"Do not go to the garden of flowers. O Friend, go not there. In your body is the garden of flowers! Take your seat on the thousand petals of this lotus, and here gaze on Infinite Beauty."
We have an age-old attraction to sensory stimulants, especially sex.
And when the New Age seeker gets hold of sex, watch out! We romanticize sex, we spiritualize sex, we imagine that having sex will reveal mysterious esoteric powers, yet all this is but the mind's attempt to justify a basic, innocent, animal craving. Why do we feel so compelled to justify sex with spiritual concepts? Because, for generations, we have attached guilt and fear to it. Now we over-compensate for our sexual guilt by exaggerating the mystical significance of our sexuality.
The truth is, sex is neither a sin nor a spiritual practice. It is simply a powerful attachment, and our sexual need is not much different than a donkey's. What we require is not to exaggerate sexual delight, nor to repress sexual delight, but to supplement sexual delight with an interior source of pleasure. Then external attachment simply drops away - the way a child gives up playing with a toy.
As the rising sun outshines the glow of a candle, so the bliss of the Inner Light outshines the pleasures of sense and sex organs. The fountain of spiritual light bubbling from an awakened heart is a never-ending sweetness that transcends any momentary sexual pleasure. It is not that spiritual Light and sex are antithetical, but that they should not be confused.
In sexual release, the physiology de-stresses for an instant and we taste total relaxation. At that moment, we may have a glimpse into the realm of the Spirit, the luminosity of boundless consciousness. This glimpse was not caused by sex, but because sex momentarily freed the mind from its desire, so that awareness could became settled, silent, self-effulgent, and blissful in its own nature.
Sexual experience does not cause spiritual experience: it simply provides a moment of relaxation where we perceive what is always already there. This same phenomenon may occur during extreme sports, sensory deprivation, fasting, exalted aesthetic appreciation of music, nature, or the beauty of the cosmos. What we really crave are not sense objects, but moments of wonder that stop the mind...
The Inner Senses
Hypnotically absorbed in the sensual stimulation of the external world, few of us know that there are inner senses more pleasurable than the outer. And, while external sensation drains our energy, internal sensation actually increases it.
Through meditation, the Inner Light dawns. And with that dawning, our inner senses wake up to see, hear, taste and feel the subtleties of the Light. As the Biblical Psalmist cries, "Taste and see that the Lord is good!"
Anyone who tastes celestial sight, sound, fragrance or touch, knows that the world within is even more attractive than the world without. In external pleasure, there is an expenditure of energy, and a constant danger of addiction. But in the interior realms of celestial sensation, there is expansion of energy along with freedom from worldly attachment. According to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, this inward turning of the senses is called Pratyahar, one of the eight limbs of yoga.
Pratyahar is not a discipline to be practiced: it is the natural effect of consciousness drawn inward through meditation. As attention plumbs subtler fields of consciousness, there is a corresponding refinement of the nervous system. We begin to experience more refined levels of sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell. These spiritual senses actually connect us to inner worlds that extend far beyond the realm of our physical planet. The inner senses are avenues to the stars, and to the star beings. We discover the greatest secret in creation: the stars and their inhabitants dwell within, not above. Our earthly body is not an obstacle to the spiritual path: our body is the gateway, and each of our chakras, the energy-centers in the subtle body, are portals to heaven.
Through pratyahar, we reverse the flow of sensuality. Satisfied from within, we no longer crave worldly delights. We enjoy them, but in non-attachment. Repression and self-control have nothing to do with spiritual practice. The state of joy in non-attachment is eloquently described by William Blake:
He who binds to himself a joyNow streams of delight pour outward, not inward. Our spiritual senses overflow into the world. Through our eyes, ears, voice and skin, we bless and heal the earth, rather than binding it with desire. Sunbeams do not flow into our eyes, but out of our eyes. Our senses become fountains of light that infuse spirit into matter, elevating the dormant consciousness in a dragonfly, a daffodil, a pebble, or whatever we behold. The highest work we can do for our Creator is to marvel.
doth the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
dwell's in eternity's sunrise.
Don't seek blessing. Bless.
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