Can sex and spirituality get along? - with Premananda Villasa

Today we share another interreligious dialgoue on the relationship between sex and the spiritual, which — contrary to pretty much all public messaging on the topic since the day I was born — is not inherently antagonistic. Not when you look deeper into the texts and teachings. And certainly not among the Dharmic faiths, which are known for being anthropologically astute on matters of desire, love, and attachment. Our guest for this conversation is Premananda Villasa, a museum curator and yoga instructor based in Washington DC, and a fellow Residential Minister at Georgetown University.

Prema taught us about the four stages of life in the Dharmic traditions, which show the arc of spiritual progression across the life cycle from student to householder to retiree to renunciate. Sex and sexual energy play a different role in each of these life stages. You can’t truly advance to the next stage without grappling with the former. These earthly/pragmatic stages are what we might call our “dharma” — they define the relationships and duties through which we can access and channel divine love.My takeaway: knowing your own “dharma “is the first place to start in figuring out what’s right for your life, with sex and many other things. Just as we learned in our conversation last year with Fr. Briscoe and Sara Perla, it depends on the type of relationships and the forms of service we are called into.Beyond the theology of it all, we discuss the challenge of trying to live in a way that is both holy and human when it comes to sex. It takes time and experience to know our own bodies and understand how we love, hurt, and heal through them — how do we give ourselves and others the grace to learn from experience, while not being careless? How do we navigate dating norms or religious expectations that conflict with what we feel is right? Similar to our conversation on sexual maturity with Jennifer-Finlayson Fife, we ask: what does it mean to be adults about sex?

Hope you enjoy.

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