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psychoslice
Veteran Member
Yes you are right, we are all sexual creatures, and sex in whatever manner is healthy for our body, to suppress it is to suffer, just as if we would suppress hunger or thrust, yes it is stupid to suppress our natural desires, yes really stupid.
Altfish
Veteran Member
What do you think about celibacy?
I don't
Do you think that sex is preventing people from spiritual growth?
NO
I just thought that suppressing such a strong desire for reproduction might result in some psychological disorders.
I suppose it could, but that is beyond my expertise.
I don't
Do you think that sex is preventing people from spiritual growth?
NO
I just thought that suppressing such a strong desire for reproduction might result in some psychological disorders.
I suppose it could, but that is beyond my expertise.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
It depends what you mean by "natural desires", and whether it is always healthy to indulge them.
For example, eating is a "natural desire", and now we have an obesity epidemic in the developed world....
psychoslice
Veteran Member
Well yes that is true, but stupid humans will always be stupid, you just can't help them.
Ana.J
Active Member
I am not talking about extremes, you know. But sexuality is a integral part of our personality that is connected to some deep limbic centers in our brain and I assumed it might be not very healthy to suppress this natural desire to unite with other person physically and spiritually. Why does church call this process dirty?
I would say there is a difference between suppressing sexual desire and becoming disenchanted to it. I would compare this to the difference between being addicted to painkilling medications and using painkilling medications when you really need them. Just as abstaining from painkillers can be a useful tool in overcoming addiction to painkillers, so can celibacy be a useful tool in overcoming being enchanted by (under to control of) or addicted to your sexuality. Of course, if you need a painkilling medication to relieve physical pain, then by all means, use it--just don't abuse it.
I don't think that celibacy should be forced but I also don't see it as a heath issue if someone wants to lead a celibate life. That is, some people have had enough of sex in their life or they have a low libido or use their sexual energy to enhance their spiritual experience (such as through meditation). Celibacy, imo, is only unhealthy if the person doing it is lustful and repressing themselves.
Celibacy is fine if you genuinely feel a need to be celibate. It strikes me as risky, though, to impose it upon oneself by an act of will when you feel no real, deep seated need to be celibate. If you try to impose it, your sexual desires tend to manifest themselves in often enough unhealthy ways.
I think that's a very popular notion in some ways. The world over and through-out time, so called holy men have said that sex is incompatible with spirituality. That opinion strikes me as based upon an ancient understanding of spirituality as something above and at odds with the mundane, material world. The thinking seems to go that sex ties one to the mundane, the material, and is therefore incompatible with the spiritual. I do not accept that understanding of spirituality, and instead harbor a different notion of spirituality in which sex and spirituality are not necessarily at odds with each other.
Wirey
Fartist
We are specifically designed to reproduce. Especially me. Anything that detracts from that is obviously wrong. I don't mean we should be out there humping everyone who makes themselves available (except me) but normal sexual relations shouldn't interfere with your ability to think. Except maybe during. If you're pondering the hidden meaning of Walden Pond during intercourse I suppose you're doing it wrong anyway.
Ana.J
Active Member
Wirey
Fartist
ha ha....Agree
Really? How you doin'?
Ana.J
Active Member
I do agree with the "we were designed to reproduce" part. This is our biological nature. As well as every living creature on Earth. This is life. We can live forever in our descendants (in their minds and bodies). Isn't that what most people want subconsciously? Eternal life?
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I think it sounds like an awesome idea until I see someone attractive.
I think that people would have more spiritual growth if they stopped worrying about spiritual growth and started having more sex.
I think it's probably having a psychological disorder in the first place that gives one the propensity for suppressing their natural, inherent desires.
RedStorm
Pride and Arrogance
Kilgore Trout
I think that people would have more spiritual growth if they stopped worrying about spiritual growth and started having more sex.
This.
I think one thing that holds peoples spirituality back is their propensity to bother themselves with things that don't have any affect on what their trying to do. Unless your addicted and its interfering with life in a negative way you shouldn't be connecting the two.
I think that people would have more spiritual growth if they stopped worrying about spiritual growth and started having more sex.
This.
I think one thing that holds peoples spirituality back is their propensity to bother themselves with things that don't have any affect on what their trying to do. Unless your addicted and its interfering with life in a negative way you shouldn't be connecting the two.
In Hinduism, there are two distinct paths for humans. grihastha, (householder) and sannyas (monks and nuns) Celibacy is a natural outcome for the soul who is just naturally inclined to renunciation. It isn't suppressed, just seen like any other 'skill' ... the ability to throw a ball hard, good balance, fine motor skills, or a penchant for music.
Problems arise when the teachings for one overlap into the other. Misunderstandings result, like a householder is supposed to be celibate. Not true .. at all. Similarly, once a monk, always a monk. In cultures where there isn't this distinction, we have a poor understanding of it, because of no experience with it.
The ratio has always been maybe 1 sannyasin for every 100 grihastha or less, so the sort of celibacy we're talking about is rare.
Problems arise when the teachings for one overlap into the other. Misunderstandings result, like a householder is supposed to be celibate. Not true .. at all. Similarly, once a monk, always a monk. In cultures where there isn't this distinction, we have a poor understanding of it, because of no experience with it.
The ratio has always been maybe 1 sannyasin for every 100 grihastha or less, so the sort of celibacy we're talking about is rare.
Glaurung
Denizen of Niflheim
It doesn't. What it forbids is the separation of sex from the commitments of marriage. As almost all cultures and religions traditionally have.