Sexual Spirituality: What Does Tantric Sex Have To Do WIth Making the World a Better Place?

Sex is a powerful thing. Biological reproduction ensures the survival of a species, but sex goes beyond reproduction, beyond hormones and firing synapses. Human beings gain pleasure from sex. Sexual pleasure, which is arguably the most controversial feeling in human history, is created through an act that has been described by many as an evolutionary advantage.

Perhaps this is true; the pleasure we gain from sex gives us a reproductive advantage that has molded us into the big-brained social primates that we are. But there is always the possibility of another connection, a spiritual explanation, of sex. Perceiving sex as a spiritual concept can change individual and cultural norms and behaviors towards sex.

Sex and Spirituality

There are many repercussions to conceptualizing sex as a spiritual object rather than just a biological fact. Many believe that encouraging people to think about, talk about, and enjoy sex would lead to an amoral, sex addicted, STI ridden society. However, there is more evidence to suggest that redefining sex as a regular part of people’s lives along with appropriate education can lower risky sexual practices, teen pregnancy rates, and sexual violence (Murray, Ciarrocchi, & Murray-Swank, 2007 & Murray-Swank, Nichole A. & Mahoney, Annette, 2005).

Bathsheba at Her Bath by Rembrandt, 1654Religion and sexuality have a strange relationship. Depending on the religion, sex can be seen as dirty and corrupting, leading one away from the divine, or as a sacred cleansing, a way of becoming closer to the divine, and multitudes of attitudes in between.

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There are many studies examining the link between religious attitudes and attitudes towards sex and sexuality, most of them concluding that being religious lowers risky sexual behaviors.

• Murray, Ciarrocchi, and Murray-Swank (2007), for example, found that when one is more religious or spiritual, the less likely they were to engage in promiscuous sex, have sex with multiple partners, have sex after the use of drugs and alcohol, and the less likely they were to have casual sex.
• In another study by Murray-Swank and Mahoney (2005), the researchers found that those who were more globally religious or spiritual were more likely to hold conservative attitudes about sex.
• They also found that people who have spiritual beliefs, such as the importance of pursuing a spiritual life and the importance of spiritual experiences—and the belief that these experiences can change one’s life—are more likely to hold attitudes about sex that are more conservative, less permissive, and more traditional (2005).

The evidence shows that religion is an important factor, the gate-keeper, of a person’s sexuality and their ideas about sexuality. Based on a measure of religiosity or spirituality, one could fairly accurately predict that person’s sexual habits, approximate number of partners, attitudes about pre-marital sex, marital sex, and birth control.  

Sexuality and spirituality in Western culture

In Western culture—which is dominated by Christianity and other Semitic traditions—sex is seen as a bodily construction, whereas the divine is considered transcendent. This means that sex is seen as a means of procreation within marriage.

Anything other than this institutionalized, utilitarian use of sex is seen as lust, one of the seven deadly sins. Perhaps this is the reason that those who are religious tend to be less likely to have sex before marriage and to have fewer risky behaviors. However, there are many other ways in which sex has been conceptualized throughout the ages.

Sex, Ancient Religion and tantra

In many ancient religions, sex was a concept that had sacred, as well as secular, connotations. The ancient practice of Tantra is one of these parts of a religion where sex was considered a sacred part of religious practice. Tantra is not a religion in and of itself, but it is an important aspect within Hinduism and Buddhism. Sexual practices form an integral part of Tantra that interweave every belief and ritual of these religions.

Thangka of Guhyasamaja in union with his consort SparshavajrāIn the Brahamanas, a Hindu sacred text, sex is seen as a form of ritual sacrifice that elevates men and women of all backgrounds to sacred beings (Feuerstein, 1998). This means that sex becomes a sacred ritual that transcends the everyday reality and becomes revered (Feuerstein, 1998). Tantra has texts, like the Kama Sutra, that give instructions for how sex is to be performed, how sex is to be conceptualized, and how the ritual of sex is to be executed. In the Brihad-Aranyaka-Upanishad, for example, there is a passage which relates female body parts to religious objects:

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Her genitals are the sacrificial altar, her hairs the grass offering, her skin the soma press, and her two labia the fire in the center. Verily, as great as the world is for him who sacrifices with the vajapeya [strength libation] sacrifice, so great is the world for him who, knowing this, practices sexual intercourse. But he who practices sexual intercourse without knowing this—women divert his good deeds to themselves” (6.4.3).   

Tantra uses sexuality as a sacred pathway to enlightenment, to the divine. It is also clear from the passage that sexual violence is not permitted in such a practice. When sexuality is a sacred ritual, and the body is part of that ritual, it makes sense not to violate such sacred space. Not surprisingly, there are those today who still use sex as a transcendent experience.

Wade (2000), for instance, conducted 86 interviews with people of all different backgrounds (but no background in tantric or other spiritual sexual practices) about sexual transcendence. She found that our reactions to sex are similar to drug induced or meditative states and that those who had these experiences held traditions that warned against conceptualizing sex as a sacred act. Rye & Meaney (2007) argue that Western culture, steeped in Christianity, equates having sex for pleasure to debauchery. That said, even in Christian theology there is room for sacred sex. The traditional description of the body as a temple is one example of the various beliefs in Western culture that could very easily be opened to the experience of spiritual sexuality. As Rye and Meaney (2007) point out, Western culture has a multitude of ideas about sexuality that vary from believing promiscuity is a lifestyle to saving virginity for marriage.

Sex education and sexual violence

The whole point of this discussion of sex, and the sanctification of it, is to discuss the impact on sex education and sexual violence. The sexual violence statistics here in the United States and abroad are disturbing.

In the United States up to 10 percent of women and 2 percent of men have experienced rape (CDC, 2008). And the statistics abroad are similar (World Report on Violence and Health, 2008). Global and domestic sexual violence rates are overwhelming. The fact that in The Czech Republic close to 11 percent of women have reported sexual violence is hard to conceptualize. How many women in the United States, and in other countries, have been violently attacked for sexual reasons? With all of the laws, secular and religious, that oppose such violence it seems inconceivable that these statistics continue to stay so high. The truth may be that religious and cultural views establish acceptance for this kind of behavior and changing those views can stop it.

In a study done by Aosved and Long (2006), rape myth acceptance was shown to be highly correlated with other forms of intolerance. This, the authors argue, could be due to the religious and cultural conception of sexuality and masculinity. They assert that part of the problem could be the cultural attitudes and how they smooth the progress of the sustained tolerance of sexual violence. In the study, rape myths were defined as “specific sets of attitudes and beliefs that may contribute to ongoing sexual violence by shifting blame for sexual assault from perpetrators to victims” (p. 482). This construct, which is part of the facilitation of sexual violence in the United States, is studied in conjunction with other intolerant beliefs, such as ageism, racism, homophobia, sexism, classism, and religious intolerance.

The authors cite social dominance theory and ecological models as a reason why rape myth acceptance and other oppressive beliefs would be related. The study was conducted with a large sample size (492 males, 506 females) and used a multitude of measures given to participants in random order. The results of this study are startling. Higher scores on each of the oppressive beliefs were associated with higher rape myth acceptance. The authors cite the probable reason for these correlations as the internalized cultural beliefs of individuals about masculinity. The stereotypical male is heterosexual, part of the majority group, young and strong, and has some sort of power over others. This, the authors say, is a conceptualization of masculinity as oppressive or intolerant beliefs that are directly related to rape myth acceptance. In other words, the cultural belief that masculinity is young results in ageism; the cultural belief that masculinity is the majority results in religious intolerance and racism; and the cultural belief that masculinity is power results in multitudes of oppressive and intolerant attitudes and behaviors. 

Along with this, authors Rye and Meaney (2007) have concluded that internalizing these messages about sexuality from culture and religion will greatly impact perceptions and experiences. Coupled with all of the information about the relationship between religion and sexuality, this evidence makes a clear point. As Aosved and Long (2006) have said, when cultural and religious beliefs are changed at an individual level, the cultural and religious beliefs might change on a societal level. This means that changing religious and cultural views of sexuality can change the levels of sexual violence.

Sanctifying sex as a way to curtail sexual violence

As the gate-way to our sexuality and attitudes about sex, religion is a powerful determinate of the levels of sexual violence. Sanctifying sex is one way in which the cultural and religious beliefs about sexuality can be changed.

Murray-Swank and Mahoney (2005) say that those who sanctify sex, or make it sacred, have higher levels of satisfaction, may have less sexual dysfunction, more sexual happiness, and more committed and stable relationships. The authors also state that sanctifying sex can help people—married and unmarried—have more fulfilling and stable relationships and a better sex life. Add to all of this the idea that those who are religious already show fewer risky behaviors and—viola!—we have a heavenly mix.

Sex as a part of our spiritual, physical, and emotional lives could not only save millions of men and women from a brutal sexual assault, but it can also create better relationships for everyone.

Sanctifying sex can reduce the pervasiveness of rape myths and lower the sexual violence rates enormously. Bringing sex into the spiritual world could help knock down cultural beliefs that create oppressive and intolerant beliefs in individuals, not only lowering the sexual violence rate, but also hate crime rates.

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This will lead to better sex education, because sex will no longer be taboo, but an integral part of the well-being of every human being. Because it has been shown numerous times that abstinence only has little to no effect, parents and schools, clergy and peers will all be a source of education and therefore prevention. And this will lead to impediments in the spread of rape myth acceptance as well as other intolerant and oppressive beliefs. Far from being an amoral, sex crazed society, a society that sanctifies the practice of sex can be a more satisfied, less intolerant, and more positive society. And is that not what we are striving for?

References

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