AMBIGUOUS SEXUALITYthough almost all texts are written from the male point of view) must be
someone one knows well, or that she must be as advanced a practitioner as
oneself. Thus, the element of complete mutuality, or 'relationship', does not
seem central to one's interaction with an Action Seal: if anything, the Action
Seal is described instrumentally - though, again, this need not preclude 'rela-
tionship' in our sense of the term.
More importantly - indeed, this is central to my essay - when ritualized
sexuality is enacted with an Action Seal, the presuppositions and purposes
involved all militate against the view that what is going on is 'sex' as wegener-
ally understand that term. To begin with, ordinary sexual activity presupposes
sexual desire, but from the Vajrayana point of view, one cannot possibly have
reached the completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra without immense effort
and discipline. Indeed, one must have tamed one's mind and one's desires to an
extraordinary degree. Thus, paradoxically, in order to engage in tantric sexual
practices, one needs effectively to have overcome ordinary - i.e. craving-based
- sexual desire, though of course one still has a sexual identity and sexual
impulses, and could not practise tantra without them. Further, whereas ordinary
sexual activity has as an important component - if not as its sole purpose -
the attainment of climax, or orgasm/^4 tantric practices almost always involve
what is called 'the retention of semen'. Thus, while tantric sexual practices may
arouse sexual energy or impulses, those impulses are not to be released catharti-
cally, but rechannelled, or sublimated. In terms of the subtle body in which com-
pletion-stage practices are carried out, sexual impulses are to be directed not
downward from the crown cakra and outward from the genital cakra (their
natural direction) but turned back inward and upward, where they may be uti-
lized for various yogic purposes - in the case we are considering, it is the
forcing of mind and prii1Ja into the very centre of the heart cakra, where reside
the subtle mind and prii1Ja that are the basis of our mental and physical being
and the true source of bondage and liberation.
If, thus, ritualized tantric sexuality has little to do with a 'personal relation-
ship', presupposes a mastery of sexual desire, and has as its purpose not the
release of sexual energy but its sublimation, we seem to have encountered a phe-
nomenon that may actually be less a form of 'eroticism' or 'sexuality' than of
asceticism. If the physical act of sexual intercourse may be involved, but the
relationship, desire and cathartic pleasure that for most of us are entailed by
sexuality in a positive sense are missing, then is it really 'sex'? The question is
difficult to answer, assuming as it does that 'sex' has a clear definition, but the
point should be clear: even if Kal)ha is referring to actual sexual practices with
the :Oombl, what is occurring psychologically and physiologically in those prac-
tices bears very little resemblance to sex as we generally understand it, since
Buddhist tantric assumptions and aims are virtually indistinguishable from those
of traditions more readily recognized as 'ascetic'. Thus, when Kal)ha sings of
sex with the :Oombl, he may ultimately be referring to his pursuit not of erotic
bliss, but of an ascetic path.