Integrating,Your,Freedoms,Part DIY Integrating Your 4 Freedoms (Part 7 of 9) - Desire As Freedo

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and

Just as we are sometimes taught that pleasure is a sinful path tofollow, so are we warned of the terrible power of desire. Desire canlead us to overindulgence, to betrayal, and to misery.“Theabstinent run away from what they desire, but carry their desires withthem. When a man enters reality, he leaves his desires behind him,” sosays Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.i You can interpret this to meanthat an awakened person no longer has any desire, or you can understandthat it means he is not governed by desire. Desire exists, but inmaking his choices, he does not do so based on desire. He leaves desirebehind.You can recognize desire as simply another element oflife (like your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations) and chooseto act on your desires or not. You don’t have to suppress them, but youknow that you are not your desires and therefore are not ruled by them.You are not at the mercy of your passions.On the contrary,desire provides motivation. Realizing the true desires of your heart isone of the great pleasures in life. Desire is fuel for healthy living.The freedoms of desire include: Desire for spiritual awakeningDesire that supports you manifesting your visionDesire that supports fulfilling your purpose in your lifeDesire as passion and pleasure. Thetrap comes when you feel you must act on the desires you feel,particularly sexual desire. If you feel horny, you have to do somethingabout it. Conversely, if you have no sexual desire, then you have noreason to engage in sexual activity. Conflict in relationships canoccur when one partner has more sexual desire than the other. Thelustier partner might pester the other for more sexual activity and, ifit isn’t forthcoming, might seek sexual satisfaction outside therelationship, feeling quite justified in doing so.Desire is energy, fuel for life.If,however, you can recognize desire as energy, just as emotions are, youcan decide how to use that energy based on all your freedoms. Sexualenergy is simply another form of life force energy. By perceivingdesire as fuel for action, you can transform and use it for the highestself-actualization. Just as energy can be converted into matter andmatter into energy, so too can you transform sexual desire intosomething else, such as emotional connection or creative inspiration.Thisis not suppression of your desires; it is transformation embedded infreedom. Such knowledge allows you to open without reservation intointimate emotional connection with more than just your chosen spouse.It allows you to touch others with love, tenderness, and compassionwithout fearing it will lead to inappropriate sexual touching.Knowingthat you can transform sexual desire into emotional connection alsoempowers you to convert emotional connection into sexual passion,thereby overcoming problems of mismatches in sex drive. It can enableyou to maintain a fulfilling sexual life to any age, despite hormonalchanges that reduce libido, such as the decline of testosterone. Youcan begin lovemaking, you can even initiate it, without already beingaroused. Skilled lovers who are emotionally open and energeticallyconnected, with conscious mental focus and attunement to their bodies,know that passion will awaken as lovemaking progresses. Lovemakingbecomes more than just a release of sexual tension, it becomes ameditation.Tantric, Taoist, and Egyptian sacred sex practicesregard lovers’ sexual union as a physical expression of the highestconsciousness in which all Four Freedoms integrate seamlessly. Forexample, Tantras are commentaries on the dialogues between the Hindugod Shiva and his consort Shakti, the masculine and feminine aspects ofthe same deity. When they make love, they merge as one and all lifeflows from their sacred embrace. “All the Universe is the play ofSakti-Siva. Sakti is Siva, and Siva is Sakti.”Yoga means union.Tantric yoga is a direct route to the unity of being, a realization ofGod-consciousness. As Tantric and Chan (Chinese Zen) master DanielOdier says, “Pure happiness is the non-differentiation between thetantric practitioner and the universe….”iii In this awakened state ofillumination, ordinary sex is elevated to the level of sublimespiritual bliss, something far beyond the simple pursuit of pleasure orenhanced orgasms. According to the teachings of Chan master Houei-hai,“If you create duality, that’s ordinary passion. Sacred passion springsfrom an absence of all duality.” Excerpted from our new book Sensual Love Secrets for Couples: The Four Freedoms of Body, Mind, Heart and Soul, by Al Link and Pala Copeland, Llewellyn, 2007.