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Very interesting reading.
I did want to comment on two paragraphs in particular which struck me:
Westerners tend to associate Indian spiritual practices with the wandering yogis or itinerant sadhus, but the so-called path of the householder – of the individual who seeks spiritual development whilst holding down a job or keeping a family – is widely acknowledged as the most difficult path to tread. – pg 6
I can relate to this statement. So many people look at Magick as escapism, a means to separate oneself from ("transcending" is a term often used) the world. In the privacy of their own bedrooms, within their magick circles, they can play the Grand Magus or the Sacred Priestess...but they can't pay their bills. They can't deal with other people. They can't control their addictions and habits. They can't function in the real world – and Magick is fundamentally about interacting with, and thriving in, the real world. Hine does bring up often, throughout the essays, that Tantra has the same goal.
The idea that ascetic practices (in moderation) have value seems to be difficult for some Western magicians to accept. Western culture is overly attached to instant gratification and obsessed with being ‘sexually’ successful...Being sexually active is closely related to self-esteem in our culture...particularly in the magical subculture, where there is a common belief that ‘successful magick’ equates with a high sex-drive. Our sexuality is felt to be one of the most private areas of our lives, yet it is highly influenced by ‘external’ conditions. In this kind of atmosphere, ‘not having sex’ can become as much of an act of magick as any ritualized copulation, and probably more productive in the long run if one is simply responding to ‘surface’ gratifications, rather than actually examining one’s underlying complex of motivations and kleshas. Moreover, ascetic practices are useful for sensitizing the bodymind to subtle nuances of experience and sensation that would otherwise pass unnoticed. – pg 14
Many, if not most, forms of Western Magick tend to wax obsessive about sex (and straight sex at that, but that's another issue). This is partly an overcompensating, knee-jerk reaction towards living in a society where any sort of sex is considered "sinful" or "bad". But I suspect another reason is that working Magick raises a great deal of energy, more than most people are used to, and the closest other human experience that raises that sort of energy tends to be sex. So the two become correlated, and it becomes habitual to associate Magick and sex together...lazy thinking.
Therefore, it makes sense that refraining from sexual activity, and studying alternative means of working with the energy flowing through the body, would perhaps be more useful in "examining one’s underlying complex of motivations and kleshas". |
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