[NSFW] The BDSM Path to Zen

post by lsusr · 2025-02-24T13:05:09.624Z · LW · GW · 9 comments

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Picture the following situation:

You're in bed with a hot woman. Your clothes are off and so are hers. You (consentually) tie her wrists and ankles to the bed so you can have your way with here. She tells you to do whatever you want with her. And you think to yourself…

This is exactly like what we do at my Buddhist temple.

I'm not part of a sex cult. I just noticed that subspace, the altered state of consciousness induced by BDSM, is very similar to mushin, the altered states of consciousness induced by Zen Buddhist non-dual meditation. I think the only reason they're called different words is a historical accident, because famous ascetic Buddhist monks and nuns rarely write about all the rope play they engage in while they're having kinky sex with each other.

Buddhism various altered states of consciousness to explore the mind. Many of these altered states of consciousness are jhanas. A jhana is what happens when you focus your attention on a stable target for a long period of time. Jhanas feel great. Mushin is another altered state of consciousness that also feels great, and is reached via a similar (but not quite the same) path. Mushin is notoriously difficult to describe declaratively. All you need to know about mushin to understand this post is that mushin is an altered state of consciousness similar to jhana. 

Subspace feels great too. Subspace feels so good it usually turns pain into pleasure. You know what else blurs the line between pain and pleasure? Mushin.

That's not the only similarity. Mushin and subspace are both characterized by the absence of willful volition tied to your sense of self. With Mushin, this  (at first) is because you stop doing anything except breathing). In subspace, this is because you don't do anything except what your Dominant tells you to. The effect is like Tantra, except instead of moving your locus of volition into an imagined deity, you transfer it into another person.

The final clue that made me realize that subspace and mushin are independent discoveries of essentially the same altered state of consciousness has to do with the "B" part of BDSM: Bondage.

I once gave meditation instructions to a friend. My instructions were brief, and included the line "sit in full lotus, if you can do so safely". Full lotus is the cross-legged sitting position where your ankles rest on top of your thighs.

My friend was flexible enough to sit in the full lotus position, but he ignored that instruction for a long time, assuming it was mere superstition. He recently switched to mediting full lotus and reported that the full lotus position did indeed improve his meditation. The full lotus makes it easier to achieve mushin because it comfortably locks your legs in place so they can't move.

You know what else comfortably locks your limbs in place so they can't move? Rope.

Please don't start a sex cult. But if you do, I recommend you teach your disciples that BDSM is a road to achieving mushin that's like Zen Buddhism, except easier, because it requires no internal source of discipline.

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