Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00116)

> From: Art House <trankusek@earthlink.net>
> To: theos-l@vnet.net
> Subject: Re: Sex, birth control and all the rest of it

> ********
> - What I'm trying to get at is the idea that birth control has tipped
> the balance of the natural consequences of sex to the point where we CAN
> developed cultural attitudes that concentrate more on the pleasure of
> sex than the children from sex. I'm not saying this is bad or good. I'm
> just wondering what effect this might have vis a vis spirituality in the
> culture at large. HPB didn't, couldn't have spoken directly to this
> issue. Does it help raise us up, spiritualize sex, set up tensions that
> draw our energies down and out, involve us more in personality life than
> spiritual life, etc? I'm just fishing ...

Being a practical person that came from a family of little material means,
my first
reponse was one of economics.  Some of the people that lived nearby in my
childhood
neighborhood had five children sleeping in one bedroom.  Ninety-nine
percent of the
girls graduating from my high school did not go to college.  The value of
family
planning in terms of being able to support and nurture children properly is
first in my mind, rather than the luxury of considering how it effects
one's spiritual path.  Sorry, but this is my background.
>
> The same goes for the presence of images in the culture at large that
> seem to reinforce an emphatically sexual, personality orientation toward
> identity rather. Watch TV for an hour, read just about any magazine. You
> don't get a preponderance of uplifting images of humanity (unless you
> watch talk shows!). You have to do mental gymnastics to spiritualize
> even a little of what hits your eye every day. Before you know it your
> buried in the mass miasma and have to trudge yourself up the ladder of
> identity again. Sure you can just relax and enjoy it, but what effect
> does that have on your progress if your habit is to cease the
> spiritualizing effort?

In terms of relaxing, I was speaking of those who aren't concerned with
their progress, who
don't even know the path exists.  They are still enjoying the play of it.
For those of us who have decided to look behind the curtain of life and
wanted
to know how the lights and pulleys work, that's another story.  I can only
speak
for myself, in that I find myself watching less and less television.  It
seems like
such a trivial waste of time.  No wonder more people are turning to the
Internet,
where there at least some degree of interactivity and choice.  I'm pretty
burned
out on magazines, too, since they seem to mostly advertising.

That's why people who yearn from something more in their life join
organizations
and seek out special book stores that will fill their needs.

One can still go down to the video store and rent some good stuff.  I
fondly remember "LIttle Buddha."

-Ann E. Bermingham