19. Is Sexual Abstinence Necessary or Advisable?
Once people have freed themselves from the misconception that sexual abstinence holds some special virtue, there will be far less unhappiness. Forced abstinence is an encroachment that can avenge itself bitterly. The laws in all Creation show the way clearly enough, wherever one looks. Suppression is unnatural. And everything unnatural is a rebellion against the natural, and therefore against the Divine Laws, which, as in all things, can never produce good results. This one matter is no exception. However, humans must not allow themselves to be dominated by sexual impulses or make themselves a slave to their instincts; otherwise, they will turn them into passions, whereby what is natural and healthy becomes a morbid vice.
Humans should rise above this, that is, should not force abstinence, but rather exercise control through inner, pure morality, so that no harm comes to themselves or others.
When some people think that through abstinence they can attain a higher spiritual level, it can easily happen that they achieve just the opposite. Depending on their disposition, they will find themselves in a more or less constant struggle with their natural urges. This struggle uses up a significant amount of their spiritual energy, binding it, preventing it from engaging in other pursuits. Consequently, the free unfolding of spiritual power is hindered. Such people suffer at times from a depressing heaviness of spirit which prevents an inner, joyful ascent.
The body is a gift entrusted by the Creator and which humans are obliged to care for it. Just as one cannot deny the body food, drink, rest, sleep, or the need to empty the bladder or bowels without impunity; just as the lack of fresh air and insufficient movement soon becomes unpleasantly noticeable, so too can tampering with the healthy sexual desire of a mature body inflict some sort of harm.
The fulfilment of the body’s natural needs can only promote one’s inner life, that is, the development of the spirit, and can never inhibit it; otherwise, the Creator would not have placed this desire there. But here, as with everything, excess is harmful. Care must be taken to ensure that this desire is not merely the result of an artificially stimulated imagination through reading or other causes, a weakened body, or overstimulated nerves. It must truly only be the demand of a healthy body, which does not arise very often in humans.
This will only occur once a perfect spiritual harmony has already been established between the two sexes, which may ultimately lead to a physical union.
Any other motivations are dishonourable and impure for both parties and are immoral, even in marriage. Where spiritual harmony does not exist, continuing a marriage becomes utterly immoral.
Even if societal order has not yet found the right way in this regard, this deficiency cannot change the Laws of Nature, which will adapt themselves to human conventions and wrongly instilled concepts. Humans, on the other hand, will have no choice but to adjust their state and social institutions to the Laws of Nature, that is, to the Divine Laws, if they really want to have inner peace and health.
Sexual abstinence also has nothing to do with chastity. At most, abstinence could be classified under the term “modesty” (derived from cultivation, education or self-discipline).
True chastity, however, means purity of thought, but in all things, down to one’s work-related thoughts. Chastity is a purely spiritual quality, not a physical one. Even in the fulfilment of the sexual instinct, chastity can be fully preserved through mutual purity of thought.
Moreover, the physical union not only serves the purpose of procreation, but also facilitates the equally valuable and necessary processes of an intimate fusion and a mutual exchange of reciprocal currents for the unfolding of higher powers.
