Body-Positive Spiritual Traditions

14 Feb Body-Positive Spiritual Traditions

My question became: which, if any, of the spiritual traditions of the world understood sex to be a valid path of spiritual development? Did any of the traditions value sensuality and the body, the couple rather than the lone practitioner? There’s big difference between spiritual traditions that use the body as a means to ascend and cultures that revel in and relish the sheer enjoyment and wonder of being embodied.

During my research I studied various traditions but found that different accounts by different authors appeared to conflict. Tantra appears to have risen out of a previous tradition of Yogini worship that split into two factions, one of which considered sex a valid spiritual path, and the other which used sex in a transgressive manner. Kashmir Shaivism in particular seemed non-tantric, so I was happy to discover the Kaula tradition. I discovered karmamudra and Dzogchen, both branches of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism that involve overt sexual practices as part of their embodied spiritual tradition. The Taoist tradition of sexual/spiritual practices appears to have gone through several stages. African and Indigenous traditions were not examined and will be explored in a later paper. Finally, all these traditions were developed at a time and place and for a people very unlike ourselves. The paper will conclude with a consideration of how some of these sexual/spiritual traditions are updating themselves for modern seekers, and a look to the future.

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