This co-operation of mind, will, and breath to redirect the sexual energy is its true transformation into a non-sexual kind. This is completely different from, and superior to, the alleged sublimation into art, work, or intellect proffered by psychoanalysts, or into sport and physical exercise proffered by educators. These may reduce the strength of sex urges, or diminish their frequency, or cause them to vanish altogether, but such a result will hold for a time only and will not be a lasting one. For it is attained by a process which temporarily exhausts the urge but does not confront and conquer it at all. A peasant who is too tired after a very heavy day's toil to attempt intercourse has not sublimated his sex energy in any way and may even indulge in imaginary acts of intercourse while he lies physically fatigued. The case of the sports enthusiast or gymnast is not too dissimilar from the peasant's. Nor is the case of the intellectual or artist, although on an entirely different plane, really different in principle. When the intellectual work or artistic activity comes to an end, what is to stop the man's mind working in a sexual direction if his tendencies are strongly that way?
The philosophic method of sublimation comes to the problem by looking sex in the face, understanding its place and purpose, and dealing with it on mental and psychic as well as physical levels. The aim here is not mere repression, not deceptive pseudo-sublimation, but full mastery.
-- Notebooks Category 5: The Body > Chapter 7 : Sex > # 7
