Q: While it is clear to me that sex has a role in my spiritual experience, I am confused about it. Is sex the same as kundalini? Is semen kundalini? Are the genitals the source of kundalini?

A: Kundalini is not physical. It is energetic on many levels, ultimately transcendent (married to stillness), and at the same time has innumerable physical correlates in both practices and experiences.

So semen is not kundalini. Rather, it (and its equivalent originating from the G-spot in women) supports the neurobiology of kundalini, which becomes experientially clear through practices. These essences do not travel up through the body unaltered. Rather, they are feedstock for the overall neurobiology of enlightenment.

Neither are the genitals the source of kundalini. Kundalinis source is the vast pranic storehouse within the pelvic region. The genitals are on one side of that and the rest of the neurobiology is on the other side. So there is that connection, the pelvic storehouse of prana that both reproductive sex and spiritual evolution draw upon. The energy dynamic may be experienced going all the way from one end to the other. Hence the possibility for occasional sexual arousal during "non-sexual" spiritual practices like deep meditation, and also the possibility for spiritual experiences during sex (thus, tantric sexual practices).

Ultimately, spiritual experience is independent of erotic sensuality, and in some cases it will be this way from the beginning. Which is not to say it has to be all one way or the other. Everyone experiences their awakening according to a range of factors that, when taken together, are unique for the individual practitioner. This is why we discuss a wide range of practices that can be integrated in a way that suits the needs of the aspirant.

When the energy is felt moving in the genitals, it is erotic. When it is felt moving in the higher neurobiology it is ecstatic, also experienced as the flow of divine love - a melting of the heart.

The mudras and bandhas are related to the awakening of ecstatic conductivity in the whole body, and may be experienced with an erotic overtone in the beginning due to the aforementioned connection with sexual energy through the pranic storehouse in the pelvic region.

Pranayama, kumbhaka, asanas, mudras, bandhas, and tantric sexual methods (when genitals are engaged), are all for cultivating the higher manifestation of the pranic energy (kundalini) originating in the pelvic region. None of these practices stand alone. The key is a practical and effective integration. The whole of the resulting cause and effect is far greater than the sum of the various parts. With well-integrated practices, we find natural vajroli arising (continuous upward absorption of sexual essences), whole body mudra, and other developments throughout the body, which, taken all together, we call the "nectar cycle." This is the AYP view of the ecstatic neurobiology which underlies the energetic evolution we call kundalini. This leads to ongoing ecstatic radiance, which we also call outpouring divine love, stillness in action, the rise of unity, non-duality, etc.

None of this on the energetic/ecstatic side will go very far without concurrently cultivating abiding inner silence, and there are also practices for that (deep meditation, samyama, etc). All of it can be integrated and condensed into a relatively short twice-daily practice routine. From there we can go out and live fully, which is how enlightenment is gradually baked into our life.

While all of this fits together conceptually and, more importantly, experientially, no one is asked to take any of it on faith. Practice and find out for yourself.

The guru is in you.

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