Sex and Pride
Hard to Escape
A dungeon — walls a mile thick Easier to escape than sex… than pride
The creatures of this earth are not only driven by sex but driven insane by it. And I think not only of the fight-to-the-death-for-the-right-to-impregnate animals, and there are quite a few of those about, I also think of our sweet humankind.
Surely, there must be a smoother, a more eloquent, a more aesthetically pleasing way to go about propagating the race. For viewed with the eyes of, say, a sex-less alien come for a brief visit, sex must appear as one of the most mysterious, odd-looking wastes of energy conceivable. Surely, this alien will turn to his host, face a virtual question mark: what on earth? (pun intended)
Well, yes, our host shrugs and smiles, a little or not a little embarrassed, that’s just the way it’s done here.
Alien shakes his alien head in bewildered wonder, groping for words. Coming up short.
Yes, sex is considered natural — since by natural we mean that it occurs in nature. Should it, though, to serve its purpose of procreation, necessarily be done this way, and with the amazing amount of highly charged emotive baggage that goes along with it? I think not. And I can think of a many different (and much better ways) of keeping the race turning over.
Escaping sex (for those who recognize its dangers — and we tend to call these people Saints) is near impossible. Near impossible. Not impossible. Near impossible.
The Buddha, for one, recognized the dungeon-like encasement that sex gleefully supplies our species, and therefore — as an act of kindness and compassion — outlawed sex for his monks.
According to the original Vinaya — the portion of the Buddhist canon that governs the Buddhist community of monks, intercourse was cause for immediate expulsion from the Sangha (the community).
Masturbation the same.
Even wet dreams were suspect and cause for investigation. If at all aided by a touch or two: expulsion.
Now, considering that many of his monks were young men, at the peak of their sexual powers and potential, the injunctions placed on them must have been pretty colossal. Another way to look at this though: the Buddha knew not only the havoc sex can and does raise with and in the mind, but also the size and power of the barrier to spiritual freedom that sex imposes.
No one driven by sex can meditate peacefully — which, in effect, is saying that no one driven by sex can meditate at all.
Many Christians over the millennia — especially the mystics — arrived at the same conclusion and strove (with varied success) to escape sex.
Mystics of many other religions, ditto.
In modern times, however, most religions have relaxed their celibacy ideals (and rules) to allow both marriage (Christianity and Zen Buddhism for two) and sex.
These days, even the Buddhist precepts for the lay follower do not ban sex, but do proscribe adultery. I don’t know that these precepts, say a millennium ago, did not demand celibacy. The Vinaya itself demands it even today.
I think that by bending the rules to accommodate the planetary insanity we call sex, we’ve also allowed back in play a formidable obstacle to our reaching true enlightenment, Nirvana.
As for pride (the other subject of the wolfku), also a daunting fiend — comes before a fall, said Lennon — even if a little easier to shed and be rid of.
Some people live for pride though.
And many live for both sex and pride.
What a planet.
© Wolfstuff
