admin The place of sex in Yoga is often a misunderstood concept and in this short article I would like to shed some light on this subject in relation to how sex can affect our level of vitality…
Pre Natal energy (or essence) is the energy we receive from our parents and ancestors. This “essence energy” is stored in our kidneys and is released into our body’s system, as it is required. It provides the building blocks for growth and procreation and it is considered (according to Traditional Chinese Medicine) that when we exhaust the full supply of this “original essence” our physical life is over and our body dies. We are unable to “make” or ingest any more of this energy than what we are given at birth so we need to be careful how we use this energy if we want a long healthy life. We cannot make any more of this essence but what we can do is conserve this energy through good habits in our day-to-day living.
Excessive work and stress can use more Pre Natal Energy than what would be used in a more balanced life, however the most damaging activity for our Pre Natal Essence is overindulging in sexual activity. Overindulgence draws on an excess of this energy from our kidneys and in turn compromises the quality of and shortens our life. The old wives tales told to boys and young men, “if you do it too much, you will go blind”, is absolutely true, not to mention the weakness in the legs experienced by too frequently ejaculating.
As we deplete the store of Pre Natal Energy from our kidneys through undisciplined behaviour our body must then draw extra energy from somewhere else. The “blindness” or fuzzy vision occurs when we place extra stress on the liver (according to Chinese Medicine the health of the liver has a large bearing on the health of our eyes and the quality of our vision) that now has to provide the extra energy that the kidneys would have normally provided. On the other hand if we have good sexual practises we can enhance our vitality and become more energetic.
What are good sexual practises?
When we talk about the conservation of Pre Natal energy it usually relates to the practises of males more than females due to the fact that males ejaculate their essence outside of their bodies while the female secretions occur mostly within the body and can be reabsorbed by the female if she knows how to do this.
Good sexual practice includes ejaculation control by the male, which simply means having sex without ejaculating too often and his ejaculation frequency should be regulated taking in to account his age, his physical condition and the seasons. A basic rule of thumb is that if a male feels depleted after an ejaculation he is doing it too often. This is why men often just roll over and fall asleep after an ejaculation.
If he feels light, energetic and peaceful following an ejaculation he is probably regulating his loss of essence quite well. Young males can afford to ejaculate more often than older men without doing themselves too much damage but by the time a man reaches his mid-thirties he ought to be very well acquainted with ejaculation control practises otherwise his life force energy will be depleted very quickly leading to lethargy and all sorts of chronic illnesses compromising his vitality and possibly resulting in a premature death.
This topic is deep and involved and I won’t go into too much detail as to how to practise ejaculation control other than to give you two main instructions.
Number one, orgasm is usually preceded by irregular breathing so if you are able to practice full slow abdominal breathing while making love you will be able to prevent losing control of your essence.
Number two is to develop the muscles of the pelvic floor and the urogenital diaphragm which really means practising contracting your muscles as if you are trying to prevent yourself from urinating. This is a good practise for both men and women in preventing ejaculation (males) and promoting reabsorption (females).
Ejaculation control was written about in the oldest most formative text on Yoga “The Hatha Yoga Pradipika” which was written by Svatmarama in the fifteenth century.
Some modern schools of Yoga however are choosing to leave out this important advice and practical direction completely even though it is in alignment with man’s nature, opting for complete abstinence for their practitioners, which is against the inherent nature of man.
If you want to know more about these practices there are many good resources available on Tantric Yoga and Taoist (also spelled Daoist) Sexual Practices that may be of interest to you.
To give you an idea of how good sexual practises can increase your vitality; I experimented with a period of 100 days without ejaculating whilst at the same time enjoying a robust sex life. In the first seven weeks I had written a 90,000 word novel manuscript and I had posted 18 articles (about 54,000 words) on a website.
I know through my own experience that there is no way I could have produced the same output if I were ejaculating every time I had sex. If a man is familiar with the practises of ejaculation control he not only conserves his own Pre Natal energy but he also absorbs prenatal essence from his partner increasing his vital energy. The beauty of good sexual practises also means that a woman can also enhance her vitality if she is familiar with how to re-absorb her essence following an orgasm.
One more incredible benefit is that the two partners will never get enough of each other, bringing them closer together romantically as well as physically.
Remember that we are unable to produce or create any more Pre Natal Energy than what we are given at birth. Therefore if we want to operate at peak vitality we must learn how to conserve and protect our prenatal energy through ejaculation control by the male and re-absorption by the female.