Reuniting-Healing with Sexual Relationships Taoist Lao Tzu's "Hua Hu Ching" "Into the Realm of Bliss and Wholeness"
One of my favorite accounts of sacred sexuality is contained in a little-known text by Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese Taoist. In the Hua Hu Ching,1 Lao Tzu warns that,
Although most people spend their entire lives following the biological impulse, it is only a tiny portion of our beings. If we remain obsessed with seeds and eggs, we are married to the fertile reproductive valley of the Mysterious Mother but not to her immeasurable heart and all-knowing mind.
He says that,
If you wish to unite with her heart and mind, you must integrate yin and yang within and refine their fire upward. Then you have the power to merge with the whole being of the Mysterious Mother.
He explains further that,
The first integration of yin and yang is the union of seed and egg within the womb. The second integration of yin and yang is the sexual union of the mature male and female. Both of these are concerned with flesh and blood, and all that is conceived in this realm must one day disintegrate and pass away.
So far we are on familiar ground, but then he suggests that there is an entirely different level of existence open to us through union.
It is only the third integration which gives birth to something immortal....The new life created by the final integration is self-aware yet without ego, capable of inhabiting a body yet not attached to it, and guided by wisdom rather than emotion. Whole and virtuous, it can never die.
Here he refers to the state of enlightenment that the Taoists called Immortality.
Remarkably, Lao Tzu explains that this mystical union of yin and yang can be achieved through sexual intercourse.
Because higher and higher unions of yin and yang are necessary for the conception of higher life, some students may be instructed in the art of dual cultivation, in which yin and yang are directly integrated in the tai chi of sexual intercourse....If genuine virtue and true mastery come together…the practice can bring about a profound balancing of the student's gross and subtle energies [otherwise it can have a destructive effect].
Lao Tzu insists that
The result of this is improved health, harmonized emotions, the cessation of cravings and impulses, and, at the highest level, the transcendent integration of the entire energy body.
While my husband and I cannot yet claim to have achieved transcendence, we have already experienced the other benefits he mentions as a result of making love frequently without conventional orgasm. For example, we have noticed definite improvements in our heath, greater emotional balance and harmony, and decreased cravings. In fact, within several months of beginning this practice, my husband was able to give up a long-term addiction. Also, some months later, he no longer needed the prescription anti-depressants that he had been taking for years due to chronic depression that ran in his family.
Ancient wisdom and modern science converge in the bedroom. In the last decade neuroscientists' research has revealed that oxytocin, the cuddle hormone, does indeed counteract the effects of stress, which improves health, calms us, and relieves depression. Oxytocin is also the bonding hormone that connects us with others at a heart level. Indeed, we cannot fall in love, or stay in love, without it.
Finally when oxytocin was injected into the key portions of the brains of rodents who were already addicted to substances like heroin, cocaine and marijuana, they voluntarily decreased their use of the drugs, and showed fewer symptoms of withdrawal when deprived of the drugs. In short, there's a good chance that the increase in oxytocin levels in the brain due to this less-driven, consciously-generous approach to lovemaking is behind the improvements catalogued by both the ancient sage Lao Tzu and by us.
So how is Lao Tzu's tai chi of sexual intercourse different from Dr. Ruth's approach (hot sex)? Well, we already know that his recommended approach was not geared toward procreation ("seeds and eggs"). He also provides other clues:
A person's approach to sexuality is a sign of his level of evolution. Unevolved persons practice ordinary sexual intercourse. Placing all emphasis upon the sexual organs, they neglect the body's other organs and systems. Whatever physical energy is accumulated is summarily discharged, and the subtle energies are similarly dissipated and disordered.
Before I continue with his insights, I want to point out that, again, modern neuroscience is demonstrating exactly how conventional sex leads to subtle energies that are "dissipated and disordered." Intense, hungry passion sends levels of dopamine (the compelling neurochemical behind all addictions) soaring. This encourages us to engage impulsively in fertilization behavior.
Unfortunately it also over-stimulates the pleasure/reward center of the primitive brain. For example, rats that were wired so that they could push a lever in their cages to stimulate the pleasure/reward center tapped that lever incessantly…until they dropped. They didn't stop to eat, to investigate sexually receptive mates…or feed the kids.
High levels of dopamine are also associated with schizophrenia, sexual fetishes, and all addictions. So now you see why your body swiftly lowers your dopamine levels. Unfortunately that protective shutdown is disquieting, leading to a host of unpleasant symptoms. While it is in effect, people may feel irritable, needy, anti-social, emotionally over-reactive, or experience extreme cravings. Lao Tzu noticed this over two-thousand years ago. As he said, ordinary sexual intercourse is a great backward leap.
So what does this savvy sage recommend instead?
Where ordinary intercourse is effortful, angelic cultivation is calm, relaxed, quiet, and natural. Where ordinary intercourse unites sex organs with sex organs, angelic cultivation unites spirit with spirit, mind with mind, and every cell of one body with every cell of the other body.
Lao Tzu explains that the practice moves couples away from separation, toward oneness and transcendence.
Culminating not in dissolution but in integration, it is an opportunity for a man and woman to mutually transform and uplift each other into the realm of bliss and wholeness.
Clearly Lao Tzu believes there is much at stake in our lovemaking.
The cords of passion and desire weave a binding net around you....The trap of duality is tenacious. Bound, rigid, and trapped, you cannot experience liberation. Through dual cultivation [careful sexual intercourse] it is possible to unravel the net, soften the rigidity, dismantle the trap. Dissolving your yin energy into the source of universal life, attracting the yang energy from that same source, you leave behind individuality and your life becomes pure nature. Free of ego, living naturally, working virtuously, you become filled with inexhaustible vitality and are liberated forever from the cycle of death and rebirth.
Finally, he advises that the desired metamorphosis will not just happen without our focused participation.
Understand this if nothing else: spiritual freedom and oneness with the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts, but the rewards of conscious self-transformation and self-evolution.
Ready to give it a try?
Hua Hu Ching: Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, trans. Brian Walker, Harper SanFrancisco (1995), sections 65-70.from:http://www.reuniting.info/wisdom/lao_tzu_tai_chi_of_sexual_transcendance
How Does Sex Heal? Submitted by Marnia Robinson on Wed, 2006-05-03 05:21.Reuniting Articles about Sex | Article by Marnia Robinson and Gary Wilson | More Science articlesAn ancient Chinese Taoist might answer that sex heals by setting up a nurturing exchange of subtle energy, which occurs naturally between the polar opposites of yin and yang.
In this newsletter we often look for the parallels between esoteric knowledge and recent research, so we naturally wondered if there were any scientific support for this concept. Surprisingly, the answer is "yes," although the evidence is somewhat subtle.
read moreSEX: The Secret Gate to Eden"
Submitted by Marnia Robinson on Sun, 2007-01-21 02:16.Gnostic Christianity | Article by Marnia Robinson and Gary WilsonThelema Press has finally released its long-promised documentary on the Mystery inherent in sacred sexuality. For those of you not familiar with Thelema Press, it is an organization devoted to sharing the teachings of the late Samael Aun Weor (more on him in a moment). The 75-minute film is a rich tapestry of sacred sex symbolism from around the world. The narrative weaves various traditions into its account, including the Kabbala, Western Europe’s alchemy symbols, Tantra, Mayan carvings, Tibetan Buddhism, and various Christian gospels. It is inspiring to see the parallels between these traditions, even if they have been interpreted radically differently over the years.
read more
Super Size Orgasms? Submitted by Marnia Robinson on Fri, 2005-07-15 01:32.Reuniting Articles about Sex | Article by Marnia Robinson and Gary Wilson | Featured Science articlesNot long ago I heard an Australian radio program called "The Orgasmic Brain", hosted by Natasha Mitchell. (The link offers a complete transcript.) One of the guests on the program was Gert Holstege, a Dutch scientist who has begun mapping events in the brain during orgasm using brain scans of the event. At the very end of their interview, Dr. Holstege said:
read more ‹ WisdomupGnostic Christianity: Did Jesus Teach Sacred Union of the Sexes? › Gnostic Christianity: Did Jesus Teach Sacred Union of the Sexes? Submitted by Marnia Robinson on Fri, 2005-06-03 01:46.Articles about Nag Hammadi texts | Article by Marnia Robinson and Gary Wilson | Featured Wisdom articles "There Is No Male and Female"Years ago in the Harvard Divinity School library, I read a thesis called, There Is No Male and Female by Dennis R. MacDonald. Professor MacDonald revised and published it, [1] and just recently, I read it again.
The book is excruciatingly erudite, but its conclusion is fascinating. Professor MacDonald painstakingly demonstrates that by the time St. Paul wrote Galatians (54-55 C.E.) there was already circulating a widespread oral tradition to the effect that Jesus had taught a mystery about the union of the sexes. In fact, MacDonald shows that in Galatians Paul was rebutting the authenticity of the tradition by recasting it in terms he was comfortable with.
So what do these ancient sources say Jesus is supposed to have taught? That you enter the Kingdom when you tread upon the garment of shame, and when the two become one and the male with the female neither male nor female.[2].
Fragments of this oral tradition (with varying interpretations) turned up by way of Syria (the Gospel of Thomas), Greece (2 Clement) and Egypt (the Gospel of the Egyptians). The fragments themselves are strikingly similar, yet not so similar as to be derived from one another - hence MacDonald's conclusion that they all stem from an oral tradition.
Until recently we had few clues about the original substance behind this "two become one, neither male nor female" language. A few decades back, however, some ancient Christian texts turned up in a cave in Upper Egypt (the Nag Hammadi Codices). Those not used in cooking fires by the discoverer's mother were eventually translated. Scholars lump them together with the few similar fragments already known, and refer to them as the Gnostic Gospels. They portray a cosmology far different from our more familiar gospels—yet distinctly Christian.
Here are some concepts from the Gnostic Gospels that will intrigue anyone interested in the hidden potential of sacred sexuality. They say man was created in God's image, that is, immortal, androgynous (whole), and not in a physical body (which they call, "the garment of shame"). They say that Adam and Eve gave in to temptation and engaged in physical reproduction. That led to a "separation" between them that was the start of our collective tumble into mortality. (How interesting that conventional sex does indeed lead to separation between the sexes because of the temptation, or reward, mechanism deep in the primitive part of the brain.)
The Gnostic Gospels say that Jesus came to reverse the Fall, and show us how to return to our primordial androgyny ("make the male and female one, neither male nor female"). They say that he was, in fact, the returning Adam, who came back to end the separation between the sexes, which he had begun. He accomplished this in the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber. One of these gospels, the Exegesis on the Soul, describes that sacrament:
Those who are to have intercourse with one another will be satisfied with the intercourse. And as if it were a burden, they leave behind them the annoyance of physical desire and they do not separate from each other. They become a single life….For they were originally joined to one another when they were with God. This marriage brings them back together again.
Another, the Gospel of Philip, explains that there were 3 sacraments, the holy baptism, the holier atonement, and the "holy of the holies," the sacrament of the bridal chamber, in which participants "put on the light" or "chrism" and return to oneness. They "become like little children," a reference to their re-attaining their pre-Fall genderlessness (according to MacDonald).
Why don't we know more about these ancient teachings ascribed to Jesus? Well, we inherited the branch of Christianity espoused by Paul, and further shaped by Christians who were at first persecuted by the Romans and later generously subsidized by them when Roman emperor Constantine converted to the Catholic branch of Christianity in 312 CE. Paul never met Jesus in the flesh. And according to MacDonald, Paul may have had little patience for rumors that Jesus had taught an actual path to enlightenment because Paul believed that the Apocalypse and Judgment Day were just around the corner.
During the time that the Romans persecuted Christians, the belief that martyrs got a special place in heaven was vital to keeping the branch of Christianity that later became the Catholic Church alive. After all, recruiting wasn't easy when it tended to decrease one's life expectancy drastically. According to Professor Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels, only the evolving Catholics grew preoccupied with Jesus' martyrdom, suffering, and atonement for our sins. Nearly half of the Christians in the world at that time had quite different views about the role of Jesus' martyrdom. Eventually the concepts of martyrdom, suffering, and atonement for our sins came to dominate the Catholic religion...and then all of Christendom.
Indeed, as soon as the Catholics had the might of the Roman Empire behind them they, in turn, persecuted any who still believed that Jesus had taught a mystery about returning to the Kingdom during life. According to the Catholic Church, one could only be saved by doing what priests said one should, dying, and going to Heaven. Nearly all Gnostic texts were burned, and what little we knew about the rest of Christendom came from the one-sided writings of those who condemned it. That is why the recently-discovered trove of ancient texts in Upper Egypt is so significant.
In contrast to conventional Christianity, the Gnostic Gospels do not focus on martyrdom. They say that we will not be saved after death unless we have learned the sacrament of the bridal chamber and overcome the separation between male and female (which began when Adam and Eve united incorrectly). They deny that mankind sinned. They claim that we made an error that can be corrected by knowledge of this mystery.
They also insist that Jesus had a consort, Mary Magdalene. (There is no evidence that she was the "prostitute Mary," by the way. Just about every woman in the New Testament is named "Mary.") In truth, she was a disciple, whom the Church chose not to recognize—possibly because it did not understand her true significance. (It is also possible that Da Vinci did, according to "The Da Vinci Code." Look at the disciple sitting to the left of Jesus in the picture above.) More like a woman than a man, right?
Various other spiritual sources point to a mystical union of male and female attainable through lust-free intercourse. Placed in context with ancient Taoist, Tibetan Buddhist, and other texts about the mystery of reunion of the sexes, it is not so far-fetched to ponder whether Jesus also taught (and lived?) this mystery.
There Is No Male and Female, Harvard Dissertations in Religion, Fortress Press, Philadelphia (1987). Gospel of the Egyptians, as quoted by Clement of Alexandria in Stromateis. J. William Lloyd's "The Karezza Method" Karezza Method"
http://www.reuniting.info/wisdom/lloyd_karezza_method
The Karezza Method, by J. William Lloyd, printed privately (1931). NOTE: The book is long out of print, but you can read it online at this site. Also, a free download of the text is available (350k). An updated version of The Karezza Method should be published by summer, 2006 according to its author, Edward M. Gomez. For more information, contact White Cloud Press. A version in French is available here.
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