In many spiritual traditions, it is implied that spiritual practitioners should suffer and experience pain. In the 4 noble truths of Buddha, the first noble truth is that reality is suffering. There is also the prominent symbol of the crucifixion, which shows the suffering of Christ in Catholicism.
In tantra, suffering and pain are teachers, like in Buddhism and Catholicism. However, pleasure is also considered an effective teacher.
What is Pleasure?
Pleasure is nature’s way of saying: “Do more of that. This is good for you.” Our nervous system, for millions of years, through natural selection and through the intrinsic wisdom of nature, is attracted to things which are conducive to survival and well-being.
In the old times, when humanity was formed of hunter-gatherers, if you found something sweet, like a fig tree or an apple tree, it would cause so much pleasure that it would cause human beings to overeat. At that time, this was the wise choice, since there was not an abundance of sugary foods. In today’s world, sugar is available on every street corner, yet we still have the impulse to overeat. We haven’t biologically adapted yet.
Serotonin comes from mellow pleasure, dopamine comes from “wow, this was great”. Endorphins come from “there is no pain, there is just joy”, and oxytocin is the pleasure of cuddling, of sweetness, of togetherness, of trust. These four types of hormonal pleasures are there to make human beings go and search for what is good for them.
Unconscious Pleasure Leads to Attachment
When pleasure is experienced unconsciously, we become attached to it. Then the joy of life depends on the object of our pleasure. It could be the screen, a loved one, a position, or social validation that gives us pleasure. Then, when social validation decreases, a lover is not as interested in us, or something happens to the object that provides us pleasure, the pleasure experienced unconsciously leads to pain. This keeps on repeating and repeating.
People who do not reflect internally and just live for pleasure crush their lives. They are overweight, they get addicted to porn, video games, social media, alcohol, or drugs. This is a very low understanding of pleasure.
Smarter people figure it out. They withhold a bit of pleasure. They would rather follow their ambitions, their purposes. Then they start to avoid pleasure and have their guilty pleasures, as it is said. So they have a better understanding, they go further in life, have a better emotional life, and better stability. But this is not the highest understanding of pleasure.
We have level 1, no understanding of pleasure, which leads to addiction. Level 2, sacrificing pleasure for ambition, which is better than level 1. But then the tantrics say to go beyond that, to use pleasure as a tool. At level 3, you take pleasure, and you fuse it with consciousness.
This is what tantrics do with everything. You become attentive to pleasure. When you eat, don’t just taste the food, taste the pleasure. When you watch a good movie, don’t just enjoy the movie; contemplate the process of enjoying. When you enjoy time with loved ones, with friends, family, laughing. When you enjoy lovemaking, be attentive to the pleasure.
Experience Pleasure in a Conscious, Centred and Detached Way
Unconscious pleasure brings attachment and pain. When pleasure is conscious, there is no attachment. Conscious pleasure is extremely relaxing and regenerating. We can start to grow from pleasure when we experience it in a conscious, centred, and detached way.
If you can cover 10 units of pleasure with your consciousness in a detached and centred way, those 10 units will make you wiser, deeper and stronger. They will help you TO HAVE LIFE, to have radiance, charisma, joy, and passion. If you are a good tantric, you can take ten units and have tremendous pleasure as a spiritual experience.
The Role of Pain in Spiritual Growth
Many spiritual traditions have walked the school of pain. Brahmacharibaba, the disciple of Neem Karoli Baba, would not sit down or lie down for 3 years. He would sleep standing, and his legs got swollen.
Saint Peter of Delacantara would sleep only an hour a night and eat only once every three days for decades. This was so difficult, but they became conscious of that pain, and it created huge spiritual power.
Svamirama spent eleven months in total darkness. He did not go out. People brought him food and cleaned up after him. Eleven months, what pain. But he polarised that pain with consciousness, and the pain became spiritual realisation.
In tantra, we say yes, you can do that with pain. When you have pain in your life, become very attentive to it. Both pain and pleasure turn into spiritual power when you are very attentive.
Pleasure is a Spiritual Tool
Tantrics learn equally from pleasure and pain. A tantric can have a tremendous amount of pleasure. They can have the most amazing lovemaking and orgasm, the most delicious food, beautiful contact with nature, ablissful silent mind in meditation. They can contemplate poetry, art, and music, so that they experience the most tremendous and refined pleasure.
That pleasure can help a tantric to evolve in the way that difficulties and pain do for others. In tantra, we learn equally from pleasure and pain. That makes evolution go very fast and is extremely natural.
Pleasure is generally good for the body, whereas pain is quite difficult for the body. In not seeking to torture the body to attain intensity, we can attain a harmonious intensity. You need intensity if you want to go very high spiritually.
Rather than always having intensity in pain, intensity can come either in pain or pleasure. You can have intense pleasure that you can control. When a tantric man learns not to ejaculate, they are extremely lucid. They learn how to be extremely conscious in the midst of that pleasure.
You hold that energy in, you use it and recycle it for spiritual purposes, and the pleasure itself becomes a spiritual tool. It is liberating, healing, and it dissolves blockages and traumas. It transforms mediocre consciousness into hyper lucidity, bringing tremendous peace of mind.
A Correct Understanding
Some more superficial interpretations of tantra say only that tantrics increase pleasure. Actually, tantrics embrace all life experiences and grow through both pleasure and pain. Only after you learn to grow through pleasure can you make pleasure grow.
This is a correct understanding of tantra. This is something which can be applied very easily if we are attentive to the pleasure of our day-to-day life in a meditative way. When there is pleasure, meditate on it. Don’t let it turn into mental chattering; just experience a pure vibratory experience of pleasure. This can be very enlightening.
This article was transcribed by Zita from the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjbM2BmQ_3g
