I started about 40 years ago with an AMP. Remember and never forget, sex is a biological function as much as walking, breathing, eating, sleeping and self-preservation. Now, even if you become a Buddhist or Christian or any other type of devoted monk with the intentions of leaving all desires like sex to merge with God, you will still struggle with the primitive urge called sex. It is the act that brought you into this world. It is a formidable urge.
I once asked an enlightened Taoist master about handling sexuality. He told me when he was young he married and his sexual appetite was strong and he was not fit to be a monk because desire was strong so he used marriage as an outlet for sexual urge.
Be aware that marriage is an institution to handle the problem of sexuality. It is a forced vehicle to sublimate your urge into a family situation and create a tight bond and have the freedom to reach higher goals because your sexual urge is satisfied by a spouse. But that is ideally how it is supposed to work. There would be chaos without marriage and that commitment for social structure and also to create discipline so that sexual fantasy does not overtake your mind and heart.
BUT..... man by nature is a polygamist. Of course, also woman is tempted but she traditionally was raising and teaching children at home and had less temptation. Now is different. But generally speaking if she was satisfied by her man, she was very happy. And some men also are satisfied with the sex at home and work and children and guided by religion.
And then there are "US." We are not bad. We tried to be monogamous. But all around we are tortured by sexual stimulation, by the way women look and dress, television, media and even nature itself is one huge sexual act of procreation. It is all around us, everywhere. Sex is a predominant thought, as powerful as eating and sleeping and self-survival. Not just a human need. All of nature is copulating beyond trillions of times each second. And your body and mind are a part of that very nature and the urge is in you and outside of you.
Why do you think Mohammed veiled women in face covering and body covering cloaks and garments and masks. It was for the sole reason that her attraction to man was too much for him to handle. So he tried to hide her for social order.
So, lay guilt aside for a while. Nobody pistol-whips you for eating and sleeping. Sex is as strong an urge as eating, sleeping and self-survival. Only an iron will could "Just say no to sex."
Okay, we are a species of human being above the animal and our SPIRIT is not a part of nature. If we have that desire to merge with SPIRIT, we can stop merging with nature, women.
Gentlemen, I commend you for being open to this discussion. It is no small dilemma. Most of us put forth a valiant effort to remain monogamous and have succeeded for a time but succumbed.
I don't have the time to go into my own woes created by my desires and they are too odd and strange for most of you to relate to. The control I once exerted to keep my marriage vows destroyed me in some ways worse than visiting AMP''s. And my later indiscretions created only more chaos. So, it is a dilemma but it is not hopeless either. It just takes great skill and balance to slowly evolve out of addiction.
Be gentle with yourselves and when you are ready or disgusted enough, try to cut back and sublimate the sexual energy into another creative outlet. It can be done. Much more difficult when you are young and the biological necessity is predominant.
But as we get older, it is not so much a biological urge anymore. It is a mental addiction due to the vast memories of pleasure stored in our conscious and unconscious minds of past sexual experiences. We have stored a vast library in our minds of sexual pleasures and they prompt us to continue. And when the penis no longer is as spunky as it once was we look for libido enhancers in order to continue.
I commend you all for opening and participating in this thread and for sharing.
Of course if you are so inclined, meditation and prayer are highly useful tools to create balance in your mind and heart. But meditation does take effort and study. Other activities are also useful when they require your total immersion, like swimming or whatever other hobbies you really enjoy.
YOU GUYS ARE GREAT, BEYOND WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!