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How often do monks get nocturnal emissions?


https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/38984/how-often-do-monks-get-nocturnal-emissions/38993#38993

How often do monks get nocturnal emissions?

I am practicing celibacy from last 6 months. I cannot control my nocturnal emissions. I have some control but not complete control. In the beginning I used to get wet dreams every 10-12 days and now I get them every 45-50 days. I have extremely pure thoughts all day long. I don't think that I'll ever get sexual thought again. I believe that I have trained my mind very well. One the nights when the emission happens I don't have any erotic dreams, it happens without any sexual thought or an erotic dream.

I practise Halassana & Balasana every day without fail. I also do physical activity running mainly. Why am I still not able to control wet dreams? I want to get rid of them completely.

I researched a lot on the web but couldn't find any satisfactory answer for the following questions:

Do all monks get nocturnal emissions? How often does it happen to them especially young monks age around 24-25? If it happens to them, what do they do about it? If it doesn't then, how does they train themselves to reach that level?


For young monks nocturnal emissions could be quite frequent, maybe even more than once a week. For young people, I'm not sure it's possible to completely stop that.

Some of the things Buddhist monks and taoist immortals practice that help reduce emissions. - sleeping in lions posture (easier to stay conscious and alert), don't oversleep (if you dream a lot you may be oversleeping) - adjust your diet (the more meat, salty, spicy and tasty, pungent roots like garlic, onion family tends to stimulate sexual fluid production). - doing the right kinds of exercise, sufficient cardio, right kind of qigong and yoga, will help open up energy channels and reduce stress and potential for emissions.

The most important part, for both Buddhist and Taoist, is keeping the mind pure. You say your thoughts are pure all day, are you sure? When you have your nocturnal emission, what happened at that moment and before?

If you're mind is pure, then the emission happens without erotic imagery or thoughts, and it's just an orgasm with emission. This is blameless, and the best you can do. Don't beat yourself up and obsess over it. Each cell in the body has at most a lifespan of 7 years before it dies, is eliminated and replaced. The biological imperative to continue the species demands that fresh quality semen is always on tap and ready to produce healthy offspring. So in theory, even monks who attained arahantship who were young, probably still had nocturnal emissions, but without lust of course. They also had to eat and shit, bleed, and get ill from viruses, why would they not have emissions?

Adjusting diet, not overeating, eating more vegetarian diet will reduce production of sexual fluid. One monk I spoke to, in his 30's, was averaging he said about 1 nocturnal emission a year. But he's also vegetarian, eating one meal a day.

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