Brahmacharya: Sexual Restraint | The 4th Yama | The Eight Limbs of Yoga Study (Part One)

Transcript

hello friends welcome back to my YouTube channel 
my name is Michelle Fondin. I'm the author of the   brand new book The Eight Limbs of Yoga for Modern 
Times a practical guide to the yoga sutras of   Patanjali you can pick up any of my 12 published 
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today we are talking about the fourth yama the   fourth yama which is brahmacharia that is a big 
heaping mouthful of word it is the fourth yama   the yamas of course are ethical and moral codes 
yamas are the first limb of yoga but this is a   fourth principle of the first limb of yoga called 
brahmacharia so we're going to break this down   and actually actually this is only part one of a 
part two series on brahmacharia and the reason for   that is that brahmachara is a big deal you might 
not think it's a big deal is actually quite a big   deal in the way that I interpret brahmacharia 
this is a little hairy right brahmacharia means   sexual restraint literally it means to retain 
the semen retention if you will in the men who   were practicing yoga at the time that the yoga 
sutras were formulated let's talk a little bit   about brahmacharia i'm going to read to you 
the yoga sutra pertaining to brahmacharia and   then I'm going to dive deep into what my meaning 
of brahmacharia is for you the yoga sutra says   one who is established incontinence or sexual 
restraint gains vitality and that is yoga sutra   chapter 2 verse 38 so as I mentioned the fourth 
yama can be a bit confusing to the modern yogi   why because this notion of sexual restraint 
was really designed for the men living in the   forestmies and learning and living under a guru 
during those times celibacy was not only quite   common but it was required of those living in 
these forestmies which in modern day are called   ashams the men and sometimes women later on but 
for all intents and purposes you and I both know   that 4,000 years ago 3,000 years ago 2,000 years 
ago it was the men that were in these types of   communities where they were learning under 
the guidance of a guru a spiritual teacher   they were all men and in the forestmies they got 
these men that they were not men they were boys   they were boys as young as 11 or 12 years old and 
they stayed in these forestmies for 12 years now   think about it just think about it you get a whole 
bunch hundreds of 11 and 12 year old boys just at   the cusp of puberty learning about their bodies 
seeing their bodies go through changes whether it   was 4,000 years ago or today everyone goes through 
the same kinds of thing when they're going through   puberty well living in this very disciplined type 
of society the subsect of a society which was not   religious but it was spiritual they had to have 
certain rules and those boys had to follow those   rules now if you've ever taught teenage boys if 
you've ever been in a group with teenage boys   you know that there's a lot of mischief that goes 
on and they were probably just trying to get the   boys to be really disciplined and not touching 
themselves or touching other people or doing   the things that they weren't supposed to be doing 
or getting distracted and so the requirement for   sexual restraint the requirement for celibacy was 
really designed for the men in these forestmies   or later on in ashrams or living the monastic 
life was that vow of celibacy you need to have   sexual restraint now the ha yoga pratipika does 
talk about semen retention as a way and that's   of course for men as a way if you will as a way 
to gain that vital energy so when we talk about   prana the life force energy when you expend 
your sexual energy you are letting it go and   so it was a way that they could accumulate that 
creative force energy to then channel it through   into spiritual enlightenment now the problem 
with this here is the problem with the old   interpretation of brahmachara and even the more 
recent interpretation of brahmacharia by the yogis   who wrote different books in the 20th century i'm 
not even talking about way far back i'm talking   about yogis who have written about brahmacharia in 
the 20th century in the 21st century mostly in the   20th century though was they really interpreted 
it at face value so they talked about sexual   restraint they talked about perhaps the sexual act 
not needing to be done except for procreation and   that really brings us more to religious dogma 
and that wasn't the pure intent of brahmacharia   to start with at all it was really to get the yogi 
focused to get them not distracted and to channel   their sexual and creative energy into something 
higher to not suppress it because to suppress   something is to make it be distorted and that's 
where we get into problems when we suppress our   sexual and creative force it was never intended to 
be like that the misinterpretation of brahmacharia   is that it sounds more like suppression than 
discipline now when I talk about discipline   and talk about sexual restraint or creative 
control restraint and honestly that's really   what I'm going to talk about in this second video 
on brahmacharia is the fact of creative control   because that takes us to the real root of the word 
brahmacharia which I'm not even going to mention   in this video little teaser for the second video 
because I feel like there's enough to address here   about the interpretation of brahmacharia to go 
on for a little bit and I don't want to add on   to the video that's why I'm doing a second video 
so when we talk about sexual restraint or sexual   control or creative control what I interpret it 
to be for modern yogis is the word discernment   having the proper discernment with your sexual 
energy so it's not shame it's not something to   repress or suppress it's just having proper 
discernment with how you're going to use this   creative force this sexual energy creative force 
now most of us in modern society don't even have   the wherewithal to have proper discernment 
because we're taught to have a lot of shame   surrounding our sexual energy and our sexual 
energy is one of the most potent and powerful   energies that there is seriously it's potent 
it's powerful it was never meant to be shameful   it really wasn't that wasn't the whole point 
and purpose to this because okay here's what   I mentioned in the book the reason why I know 
this to be certain is that we have desires right   we have the desire to eat to keep our body healthy 
and strong and to live we have the desire to drink   water notably because we are like three4s water 
our bodies are three-4s water we have the desire   to sleep because our body needs rest and it's 
just a natural thing that we must have we have the   desire to seek shelter from the natural elements 
and to protect ourselves but really one of the   most potent and powerful drives desires we have 
is the sexual desire because of course in order   to procreate we need to have that sexual desire 
now here's why I say it was never meant to be   suppressed and it was never meant to be shameful 
here's why we are not like other animals if you   look at the animal kingdom most animals only mate 
during mating season so they only have the desire   for the sexual impulse during mating season and 
so they have the sexual impulse to mate during   mating season and when mating season is over they 
go about their daily lives and there's no sexual   impulse humans are very different we don't have 
a mating season we don't have desires for the   sexual impulse just to mate and so therefore 
by way of our natural biological desires it is   to be deducted that we are not to suppress it 
and we're not to be ashamed of it because it's   just part and parcel of who we are as human beings 
but discernment of how to use that sexual impulse   that sexual desire is why we have higher level 
thinking in the same way and I know this is super   problematic for many humans in today's day and age 
is we have the desire to eat right to sustain our   bodies however without proper discernment higher 
level thinking we have a tendency to overeat or   eat at the inappropriate times when we're not 
really hungry but we're bored we're scared we're   sad we're depressed or we just can't sleep and 
so we eat and so without the discernment factor   a lot of things can happen where the eating gets 
out of control well in the same way our impulse   to have the sexual desire play out without proper 
discernment higher level thinking it can get out   of control and so this is not about suppression 
it's not about repression it's not about shame   like in the way that the older yogis have 
interpreted brahmacharia it's really about   the discernment of how you decide mindfully decide 
consciously decide how to use that sexual energy   so that's brahmacharia is how am I going to be 
discerning in the use of this sexual energy so   that it does not run a muck in the same way as 
I mentioned it compared to eating which I don't   even know how that came up for me just now but it 
just did but in the same way is like if you are   a yogi with proper discipline and respect for 
your body you're not going to let that desire   to eat food run a muck you're going to have some 
discernment you're going to have some restraint or   control self-control right it's not that somebody 
else is controlling you it's that you are having   enough restraint and discernment to understand 
okay I'm eating when my body is actually needing   food to fuel it when it's hungry in the same way 
when we have the sexual impulse it's like we need   to decide when it's appropriate to let that play 
out now that's not to say that you can't have fun   because part of having that desire is to also 
have fun is to also let it play out but it does   mean that you're a lot more mindful of it when 
you don't feel it's being restricted because a   lot of religions that we grew up in taught us 
that sex was shameful sex was bad it's to be   reserved only for marriage and only with one 
partner for the whole life and then we have   these distorted notions of what the sexual impulse 
means so everything becomes distorted when it is   suppressed or repressed and then it plays out in 
really unhealthful ways because we can't discern   how to let it play out in a more decisive manner 
and so that's when things get really hairy and so   when we look at brahmacharia is I'm going to be 
mindful about my sexual impulse i'm going to be   mindful of how I decide to use it then we can 
have a very healthful and healthy relationship   with our sexual impulse that it doesn't become 
where we have to think like the ancient yogis   and say I need to be celibate or I need to only 
have sex to procreate and that was never the   intention of brahmacharia which I'll explain a 
lot more in the second video on this topic so I   hope this was helpful for you to understand what 
brahmacharia means if you are studying the eight   limbs of yoga and the yoga sutras of patanjali 
i want to thank you so much for joining me here   today thank you for subscribing below click on 
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you so much and I'll see you in the next video [Music]