Energy and Sexuality

Despite the fact that the main task of the sexual center is to ensure the creation of new physical bodies, conduits and supports for consciousness, in reality its functions are usually much broader.

Since it is precisely this center that,

• firstly, is the most active energy transformer, “drawing in”, “uplifting” undifferentiated, low-toned life force and primarily activating it,
• secondly, is best suited for energy exchange — radiating (men) or absorbing (women) energy,

most important energy events for embodied beings occur with its active participation.

Thus, all processes involving the sexual center can be divided into three groups:

• those related to reproduction, producing offspring,
• those related to creativity,
• those related to emission or absorption of energy.

And if the first functions are relatively clear, then the third function is far more complex and diverse than it might seem at first glance.

Indeed, a huge number of psychological and energetic problems in people arise as a result of an imbalance in the flow, use, and loss of energy: men often struggle to use energy properly, while women often lack certain types of energy.

Therefore, the first aspect of sexuality as an energetically significant phenomenon is the broad spectrum of energies emanating from it.

The sexual center is one of the most convenient and safe energy release valves, allowing one to “bleed off” energy that otherwise would damage the conductors of mind.

For example, sex is precisely the most common way of transforming aggression: it is no wonder that various BDSM games are so common in highly regulated societies. Indeed, in highly socialized societies, a person who does not have extensive magical or ritual experience has practically no other way to quickly and safely bleed off anger energy other than these sexual practices. It is not for nothing that a folk observation says that people become irritable without sex, and here it is both about the “direct” accumulation of sexual tension, which turns into aggression, and about accumulation or failure to discharge anger. Thus, anger and sexuality are closely interconnected: sexual tension often transforms into aggression, and vice versa, aggression can be released during sex in the course of sexual activity.

In exactly the same way, sexual activity is often a constructive or distorted transformation of the energy of possessiveness. In its constructive form, to “get” what one desires in the form of one or another type of sex can be an effective way to relieve greedy tension. In this sense, an important condition is sexual variety (not in the sense of constantly changing partners, but in the sense of changing forms and ways of manifesting sexual activity). Sex is one of the most effective ways to “be satisfied”, to gain extensive experience, without bringing the turning desire into greed and possession and thirst for possession. In its destructive manifestation, however, sex becomes a way of accumulating, “collecting”, a form of morbid attachment.

Sexual energy is a vivid path to self-knowledge. Indeed, by observing one’s sexual needs and fantasies, it is easy to discover defects or dead ends in the flow of mind, the energy of desires or life force. In this sense, sex is a way of overcoming ignorance, because in no other activity does the energy of desires appear in such a minimally veiled form.

It is not for nothing that all Buddhist tantric practices are presented in the form of “yab-yum”, “father-mother”. This symbolism has many levels — it means the inseparable unity of method and wisdom, awareness and emptiness, energy and its movement, clarity and compassion, and so on; however, one such aspect is also the “literal” understanding of sexuality as a transformational process. Moreover, this transformational function of sex concerns both mind and energy, both “mind” and “body”.

At the same time, it is well known that sexual energy is not only an effective transformer — through it, it can normalize diverse energy flows — it is also one of the most difficult forms of energy to control. Indeed, once entering the sexual center, energy tends to radiate outward (in the form of expansion or attraction), and carrying it further often turns out to be a difficult task. This is not always negative, and sexual realization is one of the full-fledged ways energy can manifest; however, spending all energy on emission limits possibilities and impoverishes one’s options.

Therefore, the second aspect important for the proper functioning of the energetic structure of consciousness conduits is control of sexual energies. Unfortunately, in practice most methods of such “control” reduce either to suppression, oppression of sexuality, or to “depletion” of its resources — for example, redirecting it into physical activity (manifestations of the vegetative center). It is clear that neither method constitutes true control, since it occurs at a level “external” to the sexual center.

Control of sexuality means the ability to arbitrarily direct energies that have already entered and been activated in the sexual center — either toward sexual expression, or toward transformational goals, or toward activating higher centers. Such a skill requires integrating higher regulatory mechanisms, and therefore it is trained not at the level of the physical body, but at the level of the body of desires. In other words, in order to manage sexual energy, one must learn, in principle, to regulate the flows of life energy, and this is possible only through control of potential differences that set these energies in motion — that is, at the level of desire regulation. It is pointless and useless to approach the regulation of sexual energies head-on; it is impossible to redirect them “from within” — they are too turbulent and fiery — however, you can create proper channels for them, along which their flow will be less hindered and more effective.

In other words, control of sexuality is a question of the general level of awareness, orderliness, and harmony of being.

Thus, sexual energies are:

• in fact, the only source of life and functioning of the “higher” centers of activity: all the energy that is available to the volitional, emotional, creative, and so on centers is supplied by the sexual center;
• the main way to “bleed off” and transform many disharmonious energies and destructive tendencies arising in the mind and its conduits;
• the main direction for control at the level of the body of desires.