How can I overcome maddening sexual lust?

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly via Sayalay Susila (sayalaysusila.net)

Tiger Girl with full Japanese back tattoo or irezumi (Arisu Nomura/imageof.net)

  

Question: How can I overcome sexual lust, which is recurring again and again despite experiencing progressive calmness in my meditation?

Answer: Contemplate this fathom-long body.  And develop the jhanas, the absorptions, to overcome maddening sensual cravings.

• Singing Birds and Stinging Bees: SEX Slavery

Shorter Sutra on the Aggregate of Distress

Wisdom Quarterly version, Cula-dukkha-kkhandha Sutta (MN 14)

Ssshh, don't talk or think about "cookies."

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Sakyans at Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Park [Afghanistan]. Then Mahānāma (3) the Sakyan [the Buddha's cousin, which the Commentary claims was already a once-returner when this discourse was delivered] went to the Blessed One.

Arriving he bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and said: "Venerable sir, for a long time now I have understood the Dharma taught by the Blessed One in this way: 'Greed is a defilement of the mind/heart; aversion is a defilement; delusion is a defilement.'

Sexual craving is like a jungle thicket, hard to escape. A banyan park is better (Kiran Gopi)

  

The Buddha (ArunHaridharshan/flickr)

"Yet, even though I understand the Dharma taught by the Blessed One in this way, there are still times when the mental/heart states of greed, aversion, and delusion invade my mind/heart and remain.

"The thought occurs to me: What within me is as yet unabandoned so that there are times when these invade my heart/mind and remain?"
 

"Mahanama, that very [greed, hatred, and delusion] is what is as yet unabandoned by you so that there are times when they invade your heart/mind and remain.

• NOTE: Previously mistranslated, the point of this sentence is that the mental states that invade Mahanama's mind/heart are precisely the ones he has yet to abandon. In practical terms, this means he does not have to look for another quality lurking behind them but, instead, can focus attention on abandoning these states directly whenever they arise. The remainder of the discourse gives a lesson on how craving, aversion, and delusion can be abandoned by understanding the object on which they most frequently focus: sensuality (Ven. Thanissaro).

If fat is sexy, is fatter sexier?

"For if that were abandoned by you, you would not live the household life and would not partake of sensuality. It is because it yet remains unabandoned by you that you live the household life and partake of sensuality.
 

"Even though a disciple of the noble ones has clearly seen as it actually is with right view that sensuality is very disappointing, associated with much despair and great drawbacks, nevertheless -- if one has not attained a rapture (piti) and supersensual pleasure [sukha, both associated with the first and second absorptions] apart from the ordinary five sense strands, apart from unskillful mental states, or something more peaceful than that [any attainments beyond the second absorption] -- one can be tempted by sensuality.

Paris (Bryan1974/flickr.com)

"But when one has clearly seen as it actually is with right view that sensuality is very disappointing, associated with much despair and great drawbacks, and one has attained a rapture and supersensual pleasure apart from the ordinary five sense strands, apart from unskillful mental states or something even more peaceful than that, one can no longer be tempted by sensuality.

"I, too -- before enlightenment, when still an unawakened bodhisattva -- saw as it actually was with right view that sensuality is very disappointing, associated with much despair and great drawbacks. But as long as I had not attained a rapture and supersensual pleasure apart from the ordinary five sense strands, apart from unskillful mental states, or something even more peaceful than that, I did not claim that I could avoid being tempted by sensuality. 

"But when I saw as it actually was with right view...I claimed that I could avoid being tempted by sensuality."

Why? The Five Hindrances

The Five Hindrances (nīvarana) or "obstacles to enlightenment" make one blind, whereas the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (bojjhangas) give rise to internal light and wisdom (S.v.97f.). The "Discourse on the Hindrances" points out how the methodical development of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthānas), when practiced and brought to culmination, rid one of the Five Hindrances (A.iv.457f.).