
- By Master Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated by Haiyan Shen & Edited
by Victor Hazen
- Proofread by Dance Smith
- Member of the Padmakumara Translation Team
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How Does One Transcend Sexual Desire? (Preface)
So far, I've ordained more than three hundred men and women to
become monks and nuns. I personally held the razor and shaved their
heads. I foresee that the True Buddha School will have more monks
and nuns in the future.
A monk and nun once inquired from me: "I have not overcome
my sexual desire, and I can't stop thinking about it. What should
I do?
I answered: "Transform it."
"How can I transform it?"
I replied: "Go take a cold shower, go jogging, read Buddhist
scriptures, look at the clouds in the sky, and practice vajra fist
yoga exercises."
"I have tried all these methods of repression and transformation,
but repressing sexual desire does not have a long effect and, in
the end, it leads to anxiety."
Upon hearing this, I realized how serious this matter is.
The Buddha taught: "I recognize the nature of desire, which
is also produced from mind."
This means that sexual desire is very subtle, and it is also produced
from causes and conditions. If there were no causes and conditions,
you would live your life peacefully. However, if causes and conditions
come together, then thoughts will arise. With one moment of imagination,
things can be set into motion, and one is unable to stop it even
if one wishes to. One is unable to repress it even if one wants
to repress it. This is like a flood that can create an instant catastrophe!
In the view of the Buddha-dharma, one's physical reaction is natural.
The psychological and physical interact as cause and effect.
There is a fine analogy: Sexual desire is like grass that is growing
If one uses a large rock to suppress sexual desire, grass can be
suppressed to death.
Nevertheless, what will happen if the rock is removed?
The grass will gradually sprout up, and sexual desire comes to life
again. Grass grows faster than any other living thing, and it will
flourish even more than before.
Once it is tampered with, the consequences are beyond our control!
What should one do?
The Buddha taught living beings the three learnings of non-outflow
of defilement. These three learnings of non-outflow are morality,
meditation, and wisdom.
- Moral discipline - maintaining precepts.
- Meditative concentration - practicing meditation.
- Wisdom - attaining prajna.
In my view, the issue of moral discipline seems to concern the
practice of repression and transformation. Everyone can know precepts,
but it takes much practice and effort to uphold precepts.
For a Zen or an esoteric practitioner, one should accomplish the
meditative concentration of being detached from sexual desire. If
one has attained accomplishment, then one cannot only repress sexual
desire but can also transcend it.
I use the style of the vernacular to describe it as follows:
Everyone's sexual desire is derived from physical and psychological
phenomena.
In terms of the psychological aspect, one utilizes the wisdom of
the Tathagata (prajna) to dissolve sexual desire into clear and
fresh mind.
In terms of the physiological aspect, one practices meditation
and arouses the internal fire. One concentrates the power of mind
on the life source of reproduction (light drop) at the organ and
uses the internal fire to melt the light drop in order to dissolve
it into pure energy.
Using this energy and allowing it to circulate throughout one's
body and one's channels can cause the practitioner's spirit to become
an indestructible diamond of a Buddha.
Let me tell everyone:
If the light drop of the source of life can be transformed into
energy, this means one has physically attained the non-outflow of
impurity, through which sexual desire can be extinguished!
For a female practitioner, if she can transform her menstruation
blood into energy, this is also the physical non-outflow of impurity,
through which sexual desire can also be dissolved!
This is called the practice of meditative concentration, which
can completely transform sexual desire. I sincerely tell everyone
that, through practicing this method, I myself have attained the
non-outflow of impurity and have become a vajra guru.
In terms of prajna wisdom, the Buddha taught us the contemplation
of a skeleton and the contemplation of impurity.
If one wishes to be free of sexual desire, one still needs to rely
upon morality, meditation, and wisdom.
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