Dear Jasjit,
This is going to be a long post and I'm going to write it one go and post it. No second thoughts :)

Answer to your first question: The first thing that came into my mind when I saw card is so much vibrancy. The two characters embracing each other and the orange colour of the tree looks like an explosion of something very very potent and vibrant. As if if you were in the place of the characters you too would explode with that vibrancy.

When I looked at the card again I saw the colourful images of the mountains behind. Filled my heart with a sort of soft happiness unlike the vibrant feeling.

Then the swirl beneath the feet of the two characters gave me an effect as if I was in a whirlpool... not a destructive one but one where you felt blissful to be lost...

Second question: Have been on this blog for a long time. So seeing the sexual as the temple is becoming kinda natural :)

Third question: But yes it is mystifying. Getting to know the powers that it has in store for us and the levels to which it can take us makes one wonder then why it is being suppressed. Especially when Hindu philosophy as I have been reading here is telling that the sexual is the ROOT from which creation takes place.

Fourth question: It definitely is. I mean look at all the crimes that are happening all around us, they are all so sexual in nature. O.K forget about these crimes. Look at the nature of the stress and anxiety ordinary people are going through. Everything is to do people's inability to root their feelings. Dissatisfaction, boredom etc all coming from not knowing what their truw essence is and what is it that it is seeking.

Jasjit I think people have misunderstood the concept of YIN nad Yang. Most people see them separately as in Yang been present only in men and Yin only in woman. This separation is the root of all troubles. People just don't see themselves as a whole but only in parts. Within every man and woman there is the Yin and Yang. All we need to do is balance it right?

God one can go on writing on this but I'll stop here. Need to get back to work :)

A very hard to resist practice. Maybe I'll try my hands on doing it on a regualr basis.

Dear Jasjit,
I am glad to be back at this blog again. I am going to start by replying to your questions -
a)My immediate reaction was that of an explosion of energy - something like the small chakri's that are lighted during diwali. It made me feel happy and yet removed more like I felt this was something unearthly and beautiful. An experience that was removed from anything that I would experience in this life - very ethereal.

b)It is an alien concept. However having said that the card seemed to as a heavenly experience it seems natural that the sexual self should be the temple in our body. Also makes me realise that I have not yet enetered or revered this temple.

c)&d) The sexual is probably the most blocked area in my life. I have only begun to understand that and so would like to explore it. It is definitely distorted, misrepresented and completely misunderstood in modern day. I also realise that it is the same witin me - it is an area I have blocked out of my life and my sexuality and sexual being seems to come alive only when I am a few drinks down!!!!

lol, i have been seeing this card since yesterday but only now - after reading annie's post - could really 'see' it.

there are four layers of the outer or observable or yin or white or physical or even body world and four layers of the inner or the unobservable or yang or black or metaphysical or even the mind world (imagine usual yin/yang figure).

in the first two layers of the first or outer or white world the inner or dark world is in the background or latent, and in the last two layers the outer world itself is latent in the now first two layers of the inner.

it means after each two layers sort of gear shifts from the outer or physical world to the inner or mental world or vice versa as the case may be. in other words, after each two layers the outer or body or yin and inner or mind or yang layers meet once a while.

when they meet after the two layers of the outer world in which the inner world is in the background it manifests a union which is called sexual experience. and when they meet after the subsequent two layers of the inner world in which the outer world has been in the background, it is called experience of oneness in itself, which can also be called the experience of superconsciousness.

the chakra underlining the first union is called the (physical) heart chakra, the chakra underlining the second union (which usualy happens in one's own self)is called the (spiritual) heart chakra (which is said to exist two digits to the right of our physical heart.

like the two holes (one above and the other below)of the yin/yang figure both these hearts back-t-back are one, the difference is only in each's outward manifestation.

pl let me know if anybody can make out anything of what i have written above. questions will be welcome too.

dear jasjit ,
my spontaneous overflow after reading your writing......
here are some lines of john donne's love poetry... called The Sunne Rising
--Busie old foole, unruly sunne,
Why dost thou thus,
through windowes, and through curtaines call on us?
Must to thy motion lovers season's run?
Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide late schoole boyes......

well, the lovers in the tarot card seem to urge to the world, for god's sake hold your tongue and let me love......

Inspire jasjit inspire ! for let an Indian like me write an unhibited , purely and absolutely indulgent novella exploring the meditative beauty of Khajuraho erotica, the vedic import of the swadhishtan in the most modern and contemporary context, unleashing the fulsome, wholesome deliciousness of body to body, soul to soul ripeness......

love you
pratibha chopra

Hello Harb,

Nope I have not understood what you just wrote :) But it must have needed some 'seeing' to write that. As long as it makes sense to you I'm sure your sexual chakra is all well. lol

My first impression...stunning card. Then I wondered how you came up with the idea. As I read your article my eyes grew teary and I still don't know why?

a) I felt like this picture belongs somewhere else in time, space. Like an ideal that you have painted for us or maybe we all carry it in our hearts and maybe that's why the tears. I was thinking about the connection between the orgasm an what you call 'oneness', a catching thought which left me quite broody last night.

b)I like the idea of a temple, when I thought about it it sent a happy shiver up my spine. :)

c)I'm intrigued and would love to read more.

d) I guess the word 'blocked' sounds harsh and yet maybe it is the best word to explain the madness and violence we have to deal with, especially as women. And look at what children have to face sexually with manic adults in this world. Yes its time to 'heal' the world. But it sounds so difficult and sticky. You guys are quite brave come to think of it.

It is a lovely card, idea, post and concept Jasjit. I'm going to give the meditation a shot and also hopefully read more about this 'temple'. :)

Dear Jasjit,

very powerful image.

Swadhistana...the temple of the sexual...

All energy whether it be the sexual or the spiritual resides in this prominent chakra and when active makes the person a dynamo of beauty, power and glory.

lots of love

Dear Jasjit,

Hereunder another of my poems. This is what i experienced when i was 34 (my vision of Oneness):

(Spiritual) Ecstasy.

It seems i do not need any drugs

to feel whole and truly loved

when i am drowned into your hugs

i feel so special, so beloved

you are so kind and unconditional

i am accepted just by being there

that means that i always feel so special

it makes me feel that i am everywhere

cause always in your embracing arm

there will never be any harm

coming to me of that i´m so sure

that is why i feel so secure

the Lord is my Saviour, i know of no lack

I am now almost 61 and this vision has guided me ever since, i have been creative in many ways and have every reason to be grateful looking back, which i did when translating Harb´s book.
In a way i lived through my whole life again :)

Love, Mieke

Hi Mieke,

A poem with so much warmth and surity of the self in it. I truly enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing it.

Love
Chaitali

Thank you Chaitali, i´m happy you enjoyed reading it.

I also enjoyed reading your articles.
Good luck with your work here :)

Love, Mieke

Hey Mieke Thanks :)

Meike

Thank you for sharing yet another lovely poem.

Jasjit this is really a beautiful post. Couldnt visualise a more magnificent card for the swadisthana. You've really managed to capture its magic, sensuousness, mystery and essence.

The reference to the sexual as a temple really just makes you exhale with relief. The notions of sin and morality around it just create so much tension and trauma in people. Viewing the sexual as a temple can only bring about a deep relaxation, freedom, peace and perhaps a desire to investigate and resolve rather than ignore.

Hi Annie

Good to know the blog makes it 'natural' to view the sexual as a temple. WE must be doing something right then.:)

Yes the Yin and Yang are misunderstood and therin lies the root of our intinsic duality. perhaps these times that will take us closer to seeing them as part of our essential selves. Do tell us how the practice goes.

Hi Chipmunk

Thanks for sharing so honestly. Yes the vibrancy, beauty and almost surreal otherworldliness of the swadisthana are its truth. Unfortunately neither our upbringing nor the experiences which shape us emotionally/sexually leave us wholesome or free enough to turn the eye of enquiry on ourselves. Once we do the joys are inexpressible!

Actually the mountain peak reflected in the lake to the left of the card shows precisely that. the peak is the height of man and the placid lake which mirrors it is the Swadisthana, where the sexual orgasm is just a mirror (albeit fleeting like an image) of the promise that it reflects.
Love & hugs to you

Hi Jasjit

Very attractive card, or should I say attracting. I'm not good at images etc but the card reflects richness, mystery and passion to me. I think the electric colours at the right are of the Kundalini rising. Am I right?

I remembered an incident at school where this Hindi teacher once (a nice philosophical fella) began to tell us about the Swadisthana as the 'vasna chakra'. I guess the poor guy was trying to introduce some sexual education to the wild 17 year olds. He told us about the power and sanctity of the chakra and how we must 'respect' its powers. Louts that we were we nicknamed him 'VSP- vasna pundit'. When I read this I felt a huge pang of regret at how dumb teenage can be.

I like the idea of a 'Temple' and maybe more young people should know about it. I'm not sure how much it will change 'bad' behaviour but I think it could add a whole new angle to self-perception.

Hi Harb

"the chakra underlining the first union is called the (physical) heart chakra, the chakra underlining the second union (which usualy happens in one's own self)is called the (spiritual) heart chakra (which is said to exist two digits to the right of our physical heart."

As always you bring some info I need. I had an experience some time ago (in the early years of my practice) which just got explained by what you wrote.

With love & Gratitude

Dear Pratibha

Welcome to the blog! You sound like you are already inspired by your inner eye to undertake that wonderful task. May the Muse within, guide you to gift us all that lyrical work.

Much love

Dear Mieke

What an amazing poem and from what you reveal, an amazing life/soul you are. Your experience of "oneness" at 34 must have made the road to 61 a joy and wonder which I hope you will share ( or maybe already have) in your own book. Would love to know more!
Thank You
Love

Dear Shagufta,

I guess the tears are a sign of the wonder of an open heart. Maybe the meditation will reveal something powerful. Thank You

Love

Hi Aachi
:)

You´re always welcome Anusheh :

Dear Jasjit,

Thanks and i did write my own book in my own way i guess. I always had this hobby on my computer, making games. In those days this was a very rare hobby (computer was only just starting to become accepted) and i did not know of any woman who had that hobby. So i ´struggled´ on my own lol

Have been a member of an English computer club in the nineties for quite some time and had much fun there. There were almost only male members and i learnt a lot during that time. Luckily the one that made our monthly magazine was a woman :)
We still were corresponding through letters and a magazine by post. The Internet was not yet there at that time.

We all made great 3D virtual games and exchanged them with each other. I made a lot of mazes in that time, always found the exit lol.

I did it all as a hobby next to being a mother and housewife. Had a few more hobbies but this was my passion.

Lately i met someone who introduced me to the labyrinth. It is the labyrinth that brought me the most wonderful insight. Making all those mazes and in the end this unicursal maze :)

Since then one experience after the other happened and i could all visualize this in 3D worlds on my computer. You could really say i have been and still am designing my own Universe.

Got intrigued the minute i read on the Intent Blog about Harb´s book with the title ´Self Designed Universe´. Of course i had to know more about it :)

Since i learnt the English language mostly by correspondence with members of the computer club and after that with quite some people on the internet, something came along that made it possible for me to also make use of the possibility of translating from Dutch into English in first instance and now with Harb´s book for the first time from English into Dutch.

So far now i have translated 3 books.

And here i am now, very grateful, and the poems i wrote were the gift i received from translating Harb´s book. I made a number of them one after the other. It was a blessed and inspired moment in space :)

Hereunder the third one and as all good things come in three, this is the last one i´m going to share:

Gratitude

How do i express my gratitude
if being grateful is my feeling of root
from it there arise such wonderful things
that i can only say my heart sings
every moment this inspiration catches me
indeed it is gratitude that holds it for me
in gratitude for just being alive
and experiencing this as dancing, like the jive
i create each time something new
and this is not meant for just a few
but for everyone who is aware
that being grateful means to share
the wonder of being alive
come, dance with me this amazing jive

During the translation of Harb´s book, i have also visited your site quite a lot and enjoyed many articles you and others here have written.
This was and still is very enriching. Thank you for that.

Love, Mieke

Jasjit thanx :)

Meike what a fascinating woman you are! Perhaps Harb's book became part of your karmic field because you were meant to design the 3D virtual game on the self-designed universe to instantly enlighten all on both the mystery and the PLAY. Looking foward to it.

I have to say your skill with English, despite having learnt it so late, in life is enviable. As someone who grew up speaking English, I only realized much later (when I was teaching summer school in Canada in my early twenties) what a complex and irregular language it is. To have mastered it sufficiently to translate across langauges is remarkable.

Meike in my book gratitude is the first and the last frontier of the road to the Self. Your poem captures that beautifully. I have always felt that what is amiss with people trapped in suffering, is an absolute lack of gratitude at all the gifts that regularly come their way. Because there is so little gratitude in the world, there is so little love.

I am privileged to make your acquaintance woman of myriad and rare gifts. And of course we have Harb to thank for this amongst other things. :)
Much love

Vedant thank You for your insightful comments. Yes I have depicted the Kundalini on the right. Well teenage is a rough time for everyone, and a time to get lost so that being found can be that much sweeter. :)

Lol Jasjit, that is indeed quite a challenge.

I already made a labyrinth that i called The Universal Life Labyrinth. It consists of two CD´s and was inspired by a beautiful Garden of Life in our country, that contains 25 gardens telling the story of human life.
I made this in the form of a four quadrant labyrinth that looks like a rose.

With this virtual world i pushed my computer to its limits and it is hardly working on it now that i have it ready.

The computer needs to have a videocard with at least 64 MB of video memory for itself and 128 MB is much better. Even i do not have such a computer lol cause these are the latest, although now 256 MB is becoming top of the bill.

So while it is not exactly a game, it is a pleasure walking around in it (virtually) and i made a whole story in writing to accompany it (albeit still in Dutch).

So if you have the right computer, it will be my pleasure to send it to you with an English translation of my experiences with it :)

Much love, Mieke

jasjit, you know you already did something for mieke. mieke has phenomenal energy and is now after learning punjabi. first she tried to learn it through emails with me. then she wanted to have a dictionary and it was you who found it for me and finally for mieke. i mean you were in fact getting acquainted from deeper realms even before you knew it.

i too am amazed at meike's english, knowing that she learnt it only through correspondence. seems once you are at a certain 'spiritual' height/awareness nothing is difficult for you to learn or rather to master.

and i never cease to be amazed at the way meike readily understood my book and then translated it at such speed. indeed universe is full of mysteries.

love and thanks to both of you.

Hi Harb, will be back to you within short with a poem translated in Punjabi. Hoping you will be helping me with it :)

Love, Mieke

welcome meike, i am always at hand to help you with anything connected with punjabi...

Piare Harb :)

Sat sri akal.
tuhada bahut dhanvad..

Just wanted to say I found this post very intriguing. Never came across this perspective before. I work with teenagers in summer on a range of issues and was just struck by the article and comments as something quite unique to inroduce to the young. Could you direct me on where I could read up more and understand the subject in depth. Thank You.

Oh! and i like your site, very creative and substantial. Well-written too. Congratulations.

Hi Meike

Learning Punjabi now, what a repertoire you have my friend. Like Harb says when you acess your higher potential then nothing is impossble. Wonderful!

I am technologically still unformed so will check with my team to figure out whether our computers can read your Cds. The concept sounds beautiful.

Much Love

Thank You Rohini

Actually the market is full of books on Vedant and the 7chakras. Perhaps you should begin by browsing the net. Once your interest deepens you can find the author that best suits your needs and enquiry.
Sorry hope this not too vague.

love

Dear Jasjit,

Thanks. But of course there are limits, it is not possible to do everything you wish to at once. It is a kind of going with the flow and being grateful what´s coming to you but also being capable to accept when there are things not possible and trying to handle one thing at a time. I hope i make myself a little bit clear cause this is difficult to put in words. But the knowledge that everything is possible... yeah that´s the power :)

As far as my life labyrinth is concerned, you are always welcome and it is at it is.

What you could do, and what others did already, is download a 3D Virtual Peace Labyrinth i made about a year ago, that is based on a couple of books of Deepak Chopra. I donated this to the Chopra Center but it is still available for download. Please also download the DearUsertext, because it contains an explanation on how to move around in the labyrinth.

http://lightbeacon.net/~mvanderpoll/

Love to you and all
Mieke

Dear Mieke

Thanks for that. I'm in the process of downloading it....very exciting.

love
anusheh

Hi Mieke

I really enjoyed the labyrinth of peace. It's really very well done. And the text you have chosen for each passage in the labyrinth felt to me like each passage with its messages was like working on a layer of ones being. And as you went deeper into the labyrinth you also moved deeper within yourself. I guess moving along the passageways also brings about the feeling of moving within oneself. A very powerful visualisation which could only be done by someone who knows and deeply experiences peace.

Thank you so very much. It was worth every second of the time it took to download and more. I recommend it highly to everyone here.

Lots of love

Great Anusheh, i´m so happy you enjoyed it so much :) I still regularly ´walk´ it and i made another one for myself in the Dutch language, based on intention in general. It is always rewarding, it is a kind of meditation in itself.

And i have Deepak to thank for all the inspiration on this cause by reading some of his books he has always been a very good companion :)

I hope more of you will enjoy it and do spread it to anyone you like.

Much love,
Mieke

Hi Meike

Have still to see your brilliant work, will get back to you as soon as I find some quiet time.

Love

Dear Jasjit,

Take your time, it is always on your side :)

Love

a) What is your spontaneous reaction to the card and what do the images symbolize for you?
Truth and yearning are two words that strike me.
A certain anger I cant articulate, not at the card but at self and godhead
b) What do you think of the fact that your sexual self is being referred to as the Temple in your body?
I want that to be true and I used to believe it but now, with confusion, and being stuck in a world of fantasy and grieving my own self created state of dwelling in my mental images that over power me, my inability to express myself sexually and honestly has spilt over into many areas of my life…and I wish, I truly do that the universe will take me back to the point of balance and a true understanding of sexuality and sexual power and the role of sexual experience and the meaning of transcendence
PS; does swadist-ana also mean extremely tantalizing or “tasty”, one other meaning to the Sanskrit/hindi root/interpretation/usage?
c) Does the concept mystify you to want to investigate further or do you feel it belongs to some obscure philosophy, which you cannot relate to?
I want to investigate it definitely…don’t know how. Whenever I ready myself to plunge in to an actual experience, I back out fearing that it isn’t the adequate way…and yet, when I abstain, I don’t refrain, the mind doesn’t and it again leads to a frustrating cycle of self gratification, fantasy and guilt and many mired thoughts.
d) Do you believe that the sexual is the most ‘blocked’ aspect of our life and is perhaps the most distorted space in the modern world?
I think so. There was a time when I “understood” sexuality, my sexuality…and my mind was not so uni-dimensional in comprehending it then as it does now…I knew somewhere that being a sexual being was the life force, was expression of all areas of oneself, unhindered, innocent, un-mired and with a flow…but now all my mind does is dream of it as a physical act…in fact I have fallen, severely fallen, I feel…and the irony is the awareness of the fall is around…and yet I refuse to and am unable to fully rise out the pit.
As for the world, at least most of it is better off…it does explore through its physical senses and not only through intellect or imagination…so compared to how I deal with it, I think many more who pass thru healthy sexual experiences manage to indulge, experience and transcend…

Dear Seeker

Thank you for such an exhaustive and honest contemplation on these questions. If I may take the liberty of responding to some of them...

a)The anger is a healthy sign of needing to dig deeper and working towards healing/resolving your sexual centre.

b)true transcendence comes from experiencing rather than 'abstinence' of any emotion. Abstinence requires an artifical suppression and since we carry karmic yearnings they do not purify from suppressing but solidify further become private hells. Transcendence requires standing amidst the emotion, seeing through it, knowing it and unlocking its power over you through consciousness.
Fantasy etc linger and haunt because we are too busy denying and rejecting things, the thirsting self then resorts to living the same out through fantasy etc which inturn obsesses and hounds us. Therefore the only way to freedom from fantasy is to be able to accept the yearining, stare it in the eye fearlessly and seek to understand its root. Stepping out of the mould of seeing things as sacred and profane is a good starting point. Try to drop judgement and approach the desire scintifically by searching why it exists in the first place.

Svadisthana is from the sanskrit conjunction- sva' the true Self- disthana = abode or dwelling place.

c)Guilt /fear and powerlessness are common experiences of the sexual mired as it is in morality, sin, good and evil and right and wrong. These social/moral notions only manage to doom the sexual to dark places which is why there is so much sexual anguish in the world. Healing the sexual resolves it of all dark desires and fantasy and turns it into a space of gratitude, wonder and play- its true nature.

d)Your awareness of what the sexual truly is is not just a good starting point but enough to send you on that journey to discovering wonder.

There are many articles in this blog's archives on different aspects of sexuality, violence, fantasy, desire and myth. I hope some of them will answer your questions.

Thank You for sharing and enriching this blog with your wisdom.

Warm Regards