Theos-Talk Archives (June 1997 Message tl00018)

   The question of whether or not to endorse celibacy (either as a personal
moral value or as a more general goal toward which everyone should strive)
seems to perplex some Theosophists.
   To me the issue does not seem very perplexing.  A desire for sex is simply
"one more desire" that joins an entire host of desires that human beings
typically seem to have.  This one is neither "good" nor "bad" in itself ---
but, like all of our other physical desires, it helps to bind us to this
plane of existence.  If one likes good books one gravitates toward a library
and not a restaurant.  Conversely, if the desire is for good food, go to a
restaurant and not the library, etc. etc. .  As everyone knows, Catholic
priests and nuns have lived under a vow of celibacy for centuries.
 Admittedly, some of them don't much care for this situation but I maintain
the church "is on to something" here. However, I would seriously question the
spiritual value to any individual of <enforced> celibacy.  If someone has
desires then they have them (and forbidding them will simply sublimate them
--- not make them go away).  Sigmund Freud wrote extensively on this point.
 So, as with the restaurant and the library mentioned above, if one has
physical desires (of Any nature) that one will continue to seek a physical
body in which to express those desires.
   As usual (for me, at least) this gets back to one of my favorite teachers
--- Nisargaddata Maharaj who very wisely said: "desire nothing ... for that
you may surely have."  And until then?  Welcome to reincarnation and Planet
Earth oh desirous one!





























                                                                       Dennis