From sex to superconsciousness

FROM SEX TO SUPERCONSCIOUNESS

 Mario D’Couto 

            The title of this article comes from one of the works of the great Shri Rajneesh Osho.[1] To be honest, I have not read it but I have borrowed his title to give my stand or my interpretation as to why sex is something divine.
            Sex, by and large, in any society is a taboo and not anyone would want to talk about it openly. So the question that comes up is if we believe that sex is a gift from God, why then do we shirk or feel uneasy about it? Dietrich Bonheoffer once said, “Even the Bible could find room for the Song of Songs and could hardly have a more passionate and sensual love than is there portrayed. It is a good thing that, that book is included in the Bible as a protest against those who believe that Christianity stands for the restraint of passion.” We moderns would be better off if we could reclaim this holistic understanding of sexuality and spirituality. Instead we have allowed ourselves to follow Plato’s[2] differentiation between noble heavenly rational love and dishonourable bodily vulgar love. By reading the Bible through Platonic lenses, the results have been disastrous.
            Sexuality is part of humanity and hence there is nothing wrong in feeling sexual or called ‘sexual.’ A boy would always exhibit his masculinity while a girl would always exhibit her feminity. It cannot be otherwise as that would be abnormal. There is no point in trying to run away from the problem of sex or ignore it. In fact the more we try to do so, it only aggravates it. Psychologists call this the ‘Law of Reverse’ effect. The basic understanding of this law is that the object of our rejection actually becomes the centre for our concentration. Hence when our minds are pre – occupied but it, then that is where the problem lies. It is like the boy learning to ride a bicycle. If he is going to be afraid of the boulder or the stone that he is going to dash against and allows himself to be totally pre – occupied by it, it only looms large on his mind and the road seems to vanish from his vision. It is as if he were hypnotized by the stone and drawn to it making the ‘I’ impossible, to avoid a clash.
            The fire of sex is not an enemy but a friend. If we were to understand this fire, it would not burn us, but would warm us and provide light. Lightening used to flash in the sky since millions of years. Sometimes it fell and killed human people. Today this very same thing has been transformed and has become our friend – electricity. Had we continue to shut our eyes to it, we would never have fathomed into its secrets and utilized it thereby making it an object of fear and our enemy. The same is true of sex. When we understand its nature and behaviour, we can hope to raise it to a higher level.
            Loving someone does not mean genital contact. Human love is much more comprehensive than marital love for love basically means communion between people and that is quite possible without any genital element entering into it. Authentic love is freely given and freely received. In its most pure form, love is mutual. It is about willing the good of the other. Hence, in a sexual act, it is not just one person who is the main centre of attraction but it is about two people enjoying the presence of the other.
            To conclude, if a man can see a woman as spiritually consecrated soul – body reality and love her as such, then he is in the right way of loving God with all his heart: he is loving him in the form which is most adequate to the present state of his vision. There may be higher states of vision. It may be possible ultimately to love God free from all form. But it is certainly better for man to love God in a form to which he can respond and which has meaning for him, than it is to imagine he is loving a formless God when really he is simply committed to a spiritual vacuum. We cannot love in the abstract. To love in general is not to love at all. It is not for nothing that Teilhard de Chardin can say, “Love is a three term function: man, woman and God. Its whole perfection and success are bound up with harmonious balance of those three elements.” With this contention, Teilhard de Chardin called for attention to the divine power of man – woman love. The great Andalusian spiritual master, Ibn Arabi, confirms the idea when he writes that the sages who enjoy the most perfect vision of God are those who can contemplate Him in a woman.                 
  


[1] A noted outspoken Indian philosopher, known throughout India and abroad.
[2] A Greek philosopher who considered the body as evil and the spirit as good. He is one of the major Greek philosophers who has influenced Christian thinking besides Aristotle, who was his student. In fact it is said that Plato’s philosophy influenced St. Augustine’s thought while Aristotle influenced St. Thomas Aquinas’ thought, two great giant thinkers in the history of the Church. 

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