Celibacy, Karma (Part 2) and Amit Ray
November 3, 2024
8 min read
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{Body}
Celibacy
Like a phone battery, energy coming into your body via the nose, mouth and brain stem can get stored in your cells for later use — in your fat cells for heat during the winter, in your muscle cells for the final push in a workout, in your killer T cells for future viral wars.
By far the biggest storage location, though, is in your ejaculate.
You know…ejaculate! The stuff you excrete during an orgasm. As far as energy density in your body goes, it is the largest.
(By the way, in case you didn’t know, both men and women ejaculate. The main difference is that men’s ejaculate includes semen, whereas women’s ejaculate does not.)
And that makes sense, right? The amount of biological energy required to create and grow an entire baby is unmatched.
Why does all of this matter?
It matters because if you want more energy you would be wise to conserve this vital fluid, choosing to release it only when you are conscious of the “consequences”.*
Aka you would benefit greatly from learning how to intentionally and ethically channel your sexual energy.
*Consequences does not mean burning in hell for an eternity. Other than unplanned pregnancies, consequences simply means (1) depleting your critical storehouse of life-force energy, (2) ever-furthering your reliance on the body to make you happy, and (3) carelessly reducing others into being just physical objects.
{Mind}
What is karma?
This is Part 2 of 3. Click for Part 1.
As described last week, whatever is set in motion must eventually settle, or else the Universe remains in some way unbalanced — it “owes” an energetic debt.
Same thing with you. When you have a thought or decision — any thought or decision — it creates a brief energetic imbalance in the Universe that must be accounted for.
Metaphysically speaking, the unique ways that these imbalances or misalignments get corrected is the very life you’re living right now.
As the simplest possible example, let’s say you think about eating a cookie nearby. The energy of that thought is a cause that must have an effect, and can go in one of three directions:
You can eat the cookie, meaning the energy of the thought you had is transformed into glucose and fat and heat for the body.
You can consciously choose not to eat the cookie, meaning you will watch as the thought transforms itself into the uncomfortable feelings of craving and dissatisfaction and hunger.
You can get distracted with another desire and forget all about eating the cookie, which means that the energy of that thought gets stored in the large warehouse of your mind to be examined at a later date.
That third option is extremely important for understanding the idea of reincarnation.
Just as the fat on your body is the physical accumulation of old decisions about food, according to yogis, your entire psyche and body and life circumstances are just an out-picturing of all the thoughts you had while you were distracted, either in this lifetime or prior ones.
How is it fair that some children are born into severe poverty, while others are born into immaculate wealth? How does it make sense that a measly 70 years on Earth can determine whether you go to heaven or hell forever?
It’s not fair! It doesn’t make any sense!
Unless, of course, reincarnation is real.
Without multiple opportunities for experience, achievement and redemption, God looks more and more like a seditious tyrant than a benevolent Creator.
Stay tuned next week for more information on how karma determines the specifics of one’s birth.
{Soul}
Mindfulness isn’t just the process of catching unproductive stories, and then working diligently to re-see them in a more favorable light. Mindfulness is also the process of creating the conditions such that no unproductive stories arise at all.
By analogy, which is a more enjoyable way to live: constantly filtering dirty tap water every time you need it, or eliminating the pollution at its source so the water comes out clean to begin with?
Spiritual traditions tackle the problem of mental purification in different ways. Yogis like to use austerities; Christians like to use prayer; Buddhists like to use non-reactive attention.
No matter which path you choose, every school of thought agrees that mental purification is a byproduct of removing complexity — of simplifying one’s life such that only what is necessary remains.
And there enlies the lesson of beauty.
True beauty — be it a beautiful thing, person or experience — is never in excess. It includes exactly what is necessary, and not an iota more.
This is partially why nature is so beautiful, and so healing. What could be simpler than a walk through the woods? Watching a bee foraging for pollen? Listening to the movement of the stream?
Seeing beauty reflects back to us what is superfluous in our lives. It invites us to release what we are attached to, in turn purifying our thinking to be lighter and freer.
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