I’m curious where celibacy fits in with a yogi lifestyle, if at all.
It is a misconception that Yoga advises celibacy. Many yogis were not celibates, but married with families and children. It is true, however, that moderation of sensual activity(especially sex) is advised and this is because Yoga states that ones sexual energy is directly connected to ones life energy(ojas) The more life energy you have the more vibrant, radient, healthy, stronger you are and the greater amount of energy you have for Yoga. It is recommended that one not lose their sexual fluids because they are vital and even if one does have sex one should not ejaculate.
There is a very good reasoning behind this which comes from the understanding of the 7 dhatus(7 body tissues) of the body. They are blood plasma, blood, muscles, fat, bones, marrow/nerves and finally sexual fluid. The final one is produced from the very essence of the preceeding ones. So losing it causes one to lose a lot of energy. This kind of rings true in experience as well after one as sex and ejaculates they can feel very spent and tired after the ordeal.
Outside of the yoga circle, coaches/trainers have told friends of mine who engage in wrestling, entertainment-style wrestling, UFC/MMA, etc. to abstain from sex even with if married within a certain time period (forget what it is) of a main event as ejaculation is said to weaken the athlete. Something to do with depleting stores of testosterone, but my memory fails me. But there are studies that have disproved this theory, too…But I digress.
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;34792]It is a misconception that Yoga advises celibacy. Many yogis were not celibates, but married with families and children. It is true, however, that moderation of sensual activity(especially sex) is advised and this is because Yoga states that ones sexual energy is directly connected to ones life energy(ojas) The more life energy you have the more vibrant, radient, healthy, stronger you are and the greater amount of energy you have for Yoga. It is recommended that one not lose their sexual fluids because they are vital and even if one does have sex one should not ejaculate.
There is a very good reasoning behind this which comes from the understanding of the 7 dhatus(7 body tissues) of the body. They are blood plasma, blood, muscles, fat, bones, marrow/nerves and finally sexual fluid. The final one is produced from the very essence of the preceeding ones. So losing it causes one to lose a lot of energy. This kind of rings true in experience as well after one as sex and ejaculates they can feel very spent and tired after the ordeal.[/QUOTE]
Does this also apply to women?
Yes does anyone have an answer… I’m very curious to know if this applies to women as well.
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;34792]It is a misconception that Yoga advises celibacy. Many yogis were not celibates, but married with families and children. [/QUOTE]
Depends what path one chose: monk or just a practitioner. Yoga monks just like a Christian monks or other monks follow celibacy and other ascetic things since they found everything in god. For most of regular mortals, understanding of God love is impossible, and they turn to the love of the human…
Not for all women. Only when their…ahem…“essence” leaves the body via…um…ejaculation?
Most women will reabsorb that fluid/energy along with hormones and a lot of other…juicy stuff, which is very important to their good health. So…ahem…hard and often as possible ladies, and no worries. So says the Tao anyway.
Maybe there are some ladies out there would like to comment on benefiting from the male’s loss, if they’re taking it? Is there a net gain? That’s what they say: it’s why you’re all “evil.” 
peace ladies,
siva
I think there’s more to it than just sex. It’s hard to be a serious yoga practitioner if you’re occupied with holding down a job and trying to provide for a wife and children. Celibacy is also about remaining free from those kinds of obligations in order to focus on the practice. In that respect, it does apply to women too.
In terms of staying in fighting shape by retaining sexual energy, I think most athletes, soldiers, etc. will tell you f**k the studies that say otherwise, but I don’t think that applies to women so much.
What are you hoping to gain by celibacy or intimacy?
For those with easy access to bliss by just sitting - ones interest in the act may gradually wane.
The question actually came to mind because of my lack of desire at this time. It seems to me that I am to busy working on other aspects of myself to have room to share intimately with another.
…and that is a fine choice to make, presuming one has not previously chosen to be in an intimate relation. However when one has made a choice to be in relationship the practice includes the relationship. After all, the Sutras themselves are about relationship.
Regarding retention and activities that may or may not benefit from it, a man can definitely benefit in activities like football, boxing, and martial arts, where he needs to be bold, fearless, and on a razor’s edge. Other activities that require a more calm focus might not benefit so much. Any thoughts on that?
Retention requires a lot of discipline, and it’s hard to do. Some are better at it than others. Anyone interested in a contest (like Seinfeld)? Anyone have any thoughts about the propriety of such a thing?
I’m like the Michael Flatley of the Yoga world, I need to make love within two hours after Yoga practice lol
I was thinking a contest might be a little silly, but a practice group might be interesting, [I]if[/I] anyone would be willing to participate.
This article by Swami Sivananda, considered amongst the highest authorities on Yoga in the 20th century and the founder of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh is a must read on this subject:
Yoga in Yoga-Sutra is for aspirants who are ready to work on themselves and transform on a difficult jouney in search of the ultimate truth. To take those complex concepts and try to understand or worse, practice them in the context of a very material life is unfair.
Yoga is not about supressing anything. Otherwise, Patanjali would have said ‘mind modifications’ are the culprit so “here’s how to supress them”. Instead a very long, patient and conscious Yoga-Sadhana is recommended so that one would work on the “causes” and not the “effects”.
If celibacy means having sexual impulses but somehow curbing them, it is no Yoga. If you work on the desires and develop a relaxed indifference to the provocative triggers so that a need to satiate them does not arise, it is Yoga. Eventually, this can expand into a conscious will that evaporates all desires before they demand gratification, and your behaviour will be permanently aligned with Ishvara. That is brahmacharya. Physical renunciation has little to do with it. In fact, in the householder’s role the strength of will is more severely tested and sex is seen as a mere duty to bring good souls to birth. And that’s where it ends.
Finally, if we really subscribe to Yoga’s basic premise of gross to subtle dimensions of the self, the distinction between man and a woman ends at a pretty gross level. In the subtle domains of energy, thoughts and desires, we are simply human beings, or rather just "beings’.
If you are not willing to become celibate, than you shoud not do it, unless you want to do something you don’t really want to do. Which really makes little sense.
Practicing celibacy is like trying to direct a bull with a stick. But when there is no bull around, of what use the stick becomes than ?
Until there are still erotic thoughts, there is no real celibacy. When there are no erotic thoughts, there is no need for celibacy. That much about retention and other forced practices.
So, the issue here is rather: should I be concerned by having erotic thoughts, or not ? And the answer is … it is much harder to be a moderate drinker than being totally abstinent. Because The Self really does not need alchohol, and neither it needs women or men. And until you still cling to things the Self does not need, you are being divided.
But if you manage to maintain the division while being anchored with full consciousness in Self, you can treat any thoughts as guests, and act accordingly to the Will of That who speaks through the Self, instead of following the energy of that thought. Some thoughts (or the underliying psychic energies) are very powerful … and he basic mistake we often do is to underestimate their power. Than we are carried away. Which is not bad but neither is it good.
From Swami Sivananda
From food, chyle is manufactured; out of chyle comes blood; out of blood comes flesh; out of flesh comes fat; out of fat comes marrow; out of marrow comes semen. Semen is the last essence. It is the essence of essences.
Just as sugar pervades sugar-cane and butter pervades milk, so also semen pervades the whole body. It exists in a subtle form throughout the body. It is withdrawn and elaborated in a gross form in the sexual organs under the influence of the sexual will and sexual excitement.
This is why I don’t really buy it all.
If celibacy means having sexual impulses but somehow curbing them, it is no Yoga. If you work on the desires and develop a relaxed indifference to the provocative triggers so that a need to satiate them does not arise, it is Yoga. Eventually, this can expand into a conscious will that evaporates all desires before they demand gratification, and your behaviour will be permanently aligned with Ishvara.
I don’t really buy this either. Especially the part about evaporating all desires before they demand gratification. Talk is cheap. That’s why I want to know about people’s actual practice and experience.
Hello, Hubert. It’s good to see you posting again.
Until there are still erotic thoughts, there is no real celibacy. When there are no erotic thoughts, there is no need for celibacy. That much about retention and other forced practices.
I agree that mental discipline is key, but I don’t agree that’s all that is necessary. Especially in younger men, biological processes continue and demand satisfaction. I beleive that is the point that Swami Sivananda was trying to make when he said that the yogis were able to stop the production of semen. I don’t know of anyone who has succeeded in doing that.