Semen Retention: Dangers

Main Essay

Tempest in a Tea Kettle

Popular superficial impressions of eastern traditions are in-part correct, in that constitutional energy ("jing", of which sexual energy is part) is considered by eastern medical traditions as a root of health, and by eastern esoteric traditions as an ingredient in a certain mystical process.  One of the many things that the popular view largely lacks is that  - of the sexual practices - incorrect attempts at semen retention, particularly, carry significant risk of the opposite of intended results: damage to one's jing, lower center, health, sexuality, spirituality.  Too many people are unwittingly hurting themselves.

(By the way, "semen retention" refers to when there's been aroused sexual activity, approaching orgasm, but no ejaculation.  Saved aroused jing is more problematic than unaroused.)

The main danger of semen retention is, to use the term very broadly, "stagnation".  Stagnation means that "things aren't flowing", "are stuck"... and there are consequences to that.  I'm going to give an introduction to stagnation specifically regarding semen retention, and talk about it in terms of three inter-related layers:

            1. Physical Stagnation
            2. Psychological Stagnation
            3. Spiritual Stagnation

The danger of stagnation is typical of male difficulties, whether or not one attempts semen retention, it's just that semen retention makes it many times worse.  This is about "what is stored but not transformed."

The second biggest danger for men is heat, which accompanies the stagnation.  Stagnation and heat lead to a "tempest in a tea kettle" situation.  People think that they are developing power, but what they've really got is a small amount of mundane energy, chronically active, in an increasingly constrained space.  Such a shallow approach - in the long term - produces unhealthful results, and couldn't be further from authentic qi gong.

This essay is not about solutions; it's about identifying areas of risk.  My observation, after talking to many people over many years, and seeing hundreds show up on discussion sites, is that most men (easily over 90%, imo) who diligently attempt semen retention end up - to varying degrees - hurting themselves.

Physical Stagnation

Jing is very dense, the most refined and concentrated of substances in the body.  It's also associated with muscular development and tension.  Aroused male essence carries, obviously, a tremendous amount of tension and heat, and - unless that's fully refined and transformed - it results in qi that is bound up with tension.  This especially tends to get stuck locally, within the pelvic area, yet also throughout the body.  A later progression, more physical and more severe, is blood stagnation.

Two main things result:  

     One, energy and substance that is too tense gets bound up in place, it sits there and - cut off from fresh circulation - becomes foul, just like any organic matter that sits in an enclosed dark place.  So, toxic blockage accumulates, which is a condition of excess.

     Second, the blockage inhibits the flow of fresh qi and fresh blood to tissues and fluids in the area.  That is, various local areas do not receive healthy nourishment, so conditions of deficiency occur.

     In summary, tense blockage accumulates, resulting in lack of fresh nourishment.

Physically and kinesthetically, for the diligent long term misguided practitioner, this shows up in a number of ways.  In the beginning, a persistent feeling of being "rev'ed up", like having the car out of gear and stepping on the gas.  Later, stubborn tension throughout the body, especially in the pelvic region.  Increased chance of a variety of difficulties throughout the body, including (but not limited to):

    - varying degrees of erectile dysfunction, 

    - increased recovery time needed after ejaculation,

    - hypertension,

    - sensations of heat, 

    - chronic stimulation of the nerve plexuses,

    - endocrine system imbalances,

    - prostate trouble, 

    - fatigue,

    - joint difficulties.

Psychological Stagnation

Broadly, and to over-simplify, Chinese medicine would refer to these sorts of issues as "Liver qi stagnation" and "Liver blood stagnation".  The Chinese medical concept of "Liver" says that "the Liver rules spreading and flowing", and the Liver has lot to do with emotions.  Also, obviously, the libido is a very deep aspect of psychology.

Semen retention gone wrong can result in: 

    - anger, 

    - over-aggressiveness, 

    - depression, 

    - eventual lower center rebellion against retention,

    - sexual obsession, compulsion, addiction.  (Men tend to be sexually frenetic anyway.  While a satisfying sex life is important, the purpose of wisely directed jing cultivation is not to enable sexual mania, but to gradually access deep harmony.)

Practically, everyone has emotional issues to begin with, stored in their physical structure, in warped stuck areas of fascia.  Since sexual energy is dense it has the tendency to get stuck in, and intensify, pre-existing physical-emotional blockages.  Related issues are the maintenance of a smooth, balanced endocrine system, as well as the more esoteric issues of energetic balance, chakras, and tan tiens (on which there's an abundance of written material, but almost none of it sufficiently authentic).

Also, semen retention is often imposed upon the lower center without really being aware of nor coming to terms with the psychology and alchemy of the lower center.  It's a sort of bullying of the lower center by the upper center/s.  After some long period of this abuse, the lower center often re-asserts itself with a vengeance.

A whole range of sexual ~ emotional ~ lifestyle issues can easily get created, masked, and exacerbated by the wrong view, and misuse, of sexual energy practices.

Spiritual Stagnation

The purpose of spiritual work (again, to over-simplify) is to access and deepen one's connection to the transpersonal in a way that brings coherence and integrity to one's spiritual structure.  One's mundane sense of "inside" and "outside" is dissolved, transcended.

The problem with aroused sexual energy is that it intensifies sensation, and sensation is a main basis of the mundane inside/outside duality.  Along with sensation, other dualistic culprits are: unclarified instinctual nature, fundamental misunderstanding of reality, conditioned experience, and insufficiently developed spiritual energetics.

These issues run deep, deep, deep, and very few people actually have enough development to consistently and fluently resolve sensation into non-duality.  Instead, sexual sensation holds the danger of intensifying and entangling dualistic grasping - and semen retention most often makes this worse.

One of the maxims emerging within the community is that "it can't be saved; it must be transformed", and I think that this especially applies to aroused jing.  However, Light is the primary refining (transforming) agent, imho, and very few have accomplished fluent Light integration.

What is happening in modern times is that more people are receiving advanced spiritual initiation, they get a glimpse of advanced spiritual states, and the previously latent imperative to integrate completely is activated.  Both men and women sense that their sexual essence is somehow deeply integral with their spirituality.  What is popularly missing is authentic, clear, comprehensive sexual ~ spiritual guidance and technology; unfortunately people with intense spiritual drive often lack the means to complete the sexual ~ spiritual bridge.  Vaguely sensed depths, confusion, half-truths and out-right misdirection abound, are the norm.

Conclusion:

So, this is the grim essay.  Semen retention, what is popularly advertised as a key to physical and emotional health, quality relationships, and spiritual profundity - actually also carries great risk of destruction along all of those lines.

Part of the problem is that it's an inherently dangerous, tricky area.  Also however, unfortunately, the state of popularly available knowledge about sexual energy cultivation is quite poor.  There are lots of books, and people teaching, but a responsible treatment of the subject - one that includes proper information regarding dangers, realistic expectations, profound understanding, and effective solutions along the lines of remedial health, basic good health, and advanced practices - is nearly entirely missing.  We are just not there yet, as a culture.  Certainly this website doesn't have all the answers.

~ poem ~

The well pit is beneath 

where the pump shed burned

years ago with a living roar, a fire lion.  

Down in the pit, 

charred timbers, green grass, one burdock,

a vernal pool 

where frogs live 

trapped in a universe.

                - Jim Harrison, from After Ikkyu and Other Poems

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