Sex Eros amd Love on The Spiritual Path
Sex, “erotas” and love are our most powerful drives. They are simultaneously the sources of our greatest happiness and our deepest pain. How can we balance these energies in our lives, put them into perspective and experience their benefits without their disadvantages? (We use the Greek word “erotas” to describe the state of “romantic love” or falling in love or being infatuated with another person, so that we are excited and stimulated on all levels by our contact with or even thoughts about that being.)
Man is body, personality and soul. We might say that sex is an attraction limited to the physical level. Erotas is the attraction between one personality and another, and Love is the attraction between two spirits. Each evolving level includes the previous just as the soul includes, but is not limited by, the personality and body. Love includes, but is not limited by, erotas and sex.
There is much confusion about these three subjects. We receive different, sometimes conflicting messages from church, parents, friends, psychologists, doctors, TV the cinema and the media in general. Who can we believe? How can we construct a personal belief? Some of the various opinions we hear floating around are:
1. Sex is a sin except for the purpose of creating children.
2. Sex is made pure by the sacrament of marriage.
3. Sex outside of marriage is a sin.
4. Sex is okay with anyone as long as there is a feeling of «love.»
5. Sex is a sacred action of union between two conscious beings.
6. Sexual activity is good for one’s health and should be carried on as late in life as possible.
7. The sexual act wastes precious vital energy that could have been transmuted into higher forms