accurately happening in the process of spiritual growth is the nadis and chakras are clearing. This allows more of your innate consciousness-energy to shine through your mind/body complex. Gradually, as you purify through spiritual practice and begin to live more in balance, in greater harmony with your nature and life’s laws, the nadis and higher chakras are cleared and opened (that is what purification is, energetically), and the light of Shiva-Shakti shines more brightly within you.
As that primordial spiritual consciousness-energy shines through the higher chakras, the baser impulses are “purified” or more accurately, brought into their proper place in the wholeness of life. Higher values of heart and mind open naturally. Your energy and vitality increase immensely. Some think sexual energy is powerful. Yet it is but a minute bit of Shakti. As the nadis and chakras clear and open, universal consciousness-energy seems to awaken within you.
This is impossible to convey except by analogy. It is like the difference between a candlelight and the sun. In the beginning of the spiritual path, the energetic body is so constricted and clogged, it is like the light of a mere candle. With years of spiritual practice that gradually clears and opens the nadis and chakras, the full, immeasurable glory of the sun shines within you. The difference is incomprehensible. And by the way, as sexual energy is but a candlelight compared to the sun of cosmic energy, so sexual pleasure is but a candlelight compared to the unbounded bliss of cosmic consciousness.
Still, just as there is practical value in saying the sun rises at a certain time, there is practical value in the idea that you must conserve and transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy. I say this because it accurately describes the natural experience that occurs for many on the spiritual path. How so?
Well, let’s say you’ve been meditating for some years and have awakened your Kundalini Shakti. As a result, you routinely have deep and profound meditations. If you happen to have thoughts and feelings of sexual attraction towards someone in a given meditation, as you meditate and transcend into pure consciousness, the sexual attraction will dissipate, but not before likely adding intensity to the experience of Shakti. The sexual attraction is like kerosene thrown on the Cosmic bonfire of pure Shakti. The result is you may have a more intensified experience of bliss consciousness, with your subtle senses heightened, than had you not felt any sexual attraction.
There is a verse in the Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, a text in which Shiva teaches Parvati 112 ways to transcend into higher consciousness, that precisely describes this:
…By fully remembering and absorbing the mind in the experience of kissing, hugging, and embracing, the bliss swells. (Verse 70)
So again this concept that you transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy serves, even though based in a perspective that is ultimately untrue (that sexual energy is the basis of spiritual energy).
Wait a minute. Did I just say that sexual attraction can actually deepen your meditation? By gosh, I think I did!
Let’s take a closer look at how this might happen.
The potential positive effect of sexual attraction on meditation is essentially three-fold:
Yet these three effects alone would not help your meditation. They would only leave your mind whirling in intensified romantic or sexual desire. One other essential ingredient is required: Udana vayu.
Udana vayu is one of the 5 basic forms of prana. Its role is to move energy upwards. Through years of meditation, the force of udana vayu naturally becomes stronger and stronger. This is key to so-called transmuting sexual energy into spiritual energy.
When sexual attraction stimulates Shakti in the lower chakras in someone who has meditated for years, that magnified Shakti is drawn upwards into the higher chakras by udana vayu. Suddenly, your meditation becomes much deeper. As if miraculously, romantic or sexual thoughts and desires are replaced with the experience of fullness and sublime bliss. All thanks to udana vayu! This is precisely how you transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy.
First of all, if you’ve taken any of my meditation courses, you’re already doing practices that could be classified as Tantric. The vast majority of Tantric practices have nothing to do with purposely using sexual attraction. Rather, they recognize the relationship of Shakti to consciousness and leverage that relationship to unfold higher consciousness. They do that primarily by awakening Kundalini Shakti, strengthening and directing prana, and clearing and opening the nadis and chakras. Devotion, mantra, pranayama, bandhas, mudras, ritual, and more are important tools of Tantra. Most of these are also important tools of Yoga, but the focus in Yoga is not Shakti-centric.
Regarding the bit of Tantra that does utilize sexual attraction: To reliably transmute sexual energy to spiritual energy, udana must have been developed into an indomitable force so that all subtle energies are drawn upwards. This typically only happens after some years of regular meditation. If udana vayu is not strong, sexual attraction in meditation will not result in magnifying Shakti and bliss. Instead, it will degrade the meditation into a morass of romantic or sexual thoughts and desires.
For this reason, purposely stimulating sexual or romantic attraction to transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy only applies to a subset of those who have been meditating for some years and experience deep silence in meditation. For others, who have not strengthened the force of udana vayu, sexual attraction will only be an obstacle and distraction. That road should have a big sign at the entrance, “No Outlet.”
Also, well before you get to within a stone’s throw of Self-realization, sexual attraction will no longer hold any benefit for your meditation. You’ll already be recognizing that you are a mass of pure bliss of cosmic proportions. The immensity of divine bliss consciousness cannot possibly be described. So what is the attraction in the bit of bliss associated with sexuality in the body? There is simply no such thing as transmuting sexual energy into spiritual energy for those who have realized the infinite Shakti inherent in their own universal consciousness. They have realized the ultimate Truth. For them, the relative truth of transmuting sexual energy into spiritual energy no longer has any meaning.
So no, you do not need to use sexual attraction to deepen your meditation. Everyone will spontaneously transmute sexual energy to spiritual energy in the course of their development. Engaging in Tantric practices that purposely utilizes sexual attraction is highly optional. Most on the spiritual path never venture into it nor need to. Unless properly guided by a master, it can easily become a diversion.
Understanding the role of udana vayu in transmuting sexual energy to spiritual energy unlocks another secret: Why simply practicing celibacy rarely succeeds in effectively transmuting sexual to spiritual energy.
Brahmacharya, conserving sexual energy, is an important spiritual principle. However, udana vayu absolutely must be activated and strengthened for abstinence to have its intended effect of supporting spiritual growth. Otherwise, celibacy only represses sexual impulses with the devastating results we’ve seen in the many scandals among spiritual leaders and churches. Though only a bit of cosmic Shakti, sexual energy is still a force of nature, and nature will not submit to the will of man for long.
For an interesting look at another potential benefit of developing Udana vayu, watch my YouTube video, How Levitation Happens: Prana Power.
It is inevitable that as a person on this earth, you will observe the sun rising and setting. Likewise, it is inevitable that in the course of your life as a dedicated meditator, you will seem to transmute sexual energy into spiritual energy in the way I’ve described above.
This will spontaneously happen to everyone who continues meditating, with or without Tantric practices that purposely utilize sexual attraction.
As you continue to meditate, you will also eventually recognize that the Self, pure consciousness, is infinite and not dependent upon sexual energy or anything else. Rather, the universal Self is the Source and undivided Essence of all this universe and is entirely self-sufficient. It is with this recognition, and by realizing you ARE That, that the full Truth dawns. Then you see the idea that you transmute sexual energy is all just part of this illusory magic show that appears as this universe. If you ever did Tantric practices based on sexual attraction, you will see that path as an illusory magic show within an illusory magic show.
If you wish to strengthen udana vayu and open and clear your nadis and chakras in a profound and balanced way, please see Deep chakra work: a transformational 12-week online course.
