It remains merely an animal act, an expression of the body's lust, and nothing more. The reasons are obvious and have prompted many spiritual aspirants, both Asiatic and Christian, to become celibates and monks. These reasons may not be so obvious to those who are obsessed by sex, as so many modern writers have been who have influenced the younger generations, who are stupefied by the sense-pleasure of it, who are slaves to its recurring habit-forming urges and understand nothing of the need for its discipline. The philosophers have long known that there is a higher view of sex, and some among them know that there is even a higher practice of it which eliminates the spiritual obstacle and raises it to the level of spiritual co-operation. This is brought about by substituting stillness for passion. Such a change cannot be achieved without the practice of physical, nervous, emotional, and mental self-control. Just as the high point of meditation provides its glorious result under the condition of a thought-free stillness, in the same way raising sex to this immeasurably higher octave requires the condition of an inward and outward immobilization. That this can be reached, that the coupling of the two sexes could possibly have any relationship with the higher development of man, may seem incredible to those who know only its passional side.
-- Notebooks Category 5: The Body > Chapter 7 : Sex > # 53
