The Art of Pleasure

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It is arch, comical and amazing — less Byron and more the sort of thing that Jeeves would have said to a priapic Bertie Wooster had Bertie been Indian and PG Wodehouse without the sense to omit sex from his books. It states, for example, that "intercourse with two women who have good feelings for each other is known as the 'combination'.

The Art of Receiving Pleasure

The same with many women is called 'the herd of cows'. They are, then, mostly transmitted by being forbidden, and it is this relation to prohibition that amuses and intrigues Stendhal. It is prohibition that makes serious recreation feasible, just as it is the rules that make sport possible. Without authorities or taboos there isn't more fun, but more nothing, particularly as we tend to treat ourselves more severely than even the authorities do. The Kama Sutra, as a book of technique — a sexual self-help manual for the socially naive, a way for geeks to make it with girls — is fascinating, therefore, in what it omits.

It neglects, for instance, one of the most important parts of love: In fact, its routines appear to render any form of sensual transaction uncreative, predictable and controlled, and the male omnipotent. If it turned out that the woman was also consulting a similar manual then the two characters in this drama would be playing roles that would ensure they'd remain outside the experience.

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Both would be in a fixed place and the relationship would merely be an exchange of fantasies. The interesting question here is whether this is perhaps the truth about sex — whether a Clintonesque "I did not have sexual relations" seems to get it right, and there is really no touching, ever — or if this is wishful thinking. Like Alfred Kinsey's reports at the end of the s and early 50s, the Kama Sutra tries hard to turn passion into science.

One can see why. The minor pleasures may be satisfying and even fulfilling, but the major ones are serious toil. That sex is chaotic, mad, perverse, risible, enlivening and inspiring, and that in its awkwardness and self-consciousness there might be more real contact than in the simple following of positions, doesn't occur to the author.

Kama Sutra: A Guide to the Art of Pleasure, translated by AND Haksar – review

If you'd never heard of sex until you read the Kama Sutra, you'd believe it was a trickle rather than a torrent, a conversation rather than an argument, a pastime rather than a life-saver. It's easy to praise happiness. Apparently you can't have too much of it, and, like a lovely day, there aren't many people who have a bad word to say about it.

Things look even worse for happiness now that politicians have begun to take an interest in sponsoring, measuring and even trying to roll it out to the public. But you won't find pleasure on the school curriculum; it comes, as Emma Bovary would have attested, in numerous dark shades. About pleasure there is always, and should be, dangerous ambivalence. Too little of the devil's sport and life will seem attenuated, heavy and slow, if not dead. The negative of pleasure, or perhaps its antidote, is depression, the popular modern malady, an uncomfortably dull refuge from the question of pleasure and how much is the right amount for you.

The Art of Receiving Pleasure | HuffPost

Most self-help books these days are either about depression, happiness or creative writing. Pleasure is barely a topic for the pseudo-shrinks or for anyone, as if it's too dangerous to talk about — unless it's in the negative. After all, enjoyment might feel, as Baudelaire puts it, like this: We are more likely to envy others' pleasures than their happiness — in fact, pleasure is the only thing there is to envy. The return of religious fundamentalism in its numerous guises is witness to the necessary presence of sin, the horror of pleasure and the desire for its strict regulation.

Fundamentalism, and the obedience it enjoins, is an attempt to abolish the conflicts that pleasure involves.

But in such circumstances the pleasure of self-deprivation — religious obedience, dieting and other forms of abstinence — can come to replace genuine enjoyment. Pleasure can be slutty: Whatever the manuals might say, and despite the rules of dating as laid down in the Kama Sutra, obviously there can't be a right answer to the question of the right amount, though there is much anxiety about the wrong amount.

Certainly, if there is too much pleasure — if one hates or loves too much — there might be addiction, madness, violence, disappointment and the sacrifice of oneself and others. Pleasure can smash things up; you could die or kill for it, and people do so all the time. Where happiness is its own quiet end, pleasure creates consequences: There's nothing like a self-help book to make you feel a failure. But if someone really wants pleasure, and if they want obscene outrage more than they want contentment or safety or even happiness, the pleasure guru will have to act the minor Mephistopheles and let on that the price of the real thing could be high.

Learn what gives you pleasure. Focus on a particular sense and see how much you can engage and expand it. Keep a sensory awareness journal. See how much you can increase your awareness and capacity for pleasure. Be curious and innocent, like a child. Children find wonder in the world. See the mystery all around you. If you notice negative thoughts, pause, and make a conscious choice to refocus your attention.

Focus on your breathing, let go of resistance and begin to circulate your breath throughout your body, expanding your aliveness. Feel your energy beginning to flow beyond your physical body. See how expansive you can be.

Give yourself a minute mini-massage at least once a day. Recognize the power of touch and find a friend who wants to trade massages. Hug often, share touch with those open to receiving it. Know they are the Divine, in form. Let them be a mirror for you to see the Divine in yourself as well.

They release tension and produce hormones that balance the body-mind. They also reset your electromagnetic field and give you a sense of well-being. When you orgasm regularly, you vibrate with pleasure.

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As you radiate pleasure, others feel it and begin to experience pleasure as well. Practice these 10 Keys and notice how your life changes.

The world is starving for joy and pleasure. Through your willingness to practice pleasure, others will be inspired.

She teaches workshops, teleseminars and offers private coaching sessions in Sedona and Phoenix, AZ. She welcomes invitations to teach in your community and can create a course personalized to your needs.

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By Crystal Dawn Morris.

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