Love, Sex, and Religion

People's philosophy and teachings on love and sex differ from one religion to another.

 I will touch on the following major beliefs on my subsequent posts:

1. Hinduism and Kamasutra;

2. Buddhism

3. Islamic Beliefs

4. Sufism

5. Christianity

6. Yogis, Mystis, and Saints

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Basic Needs 

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D.

May 20, 2023

Is Sex a Basic Need Like Food?

I was once invited via ZOOM to give a lecture to a select group of audience on Christian spirituality where I happened to also touch on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Being all mature, the issue of intimate love and sex came out intensely in the discussion.

Sex is a basic need, yes. In fact, it is an existential reality that cannot be avoided. Who is not happy when that urge down there in our sacral chakra near the bottom of our alimentary canal starts to heat? I would not have been born when my parents did not give vent to their heat.

I would not have my beautiful and loving children and grandchildren who are so loving with their father and mother as well as grandparents and in-laws. Thank God, I am given that gift and blessing of having that sexual urge also.

It must be responded to. To ignore it can only mean ignoring God’s greatest gift to us. Of course, nobody is ignoring it. Even saints and mystics do something about it. Whether single, married, divorced, separated, or widowed, the urge or itch is always there, innate in us.

Animals’ sexual heat is seasonal. Blessed are they. But this is not so with humans. Sexual urge is 24/7, aroused anytime even when we are asleep. It is triggered at the slightest provocation anywhere we are, alone or with others.

But how shall we respond to it?

Three vital influencing factors immediately confront us, namely, physical, emotional, and spiritual. I will not dwell on this. I simply presume we all know how these internal and external factors influence our decision on how to respond when confronted with situations relating to sex.

I can only say that self-satisfaction or self-gratification is unavoidable and there are many ways of doing it—

1. Masturbation

2. Meditation and yoga

3. Physical Exercises

4. Natural and organic way – also called wet dreams, and

5. Activating and raising one’s sexual energy to a higher level of vibrational level.

Masturbation only drains out one’s surplus energy and depletes our reserve energy, which we have been accumulating since birth. Doing it after three, six months, or even a year of abstinence only makes one feel confused, wasted, dead tired, down and out, uninterested in things around us, and physical effects that medical doctors, sex therapists, and psychologists are telling us.

Thinking of these aftereffects alone is enough to discourage one from doing it. But this takes a great amount of willpower at the beginning, especially when one is in its teenage years up to 40 years old. Thereafter, abstinence from masturbation becomes easier to manage, and its effects tremendously energizing.

Meditation and yoga are well-known to all of us. It is simply quieting the mind, as Gautama Buddha showed to us 2,600 years ago. This can be spiritually enlightening and awakening too. But I will not dwell on this subject any further.

Doing exercises regularly is a great help in transmuting one’s sexual energy. I continue doing my treadmill exercises, light-weight lifting, and stationary bike, all of which are in one of my rooms in the house. Wet dreams also come out naturally, especially at night. But they can’t be preplanned. Nor am I interested in conditioning myself into it.

Activating and raising my sexual energy to a higher energy level is my favorite. It comes in various ways. In the 1990s, I was in direct contact with a Hindu Guru specializing on third-eye activation. He was in India and I was in my Antipolo residence here in the Philippines. There were no Zoom, Facebook, or Instagram, during those times but my Guru had a special online platform where we were able to communicate with each other. I also had sessions with my Indian Gurus on activating my heart chakra. These are specialized ones and found them very effective and spiritually enriching.

But the idea of doing simultaneous activation of my eight energy centers came to mind. So, I combined all the various energy-raising techniques from various Eastern beliefs and traditions, starting from the sexual or sacral to the navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown chakras, all the way up to the divine energy and bringing this divine energy back down to further boost all our energy centers, even to our ground/feet chakra to meld it with the energy of Mother Earth, the Goddess Gaia, the Mother of All Creation, from which we all sprung forth.

I once gave a lecture workshop on this type of energy activation in class. In my experience, doing this daily can be addictive and truly life-energizing. But I don’t want to do this in class anymore, in spite of the positive feedback I received from my students. I would rather prefer to do it alone as my personal tool.

I am not recommending others to do this exercise alone unless they are well-protected. For this can also be disastrous physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Be sure to have somebody who can be with you to guide you throughout the entire process. The Western type is going into aerobics (Zumba-like) and getting more commercialized. I do not recommend this, except as a physical exercise.

In my case, I do the Eastern type for one hour daily at least early dawn from 4:00 am. But please don’t misunderstand me. I am not aspiring to be a saint. I am here on earth because I am not perfect. I am simply motivated by my pursuit to raise my energy level and vibration to a higher dimension beyond the fifth.

All told, which technique is most appropriate and fitting?

I don’t give judgment on which is right and wrong, moral or immoral. Conscience is not inborn in me, but simply a product of my religious upbringing, imposed on me during my seminary days, but which I have long discarded.

I am not here to convince anybody. I am just here telling a story of my own personal experience about the hierarchy of human needs and how I respond to them. It could be bad or good depending on your interpretation, but it is my story.