Physical semen retention

09. Tantra - A Holistic View of Spirituality
1

I wonder what the normal people are doing right now.

Walking in the park, hanging out with friends, watching sports and stuff like this. And i happen to find myself on a forum, asking questions about ejaculation and tantric practises. Yep. Wayyyy to go…

As someone who practised asana-heavy yoga styles like ashtanga and vinyasa yoga for quite some years, tantric practises also got my attention. And none made me so curious like the supposed art of semen retention. I even read of some men who were so well-trained at this that they could use it as a safe method for contraception.

Apparently, the basic concept of this is to tighten your PC muscle at the time of high arousal during sex or masturbation, the clenched muscle would block the urethra, so no sperm passes and eventually flows back, partially into the bladder.

Now, I’ve been around this forum long enough to know that the ultimate goal of semen retention is not just to block the ejaculation, physically, but, with the right amount of energy work, avoid any ejaculatary reflex alltogether, isn’t it?

But right now it feels like that this is way more far ahead - and away - than a simple physical concept. So forgive me when I decide to go one step at a time and focus on what is more craspable at this moment right now - because I already have problems with that:

My problem right now is that this “muscle lock” simply doesn’t work. Never. Ejaculation always passes right through my pelvic floor, no matter how hard I try to clench. So either my PC muscle isn’t strong enough - or I’m doing something wrong.

I actually think PC muscle strengh wouldn’t be the issue here. After all, I have no problem stopping urine by contracting my pelvic floor. And as a yoga practioner, I am familiar with the concept of moola bandha and apply it regulary during pranayama practises. So if I can stop the flow of urine by contracting - wouldn’t it be just logical that I could just do the same with sperm?

But maybe, just maybe, strength is not what makes me unable to successfully apply semen retention. Could it be, for instance, that the contraction of the pelvic muscles should be at a very specific spot? Either closer to the prostate? Or more away from it?

Or is it more like that one should avoid the point of reaching the climax alltogether? Like, once you reach a certain point there is nothing you can do about it?

(I think it was appropriate to open a new topic about this. There are others here about the same subject, but either they are too old to be latched on to or their creators are so ahead of me that they are discussing about energetic phenomenons or semen in their urine. Lucky guys: I’m not even there at this level!)

Thanks for considering my cause. I now leave you with this and try to return to the things that normal people do. At least for a while.

2 Likes
2

Hi Ben,

So, firstly, blocking an ejaculation by contracting the muscles of the pelvic floor is much more difficult than stopping yourself from peeing when you need to pee. The muscles used are slightly different. When trying to stop yourself from peeing, you would primarily be using the urethral sphincter muscles, although contracting the pelvic floor muscles can also help when desperate!

For preventing ejaculation from happening during orgasm it is primarily the pelvic floor muscles that are needed, as we are stopping semen from leaving the testes and going out of the body. The force of an ejaculation is much stronger than the force of urine wanting to leave the bladder, so the muscles need to be stronger to prevent this from happening.

Generally it is much easier to block an ejaculation using the fingers of one hand, than to rely on using the muscles alone. Place two fingers at the perineum at the base of the penis during orgasm, and push up, hard. If this works, then it will prevent the semen from leaving the body and force it up into the bladder. It will later leave the body during urination, but there will be far less loss of prana than with a normal ejaculation.

If someone can block using the muscles only, then this can result in less prana being lost than using the fingers. A more advanced technique is to simply bring the attention to the higher centres during orgasm, whilst raising the eyes up to the ajna chakra (shambhavi mudra). This can have the same effect as blocking with the fingers, or with the pelvic floor muscles, but with even less loss of prana.

Ideally, it is best to be moving towards a permanently pre-orgasmic state during sex, where we do not even get close to anything that could be called a climax. So, no blocking taking place at all. This will result in even less loss of prana than with any of the blocking techniques. The sexual experience will gradually deepen over time into a continuous state of orgasm without ejaculation happening.

It is fine to ejaculate once in a while, to avoid any natural build-up happening in the body. This could be once a week, or once a fortnight, depending on the person. For some men it could be never, depending on their system.

Generally I do not advise people to use blocking as a form of contraception, as it is too risky. Even if a man is very good at blocking, there is still the issue of pre-cum which can be released with no ejaculation, or orgasm happening, and which can contain sperm, depending on when the last time the man urinated was. So, it is not an especially safe form of contraception.

2 Likes
3

Hello Tristan,

thank you very much for your quick reply.

Interesting. I wasn’t aware that the urethral tract has sphincter muscles on its own, and I simply used my moola bandha to stop the flow of urine.

So I guess it’s true that just because my pelvic floor is strong enough to stop urine from leaking, doesn’t mean it is also strong enough to stop ejaculation. Then I have to work on that hard. Maybe someone here has a history with the right “workout” for the PC muscle which eventualy produced the right results? Just applying moola bandha in pranayama sessions obviously isn’t enough.

Also, to be clear about the exact location where the pressure of the fingers/muscles should be applied: Since you are saying that blocked semen will be forced up the bladder, then I assume the point of presure should somewhere be in front of the prostate - not the prostate itself. More like exactly against the urethra itself and only that, right?

3 Likes
4

Quick add: It’s writen mula bandha, of course, not moola bandha… :disappointed:

2 Likes
5

Hi Ben,

I would say that rather than aiming to strengthen the PC muscles, just use your fingers for blocking. It is much easier. You could spend a lot of time trying to strengthen muscles, only to find that you no longer need them, because your yoga has progressed beyond that stage. Blocking is a very early stage in the natural progression of tantric methods.

As for exactly where to place the fingers, it is on the soft area of flesh between the base of the genitals and the anus. There isn’t much space there, just enough for two fingers! :slightly_smiling_face: If you do a bit of experimenting, you will find the right spot without much trouble.

This is the description from the Tantra Lessons:

We will now talk about blocking male ejaculation. It is an ancient tantric method with a long history of success. It is simple enough to do.

When orgasm is about to come on, the man puts one or two fingers (usually index and/or middle finger) at the perineum, presses inward and forward against the pubic bone, and blocks the urethra channel that the semen is about to come through. The orgasm still occurs, but the semen is blocked from leaving the body. If the man let’s go too soon, the semen can still escape. If he holds the block for a minute or two and then let’s go, the semen will be reabsorbed and none will escape.

Blocking can be done by reaching to the perineum from either the front or the back. In tantric lovemaking with a partner, the man can reach from the back and block his ejaculation if he has slipped and gone too far with stimulation. He still has orgasm and will be done with sex for a while, but he has blocked the loss of semen from his orgasm.

That is from here:

2 Likes
6

Hi Ben,

p.s.

Mula bandha can be written any way you want. The original Sanskrit in Devanagiri is मूलबन्ध and the standard way of writing this is: Mūla bandha. So, it has a long “u” which is why you see people sometimes write it as “moola bandha”, to emphasis that.

2 Likes