Sacred Sexuality

This book examines the history of sexuality as a sacramental act. Georg Feuerstein instructs that the fulfillment we long for in our sex lives can be attained when we explore the spiritual depths of our erotic natures. Feuerstein delves into a wide variety of spiritual traditions and reveals that all of these great teachings share the hidden message that spirituality is, in essence, erotic and that sexuality is inherently spiritual. from Chapter 3: The following self-report shows that the feeling of love, as it thrives between young lovers, is a powerful means of slipping through the eye of the needle into the bright world of joyous communion with another person. Monica is a pretty, petite woman in her late thirties. She has lived an active spiritual life for many years and has experienced a variety of meditation states. I was sitting at the edge of my bed waiting for my lover. As I was thinking about him and how much I loved him and valued his love, I grew determined to just love him that night, to be concentrated in loving rather than allowing myself to be distracted about worries about our future.. . . My lover arrived shortly after I had made my resolution, and for some reason it was not difficult at all to focus on that feeling of love. As we were making love, I remember looking into his eyes and being “undone” by the love and naked vulnerability I saw in them: All of a sudden I felt no separation between us. I was startled by that and wanted to draw back. But realizing that I was cutting myself off from him and the love that we were feeling for each other, I continued to look into his eyes and to simply be present with him. I “fell” into the fullness that had arisen in and between us. It was so uncomplicated and natural, and my mind was amazingly calm and quiet. A simple joy! And our love-making wasn’t passive either. In fact, it got rather boisterous and passionate. I have had the experience of losing myself a few times in meditation, but this was the only time it happened during lovemaking. That day I was undoubtedly emotionally more open than usual, but also his depth of feeling seemed to draw me into a deeper feeling. Afterward he asked me whether I had noticed anything different and nodded in agreement when I told him what I had felt. He said that for him it was as if we had been encased in a large bubble of energy. The bubble of energy experienced by Monica’s lover probably represents a far more common experience than is assumed. from Chapter 10: The Secret Circle: A Story Set In India Around 1200 A.D. They met every fortnight. The house belonged to one of the wealthiest merchants in town. Unbeknown to most people, he also happened to be the guru of the small group that had come together for an important celebration today, a new member was to be initiated in the Tantric art of sexual union. There were twelve of them–six men and six women, all in their early to late twenties, and perfectly nude. They sat in a circle on a thick carpet. The guru, much older, was seated in the center of the mandala with his own partner, a young girl of exquisite beauty and poise but barely of marriageable age. The master, an accomplished Tantric adept, had been sitting perfectly still for well over an hour already. . . .His partner, seated on his left, likewise had not stirred for a long time. This was the…