How Does One Transcend Sexual Desire? (Preface)
*Book 152: Living this Moment of Illumination
*Written by Master Sheng-yen Lu
*Translated by Haiyan Shen
*Edited by Victor Hazen
*Proofread by Dance Smith
So far, I`ve ordained more than three hundred men and women to become monks and nuns. I personally held the razor and shaved their heads. I foresee that the True Buddha School will have more monks and nuns in the future.
A monk and nun once inquired from me: `I have not overcome my sexual desire, and I can`t stop thinking about it. What should I do?
I answered: `Transform it.`
`How can I transform it?`
I replied: `Go take a cold shower, go jogging, read Buddhist scriptures, look at the clouds in the sky, and practice vajra fist yoga exercises.`
`I have tried all these methods of repression and transformation, but repressing sexual desire does not have a long effect and, in the end, it leads to anxiety.`
Upon hearing this, I realized how serious this matter is.
The Buddha taught: `I recognize the nature of desire, which is also produced from mind.`
This means that sexual desire is very subtle, and it is also produced from causes and conditions. If there were no causes and conditions, you would live your life peacefully. However, if causes and conditions come together, then thoughts will arise. With one moment of imagination, things can be set into motion, and one is unable to stop it even if one wishes to. One is unable to repress it even if one wants to repress it. This is like a flood that can create an instant catastrophe!
In the view of the Buddha-dharma, one`s physical reaction is natural. The psychological and physical interact as cause and effect.
There is a fine analogy: Sexual desire is like grass that is growing
If one uses a large rock to suppress sexual desire, grass can be suppressed to death.
Nevertheless, what will happen if the rock is removed?
The grass will gradually sprout up, and sexual desire comes to life again. Grass grows faster than any other living thing, and it will flourish even more than before.
Once it is tampered with, the consequences are beyond our control!
What should one do?
The Buddha taught living beings the three learnings of non-outflow of defilement. These three learnings of non-outflow are morality, meditation, and wisdom.
* Moral discipline - maintaining precepts.
* Meditative concentration - practicing meditation.
* Wisdom - attaining prajna.
In my view, the issue of moral discipline seems to concern the practice of repression and transformation. Everyone can know precepts, but it takes much practice and effort to uphold precepts.
For a Zen or an esoteric practitioner, one should accomplish the meditative concentration of being detached from sexual desire. If one has attained accomplishment, then one cannot only repress sexual desire but can also transcend it.
I use the style of the vernacular to describe it as follows:
Everyone`s sexual desire is derived from physical and psychological phenomena.
In terms of the psychological aspect, one utilizes the wisdom of the Tathagata (prajna) to dissolve sexual desire into clear and fresh mind.
In terms of the physiological aspect, one practices meditation and arouses the internal fire. One concentrates the power of mind on the life source of reproduction (light drop) at the organ and uses the internal fire to melt the light drop in order to dissolve it into pure energy.
Using this energy and allowing it to circulate throughout one`s body and one`s channels can cause the practitioner`s spirit to become an indestructible diamond of a Buddha.
Let me tell everyone:
If the light drop of the source of life can be transformed into energy, this means one has physically attained the non-outflow of impurity, through which sexual desire can be extinguished!
For a female practitioner, if she can transform her menstruation blood into energy, this is also the physical non-outflow of impurity, through which sexual desire can also be dissolved!
This is called the practice of meditative concentration, which can completely transform sexual desire. I sincerely tell everyone that, through practicing this method, I myself have attained the non-outflow of impurity and have become a vajra guru.
In terms of prajna wisdom, the Buddha taught us the contemplation of a skeleton and the contemplation of impurity.
If one wishes to be free of sexual desire, one still needs to rely upon morality, meditation, and wisdom.
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