whatever they have to in order to bring the other partner along or to
always return to the other partner. This is the only way to keep the
marriage strong.
Sexuality is natural and sacred, as is all the natural world. It is the
way we use, channel, and direct it that makes the difference between
the sacred and the profane, between the augmentation of devotion and
what Shakespeare described in his sonnet, "The expense of spirit in a
waste of shame is lust in action."
Yoga does not use the word power very often. Ye t it is implicit
in all mention of ego. The ego seeks power because it seeks self
perpetuation; it seeks at all costs to avoid its own inevitable demise.
To achieve that impossible end, it devises a thousand ruses. Sexuality
is essentially the beauty of birds nesting in spring. Is this nature's joy
or is it sin? But what has ego done to procreation, to the harmonious
union of complementary opposites? It has twisted it into an act of
egoic self-affirmation. Lust is self-validation through consumption.
Control through the exercise of power. When the emergence of human
ego carne into the world, it altered the act of procreation. It converted
it to an existential proof of being through an act of consumption, not
consummation.
Pride and ObsessionThe problem with all six emotional disturbances is when ego becomes
involved with them. Without ego, you can hate injustice, as Gandhi did
in South Africa. Without ego, you can take pride in accomplishment.
Yehudi Menuhin was humble before his art, as I am before mine, but
that does not deprive us of the right to pride of achievement. Simply
we do not attach it to ego; it is a gift that we have been given the grace
to share. Obsession can be translated as infatuation or addiction-all
states in which the ego is in bondage. Fanaticism is anotht·r word for
obsession. Ye hudi Menuhin and I both practiced our art fanatically.
V I T A I I T Y T II F 1'. N F 1\1; Y II II ll Y ( /" U tl N .1 I