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Sex
 What Is Sex?
"For the most mature of men --
-- that's the short line over there --
sexuality is often as much a puzzle
as it is a test."
- Eugene Kennedy
Sex:
some say
that there's much more to it
than we ordinarily think.
Still, we all see it, hear about it,
read about it, talk about it all the time,
- but to start with a really basic question . . .
. . . what is it?
"What Is Sex"?
(multiple choice format)
A) A physical manifestation of love, or a physical act where two humans share the deepest parts of ourselves, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, with another human being.
B) A physical act that is supposed to be this wonderful, deep, mystifying and profound spiritual experience - but most of the time, is basically a bodily spasm and way to release tension.
C) John Barrymore: "The thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble."
D) A physical act in which one person uses another person as a means of experiencing physical pleasure . . . leading to two people using and trying to merge with each other in order to be relieved of themselves.
E) A physical expression of love.
F) A physical expression of power.
G) An act of spiritual communion . . . also practiced by aardvarks, geese, mongooses, hippopotomi, llamas, yaks, whales, and other sentient beings.
H) A means to occasionally achieve the goal of a heightened sensation of temporary ecstasy, produced by the friction between two rubbing body parts.
I) W. Somerset Maugham: ". . . only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species."
J) A serious act which has very real and important consequences to everyone involved and many who aren't.
K) A non-serious act - like harmless athletic romp - similar to dancing, jogging, reading, and eating, with few or no consequences at all.
L) An act of creation which brings forth new life.
M) A fundamental human drive which advertising executives harness in order to sell magazines, makeup, cars, clothes, shampoo, houses, shoes, ointments, pills, underwear, nose-hair clippers, socks, thighmasters, and belly-wraps.
N) Probably the largest single source of stress that existson the planet, and something we feel ashamed of and guilty about, like a dirty secret we should keep private.
O) A pure source of pleasure, happiness, and fun that we feel proud of and happy about.
P) Evolution theory: How nature uses us to pass genes on the the next generation.
Q) Stress-Management Theory: It's a physical activity used to "blow off steam," similar in essential function to jogging, swimming, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, yelling at other people, watching television, and taking naps.
R) The most important, pleasurable, and fun thing in life, at least when we're young, healthy, and naive.
S) The reason why men work jobs, earn money, dress well, develop manners, buy fancy cars, go to church, work out, and treat people decently.
T) The reason why women buy clothes, buy shoes, wear makeup, work jobs, diet, go to bars, read magazines, and watch television.
U) Something that gives us ten minutes of pleasure in exchange for fifty years of pain, or vice versa.
V) A transfer of energy between two individuals.
W) What women give men in order to get babies.
X) What men want from beautiful women, and what women want from high-status men.
Y) Freud: one of the primal drives deep in our being, held in check by a civilizing forces of repression, and the ultimate root of everything but psychoanalysis.
Z) A physical expression of love, which sometimes gives one venereal diseases. Or, also known as an act when two individuals, in a cataclysmic act of fusion, merge bodies, emotions, minds, and souls ( . . . but under most conditions, only bodies)
AA) The most intimate and vulnerable type of contact available to humans.
BB) An act that makes women stronger and man weaker; makes men stronger and women weaker; makes men and women stronger; or makes both men and women weaker.
CC) Andy Warhol: "The biggest nothing of all time."
DD) A topic that, according to various degrees, individuals are either bored with, neutral about, interested in, passionate about, or completely obsessed with.
EE) What happens when you "give in to temptation."
FF) The act of taking the deepest, most tender and vulnerable physical and emotional parts of ourselves and sharing them with another person.
GG) Evidence of our "original sin" or "fallen nature."
HH) A natural human need, similar to hunger or thirst.
II) What wives give husbands, in hopes of getting love in return, or to keep them from getting angry.
JJ) What husbands give wives to stop them from nagging.
KK) The driving force behind: artistic masterpieces; scientific breakthroughs; great enterprises; mediocre and bad art, science, and achievements; war; compromise; illness; molestation; and rape.
LL) Something that is neutral in itself, but depending on how we approach it, can either leads us to heights of ecstasy, or destroy or lives.
MM) The most reliable method to momentarily interrupt and escape drudgery and mundane dullness in life.
NN) Juicy "bait" that nature uses to ensnare and trap us in the prison of space and time.
OO) What happens when our lower nature overpowers and dominates our higher nature.
PP) The purpose, meaning, and fulfillment of human life.
QQ) To young people, it's what holds the promise of fulfillment, perfection, and lifelong happiness; to old people . . . they just wonder what all the fuss was about.
RR) The closest thing most people have to a spiritual experience.
SS) A significant factor in many mental and emotional illnesses.
TT) The act by which two animals breed.
UU) An activity whereby individuals dissipate their vitality.
VV) Something that, in spite of endless centuries of worry, study, and thinking about, we still do not understand.
WW) Barry Long: "Sex is God blind in existence. Man's job is to make that God conscious - which will turn what was devilish into love."
XX) Adi Da: Sex is, among other things, "the physical dramatization of emotion."
YY) An activity that takes place in every realm of nature, when spirit condenses and forms matter and so creates a polarity, or tension and attraction between the two poles. The act of the two poles or principles uniting results in the creation of life, energy, and matter.
ZZ) David Deida: "The entire realm of manifestation is sexual, in a certain way . . . Consciousness is "masculine," and everything that appears is "feminine." So right now, your consciousness is having sex with everything you see and taste and smell and feel . . . it's merging with it, "doing" it. That's why sex is such an interesting thing for most people, because it's re-enacting the masculine-feminine union of consciousness and light, which is this moment, through the body."
AAA) A topic that nearly every every human is secretly or openly fascinated with and simultaneously knows very little about.
BBB) A source of powerful and precious energy that, in general, can be either repressed, wasted, or sublimated.
CCC) (Freud) Something that, when repressed, results in various forms of spirituality.
DDD) Something that is the effect of a kind of "repressed spirituality," or the pressure of deep spiritual forces that are not yet manifest.
EEE) D. H. Lawrence: "Sex is the balance of male and female in the universe, the attraction, the repulsion, the transit of neutrality, the new attraction, the new repulsion, always different, always new."
FFF) Something which, if understood and used properly, leads to great happiness; if not understood and misused, leads to great suffering.
GGG) "Sex can be a time of total dissolution in love. Sex can bathe every cell in your body with light, bliss, and life force. Sex can be an ecstatic practice of open-hearted communion and surrender to infinity. Or, sex can be 10 or 20 minutes of genital stimulation ending in a spasm of biological relief." - David Deida
GGG) Other_____________________________.
Your Answer: ________.
When you finish your quiz, please pass your papers to the front.
(heh heh - we just always wanted to say that)
<http://www.livereal.com/images/discussarticle.gif>
(Note: This is a quiz that, in a way,
you're already kind of taking, we're just putting it into words;
you may be graded, but may not be;
we're not sure when, how, or if you'll find out what your grade is;
and we might know who will or won't be grading your papers,
but then again, we may be wrong.)
". . . In a culture
where sex is supposedly all around us
and yet true, intense sexuality
is in desperately
short supply . . ."
- Stephanie Zachaerk
Appendix I : Does anyone tell the whole truth about sex?
Appendix II : "What is Sexuality?" by Elizabeth Haich
Appendix III : Sex as "The Search for IT" that gets us into The Typical Cycle . . .
Appendix IV: Is Sex Just a Physical Act?
Appendix V : Party Topic
The phrase "casual sex" is an oxymoron.
Such a thing as "casual sex" does not exist.
Appendix V : What is the relationship between sexuality and spirituality?
Final Thoughts:
When it comes to sex, us humans often tend to go to one extreme or the other: either, on the one hand, total permissiveness and promiscuity; on the other hand, puritanical repression.
However, the ideal solution apparently lies somewhere in between - as if there is a kind of "betweenness" in regards to sexuality as there is with everything else.
Maybe that's what D. H. Lawrence was saying . . .
"Sex is neutral"
- Andrew Cohen
What if sex is essentially like fire?
- meaning, it can be used to cook food, keep you warm, roast some marshmellows - OR it can be used to burn down your house, torch a whole forest, reduce an entire city to a heap of ashes . . .
Meaning, it can be a very negative thing, or a very positive thing, depending on your awareness of it and your approach to it?
So in itself, it's neither good nor bad, but it all depends on how you use it?
- and then, the question becomes . . . how do you "use" it?
to be continued . . .
Speak your mind:
info@livereal.com
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