Introduction to ejaculation control

"A man may attain health and longevity if he practices an ejaculation frequency of twice monthly or 24 times in a year.

If at the same time he pays careful attention to proper diet and exercise he will have a long and healthy life"

[Sun Su-mo]

"As the great Taoist Doctor Sun points out, diet, exercise and sexual discipline form the three pillars of Taoist health and longevity regimens.

The principles of Tao apply equally to men and women.

In both men and women, semen-essence is the fuel that drives sexuality. It is the source not only of physical capacity for sex but also of sexual interest and emotional affection for the opposite gender.

However, since women do not 'leak' when they ejaculate, orgasm does not rob them of sexual drive and interest after the 'first act'.

Therefore, the practices required to achieve the harmony of Yin & Yang must be cultivated primarily by men. This chapter is thus addressed mainly to men, although the information contained herein should be studied and understood by women who consort with Taoist men or who wish to convert their men into Taoists.

Western medicine claims that men naturally replenish their semen supply soon after ejaculation and that the male's capacity for producing semen is virtually limitless.

This is a highly misleading generalization. Simply compare ejaculation with blood donation, and you'll see the fallacy. After donating a pint of blood, you feel week and tired for a day or two, until the lost pint is replenished. Blood clinics advise donors not to give blood more than a few times each year in order to avoid chronic fatigue, low resistance and excessive strain on the circulatory system.

According to Chinese physicians, the same point applies to semen, except that the loss of semen is even harder to replace than blood.

The body must invest a lot of essence and energy to fully replenish semen supplies and re-establish proper hormone balance after a man ejaculates.

When ejaculation frequency exceeds the capacity of the body to fully replenish semen, men experience chronic fatigue, low resistance, irritation and other symptoms of essence and energy deficiency. They also lose all sexual interest in their partners, who may well be ready for more action.

True, teenage boys and young men in their early 20's replenish semen faster than they could possibly expend it, but the notion that this capacity continues indefinitely into adulthood is patently false.

It is women, not men, whose sexual potency is 'inexhaustible'. Celibacy, however is not the answer. for that deprives men of the therapeutic benefits of sexual stimulation. The answer is ejaculation control. Frequent intercourse with infrequent ejaculation maintains a mans interest in the act as well as his capacity to continue indefinitely until his partner is fully satisfied.

Men who ejaculate once or more on a daily basis may eventually 'lose their minds', since 20 percent of male semen is composed of cerebrospinal fluid. Frequent ejaculation thus causes a chronic drain of the vital fluids that the brain and spine require to function properly.

The resulting deficiency of cerebrospinal fluid can cause such increasingly common conditions as premature senility, inability to concentrate, chronic depression, loss of sexual drive and a host of other related symptoms.

Furthermore, recent medical evidence indicates that with each and every ejaculation men suffer a significant loss of zinc, a rare but vital trace element.

Frequent ejaculation thus results in a chronic, critical deficiency of zinc, symptoms of which include loss of memory, mental confusion, paranoia and hypersensitivity to sunlight. These facts seem to verify the 'old wives tale' that excessive male masturbation addles the mind, weakens the spine and leads to blindness.

The Tao enables the male member to become an all-weather instrument of equal competence to that of its female counterpart and permits man and woman to 'make love not war', while at the same time protecting the health and prolonging the lives of both partners.  

.

Regulating Ejaculation Frequency

All schools of Taoism agree that retention of semen and proper regulation of its emission are indispensable skills for male adepts of the way.

In their writings, the adepts of ancient China each left us their own personal guidelines for determining emission frequency.

By combining their various suggestions with your own individual requirements and practical experience, you may readily determine an emission schedule that suits your personal needs.

Let's start with some plain talk from our old friend and sexual mentor, the Plain Girl. Confused by the concepts of 'sparing vital essence' and 'regulating leakage', the Yellow Emperor addressed his doubts to the Plain Girl and got this reply:

Some men are strong, some are weak, some men are old and others are in their prime. Each should live according to his own vitality and not try to force the joys of sex. Forcing joy is harmful.

Thus a robust male of 20 may ejaculate twice daily, but an emaciated one should do so no more than once daily.

A 30-year-old male may ejaculate once a day, but only once every two days if he's an inferior specimen.

A flourishing man of 40 may emit semen once every three days, but if he's weak he may do so only once every four days.

A robust man of 50 may ejaculate once every five days, but only once every ten days if he is weak.

A 60-year-old man in good health may emit once every ten days, or once every 20 days if his health is poor.

At 70, a robust man emit once a month, but a weak one should no long emit semen at all.

The Tang Dynasty physician Lee Tung-hsuan, in Mysterious Master of the Cave, used frequency of intercourse rather than day-intervals as his recommended measure for regulating emission:

When having sexual intercourse with women, a man should emit semen only two or three times in ten.

Master Liu Ching, a Han Dynasty adept credited in dynastic archives with achieving a life span of over 300 years, preferred to regulate his emissions according to the cosmic cycles of seasonal change:

In spring, a man may permit himself to ejaculate once every three days, but in summer and autumn he should limit his ejaculations to twice a month. During the cold of winter, a man should preserve his semen and avoid ejaculation altogether. The Way of Heaven is to accommodate Yang essence in winter. A man who follows this guideline will live a long and healthy life. One ejaculation in cold winter is one hundred times more harmful than an ejaculation in the spring.

The most practical advice of all on the subject of ejaculation control comes from the centenarian physician Sun Ssu-mo, the Tang Dynasty adept who outlive three emperors by practicing what he preached. His general yardstick, quoted at the head of this chapter, was twice a month, or 24 times per year. His own personal regimen, however, was only one emission per 100 copulation's. Dr. Sun lived to the age of 101.

According to Sun Ssu-mo a man should 'become acquainted' with Tao by the age of 30, and 'acquire a thorough working knowledge' of it by 40: Before the age of 40, most men are still full of vigorous passion. But as soon as they reach their 40th birthday, they suddenly notice their potency declining. Just at that very point of declining potency the myriad ailments will descend upon him like a swam of bees. If this situation continues unchecked, he will soon find himself beyond cure.

Dr. Sun repeatedly warned his male patients of the dangers involved in excessive ejaculation. He compared the situation to that of as sputtering oil-lamp: just before the fuel is spent and the lamp is about to extinguish, the flame suddenly flares up brightly, then dies:

Each and every time a man restrains himself and retains his semen it is like adding new oil to a lamp that is about to extinguish. But if a man fails to control himself and ejaculates every time he lies down with a woman, it is like removing oil from a lamp that is already nearly burnt out.

As Sun Ssu-mo sums up so well, 'If a man squanders his semen, he will soon die. For a man, this is the most important point to remember about sex.'

If a man has no intercourse with a women, his mind will grow restless and he will yearn for female company....Forcibly suppressing the natural urge to emit semen at certain intervals is not only difficult for a man but will actually make it easier to lose semen. He will lose it during sleep through nocturnal emissions [i.e., wet dreams] ...One emission of semen in this manner is equivalent to the loss suffered by one hundred emissions during normal sexual intercourse.

Sun Ssu-mo's advice to men on regulating ejaculation frequency can be summarized as follows:

• By the age of 30, a man begins to lose vitality and should stop squandering his semen recklessly. It is time to give up the habit of masturbation and to become acquainted with the Tao of Yin and Yang.

• By the age of 40, a man has reached the critical turning point in his life. If he wishes to prevent the rapid downhill slide into the grave which undisciplined sexual relations cause at this stage in  life, he must now start practicing ejaculation control as a habit.

• By the age of 50 his ejaculation frequency should be no more once every 20 days.

• By the age of 60, most men should completely curtail ejaculation (but not intercourse). Exceptionally healthy men with strong libidos, however, may continue emitting semen about once a month, or, better yet, once in every 100 coition's.

• By the age of 70, if a man is still hale and hearty, he may  continue using Dr. Sun's ideal measure of once in every 100 indefinitely.

• Practicing ejaculation control is just as important for strong, healthy males as it is for the weak and elderly. Those who's start this regimen early in life avoid the worst ravages of old age, retard the loss of vital energy and live longer lives than those who wait until middle age to begin.

• For most men, complete abstention from ejaculation is just as harmful as excessive emission. It creates a deep yearning for sex that disrupts the harmony of essence, energy and spirit, and ultimately leads to the even greater loss of sexual essence and energy through the uncontrollable, intense ejaculations caused by 'wet dreams'.

In order to determine your own ideal emission schedule, you must first master the methods of semen retention introduced below, then follow the guidelines already given in a trial-and -error appraisal of  your own vitality.

An ejaculation should leave a man feeling as light and refreshed as a woman feels after orgasm- not exhausted, empty and uninterested in further sex.

Such an ejaculation may be experienced only when semen supply is what the Chinese call "full" and "flourishing". If an ejaculation leaves you tired and depressed, you should increase the interval between emissions.

You may also help minimize the loss of essence and energy due to semen emission by learning to 'come lightly' when you choose to ejaculate.

Instead of thrusting to a frenzy just prior to ejaculation, approach the brink slowly and gently and savor the exquisite sensation of release, then deliberately 'squeeze off' the urogential canal with a deep contraction of the anus and penile shaft before ejaculation is over. This will conserve about 20-30 per cent of  your semen while still providing the desired ejaculatory release. Immediately after emission, rhythmically contract the entire urogenital diaphragm for a minute or two by practicing anal sphincter locks. This tightens up the pelvic floor, which becomes loose and flaccid after ejaculation, and thereby prevents post-coital loss of chee through the perineum, anus and urogenital canal. This exercise is highly beneficial for women as well, because it prevents loss of chee through the vagina and encourages sexual energy to move up the spinal channels to the brain.

Since few men will be induced to adopt such a disciplined and unconventional approach to sexual relations unless thoroughly convinced by personal experience of its necessity and efficacy, here are a few simple experiments any man may perform to establish the truth of Tao is sex:

Try engaging in a vigorous bout of intercourse about half an hour before participating in an athletic event or stage performance- once with ejaculation and once without - and compare your resulting performances. You'll be amazed by the difference.

Or try intercourse with and without ejaculation late at night and compare the amount of sleep you need and how you feel upon arising the next morning.

An even more stark comparison is the difference in vitality felt throughout the day after having sexual intercourse first thing in the morning, with and without ejaculation.

Try experimenting with other factors as well, such as weather, mood and physical condition. You will most certainly notice a profound difference in how you feel after intercourse with and without ejaculation on   freezing cold day in mid-winter, when, as Peng-Tze point out, 'one ejaculation is one hundred times more harmful than one in spring'.

Men who sharply reduce their emission frequencies during the winter season without reducing intercourse suffer far less from colds, influenza, chills, and winter 'blues' and other symptoms related to cold weather. And when you're feeling  in 'low spirits' to start with, ejaculation will only drag you deeper into depression, while a prolonged bout without emission of semen is an excellent way to 'pick up your spirits'.

The same goes for physical condition: when a man is ailing, the loss of semen only makes his condition worse by robbing him of   his greatest source of resistance just when he needs it most. Disciplined intercourse, on the other hand, is an excellent palliative for many chronic ailments, especially those influenced by hormone levels. Miles Davis and Mohammed Ali came to these conclusions in precisely this manner- by trial and error- and so can you.

Every man must establish his own ideal emission rate as an overall guideline, but he must also consider the unique circumstances of each occasion before deciding whether it is appropriate to ejaculate or not.

The calendar may tell you that it is time to treat yourself to an ejaculation, but if you happen to be drunk at the time, or gorged with food, or ill, then you'd best forgo that brief spasm of pleasure and keep your batteries fully charged. In the Taoist text entitled ESSENTIALS FOR NURTURING LIFE,   we find the following warning:

Ejaculation is strictly forbidden when a man is drunk or gorged with food. Such emissions injure a man a hundred times more than under normal conditions and may cause dizziness and ugly sores.

Bookmark this page

.......To be continued soon. - Mastering the Methods of 'Contact without Leakage'

More Tao sexual yoga information to be continued in future site updates.