was reading this yogi times magazine....the issue's theme was 'the men's issue'
and this article on seasonal celibacy caught my eye....
it was an interview with scott blossom.....a traditional chinese medicine practitioner and yoga therapist.....

exerpts....

....we have such a sexualized media culture that men have a hard time imagining life without sex or sexual relief.....

Taoism, Ayurveda, and yoga all focus on conserving your jing (life essence), or ojas (vigor). principally, the means to storing up this nectar of life (amrita) is male control of ejaculation.....

....when someone gets addicted to having sexual release, they get into a pattern of stagnation and they feel bad. they feel like they have to do it, and they can feel uneasy and nervous and tense, and mentally more emotionally reactive until they get that particular perceived need met. often what men do to sublimate that energy is pick up different addictions like overworking, over-exercising, marijuana, alcohol......

the sexuality that i learned from my father- the gender views and the objectification of women- just didn't jibe with what felt right for me. i decided to tke a break from actively engaging in sexual relationships so that i could distill my own values and views of women.
orgasm is the most spiritual thing the ego can experience. if someone's in an ego-bound state- a rajasic (restless, desire-driven) state- then they will be driven toward the height of whatever an ego-bound state can offer. sex, drugs and rock and roll are intoxicating for the ego.
when sexual energy is contained, it forces the ego to dis-identify wiith one of the most basic and powerful habitual drives that people construct. there's a fundamental shift about who you are if you let that go. some of the tools of tantra provide a way of giving the ego that sweetness- that deep down satisfaction- without sexual release being part of the equation.
both the Ayurvedic and the Taoist traditions recommend a hundred days of celibacy, or Brahmacarya. a hundred days is a season. it's enough time for the limbic system- the basic drives- to be changed.
my wife was completely supportive of this sadhana (practice) and we looked at it as a chance to cultivate emotional intimacy without using sex as a tool. yoga is the path of liberation from everyting, including something as basic and tantalizing as sex.

i've done this practice a few times, and the first month is a very intense shift. i really find it necessary to intensify my sadhana. i'm containing that powrful energy, harmonizing it and balancing it and creating a more sattvic (pure, peaceful) state for my bodymind.......

.....we are being fed a very narrow message about sexuality in our culture, and people that are exposed to mainstream media on a regular basis grow up with a very narrow, physicalized view of sex. essentially, the shift is for the man to have a multidimensional view of how they're developing sexual bliss and their sexuality. it's not so much that they have to repress or let go of the physical; they're temporarily letting go of this very obvious, very easy-to-access form of sexual experience in order to experience the more subtle realms, whose depth and sweetness is really profound........



i was so struck by this interview....and you know how you run across something and it just echoes throughout your being that this is the path to take......
so i have decided to try this....marked up my calendar and i think it runs until the 20th of august.....a hundred days of celibacy....i have never tried any period of celibacy before.....i wonder what's going to happen.....

majk & blessings,
skye