The intimate relationship between yoga, sexual energy, and awakening.

During the autumn retreats here in Portugal, I gave multiple lectures and workshops on the relationship between yoga, meditation, desire and sexual energy.

And telling by the response, these were some of my most well received workshops, ever.

The subject of sexual energy is one that catches attention and curiosity quickly.

As indeed, it is a fascinating subject. A powerful subject. A sacred subject. A necessary and vital subject, when discussing yoga.

The Hatha Yoga literature is full of guidance on how to harness sexual energy, and how to raise it up as a form of life force through the body.

Yet in the world of contemporary yoga and meditation, it is often hardly talked about, or brushed over, spoken about with rigidity, or taught with a lack of embodiment and healthy integration of the teacher.

In books from Indian gurus we find ideas of suppression, celibacy, and

a judgmental attitude towards lust, creating further shadows in practitioners, on a planet with already plenty of sexual shadow.

Esoteric Taoist practices, visualations and circulation techniques, taught conceptually, that won’t do anything other than create more fantasies and disembodiment.

This is a problem. If the integration of sexual energy is not taught well, or taught at all, and this aspect of us thus stays unintegrated, we fail to integrate one of the most vital aspects of this life in a body.

Sexual energy is literally the root of creation. The energy that birthed us. It is the most powerful desire humans have, and the hardest one to control.

Yet when brought into consciousness and practice in the right way, it can not only bring us deeper pleasure, but more importantly, it will heal our heart and awaken our consciousness along with it.

Personally it took me five (!) years of meditating in different monasteries, doing yoga, reading spiritual texts, and being a serious student and seeker, before I had my first encounter with an impactful spiritual teaching on sexual energy.

And impactful it was. It wasn’t even from a yoga or meditation teacher, but from a coach I worked with at the time.

As I started practicing, I quickly discovered how little control I had over this energy, how potent this energy was and how much it controlled me, and how much in me started to transform, for the better, when I learned how to harness it.

As I discovered more and more of its power and importance - and bliss - I struggled to understand why my first teachers had never addressed it.

Over time, it became very clear to me: this must be taught from the very beginning of the path.

This is ultimately not about sexual energy as a seperate subject.

This is about understanding sexual energy, life force and desire, as correlated and all-encompassing aspects of our being.

The energy that beats our hearts That wakes us up in the morning That prompts us to live life

That fuels our creativity

That makes us magnetize towards intimacy with another

All of this is deeply connected.

Channeling desire - life force or sexual energy - into a higher direction, is what the entire spiritual path is about.

Alchemizing lower desires for superficial pleasures and distractions into a higher desire to live, be present, and be in intimacy with all things, is what this is about.

Those who begin to understand this, enter the path of sublimation, of kundalini rising.

Here we can begin to learn the art of cultivation, of sealing energy leaks, and of keeping our energetic vessel full.

The bliss from spiritual practice becoming more and more an every-day and moment to moment lived experience.

Life force standing up fully along the spine, pulsating deep inside from the heart center out into all directions, as a deep, grounded power.

People that harness their life force and sexual energy naturally become radiant, creative, joyful, confident, attractive, driven and often successful people in whatever they put their intention to.

Their mind settles more naturally into presence and meditation.

They are not led by frantic desires for quick hits of pleasure.

And at the peak of all of this, we can become ready for one of the ultimate experiences of Yoga.

Which is to experience non-dual love and intimacy with another, not based on friction, but on heart-energy, where shared pleasure becomes a portal into the most important center we have, the heart.

If most of the population learned how to be intimate with life, and how to make true heart-based love with another, I believe we would have a very different world.

Join me October 24, 16:00 London time on a 2hr+ workshop on this subject, called energy leaks. Or watch the recording. Visit thomasmathias.com/energyleaks