Sexual Desire and the Body in Two Religious Traditions

1. Sexual Desire and the Body in Two Religious Traditions March 27, 2000

2. Introduction • Religious experience and the body/senses • Religion and sexual desire • Our focus: monastic Buddhism and Tantra • A word on Tantric sex ritual • Visit on Wednesday by Tantric adept

3. Cause of Suffering: Desire • Buddha’s rejection of Hinduism • ritual • caste • suffering • True cause of suffering: desire

4. How to end suffering? • By achieving high level of consciousness • things perish • there is no ‘I’ • Difficult idea... • Atman? • More radical? • extinction of separateness of self • renunciation of desire

5. How do monks extinguish desire? • The disgusting mortal body • The rules of chastity • for monks • for nuns

6. The problem with world-renunciation • The problems of enduring desire, hypocrisy, self-delusion

7. The response of Tantrism to the world • Emerged in India 1500 years ago • Similarities with Buddhism • Immersion in, not escape from, in the world • Both pain and pleasure • Everything is divine • No taboos

8. Implications for tantric attitude toward the body and sexual desire • If everything is divine, so is the body • If the body is divine, so is sexual desire • But sex is a means, not an end • Sex must be linked to divinity

9. Siva: The underlying male principle • Procreative energy (pushes dwarf of forgetfuness toward rebirth) • meditative consciousness (arms shaped in “Om”)

10. Shakti: female principle • The Female principle • creativity • energy • Yoni shrines

11. Kali • The goddess Kali • The Tantric desire to confront Kali’s dual aspect

12. The sexual rite • Preparation • Meditation and becoming • The women • transcendence of taboo • The experience of bliss

13. Yeshe Tsogyel • Buddhist Tantric • Chose sexual rite to teach disciples

14. More Recent Image of Yeshe Tsogyel • The modern version • Note contrast between her hair and the hair of Buddhist nuns • Why long hair?