Observations placeholder
The Means of achieving spiritual experience - Shaivism – 01 Sexual techniques - Pleasure is the image of the divine state
Identifier
022480
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Comment by Danielou, Alain – Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus – Living in harmony with the systems of the universe
According to the Shivaite concept, pleasure is the image of the divine state, This is why, when the god is shown in his procreative aspect, he is also shown under the aspect of pleasure. The sexual organ has therefore a double role: the lesser role of procreation, and the higher role by which it becomes a means of contact with the divine state, the ecstasy of sensual pleasure (ananda).
Sensual enjoyment is a "sensation of the divine". While paternity ties man to the things of the earth, the ecstasy of pleasure can reveal divine reality to him, and lead him to detachment and spiritual realization.
From the point of view of Shivaite mysticism, as is also the case with Dionysiac orgiasm, erotic ecstasy is not a means of reproduction, but purely a seeking after [spiritual experience].
A description of the experience
Shiva Purana, Vidyeshvara Samhita, I,
The phallus is the source of pleasure. It is the only means of obtaining earthly pleasure and salvation. By looking at it, touching it and meditating on it, living beings can free themselves from the cycle of future lives…….
In order to please the Lord, his symbol must be venerated, independently of its physical function. Its function being to give birth, giving birth is excluded.