The Principle of Seminal Plenitude and the Cessation of Sexual Desire

A disciple asked: One morning while practicing walking meditation and contemplating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a thought suddenly arose to relax the dantian. As I relaxed the dantian, a warm current filled it, feeling warm and hot, and even today the dantian remains warm. Along with the appearance of this warm current, I noticed something particularly special: when seeing the opposite sex, thoughts no longer arise, and I no longer need to apply antidotal methods. It's as if I'm looking at someone of the same sex or an ordinary object, and the dantian area no longer quivers. (Normally, upon seeing the opposite sex, uncontrollable irrational thoughts arise, and there is a physiological quivering in the dantian area, requiring a second thought to counteract it.) Please, Master, guide me regarding this situation.

Reply: Through sitting meditation and walking meditation to cultivate samadhi, you have unblocked the qi and blood in the dantian area. The sign of warmth has appeared, the dantian is warm, the qi and blood throughout the body flow smoothly, and both body and mind become pliant. This causes the dantian area to be full of qi, full of spirit, and full of essence, eliminating the need for external energy supplementation. Therefore, physiological needs diminish, leading to reduced eating, less sleep, and no need for sexual desire. It is only when the essence, qi, and spirit are insufficient that external energy supplementation is needed, and physiological demands are greater.

These physiological needs all belong to the necessities of life in the human realm of the desire realm. When cultivation progresses beyond the human realm, the five hindrances such as eating, sleeping, and desire are gradually eliminated, and one ascends to the realms of the desire heavens and the form heavens. That is to say, access concentration (the samadhi before reaching the form realm) is attained, and the first dhyana of the form realm is almost achieved. After human desires are subdued, samadhi will rise to the first dhyana. Within the first dhyana samadhi, greed and desire are severed.

Heavenly beings in the form realm at the first dhyana and above have no male-female desire; thus, they have no gender, being neither male nor female. As they do not need to eat, they have no nose consciousness to smell scents and no tongue consciousness to taste flavors. They possess only eye consciousness, ear consciousness, body consciousness, mind consciousness, and the manas (mind root). Therefore, the consciousnesses are established based on the needs of sentient beings. Without these needs, the consciousnesses need not exist. For example, in the nirodha-samāpatti (cessation of perception and feeling), only the manas exists; the six consciousnesses are absent, and the manas has also extinguished the two mental factors of feeling and perception.

Your dantian not quivering indicates that the essence-qi is full, so naturally there is no need for sexual desire, and you are no longer interested in it. When the essence-qi is not full, it’s like half a bottle of water that always sloshes, needing more water poured in from outside. When the water is sufficient and full, it no longer sloshes. When the dantian's essence-qi is full, it also doesn’t quiver, and there is no need to replenish it through sexual desire. The World Honored One, in the Shurangama Sutra, when speaking about the state of severing desire, said that for someone who has severed desire, engaging in sexual intercourse feels like chewing wax—utterly flavorless—a humiliating sensation to be endured, merely to fulfill an obligation.

You are currently in the stage of severing the obscurations of the five hindrances. Access concentration is attained, and the first dhyana is about to arise. Within this samadhi, the conditions for severing the view of self and realizing the mind (enlightenment) are present, while conditions such as merit, virtue, and wisdom await further perfection. After severing the view of self and realizing the mind, coupled with the foundation of samadhi power from the first dhyana, one can eradicate the root afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, becoming a third-fruition practitioner in the Hinayana path. The future is bright; continue your efforts!