Hello,
I’m wondering if folks who are in the spectrum of LGBTQ can still achieve union, sacramental fulfillment, and enlightenment by being who they are yet remaining celibate or in Brahmachari. How would one go about loving and being in the desire of achieving the divine and still be who they are without sexually degenerate actions. Is this possible for someone to follow Gnostic practice? For example, a man loving a man and being together without sexual activity.
I’m wondering if folks who are in the spectrum of LGBTQ can still achieve union, sacramental fulfillment, and enlightenment by being who they are yet remaining celibate or in Brahmachari. How would one go about loving and being in the desire of achieving the divine and still be who they are without sexually degenerate actions. Is this possible for someone to follow Gnostic practice? For example, a man loving a man and being together without sexual activity.
Accepted Answer
I’m wondering if folks who are in the spectrum of LGBTQ can still achieve union, sacramental fulfillment, and enlightenment by being who they are...No. None of us, whether heterosexual, homosexual, “asexual,” transgender, etc. can ever achieve enlightenment by “being who they are” currently.
Many people criticize this teaching as anti-LGBTQ. The fact is that this teaching is anti-egotism, anti-desire, anti-suffering and anti-ignorance.
Egotism is our sense of self, who we believe we really are, who we feel we are. We teach that ego is an illusion that has been created over a long period of time and which we cling to as an identity. The person who mistakenly believes that they are “asexual” is actually a sexual being who experiences his or her sexual instinct in a less obvious or common way than others. No one is without sexual impulse on this planet. We would not have life in our veins without sexual energy. That misperception is a great ignorance.
This teaching is anti-desire because we seek to become liberated from our habitual cravings, aversions, and attachments. The vast majority of what people today describe as love is nothing more than desire and attachment. We seek to be free, to no longer be controlled by the desires and attachments of a false identity. We want enlightenment to perform God’s will—not the will of the ignorant, egotistical people we are today.
There are many more desires beyond our sexual attractions or partner preferences to renounce before we reach a higher degree of spiritual development. But even the heterosexual person must fight to overcome the unique habits of their lust and desires.
As for discovering what love really is, rather than our skewed conception of it, we should meditate deeply and pray daily for our inner divinity to reveal the truth to us. Real love far supersedes our superficial ideas or perverted passions. It transcends even our strongest egotistical attractions to another person. Real love would sacrifice anything, even one’s desire to be with the one he or she loves, to do what is right, because it comprehends that virtuous action is the most beneficial gift possible to give to those we love. Real love is to follow the wisdom of God and not the desires of others.
No one can achieve this spiritual endeavor to become an angel or a master without sacrificing what he is now. The trials of this path radically transform us into a different person. The things that bother and hurt us today are quite small from a cosmic point of view, and that irritation is the result of false self, a delusion.
Dion Fortune wrote:
“A knowledge of even the elements of esoteric science leads to a complete change of all of our values. We see that things we considered of supreme importance are not the vital points we thought they were; we see that things we did not think mattered at all are the real strategic centres of our lives.”
People want to achieve spiritual enlightenment without renouncing their own selfish desires. People have to be willing to renounce all of who they are currently to even start in this work. People want to achieve enlightenment and still have their egotistical preferences as part of that path. But the path doesn’t change according to our desires. The path is what it is, and we must change to accomplish its demands and requirements.
"If thou canst not make thine own self what thou desireth, how shalt thou be able to fashion another to thine own liking. We are ready to see others made perfect, and yet we do not amend our own shortcomings."
—Thomas à Kempis
Accepted Answer
I’m wondering if folks who are in the spectrum of LGBTQ can still achieve union, sacramental fulfillment, and enlightenment by being who they are...No. None of us, whether heterosexual, homosexual, “asexual,” transgender, etc. can ever achieve enlightenment by “being who they are” currently.
Many people criticize this teaching as anti-LGBTQ. The fact is that this teaching is anti-egotism, anti-desire, anti-suffering and anti-ignorance.
Egotism is our sense of self, who we believe we really are, who we feel we are. We teach that ego is an illusion that has been created over a long period of time and which we cling to as an identity. The person who mistakenly believes that they are “asexual” is actually a sexual being who experiences his or her sexual instinct in a less obvious or common way than others. No one is without sexual impulse on this planet. We would not have life in our veins without sexual energy. That misperception is a great ignorance.
This teaching is anti-desire because we seek to become liberated from our habitual cravings, aversions, and attachments. The vast majority of what people today describe as love is nothing more than desire and attachment. We seek to be free, to no longer be controlled by the desires and attachments of a false identity. We want enlightenment to perform God’s will—not the will of the ignorant, egotistical people we are today.
There are many more desires beyond our sexual attractions or partner preferences to renounce before we reach a higher degree of spiritual development. But even the heterosexual person must fight to overcome the unique habits of their lust and desires.
As for discovering what love really is, rather than our skewed conception of it, we should meditate deeply and pray daily for our inner divinity to reveal the truth to us. Real love far supersedes our superficial ideas or perverted passions. It transcends even our strongest egotistical attractions to another person. Real love would sacrifice anything, even one’s desire to be with the one he or she loves, to do what is right, because it comprehends that virtuous action is the most beneficial gift possible to give to those we love. Real love is to follow the wisdom of God and not the desires of others.
No one can achieve this spiritual endeavor to become an angel or a master without sacrificing what he is now. The trials of this path radically transform us into a different person. The things that bother and hurt us today are quite small from a cosmic point of view, and that irritation is the result of false self, a delusion.
Dion Fortune wrote:
“A knowledge of even the elements of esoteric science leads to a complete change of all of our values. We see that things we considered of supreme importance are not the vital points we thought they were; we see that things we did not think mattered at all are the real strategic centres of our lives.”
People want to achieve spiritual enlightenment without renouncing their own selfish desires. People have to be willing to renounce all of who they are currently to even start in this work. People want to achieve enlightenment and still have their egotistical preferences as part of that path. But the path doesn’t change according to our desires. The path is what it is, and we must change to accomplish its demands and requirements.
"If thou canst not make thine own self what thou desireth, how shalt thou be able to fashion another to thine own liking. We are ready to see others made perfect, and yet we do not amend our own shortcomings."
—Thomas à Kempis
It's just kinda confusing .. we have all been females and males throughout lifetimes . We know at the core we are spirits. If someone of the same sex ...(might be best friends) love each other in a romantic way but obeys the law of the body...I just dont see how one could be sent to the infra-dimensions ...hell.
I do understand if you have animal passion...lustful thoughts secuao activity, then there is a issue . What about if you really care ..love the being so much that you would be with them if you, could but you dont because you respect the law...that's still a negative?
I do understand if you have animal passion...lustful thoughts secuao activity, then there is a issue . What about if you really care ..love the being so much that you would be with them if you, could but you dont because you respect the law...that's still a negative?
What about a person who does not have sexual desire but is romantically interested in the same sex. Not to say that they cannot also love the opposite sex but without those sexual desires, for example asexual. Though masturbation and the desire of sexual emission may still be there they just have the desire to experience it with a person.
Brahmacharya (scientific chastity)—whether practiced by single yogis or married couples—involves the comprehension and annihilation of lust, desire, or ego.
Chastity or sexual transmutation is antithetical to desire, whether heterosexual or homosexual. One cannot be a brahmachari while harboring sexual desires, especially for the same sex.
There are cases of homosexuals in Mormon communities who enter mixed-orientation marriages. This would be an important step in acculturating the body, heart, mind, and energy towards the opposite sex, which is necessary for initiation.
However, this is not to say that a single person cannot learn to renounce and overcome their homosexual tendencies. Yet this is extremely difficult, even for mixed-orientation marriages.
Chastity or sexual transmutation is antithetical to desire, whether heterosexual or homosexual. One cannot be a brahmachari while harboring sexual desires, especially for the same sex.
There are cases of homosexuals in Mormon communities who enter mixed-orientation marriages. This would be an important step in acculturating the body, heart, mind, and energy towards the opposite sex, which is necessary for initiation.
However, this is not to say that a single person cannot learn to renounce and overcome their homosexual tendencies. Yet this is extremely difficult, even for mixed-orientation marriages.
For thirty years I sought God. But when I looked carefully I found that in reality God was the seeker and I the sought. -Bayazid al-Bastami
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