The Principle of Not Indulging in Lust When Vital Essence Is Full

Disciple's question: One morning while doing walking meditation and contemplating the four foundations of mindfulness, a thought suddenly arose telling me to relax the dantian. When I relaxed the dantian, a stream of warmth filled the dantian—warm and hot—and to this day the dantian is still warm. As the warm current appeared, the disciple noticed something special: seeing members of the opposite sex no longer gives rise to thoughts, and I no longer need to use counteractive methods. It is just like looking at someone of the same sex or an ordinary object, and the dantian area no longer sways. (Ordinarily, upon seeing someone of the opposite sex, I would have uncontrollable inappropriate attention (ayoniśo-manaskāra), and there would be a physiological swaying at the dantian, requiring a second thought to counteract it.) Please, Master, give guidance on the disciple's situation.

Reply: Through sitting meditation and walking meditation to cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), you have opened up the qi and blood circulation in the dantian area, and the mark of warmth has manifested. With the dantian warm and the qi and blood flowing smoothly throughout the body, both body and mind become supple, so that the dantian becomes full of qi, full of spirit, and full of essence; there is no longer any need for replenishment from external energy. Therefore physiological needs have diminished, to the point of eating less, sleeping less, and no longer needing sexual desire. Only when essence, qi, and spirit are insufficient is there a need for replenishment from external energy, and physiological needs are relatively greater.

These physiological needs all belong to the necessities of life in the human world of the desire realm. When one's practice reaches a state transcending the human realm, the five hindrances—such as the desires for food and sleep—are gradually removed, and one ascends to the states of the desire-realm heavens and the form-realm heavens. That is to say, the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) of the desire realm has become complete, and the first dhyāna of the form realm is close at hand. After a person's desires are subdued, meditative concentration will rise to the first dhyāna, and within the first dhyāna, greed and desire are severed.

The celestial beings of the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm and above, having no male-female desire, have no gender and are not divided into male and female. Because they do not need food and drink, they have no nose consciousness to smell scents and no tongue consciousness to taste flavors; they have only eye consciousness, ear consciousness, body consciousness, the mind consciousness, and the manas. Thus consciousnesses are set up according to the needs of sentient beings; when there are no needs, the consciousnesses need not exist. For example, in the cessation attainment (nirodha-samāpatti), only the manas exists, without the six consciousnesses, and the manas has also extinguished the two mental factors of feeling and perception.

That your dantian no longer sways shows that your essence and qi are full, so naturally you no longer need sexual desire and have no interest in it. When essence and qi are not full, it is like a half-full bottle of water that always sways, needing more water poured in from outside; when the water is sufficient and full, it no longer sways. When the essence and qi in the dantian are full, it no longer sways, and there is no need to replenish through sexual desire. When the World-Honored One spoke in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra about the state of severing desire, He said that for a person who has severed desire, engaging in sexual intercourse with a man or woman feels like chewing a candle—utterly flavorless—a sense of humiliation that must be endured, done merely to complete a task.

You are currently at the stage of severing the obscuration of the five hindrances; the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) is complete, and the first dhyāna is about to arise. Within this meditative state, you have fulfilled the meditative-concentration conditions for eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and for seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment; conditions such as merit and wisdom still await perfection. If, after eradicating the view of self and seeing the mind, you additionally have the foundation of meditative concentration of the first dhyāna, you can sever the fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and become a third-fruit anāgāmin of the Small Vehicle. The road ahead is bright—keep up your efforts!