Apr
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Spiritual Masturbation??
April 3, 2008 |
I was googling ‘Spiritual Masturbation’ and I encountered a lot of sites that used this phrase as a derogatory term for various practices. I didn’t take a lot of notice of them, because I was looking for positive associations and possibly even practices, but then I came across something that caught my eye: Basically someone was saying that making a judgment about the value of a religious experience based on a subjective sense of enjoyment was not true worship, but a form of spiritual masturbation.
I suppose that I shouldn’t have been surprised that ‘masturbation’ does not generally have a positive association with mainstream ideas of sacredness, after all ‘masturbation’ comes from a root which means ‘defilement by hand’. One of the main reason we prefer to use the terms ‘Sacred’ and ‘Self pleasuring’, is to counter this linguistic bias.
In spite of my awareness of this it still amazed me that someone would suggest that enjoyment was not a valid means of relating to a sacred experience! I get the idea that for many people ‘worship’ is something that is ‘offered’ to an external entity and therefore their appreciation is important. However, I have a problem with the idea that the worshipper should not also derive some pleasure from the experience as well. I suppose that one of the defining concepts I have in relation to ‘mystical’ experiences, weather planned or spontaneous, is that which I call ‘Grace’. I don’t doubt that there are interpretations of this word that will be at odds with mine, but I have always seen this concept as something which is by its very nature uplifting and rewarding!
I see no reason why the sacred should not be pleasurable, in fact most of my most profound sacred experiences have been characterised by a powerful sense of pleasure and bliss. I am certainly not the only person to have felt this way. Many mystics have spoken of their spiritual raptures in distinctly (though not necessarily overt) erotic terms. This is not to say that there are not trials and ordeals upon the path of sacred exploration, obviously there are. However, some might say that transmuting such ordeals into rapture and bliss is at the very heart of the mystical experience.
Oh well as someone who promotes the idea of ‘self pleasuring’ as a sacred practice I suppose I really am a ‘Spiritual Wanker’!
May we all Be Blissed
Hawthorn
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