The Many Benefits of Practicing Chastity
Do you want to become happier, more successful and improve your sex life? Practice chastity! To the unenlightened, this will seem like a contradiction, but it certainly is not.
Chastity does not necessarily mean “no sex.” It means channelling the sexual energy for productive use. Think of a large, meandering body of water. Its energy is, in a sense, wasted. Now, think of damming that water and using it to create hydro-electricity, fertilize fields or provide a large reservoir. By restricting and channelling the water’s flow, its great potential for productive use is realized.
Likewise, human sexual energy is very powerful. When one is undisciplined in its use, using it only for self-centered pleasure, its power is not only wasted but becomes destructive. The immoral, unregulated use of sex drains the vitality, may cause or aggravate psychological disturbances, encourages egoism, often destroys marriages, separates the soul from God, and can help to lay waste entire civilizations.
When one becomes chaste, that is, moral and disciplined in the use of sex, one may rise to achieve great things. This amazing power of the sexual energy has been known by mystics and learned men throughout history. The great teachers of various religions habitually emphasized the importance of sexual restraint and discipline. The Jewish Rabbis taught that the uncontrolled loss of semen drains a man of “all his life and strength.” The Eastern mystics taught that spiritual growth was impossible if the life force (i.e. semen) was wasted. For Christianity, Jesus set an example by being celibate. His example has been emulated by the Saints and the members of Catholic religious orders for more than two millennia.
Certainly, immoral sexual behaviour can provide intense pleasure and thrills; however, like the use of crack cocaine, it ultimately results in unhappiness. The proper use of sex improves one’s sex life because it increases sexual energy and pleasure, strengthens marriages, enhances vitality, and improves self-esteem. But much more importantly, it helps to reveal and realize the mystical meaning of sex, or its higher purpose. Human sexuality is not only physical. It is also spiritual. Chastity, as an imperative component of a pious life, helps to create an intimate relationship with the divine that is sexual in the noblest sense of the term.