From: Yogani
Date: Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:44am

Q: As I practice Yoga following your guidance, some additional questions come up regarding certain matters. I was hoping you could relate to a few of them:

1. Sexual arousal during meditation – During meditation and Pranayama I experience great sexual arousal. I know this is a usual symptom, but I believe I experience it in a rather extreme way: the sensations are very strong at times, and moreover – at times I even experience ejaculations during meditations (I do not notice it while it happens, only after the session is over). I don’t even practice Siddhasana yet – it simply happens during following the mantra. Isn’t it a horrible waste of Prana? Is there any recommended way to avoid it?

2. Crossing eyes during Sambhavi – the act of directing the eyes towards the point between the eyebrows quite worries me. Obviously, this is not a natural activity for the eyes, and is (even when done gently) very straining and stressing for them, especially considering the effect of accumulating effort during long periods. Isn’t it hazardous to the functioning of the eyes? Couldn’t it affect one’s eyesight?

A: Actually, sexual arousal is not a common symptom during meditation and spinal breathing without siddhasana. It is a sign of good things happening though, as it is an advanced experience of purification. The emissions will not last, so don’t be overly concerned about them. Consider it to be a stage, like wet dreams. In this case, wet spiritual dreams as you travel through a second puberty of the spiritual variety. Genital arousal and emissions will stop as the obstructions come out and normal ecstatic functioning of your lower centers in conjunction with your higher ones evolves.

When you do get into siddhasana, it will be more of a help than an aggravation to the situation. First of all, it will gradually coax your sexual energy inward and higher, and the tendency to go down with the energy will become much less. Secondly, siddhasana can be used to block emissions. When the heel is properly and comfortably placed in the soft area behind the pubic bone, the urethra can be blocked by leaning forward slightly. Not that saving a few emissions is so crucial, but the ability is there in siddhasana and can be used for that as desired. Before you bombard me with questions on that one, please go and read the tantra group lessons if you have not already. The link is near the top of the list in the links section. There you will find detailed lessons covering the management of sexual energy in relation to yoga, with more lessons and additional methods coming.

Regarding sambhavi, all practices we undertake have a “clunky” stage in the beginning, and any of the practices might seem a bit unnatural starting out. As they settle in, that perception changes. As their role in purifying and stimulating the opening of higher experiences in the nervous system occurs, the idea of unnaturalness goes by the wayside. Then we know that the practices are doing exactly as they are supposed to — bringing up natural spiritual abilities contained within our nervous system. By the time it gets to that point, the practices are as natural as breathing, because we immediately experience bliss and ecstasy from their use. The cause and effect of them in our nervous system becomes an integral and automatic part of our neuro-biological functioning.

Don’t force sambhavi. Be very easy about directing your eyes, favoring the sensation created by the slight furrowing of the brow at the point between the eyebrows. In time it becomes pleasurable and then easily becomes automatic. Your eyesight is not at risk. Thousands of yogis, sages, and saints have been using sambhavi for thousands of years without negative effects. Just the opposite; sambhavi opens our inner sight, expanding our vision through our increasingly ecstatic nervous system to encompass the cosmos. You may want to check a later lesson on doing sambhavi (#131) which gives further detail on the technique.

Interestingly, your question on sambhavi is related to your question on sexual arousal. The reason I say this is because the rise of a direct sexual connection between the physical brain and the lower centers is how the awakening of the third eye and sushumna (spinal nerve) is experienced. Sambhavi is one of the key players in this, along with spinal breathing, mulabandha, siddhasana, kechari and kumbhaka, plus a few others. Sambhavi in one form or another is prominent in all of the spiritual traditions. When the third eye/sushumna is awakened, sambhavi becomes a primary means for promoting “ecstatic conductivity” at will in the nervous system (see recent lesson #169 on ecstatic conductivity). A simple intention with the eyes is enough to produce waves of ecstasy in the nervous system of the yogi and yogini. What a treasure sambhavi is.

When the conductivity begins to come up by all the means mentioned, the sexual implications are unmistakable. From there it evolves from sexually erotic to spiritually ecstatic. The two experiences are related, being different expressions of sexual energy evolving higher in our nervous system.

You are having some shades of this already from meditation and spinal breathing only, and no doubt your fledgling sambhavi is getting into the act too. It is a sign of good things to come. Don’t worry, everything will work out fine. There is nothing to fear.

The guru is in you.