[A note: This is a little off-topic for Whirled Peas, but I think many subscribers will find it useful. It’s meant to demonstrate writing about difficult subject matter, for my professional writing and editing service!]

I’ve always intended to make a resource for young people who need help dealing with problems that can trouble spiritual practitioners (especially the males!).

This is what I’ve learned about spiritual and sexual energy – big topics for many young people who practice spiritually.

The content below has been written about for thousands of years in cultures across the globe, notably in India and China. But it’s always mysterious, esoteric and mostly undecipherable.

So my goal in this post is to make the intangible, strange and personal into the real, okay and public.

Body, mind and soul

Most of us recognise that our beings encompass different aspects. In most spiritual literature the aspects are usually identified as:

• Spiritual;
• Mental/emotional;
• Physical.

These are manifestations of the ultimate Self – where the consciousness to perceive originates.

Likewise, spiritual, mental and physical energies are varied manifestations of love: the ultimate and original energy of the self. We are constantly choosing how to manifest this energy.

Free Will

That’s right – we’re always in control. However we’re encouraged by external forces to manifest energy in certain ways. Take impulses and habits as examples.

We do have it. With effort we control our interaction with the external. We choose to invest energy into higher, more subtle and less fleeting forms. The more we focus our energy in one direction the easier it gets.

Transmutation

Spiritual energy is the first and original energy of the self. It strengthens our soul in all ways. When we concentrate on our spiritual nature through practicing enlightenment (knowingly or unknowingly!) we are refining the energy within and around us on a very profound but subconscious level.

Emotional and mental energy is the secondary manifestation of the self’s energy. It’s connected to what we call ‘mind.’ When we focus on the relationship between our mind and the world it exists in we transform the soul’s energy into this consistency.

Physical energy also comes from within and without. For most of us it comes from physical nourishment but can also come from downward transmutation of the energies above. This is ideally a natural and automatic process.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with emotional or physical energy. As said, the energy is originally our love.

For example when two souls connect spiritually, mentally and physically, the resulting affection is a natural physical expression of their love.

How problems arise

It’s not about the energy, it’s how we choose to use it.

Problems with the misuse of energy are amplified for spiritual practitioners. They access a large reservoir and with power comes both responsibility and danger.

Problems arise when the energy gifted by spiritual practice is habitually transmuted for self-centred, self-aggrandising or self-gratifying motives. The use of the energy is going against the nature of the energy itself, which is the common property of all souls.

Not only is this wastage, but the resulting experience is so strong and tantalising that it overpowers the willpower of the individual. Individuals do not normally have such strong energy coursing through their minds or bodies.

As this occurs often, highways for transmutation of energy are established between the purer and coarser aspects of self. Self-control and self-discipline become harder as these highways and habits are formed.

At worst the practitioner is addicted to anti-spiritual tendencies. It might even cancel out his or her practice, retard the individual and spread negativity around them.

Avoiding problems

A lot of willpower is required in spiritual practice. Try to find a teacher who offers a concrete method to achieve the specific goal that motivates you.

Even with a great guide we can stumble and fall. If we find we’ve established habits and built highways then we’re in damage control. We need to reverse trends, turn the tide.

As well as general vigilance, identifying ‘triggers’ will help with this.

Now onto some personal examples [people who know me and potential clients can stop reading here. The adventurous can click to continue!].

Coffee is a trigger of mine. It seems leads to spur-of-the-moment transmutations of spiritual energy into coarser forms.

I often drink it for just this reason – to do some heavy intellectual work like writing. But in this state I need to guard against transmutation on other established highways inside. Self-centered sexual activity, for example [blush...].

Because of the highways I’ve built between my higher self and body in the past, I know such a transmutation would be a great ‘experience’. I’m also aware that to seek this experience is a self-gratifying motive. With this intent sexual activity either alone or with a partner would be wasteful and damaging.

If this becomes a habit we might find ourselves stepping backwards more than fowards.

This physical problem is easy to identify. Harder to see are the underlying patterns of mental and emotional self-centeredness. These trends are reinforced addiction to the experience of thinking and feeling in certain ways.

A final word

The more we give in the easier we give in. It’s the devil’s circle.

It’s good advice to always keep one’s goal in mind and be wary of taking backward steps. Our energy is a valuable resource. Practitioners who best focus it achieve what they desire.

Willpower and discipline are foundations but once established there is room to relax.

The more we focus on our goal and exercise our willpower in support of this, the easier it is. This is how we move closer to our destination.

We have free will, but we need to be constantly aware of how we use it.