[Mantak_Chia,_Michael_Winn]_Taoist_Secrets_of_Love(BookFi.org)

58 Taoist Secrets Of Love
Fullness of yang." This is the eternal marriage of man and woman,
of spirit and matter, of Heaven and Earth.
The Taoist path and Tan trie path differ mainly in their language
and in the practical yogic methods taught to achieve the
same union of mind, body, and spirit. Both fully accept the mastery
of one's sexuality as not only a legitimate but necessary means to
attain the highest enlightenment possible in the body. Dowman
describes the importance of semen in the inner tantric path:
"Refined semen in the heart center permeates the body as awareness.
Loss of semen, by any means, causes life-span to be shortened and
causes a pallid complextion. In Anuyoga (fulfillment yoga, or Kundalini
yoga) loss of semen is equated with killing of the Buddha. . . .
After initiation, intensity of desire is essential to force the bodicitta
(seed essence) up the medial nerve (of the spine); not only is desire
vitiated by orgasm, but the will to enlightenment itself is temporarily
lost."*
This accords perfectly with the Taoists view of retaining semen
and transferring it upward, only the Taoists do not personify
the subtle energies with a pantheon of divine beings. So I would
say that the Tantra is for someone who is fascinated by or is attracted
to the religious archetypes of the Tantrics—the gods and
goddesses, the Bodisattvas and demons—and their elaborate secret
rituals, initiations and invocations using mantra. If you have
the patience to follow the rigorous path set out by a lama or guru
who understands the true esoteric practice and is not merely a faith
worshipper, you should eventually be successful with it.
I myself was raised near a Buddhist temple in Thailand and
hung out with monks from an early age. I later decided the external
rituals were not so effective as the internal methods of cultivating I
learned from my Taoist teachers. These rituals are a blend of the
esoteric and local culture. Many westerners may not respond
deeply to the archaic imagery of the religious deities or will be
confused by the different states of mind to be invoked, as the
traditional descriptions of these states of mind do not translate
easily from Sanskrit or Tibetan into English.
Certainly the acceptance of Taoism here in the west has been
slowed by the difficulty of translating Taoist philosophy from Chi-
*"Sky Dancer: The Secret Life And Songs Of The Lady Yeshe Tsogyel" (Routledge and
Kegan, Paul 1984).