[This is part of a first draft of an essay on the esoteric sexual teachings of Franklin Jones aka Adi Da, Da Free John, Bubba Free John, etc. etc.]

One of the curiosities of Daist sexual practice is the teaching of "solitary shaktichalana mudra", or yogic masturbation.

The written instruction for this practice can be found in a book titled The Practice Of Solitary Shaktichalana Mudra, published in 1994 and 1995. The table of contents for this book are listed on the internet at www.dabase.net/shakmudr.htm. The same website also lists the contents of other Daist esoteric sexuality teachings at www.dabase.net/sexser.htm.

According to Adi Da,

Shaktichalana Mudra is not a practice that I invented. It is a traditional exercise that has been engaged for hundreds, even thousands, of years in monastic settings. It is a secret practice that has been passed on within esoteric Yogic circles. It has not been openly described anywhere. I am not aware of any literature that describes the practice openly.

And there's the rub -- so to speak. I have been unable to find any verification, in the traditional literature, for Frank's assertion that yogic masturbation "is a traditional exercise that has been engaged for...thousands of years in monastic settings." [Helpful readers have pointed on the modern day teachings of the "Taoist" Mantak Chia as another source of Frank's teaching on yogic masturbation. If anyone can come up with ancient sources and documentation on this practice, please let me know.]

One assumes, naturally, that "non-yogic" masturbation has been practiced, even for millions of years! In fact, it must have been, for one can find plenty of admonitions against masturbation. But whether masturbation was practiced ritually, as a yoga of spiritual awakening, remains an open question.

Frank's principle source, it appears, for claiming that the practice is an ancient tradition, is a story he heard from a disciple of the 20th century yogi Swami Kripalvananda.

If you read Swami Kripalvananda's writings, knowing that this is what he did--and I have been informed by one of his disciples exactly what he did--you will see the references there. There is a book showing photographs of Swami Kripalvananda as he demonstrates various asanas and mudras. In one of the photographs he is sitting the the lotus posture with his hand resting just below the navel. He does not have his penis in his hand, but that is what the asana means. He practiced this exercise, as some of his disciples also did, in solitude, for many hours every day, as a serious celibate Yogic practitioner.

Swami Sri Krpalvananda

Swami Kripalvananda (also called Bapuji) was the author of The Science of Meditation (1977) and is the guru of Yogi Amrit Desai, the founder of the Kripalu Meditation Centers. (Yogi Desai was forced to resign from Kripalu in 1994 because of sex-scandals and lawsuits. See more at webhome.idirect.com/~aum108/guru.html)

from the same website:

Swami Sri Kripalvananda (Bapuji) was Yogi Desai's guru. Kripalu Yoga and the Kripalu Center are named after him. His name means literally "the compassionate one" in Sanskrit. Born in Dabhoi, Gujarat in 1913, he was so frustrated at his lack of spiritual progress as a young man that he made several suicide attempts before meeting his guru, Dadaji. After becoming a swami, Kripalvananda renounced all worldly attachments and travelled throughout western India, lecturing, writing, and teaching. During one of Kripalvananda's visits to Halol in the 1940s the young Amrit Desai first met him and soon became his #1 student. In 1977, Yogi Desai persuaded Sri Kripalvananda to come to the U.S.A., and he spent 4 years doing intense sadhana (10 hours a day) at the Kripalu Center, then located in Sumneytown and Summit Station, PA. Sri Kripalvananda returned to India in 1981, because of failing health, but also possibly because Kripalu was unable to secure him a permanent visa or Green Card so he could stay in the U.S. permanently. ...Sri Kripalvananda was not only a master of Kundalini Yoga, but also an accomplished musician and classical Indian composer, who loved to chant and wrote many bhajans (devotional songs) in his native Gujarati language.

An introduction by Sri Kripalvananda to Kripalu Yoga can be found at http://www.akyc.org/intro_yoga.html.

Kripalvananda's guru Dadaji was a long dead spiritual master who was said to be the 28th incarnation of Shiva. He is depicted as the face of a Siva-lingam, with an erect penis, holding what appears to be a pineapple (or yoni-stone) and something like a dildo. (One of course wonders whether the name "Dadaji" has a special meaning for Frank, who has long used the name "Da".)

Dadaji

More from webhome.idirect.com/~aum108/guru.html:

Sri Kripalvananda's guru was Dadaji, believed to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Although there was a teacher with a human body who instructed the young Swami Kripalvananda in the early 1930s in Bombay, Bapuji did not discover his guru's true identity until many years later when he visited Kayavarohan and saw for the first time this lingam (a represenation of Lord Shiva in his "formless" form) bearing the image of a meditating yogi... In an instant he recognized that his teacher Dadaji's true identity was in fact Lord Lakulish, the 28th incarnation of Shiva. Bapuji's vision inspired him to work to restore the ancient spiritual centre of Kayavarohan and build a magnificent temple as a permanent home for Dadaji. ...Dadaji is the great-grandfather of the Kripalu lineage, and Bapuji (Kripalvananda) the grandfather, although there hasn't been much talk of a "lineage" around Kripalu since the Guru-gate scandal of 1994. The Kripalu Center is now more of a New Age retreat facility, health spa, or a low-budget Canyon Ranch, rather than a traditional ashram.

Another interesting article by Swami Sri Kripalvananda can be found at www.picknowl.com.au/homepages/jwexler/twopaths.htm. In this article he discusses at some length the control of the sexual urges and fluids. Indeed, he appears to have been a firm advocate of celibacy and of using yoga to prevent elimination through the sex organs and "to cause the sexual fluids to rise up the spine". (However, there is no reference to yogic masturbation in the article.) Among the techniques he does describe:

The genitals eliminate urine and sexual fluids. It is not necessary for beginners to try the following technique; however, if they do try it, they must first practise the techniques given above for one year. When urinating one tries to stop the flow of urine once or twice. In the same way, during sexual intercourse, one eagerly tries to stop the flow of sexual fluids once or twice.

The rectum is an organ of action and eliminates faeces. It is not necessary for beginners to try the following meditation technique; however, if they do they should first practise the first eight techniques above for one year. When in the act of defecating, one tries to stop the elimination once or twice.

More from Adi Da:

Traditionally, when signs [of movement of Spirit-Energy in the lower chakras] appeared in Spiritually initiated individuals, this practice would be given. This has been done for thousands of years--not to satisfy the sexual impulse but to draw the sexual Energy up the spinal line.

The mudra of stimulating the genitals manually in one way or another is typical, in the case of the man simply masturbating the penis, and in the case of the woman massaging the clitoris or using a substitute for the penis--a dildo. Practitioners would be instructed to do this exercise at the beginning of meditation, and they would meditate in solitude, not in a hall with others but alone. They would practice this at the beginning to move the Energy out of its compression in the lower body into the spine and upward.

Those who practiced this on the basis of Kundalini Shaktipat, those who had received great initiatory Spiritual Influence, would practice in fact sometimes for many hours a day. Swami Kripalvananda practiced it six or eight hours a day, more or less continuously, in meditative privacy. He had two purposes. One was the basic Yogic purpose, to draw the Energy upwards in the spinal line. The second purpose was to achieve, by this ascent, a Yogically Spiritualized body. The report about him is that he did not achieve the second goal.

Not long after I met his disciple, an American, Swami Kripalvananda died [Dec. 29, 1981], which suggests that he did not achieve a Yogically Spiritualized body. On the other hand, perhaps he did and he just went off somewhere. It seems, however, that he did not. In any case, part of his purpose was to have the body be transformed through the Yogic fire by pervading the body with Spirit-Force to the point where the body is effectively immortalized through a transformation of the elements, transformed into a Yogically sustainable body that can be maintained indefinitely, in principle even made invisible. In the Yogic traditions, both of these purposes exist, the one to assist the process of the Kundalini Shakti, or the process of Spiritual ascent, and the other to achieve the Spiritualized body.

[December 2, 1994]

So far it appears that Swami Sri Kripalvananda (and by extension, Kripalu Yoga), and possibly Mantak Chia, are the sole sources from which Adi Da derived the teaching of "yogic masturbation". Needless to say, he adds his own peculiar twists to the practice.

Practicing Yogic Masturbation in the Way of the Heart

The Typical Procedure For genital self-Stimulation (In [Shaktichalana Mudra] in The Way Of The Heart) Is, In The Case Of male individuals, genital self-Stimulation By Means Of full hand contact with the penis (and rhythmic hand-friction on the penis). In The Case Of female individuals, The Typical Procedure Is genital self-Stimulation By Means Of single or multiple finger contact with the clitoris (and rhythmic finger-friction on the clitoris), and, Perhaps (Whether Simultaneously Or Alternately), Deep vaginal Stimulation By Means Of a Suitable (and Comfortable) dildo (or penis substitute). However, Generally, In Neither The male Case nor the female Case Should "vibrators" (or other Similar devices) Be Used (Except, Perhaps, Very Rarely), As they May Initiate Uncontrollable degenerative orgasm, and, Otherwise, Because they May Tend To (At Least Eventually) Desensitize the genital organs.

The introduction of dildos (or "penis substitutes") into "sacred" sexual practice may well be unique to Daism. Frank has had a curious fascination with these "sex toys" at least since the 1970s, when it was common knowledge that "the community dildo collection" was sold to raise funds during an emergency.

Again, on p 30:

In the case of men it is usually manual stimulation of the penis, using not just a finger, or a couple of fingers, but the whole hand, and typically the right hand. The right hand is prescribed in the traditions [sic], because the right hand is the yang side, the positive side. The left hand, associated with the left side of the body, is sex-diminishing relative to the polarities in the body. One must understand the polarities of left and right, front and back, and top and bottom. What if a man is left-handed? In that case, the left hand, and the left side, is in some sense the positive side and the dominant side...

The woman uses the fingers in stimulating the clitoris and the exterior of the vagina. A woman can also use a penis substitute, or dildo, because only through such an extension can the area of the cervix and the interior of the vagina be stimulated, which is the purpose of the exercise as it is done women...

Medical studies have shown that there are almost no nerves in the cervix. A woman may, for instance, undergo the medical procedure of cervical cauterization without anesthesia. (However, the idea of the cervix being massaged by and even opening to receive the penis may have erotic effect.)

Adi Da describes the practice of "Solitary Shaktichalana Mudra" as one that should be proceded by a full "cultural consideration":

During this period of adaptation, you should remain fully culturally confessed after each occasion of practicing solitary Shaktichalana Mudra. During this period (of a week or so) of adaptation, you should remain fully culturally confessed after each occasion of practicing solitary Shaktichalana Mudra and should continue to study My Instruction on that practice.

Finally, he seems to view yogic masturbation as a principle method of transcending his most fearsome opponent, "the cult of pairs" -- and of achieving guru-union, or "Realizing Me":

Yoga, the Process of Divine Self-Realization, is the Process wherein the inherent integrity of the "own-body" is realized and submitted to the Divine Self-Condition, ultimately. For all My devotees, this realization of own-body integrity is a matter of dropping out of the bondage of pair-"bonding" in its conventional, or ego-based and ego-reinforcing, form...Yoga is about the inherent bi-polar integrity of the own-body.

If you are a male, plus or positive or yang, instead of looking for the female, the minus or negative or yin Force--or if you are a female, instead of looking for the male opposite--and just playing out the game of polar opposites in the world, or the samsaric context, or the circumstance of ego-bondage, practice in the own-body context and become a sacrifice to That Which is ultimately Single, through the process of "Bonding" to Me. It is a process of Realizing Me...the process of Realization is submission to Me in the context of the bi-polar integrity of the own-body.

This is the unique secret, then, of Yogic practice, the cherished ancient secret, never communicated before in its fullest terms, or in its seventh stage terms, but, nonetheless, in the traditions there is this very lore in essential terms, actually practiced and engineered into the sphere of esoteric Yogi practice, in one form or another--without fullest consciousness of what is all about, certainly, but it is there, reaching toward Me, reaching toward the seventh stage Realization.

Students of Adi Da are taught to engage in the practice of solitary masturbation while sitting or lying before the Master's photograph, in their private meditation spaces. One masturbates nearly to the point of orgasm, and then

In any moment when orgasm is impending there must be this intense upward drawing so that the degenerative down-the-spine-and-out flow of energy does not occur. Rather, this in-and-up turn toward the crown and above must be emphasized, periodically, rhythmically, and obviously, especially in any moment of inpending degenerative orgasm. This upward tensing and right submission to Me all the while, right breath, exhalation shooting up the spine, inhalation down the front or through the bodily base up to the top of the head, right use of breath, just a feeling of the upward motion through the spinal line--all these devices, just as in sexual "conscious exercise" or "sexual communion", must be used throughout the process, as in sex with another, Yogically, and also in the impending crisis of degenerative orgasm most intensively. This is the essential exercise.

...There is a relaxation from the heart that is the devotional disposition, Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga. Such devotional relaxation invades the body-mind and attracts you to be responsible for the entire body-mind. It is not exactly a relaxation into passivity, or a kind of emotionless and energyless condition of placidity. It is a heart-disposition, shown through reponsibility for the body-mind.

You are to be turned to Me. Conform the body-mind to devotion to Me. In the Way of the Heart, solitary Shaktichalana Mudra is not a self-based or stress-based practice. It is a Yoga of "conductivity" with the "conscious process" of Ishta-Buru-Bhakti Yoga.

COMMENTARY: What does sex have to do with it?

The fixation on sexuality, in Daism, has been justified as "necessary" because of the devotee's "adolescent immaturity" in that area.

Frank has said, many times, that everybody is "hung up on money, food, and sex", and therefore it is his job to show you the way to growth and maturity in these areas, so that you may progress onward to real spiritual practice.

Fair enough. But as one investigates what exactly he teaches, one discovers that he himself is possessed by mythological ideas in all of those areas of vitality and nature.

For instance, for many years he has advocated a series of bizarre "regenerative" diets, which have periodically left his inner circle of devotees looking like emaciated cadavers. To relieve the stress of malnutrition, he and his followers then indulge in binge-eating and "using accessories" (alcohol and tobacco).

His problems in the area of money are well-documented: he likes to get it and he likes to spend it on himself. Unlike the real Spiritual Masters of the East, he has never been known to use money for acts of charity.

In the area of sexuality he long been involved in "picking off" the young and beautiful members of his community -- including the wives of his male devotees.

His "sexual teachings", have included forcing devotees to engage in intercourse while he watches and "critiques" their performance. In at least two reported cases, his violent use of dildos has resulted in the tearing of a woman's uterus, so that she needed surgery.

And here we have his instruction on "the ancient and traditional practice of yogic masturbation."

Yogic masturbation, he makes clear, is not "ordinary old masturbation" in which the sexual fluids are "exhausted" and released towards an object. Rather, it is a practice based on the Hindu and Oriental idea that the sexual emissions may be redirected up the spine, thus preserving their "spirit-energy" and bringing about higher consciousness.

There is no scientific basis for this idea -- it is entirely imaginary and mythological. In the case of a man, if one uses "yogic" methods of closing the passage to pervent the outward flow of the seminal fluid at the moment of orgasm, it simply backs up in the genital-urinary system, and is eventually flushed out in the urine. If anything, simply not having sex of any kind would be a more effective method of preserving the "precious bodily fluids" (shades of Doctor Strangelove!), since they will gradually be reabsorbed by the body. (One assumes something similar would occur in a celibate woman.)

But myth and science aside, what does "yogic masturbation" have to do with insight, higher consciousness, and God-Realization or enlightenment?

Adi Da claims that the process of masturbating regularly before his murti, and internalizing the sexual fluids at the moment of "regenerative orgasm", will assist in "conforming the body-mind to Me". In other words, it is a practice of bhakti-yoga, or putting oneself in resonance with the (presumed) exalted spiritual state of the Master.

My own personal view would be that no greater nonsense has been foisted upon the ignorant and the innocent since the days when "tantric" cults held sexual orgies on charnel grounds amidst rotting corpses in order to "liberate" themselves!

Indeed, "The Practice Of Solitary Shaktichalana Mudra" has the effect of binding consciousness to the body and its reproductive mechanism, while breaking the arc of male-female love-awareness which usually (and naturally) encompasses and includes the processes of bodily union.

It's another example of Frank intruding himself between that sacred mystery he likes to call "the cult of pairs".

Since he can't physically have intercourse (or sodomy) with every devotee, then let them do it for themselves with "own-body" sexuality, while meditating on him!

And, he assures them, if they do this regularly, they will advance to the highest levels of enlightenment -- for this is a "seventh stage practice", given by "the First, Last, and Only Seventh Stage Adept Realizer."

My dears, whatever happened to "self-inquiry" (Ramana)? Whatever happened to becoming "unsustained, neither fabricating nor willing for the sake of becoming or un-becoming" (Buddha)?

Whatever happened to "Radical Understanding" (Franklin Jones)?

Spanking the monkey while thanking Frank seems to be the New Revelation of God.

Elias