What is celibacy?
- cultural beliefs about celibacy in religious traditions
The word "celibacy" immediately triggers a reflex in many people: repression, seclusion, anti-body, denial of sexuality. For the modern, psychologically conditioned person, celibacy is often nothing more than a "forcible drain" of sexual energy - resulting in neurosis, repression, hypocrisy.
But this picture is not about celibacy. It is about the distorted glasses through which the question of body and desire the modern self-centred culture looks at. The following overview will help you separate the essence from the projected shadows.
Celibacy (Latin: caelibatus - solitude) originally meant not the denial of the body, but the accessibility to the sacrament. In the Eastern traditions (Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina) brahmacarya, in Christianity continentia, and in Islamic mysticism 'uzla or taqwa as a conscious way of life that disciplines desires.
It is not the absence of desire, but the desire change of direction and shape. It is not that someone does not wish - but that desire is not a possessive relationship. Celibacy inner liberation, not an external renunciation.
1. Christianity - the body as the root of sin
The Catholic Church prescribes celibacy mainly for the clergy, holiness to God as a sign. However, in the Middle Ages and later, it was often intertwined with an anti-body, platonic view of the body as the "bearer of the fall".
This has created the cliché that celibacy is a hatred of the body - and this is easily equated with repression in the eyes of modern psychology. Hence the famous belief: celibacy is a church-imposed suppressionwhich inevitably backfires. The sexual scandals of priests only reinforce this preconception - even if they are not the fault of celibacy, but of its internal lack of processing they arise from.
2. Krishna devotees - woman as obstacle, desire as distraction
According to the Gaudíja-Vaishnava tradition, sexual desire (kāma) a main distractionwhich diverts the mind from Kṛṣṇa bhakti. Celibacy here is not an end in itself, but a prerequisite of pure love. However, as a consequence, many practitioners - especially in the West - often find that demonisation of desire also causes anxiety, guilt and projection in relationships with women.
The female body thus often becomes into an illusory trapwhich distorts the pure Śakti vision. The desire is not transformed, but the a target of battle. The problem is not celibacy, but the fact that the transmutation is replaced by fear.
3. Buddhism - desire as the root of suffering
In the Theravāda and Mahāyāna traditions, celibacy is the abandonment of sensual desires part of what is needed to end suffering. The worldly life, married life, childbearing - all are objects of illusion, attachment, impermanence.
And although celibacy in monastic orders can lead to deep self-discipline, often seems too cold in the eyes of the secular. Hence the belief that the Buddhist monk emotionless, asexual shadow beingwho has shut himself off from the juices of life. This is again the external observer projection - not the reality of the inner practitioner.
4. New Pagan and modern "psycho-spiritual" circles - celibacy as "trauma"
Contemporary new age and psychospiritual communities often see celibacy as a kind of stuck at are interpreted. It is a psychological block that masks sexual trauma, fear or guilt. The "repression" of sexual energy here is clearly pathological. "Free sexuality" becomes the measure of authentic self-expression.
Within this framework, celibacy as an abnormality will appear. Those who are celibate are "certainly afraid of women", "cannot handle desire", or "flee from connection". A transformation possibility are completely ignored - because all they see is: the desire has not been satisfied.
