A Critical Commentary on
Karmamudra: The Yoga of Bliss
(by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang)
And
Great Bliss: Tantric Sex and the Path to Inner Awakening
(by John T. Houseman)
Public domain, written by Andreas Müller
This pdf can be freely shared and downloaded from internet.
Introduction
This is not an academic article or a Buddhist philosophy commentary, there is already too much talking about these things (like e.g. if monks are allowed to have sexual contact or not in higher yoga Tantras). This is a commentary solely based on personal experience with different lineages because in the end the only thing that matters is how to get closer to enlightenment, and not if we have to follow the dogmas and doctrines in their limitations.
These two wonderful books have been published by both authors recently out of the motivation to give more insight in the amazing practice of Karmamudra in the Vajrayana tradition. This is much needed because especially in Tibetan Buddhism this practice has been very much kept secret and because of that many scandals evolved around some Tibetan Lamas in recent years. There is no need to reveal secret teachings but there is a big need to educate people about these practices to avoid misunderstandings and direct them if they have genuine interest in doing these practices.
When Vajrayana developed in India that society was very liberal and open and for that reason these sexual teachings could flourish for many centuries. But when they arrived in Tibet that society was much more conservative and for that reason these more confronting practices had to be hidden. Meaning, these teachings where often only available to people after many years of intense spiritual preparation. So it is easy to understand that when Tibetan Lamas came to the west they kept these practices also hidden. But of course these things will come out one day, and finding out that these Lamas are not celibate will bring a shock of course. But in our current society there is no need any more to pretend to be celibate. We know everyone is having sex.
Of course these teachings should only be given to genuine students. But not talking about their existence at all is only giving food for scandals. Vajrayana disappeared from India long time ago and fortunately survived high in the Himalayas by adapting to the local society there. Now the Tibetans fled their own country and we find Lamas everywhere around the world. So it only makes sense that Vajrayana will again adapt to a new society.
In this commentary I like to give a wider perspective on the Tantric practices like Karma Mudra because these wonderful books only talk about one specific lineage, while Vajrayana has developed in many different lineages and it is good to educate people more about different options.
Vajrayana
Considering that Vajrayana has produced an uninterrupted lineage of totally realised humans for more then one and half thousand years and that it is the only tradition on earth where yogis attain such high realisations that their body disappears (rainbow body, even still being attained by yogis in modern times) we can conclude not only that it is by far the most successful spiritual tradition on earth but also that it has something very precious that cannot be found anywhere else.
It is very obvious that what made Vajrayana so successful is their full understanding of sexual energies (the most powerful energies available to human beings). For that reason I agree with the authors of these books that it is important to make the Karmamudra teachings survive for the future.
Like John T. Houseman expresses very clear: our creation and our whole universe is sexual. It is only logical that liberation is also going to be sexual. A full embrace of our sexuality in its most raw and natural form is one of the most powerful things we can ever do on our spiritual path since is it is at the root of our very existence. And that is exactly why Vajrayana produced so many realized humans.
It is our duty to preserve these precious teachings for the future, which is not easy and is going to be a delicate process of finding a middle way. One extreme: keeping it absolutely secret is clearly not working and causing scandals like we have seen in recent years and has as risk that it will die out in secrecy. On the other hand, giving everything openly also is not the way because the authenticity will drown in the muddy soup of new age Tantric sex that we see so much everywhere these days.
Abuse in Tantra
As also discussed by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang, there has been a lot of talk about scandals lately. Considering the authentic Lamas that were involved, I have the impression that this is mainly because of the cultural differences between Tibet and the west. We simply have different norms and values, there was no bad intensions or abuse of power involved. But on the other hand there have been a lot of western Tantra and Yoga teachers lately who clearly did fall for attachment to power and sex which is one of the biggest downfalls in Tantra because it is so hard to control our attachments. Being in the position of a teacher makes it very easy to abuse your position. So unfortunately for many westerners this path of Tantra has been a direct way to hell and not to realization. We have still a long way to go before authentic western Tantra teachers will be available, we still don’t have enough realization for that!
Another critic that is often expressed towards the Karma Mudra lineages is the idea that men are abusing women for their own realisation while women do not benefit at all from this. The funny thing is that the truth is quite the opposite. In Tantra women are considered the stronger gender because they have by far more sexual energy than men and controlling this energy comes very natural to women. But men can only master this control of sexual energy after many years of intensive training. For that reason most Tantras have been written from the perspective of men, because simply they need it the most. Also of course Tibet has been a male dominated society, but that doesn’t mean they abused their women. Above all, Tantra is a path of women, and men mainly learn from women. Not for nothing they are considered to be the source of wisdom in Vajrayana!
Semen retention
Both books are written from the perspective of very early Tantric lineages, which is fascinating to see the early days of Vajrayana. In the first few centuries, the time of the Maha Siddhas, Tantric yogis had a lot of capacity and where not much conditioned by the physical. So loosing semen was not a big issue and was considered a part of the practice.
However we are no longer in times where yogis have that much capacity and for that reason Vajrayana evolved and changed and later Tantras like for example the famous Kala Chakra Tantra are stating the opposite. Loosing even a drop of semen is considered a root downfall, like killing the Buddha.
So what is all this about? Both books are giving the impression that Tantric lovemaking is not that different from ordinary lovemaking. But good luck attaining any realisation like that. If you want to attain any realisation at all you have to understand that Karma Mudra is something radically different than ordinary lovemaking. You need to change a lot more to get into the realm of magic where you can really use your sexuality for your path to enlightenment.
Later Tantrics understood this and for that reason more sophisticated Tantras like Kala Chakra developed. Now, from ejaculation being part of the practice to an absolute ban on even losing a drop is a radical jump.
Being realistic: Loosing semen for a man is a big problem, it is losing you sexual energy and it takes a long time to this build up again. For attaining enlightenment we need to go far beyond ordinary lovemaking and for that we need to have a lot of energy. So loosing anything is a waste. Not only that, while women are naturally multi orgasmic, men are not. And good luck learning to become multi orgasmic (that is having orgasms without ejaculation) as a man if you ejaculate constantly, it is simply not possible and you will never go beyond the first stage of bliss if you don’t master the technique of being multi orgasmic.
To experience the second or even the third stage of bliss takes many years of training and you will need to use any resource that is available, and conserving your semen is probably the most important part of this. Of course this will not happen from one day to the other. Having the idea that you make a root downfall when you lose one drop of semen will not be very useful, because you will become very tense during lovemaking and when you are tense either nothing will happen at all or you will lose it. ‘Accidents’ will happen in the beginning so better to relax about it and rather enjoy. With relaxation, control will become much easier. But if you train well for a long time you will stop losing and even wet dreams will disappear and you truly have the change to become multi orgasmic and reach the higher stages of bliss. In fact, semen retention while still being sexual active is much much easier than being completely celibate!
Then there is the argument that white boddhicitta (semen) and red boddhicitta (menstrual blood) needs to be offered and consumed during the ritual. Since long this offering has been replaced by symbolical offerings in almost every lineage, and still yogis attain full realisation with this, so this argument is not valid.
Some people belief that semen retention is not healthy because where does it go? But the body is very well able to recycle the semen, it just needs a bit of time to get used to doing this. To more sexual active you are while not losing anything the better your body will get at recycling and reusing this precious substance. Apparently even women’s bodies are able to absorb their own menstruation. The only thing that is not healthy is not being sexual active like with complete celibacy. Than semen stops flowing in your body with all health problems coming from that.
So what about women? Like stated before, women have it much easier, they have a lot more energy available, the thing for women is that they need much longer stimulation (hours) than any normal men can offer (usually a few minutes). So also women need their men to be able to fully control their ejaculation.
There are many techniques and variations on the Karma Mudra practice (like realizing the 5 chakras, the 5 elements and the 5 Dhyani Buddhas) but the most important element is just like in Tummo practice to bring all the winds up in the central channel and by that entering in the nondual state. For women this is very easy when they experience orgasms at the level of the cervix. This makes sense because the cervix is the opening of central channel at the bottom. To make this happen they need a very skilful man that can stimulate the cervix for a very long time (for this reason also called the path of skilful means). When that happens the man can learn from the woman and this shows that it is really a cooperation between man and woman to attain realisation.
The difference between men and women
There is one more aspect that is wonderfully indicated by John T. Houseman but is almost completely ignored by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang who even says that Karma Mudra can be practiced in same sex couples.
I respect all walks of life, but he is really missing a crucial point here. Like mentioned before, to reach these extraordinary realms of intense bliss like in the second or third stage you really need all the power you can get. And how can you create those sparks if you have a battery that has to positive poles (like gay couples) or two negative poles (like lesbian couples)? It simply doesn’t work like that!
I know that if you don’t even feel an intense and overwhelming adoration and attraction towards the opposite gender that even your Jnana Mudra practice (sometimes called right hand Tantra: visualizing yourself in Yab Yum) will not work, let alone your Karma Mudra practice.
This whole universe is made out of opposites, from the atomic level to the galactic level. Not for nothing is the primordial Buddha, the source of creation, in Tibetan Buddhism depicted as a man and women in union. The absolute, the oneness, the nondual can only be realised by also experiencing the relative differences of duality. Just like in a white room where everything is white we cannot see or realize anything, we need the differences in the world to realise our nonduality. And the differences between men and women are the most important to work with because they are are the very base of our creation. They are the most important blessing for our path to realise nonduality (Maha Mudra). Not for nothing is whole East Asia pervaded with religious symbolism and iconography of the sexual union between man and woman. Many scholars are now trying to explain this that this is purely symbolical, but it is not, it shows the profound origin of the Tantric tradition which had and still has sexual practice as its most important component.
Unfortunately the fluid gender movement these days is trying to claim the exact opposite and says man and woman are the same, and by that they are creating a lot of confusion in the world. Especially for Tantra this simply doesn’t work, you will not get anywhere. Even fully realized yogis & Buddhas are still a man or woman, this you can never change and it is not supposed to change. Never will any realized being be half man and half woman, just like there will never be a particle that is half proton and half electron. You need to realize that men and women are radically different, even science has proven that our brains function differently. It is because of these big differences that we can great big attractions, like with magnets or battery poles. This is producing the fuel that can make us rise to the heights of the highest stages of bliss, and only those higher stages of bliss will get us in the stage of Maha Mudra. There is no way around this, this how our universe works and it makes perfectly sense. Realising the amazing dynamic between a man and a woman in a relationship by realizing we are complete opposites is a crucial part of full realisation!
One interesting thing that Dr. Nida Chenagtsang mentions in his book is the idea for women to visualize the white Boddhicitta at the root and the red Boddhicitta in the head and thereby indicating that men and women are indeed opposites. But this seems a bit strange to me because the red boddhicitta is related to the creative energy of a woman and is clearly based in the area of the her genitals. Although I have never seen this description before, it does show an very interesting aspect: if you consider the white boddhicitta emissive and the red boddhicitta receptive than visualizing this opposite configuration for a woman together with the normal configuration for a man will result in the energy flowing from the woman to the man through the genitals and from the man to the woman at the head area. This shows the reverse flow of sexual energies that happens in the higher stages of Karma Mudra practice: Normally a man is emissive at his genitals (the urge to ejaculate) and a woman is receptive (receiving the semen) while at the level of the breasts and head the woman is emissive (nurturing) and the man receptive. Through this specific visualisation from Dr. Nida Chenagtsang this flow of energy is reversed so that can be very useful. But realistically: a man has more white boddhicitta and the woman will receive more of that in her head area through the practice of Karma Mudra, and a woman has more red Boddhicitta and the man will receive more of that from her in his genital area. So I think it is good to keep that in mind and focus more on the reverse of the energy flow than getting confused about where which colour is located.
The importance of initiation
Both Authors are hinting that you might not need a teacher to start practicing Karma Mudra. This is again missing an important aspect of the Vajrayana tradition. Through initiation you become part of a long lineage of enlightened Buddhas and you will receive their help and blessings on your path. This is not to be underestimated, because really, this is not an easy path and you need all the help you can get. We see how easily western Tantra teachers are falling of the straight path, we need really a genuine teacher! And I already mentioned that the lineage of Vajrayana is the most successful spiritual lineage on earth, so why not be part of that?
With so many Tibetan Lamas in the world there is really no excuse anymore not to take a teacher to get proper initiations. Take your time to find a teacher/lineage that speaks to your heart and you will never regret it!
Dr. Nida Chenagtsang is right, even if a teacher doesn’t give Karma Mudra instructions, getting a full highest Yoga Tantra initiation is the right empowerment to start practicing Karma Mudra. Any deity practice will do, of course preferable a deity that is visualised in Yab Yum like KalaChakra.
What does it take to realize?
Although in the early days of Vajrayana, like beautifully described by John T. Houseman, students would start practicing Karma Mudra almost straight away, most lineages have now developed intensive preparation programs (Ngöndro) that are very useful because most beginners are simply lacking capacity. However there is no need to become first celibate to later start having sex again. You can already start practicing in your lovemaking and you will see that all your practices will become more powerful, everything works hand in hand. Deity & Tummo practice can be seen as preparation for Karma Mudra, but you can already combine them from the beginning.
One important practice that is not enough highlighted in these books is the importance to learn genuine Indian or even better Tibetan yoga. Especially the mastery of mudras and bandas is essential to control all the winds and make them enter the central channel. I is really a big mission and can be compared to an athlete preparing for the Olympics, it takes years and all parts of life need to be optimized, your relationship, your health and your diet. Everything is connected and can help on this path.
For the rest, keep up with your practice, it will pay off in the long run and most of all: relax and enjoy!