Bhramcharya

Spirituality
#21

this was not the definition i read( i read ‘moderation of the senses’)

I don’t now where you read this, and it’s not surprising, because people just don’t want to accept the true meaning of the word. My philosophy is to try to get the true meaning of the original authors. One is free to accept or reject the teaching, but don’t distort the meaning just because you don’t accept it.

If you look at the context of the sutra where the teaching of brahmacharya is given, its about the restraint of various types of harmful impulses. Brahmacharya is specifically about the sexual impulse. In the strictest sense, it is about sexual continence, plain and simple. I believe the definition can be broadened to include other types of sexual conduct, such as how one conducts him/her self with members of the opposite sex. But moderation of the senses is way too broad.

I know someone is going to say that sexual desire is not a harmful impulse, but just pick up a newspaper on any given day and you are likely to see reports of all kinds of bad behavior and even violence that results from uncontrolled sexual impulses. Self-control is important, and has lots of positive effects. Wise use of creative force is good.

#22

in fact kundalini awakeninng has it’s very foundation bed-rock,essence in the arousal and re-direction of rising sexual energy. the kundalin is in fact then arguably one’s sexual energy redirected

I’m not an expert on kundalini or tantric sexual practices. I’ve heard that there are certain practices that are supposed to transmute sexual energy into something higher, but I can’t speak from experience. But based on what I do know, to say that kundalini is redirected sexual energy is too narrow a definition. Kundalini symbolizes undifferentiated cosmic energy. Sexual energy would be a differentiated form.

#23

[I]For myself I think of this as meaning to respect the Divine Presence as always being with you. This rendition is for both singles and couples and encourages us to cultivate conduct that conceives of God as always watching you. This entices us to wish to please God, with our righteousness and consideration for others. – Mukunda Stiles
[/I]

Mukunda Stiles, for whom this forum was originally created for, spoke briefly on Bramacharya in this thread.

Namaste,
Nichole

#24

Let me start by saying thank you very much to all you wonderful people. You guys rock. You guys are my best teacher. Hopefully I would find a guru in real life as well who could guide me in the right direction. But until then I am very happy to have you guys around. There is so much all of you have contributed to my question; there is no way I can thank you enough and express how much I have learned and understood on the subject.

Thanks again.

Love
Yalgaar

#25

I think brahmacharya as it origins, does not allow one to marry. Strict brahmacharya is followed by living in a life away from all the carnal pleasures of life.

#26

BUMP!
Is sexual energy only effect spiritual energy? For example If one constantly engage in sexual activity would it also effect physical enery(weakness etc.)

Thankyou!

#27

And here is your BUMP answer: Yes, try for yourself and see what happens.

#28

My experience with this question has some twists and turns that keep the true nature of why I am the way I am clouded : I’ve always ( like the rest of my 12 member immediate family ) had a lot of testosterone and my early life was completely ruled by sexual desire. I matured somewhat with age but still it was a major influence to my thoughts, if not my actions until I was 49. Then I had prostate cancer, as did my 2 older brothers the same year( we are oldest of the family ). I was fortunate in getting it out early because of the warnings of my brothers. The testosterone didn’t stop-but the processing it into semen did i.e. I was still horny but not going to procreate. I’d done yoga for years as part of a larger fitness routine but then, because of the siren of major health problems, I started yoga in earnest. I wanted the usual things : suppleness as I age, immunity from illness, energy etc. but also I wanted to be assured that my vitality wasn’t snipped along with the prostate. I learned the more esoteric things, or I should say, am learning, like uddiyana bandha, nauli , aswini mudra, and lately the maha bandha. Now I am starting Pranayam. I’ve been doing the 1st three with other things for several years now. I don’t know whether my sexual continence is due to age( 56), the operation or the translation of those energies into higher chakras. I am more calm than ever, more self-directed ( as opposed to sexully-directed ) very healthy and energetic and more caring of others, I believe. I don’t get as angry etc. I can’t help but feel that though the intensive yoga and the post-op happened together, it was the former that is the driver. I still greatly desire intimacy and sex is great from that starting point but unlike my previous life, I can’t really imagine sex without love much…and not the whitewash love of my hippie days that said to the stranger- I Love You-and the next night to another the same.My girlfriend is not unduly pressured to meet my sexual demands. I don’t demand. Which is good because she is going through the change. I am also starting to do the 5 Tibetans. Yoga has made my life an adventure with a goal. Oh, if you want to see what a horny fellow I was an indication may be found in one of my 3 video’s on Youtube, just type in TheTonyTamer. all one word and 2 of me , one horny but G-rated and one of my beautifully-voiced daughter singing at a wedding. She really prefers to draw and doesn’t sing in public until asked at Weddings by her cousins; the time before this one was 4 years ago. Namaste.

#29

The youtube video’s of me date from the early 90’s. Namaste

#30

hi
they say" he who has completely eradicated lust and is established in mental Brahmacharya is Brahman or God himself "
at that level will he be still able to do sexual intercourse or not ?
please answer me if u really know or tell me where I can find the answer
thanks

#31

I am sure that you will still be able to have sexual intercourse. The question will be if you still want to though. But then again if your lust has been [I]completely[/I] eradicated, you won’t hold on to your idea of no-sex either. So you will do what’s best in that situation. No for or against. If one who claims to be in such a state says that he cannot have sex anymore because it is not holy, than such a person has still a lust for his ideas about this world and thus is not completely free from lust but is only pretending to himself to be so. Which he might actually succeed in after years of suppressing his sexual lust. It might seem very real because the desire for sex has become totally numb. But free one is not.

Please note that what you call eradication is not the same as, or is not reached through, mental suppression. What you call eradication and what I prefer to call freedom in and from desire, is a natural happening when you are completely fed up with the cycle of:
[B]Dissatisfaction >>Desire>>Achievement >> Dissatisfaction>>Desire>>Achievement[/B], etc. When this drops naturally on its own, [I]through understanding and directly seeing the futility of this cycle as it is active in your own life day after day[/I], the clinging to that cycle will stop naturally, without effort or suppression.

Then you are still able to have sexual intercourse if you choose to have so, but the desire or craving for it won’t have any grip on your well-being and presence of awareness.

Goodluck :slight_smile:
Bentinho

#32

Namaste,
According to the Divine Life society.
Brahmacharya means freedom from lust in thought, word and deed.

Namaskar

#33

[quote=dergham;23403]hi
they say" he who has completely eradicated lust and is established in mental Brahmacharya is Brahman or God himself "
at that level will he be still able to do sexual intercourse or not ?
please answer me if u really know or tell me where I can find the answer
thanks[/quote]

Well question is, if you are Brahman or God himself is sexual intercourse so important to worry about it?

More importantly, tell us more about yourself, why is this so important to you, are you about to become a monk or do you grab onto brahmacharya as a last hope of freeing yourself of your bondage to sexual guilt?

#34

Another perspective: bramacharya is living with the highest integrity. It is the practice of conducting oneself like god. Living in remembrance that all things are divine.

Sexuality, like any experience, can be a path to the source of self. This is true whether you partake in sexual intercourse or not. Treating sexuality as sacred can heal many things.

The key here is the integrity of intention. If you conduct yourself with the purest of intentions you will make choices that are life affirming and appropriate for you in each moment.

In true and established union, oneness, enlightenment - however you’d like to phrase it - I would think you could do anything you’d like as you would see all aspects of life as different expressions of the one essence. It would be a choice as to how to creatively express divinity as the individual you are. Oh wait - that’s what it’s about anyway. :slight_smile:

#35

[quote=Asuri;20158]Swami Hariharananda Aranya had this to say:
Mahatma Ghandi was also known to practice brahmacharya, even though he was married at the age of fourteen. His wife said they had sex only once.[/quote]

I read somewhere that he actually was fond of lovemaking, and once when he was with her wife, he was called out, but he could not leave her. Than it turned out that his father died, and he could not be there for him. This left so great an impact on his soul, that he took the vow of celibacy.

Myth or true … ?

#36

[quote=ujay;23420]Namaste,
According to the Divine Life society.
Brahmacharya means freedom from lust in thought, word and deed.

Namaskar[/quote]

I studied Sivananada. Indeed, he esteems greatly chastity, and his work is inspiring.

My teacher said, if one needs to make an effort to be chaste, that one is not chaste yet. Supression is not advised. The way to go for perfect chastity is to nurture and follow high ideals to the level where lustful thoughts no longer arise.

The problem is not if making love, having sex or mere masturbation is good or bad, or suitable for a yogi. Before we are yogis, we are human beings, and sexuality is part of human life. We must not reject anything human, but we have to try to ennoble it. And again, it cannot be done by force. You can’t make a flower grow faster, you can’t force yourself to sainthood. Both are processes of growth. Sexuality has it’s place in one’s life, and when you outgrow it, it is gone. Why try to leave it before it’s time ? Patience is the key. Humility in admitting our attachments, accepting our human peculiarities is better than forced ascetism.

For those well rooted in spirit, sensual pleasures are nothin more than passing triviality. Eating or not eating, making love or not making love … what is the difference ? The outer actions can be decieving. A saint is a saint in the whorehouse, and the lustful is still lustful in church.

You know the story of the buddhist monks. A young and an old monk travel by foot, and they arrive to a river. There they find a young woman, who is afraid to cross the water. The young monk takes her in his arms, and crosses the river with her. Than the two continue their way. After a time, the old monk errupts: how could you do that, to touch a woman ? It is againts our regulations. And the young one answers: I have left that woman on the riverside. Obviously, you did not.

Make love, have children, live a life. Enjoy the passing pleasures but do not cling to them, do not expect them, do not think of them. Life is good, but if you think of it, it is not a big deal. :slight_smile:

#37

Before we are yogis, we are human beings, and sexuality is part of human life. We must not reject anything human, but we have to try to ennoble it.

Beautifully said.

#38

[QUOTE=dergham;23403]hi
they say" he who has completely eradicated lust and is established in mental Brahmacharya is Brahman or God himself "
at that level will he be still able to do sexual intercourse or not ?
please answer me if u really know or tell me where I can find the answer
thanks[/QUOTE]

I agree that to completely eradicate sexual desire, one would have to be Brahman or God himself. For us mere mortals, the fire still burns.

#39

If brahmacharya are against marraige and advicing people not to get marriage, then can any one tell me why has god created 2sexes on earh, if he wanted that people should do brahmacharya. And if the person himself dosnt want to they why to force him to follow such rules. If the person is not willing to do so then what is the use of forcing towards that path.Why many the gods has married if that is the main reason of not getting married to become brahmacharya? Are the tales of gods wrong? And marriage is not done for only one purpose,that they are against marriage.Can anyone give answer to my question.

#40

Ive never heard or read that brahmacharya is against marriage or advising people not to get married,it is true different people give slight variations or explanations . in my understanding bramacharya is an advanced path,because it is so difficult to practice and failiure can lead to dejection.there is no reason that one may not get married lead a famiy life and become brahmacharya in ones third stage of life.Brahmacharya could be practiced in a marriage, ie sex is only for procreation, i have a feeling K.Patthabi jois described it thus.If ones nature is to marry then this is fine ,hence some highly realised Tibetan llamas get married (Dilgo khyentse Rimpoche) While others, most ,do not and practice bramacharya using the sexual desire or energy for some "higher purpose."
Just as Ive not heard of bramacharyas being against marriage I would of thought that certainly in my country, and yours, there is a social pressure to get married and have children ,people used to think you were a litle odd if you were not married,this is now changing , but still society is set up to have marriage and children as the ideal,when we seem to have lots of dissaffected children with parents who dont know how to parent.
i have never heard of people being forced into bramacharya this clearly would be violence to oneself and unethical,I have heard of people being advised against it because they were not suited ,or it would be too challenging.I believe bramacharya is in thought as well as deed eg if you found yourself fantasising about a hottie ,stop wasting energy and bring awareness to higher thoughts.In the myths of gods some are married,some are not as you say,and with one of the gods there is an immaculate conception! Anyway I cant speak with any authority on god or gods ,I have no direct line.
Just to add Im sure I read that paschimottonasana is also called Bramacharyasana as it Quells the sexual appetite,Backbends on the other hand!
Lastly the historical Buddha said that if there was another energy as strong as the sexual pull we would find it to much of a hindrance to attain enlightenment,Ramakrisna continually counselled against women and gold,he could of said men and gold he wasnt against women,I believe he was saying that we spend alot of energy in pursuit of sex and money which takes us away from somthing more real,more fulfilling,a look at our popular culture would seem to show that nothing has changed.

yours in yoga