In Part One of this article I mentioned some important things that could be considered and worked upon when wanting to deal with overcoming lust and sexual urge. As already mentioned there, for many people lust is a great obstacle to spiritual advancement. The reason for this is because sexual energy as such is the most powerful energy that we have in the body, and lust draws from this energy in order to gain strength and to ultimately feed itself as the result of having us giving in to its desires and fantasies; it then keeps us bound in the cycle of pleasures and pain. It keeps the essence, the consciousness, bound to material reality, for as long as most of our will is bottled up and conditioned by this illusory energy.

Everyone who starts the spiritual work and does it seriously is on the path of clearing up desires and transforming them into virtues of the spirit.

The continuation of this article deals with suggestions of various kind in order to get the upper hand over lust, and it is meant as a help aid for everyone who is struggling with lust on the path to liberation.

 

Making distinction between consciousness and thought or emotion

I think that many people fail in the inner work because they haven’t really built a proper foundation; they haven’t understood what consciousness is and what egos are. It is necessary to make this distinction between the observer (the consciousness, who we truly are), and the observed (the egos, the subconscious thoughts and emotions that come and go). It is fundamental to work on that with the practices of self-remembrance and self-observation, because only in this way can we progress beyond the basic level, and thus work on lust in optimal way.

Detachment from lust and continuously dying to it

Another equally crucial aspect, just like the one above, is to stay detached from lustful thoughts and emotions, and to die to them as they appear. If an attractive lustful image enters the mind, don’t dwell on it, but instead realize that it is a passing illusionary image of lust that did not have any reality a few moments ago, nor will it have reality after it is gone. Therefore, it’s best to deal with it as it comes by dying to it and staying detached. This is also a prerequisite for the death from moment to moment technique to work – to stay detached from the egos cannot be emphasised enough. Even if you start entertaining those thoughts, try to make yourself stop as soon as possible, because the more they develop, the harder it is to let them go and to die to them. The reason for this is because they also bring about corresponding emotions of lust in emotional and sexual centers, and before you know it your body is polluted with low vibrations of lust. Then it can take some time to clear that away.

The best would be not to allow any such thoughts to develop. For example, when a lustful image comes to mind, it is often time still within a range of “decency” (you may just see an image of a person that your lust latches onto). The best is to die to that image while it is still in that stage; do not allow it to develop into somethng that can pull you in because of its mental attractivness. But regardless of the image that it appears in the mind, it’s always important to die to it in that moment, and prevent it from developing further, prevent it from putting your consciousness to psychological identification.

Reflecting on the end result of lust

If you get in trouble by dwelling too long on lustful images in the mind, and if you see that your will is slowly being taken over by lust, reflect on the reality of lust, try and see its impermanence, it’s illusory nature. Try and understand that the reason why it appeared now is to be fed by your indulgence in it, and that as soon as you do that it will go back to the same place from which it came (the subconscious mind). Reflect on the inner state that it leaves you with after it is fed, and how the pleasure of lust is very temporary in comparison to the demoralizing and low state that it will leave you with after it takes its food and goes.

Immerse yourself in things that are sacred and spiritual

It can be helpful to spend  time doing things such as reading sacred texts, books written by spiritual masters or adepts of wisdom, listen to spiritually uplifting music, watch movies and documentaries that are related to spirituality and that can inspire you, etc. All of this can have a great overall effect to not only help you stay on the high note of life and thus keeping low emotions and thoughts at bay, but it can also help you with the spiritual work in general. Being inspired and motivated can be of great help.

Another beneficial thing related to this could be to study lives of masters who came far spiritually. Seeing the efforts that they made in order to arrive to such high points of the path could be inspiring and it can create a high ideal. What all of them had in common is sacrifices that they’ve made, great efforts applied, and hardships overcome.

Open yourself to higher influences, close yourself to lower

When we do the spiritual work in a serious way, then by default we attract high spiritual forces to our life, but in order for this to have a better effect, we also have to close ourselves off to lower influences. This means stopping everything that feeds on low inner states, such as listening to music or watching movies that bring about fear, sadness, anger, desire etc., avoiding people and situations that pull us down in any way, and in general avoiding anything that is dark. You can increase the amount of higher influences in your life through prayer, meditation, spiritual activities, and also directly inviting the higher beings to be more present in your life.

Prayer

Following on from the point above, prayer is a great force that can help overcome any obstacle, but it has to be sincere and coming from the heart. Too many people pray only from the mind, by simply reciting it from a prayer book or memory. This does not have as much of an effect as when you feel what you are asking for with all your heart and soul. You can also focus on specific spiritual masters in meditation and ask them for help, and you can also focus on your own inner Being. It is the latter that is helping us the most in our spiritual journey.
Ask them for guidance, strength, determination, and anything else that is needed to overcome lust.

Purification of yourself and your surroundings

This can help cleanse the astral body, the etheric body, and aura from energetic garbage that might be attached to you. There are many different methods to do purifications, some of them are by smudging dry white sage leaves, by burning high quality incense, and from time to time burning sulphur (in that case particular attention is needed so to not inhale the fumes of the burning sulphur). It can also be very useful to do recitations for clearing up the room, protective ritual such as LBPR, and a cleansing meditation such as the Whirlwind meditation. All of this can have a good effect on purifying surroundings and yourself. It can also keep non-physical influences at bay.

The method of Omram Ivanov

Omram Ivanov was a spiritual teacher who continued the work of his teacher Beinsa Douno. In his book “Sexual Force or the Winged Dragon” he mentions a method for dealing with sexual urge by channelling it to a Higher Self. The way he explains it is that in the moment when a sexual desire manifest within oneself, to then think of a high ideal, a spiritual ideal that one has, such as of spiritual virtues, the inner Being, a concept of spiritual mastery, or anything else of that sort. He says that by so doing the sexual desire is transformed. In my opinion, the best way to deal with desire (in long term) is by eliminating it with the techniques taught in Gnosis, but the method of Omram might be useful as a temporary solution to all those who struggle with keeping lust at bay.

When lust attacks, do something spiritually inspiring

This type of immediate change of location and activity can be helpful if you see that lust is starting to take over your will and is leading you towards sexual gratification. Simply change location and activity, perhaps go for a walk outside, or visit a holy place or a place in nature where you feel inspired. Or go somewhere and chant a mantra, or do some spiritual physical activity, such as yoga asanas or the runic postures.

Dedication to your higher purpose and goals

When you dedicate your life to a certain purpose and direction, and you are serious about reaching your goals, then you have put in motion forces that will move you towards that goal. This is even more pertinent when your goal is something as noble as reaching the final liberation and awakening, because then you have a very high spiritual forces in the background of your life, helping you pass obstacles and providing you with guidance and experiences that build up faith within you and give you knowledge.  Dedication is a powerful tool, without which not much can be achieved. So even if you fail, get up and try again, with more determination and vigor to succeed.

Sleep pattern and good diet for avoiding wet dreams

It is important to have a good sleeping pattern and to stick with it. Staying up late can increase chances of lust getting the hold of your will. When you wake up in the morning, don’t stay too long in bed. It is enough to try and remember dreams, and then get up from bed. Otherwise lust may start bringing up images that could snowball into problems.

Having a good diet is also very important, above all this means to avoid pork and pork additives, however also to try and not overeat, as well as limit meals to few times per day, with the last one not after 7 or 8pm. The reason for this is because going to sleep with a lot of undigested food in the stomach could cause wet dreams, and a wet dream could wreak havoc the next day and may snowball into indulging to lust.

Occupy the mind with high thoughts

As Samael said, “the highest form of thinking is non-thinking”, however you can still have your mind on high things simply by creating a schedule that is geared towards spiritual achievements. By so doing, you can be in the present moment, in consciousness, outside of thoughts, but in the background of your mind would be your goals, your spiritual interests etc., which then gears the mind to be concerned with those high things of life, rather than dwelling on things that may stir lower emotions and lust.

Meditation and having the consciousness active

Meditation, when done with proper concentration, is a great aid in helping the consciousness to be awake and active, in the present moment. This is important, because it is the consciousness that must be the driver behind the vehicle of our life. When consciousness is active and in the moment, we can apply the self-observation technique continuously, we can observe ourselves throughout the day, and can do the inner work in a proper way. Meditation is like a fuel that consciousness gets in order to stay in a prominent state during the day. That’s why it is good to incorporate as many practices of meditation in the day as needed.

Creating a sacred place in your room, house, or outdoors

It can beneficial to have things in your room and house that reminds you of the spiritual work. This can be things such as spiritual figures, paintings, books, or anything of that sort. You could even create an altar place and consecrate it so that higher forces are attracted to it. You can also create a sacred site in nature that you could visit for solace and healing. All of this can contribute to keeping the mind on high things and yourself on the spiritual path.

Conclusion

There are many spiritual approaches, methods, and activities that could be applied in order to overcome getting identified with lust and to gain control over it. A lot of it comes down to really deciding if the path of initiation is the one that you want to follow, and if it is then doing everything it takes to get on that path and walk upon it. The path requires a lot, but it gives a lot as well. One should be willing to make necessary sacrifices, because it is unrealistic to have your foot in both worlds. If you want to follow the path of initiations, then this requires dedication and defining yourself for the inner work. In this way, you can build up necessary energy within yourselves that will take you far, and you will get all the help needed to overcome lust.

HDP, June 2020.