In my studies of Buddhism I have come across some tips from the Buddha as to how we should deal with desires of the flesh. He teaches that the student should initially focus on the object of their sexual desire in detail. Then he says, the student should imagine that person’s flesh, bones, muscles, hair, and teeth. The student should then focus on the rot and decay that these parts of the body undergo with age, as well as their unsightly nature in old age. He advises the student to then imagine the foul and dirty things inside the person’s body, including the person’s mucus, sweat, blood, faeces, urine, pus, and fluid around the organs. The Buddha encourages students to focus on these aspects of their object of desire – the dirty aspects that are just below the surface. More recently, I have read these views echoed by the Dalai Lama in his work ‘The Heart of the Buddha’s Path’, which represents a culmination of his views as stipulated in a series of lectures delivered in London in the 1990’s. In one of his speeches, he argues that sexuality has become too widely advertised in modern society, and that it is fuelling people’s desires and increasing their focus on carnal, rather than spiritual pleasures. He argues that people often become focused on the beautiful exterior of a person, but disregard the dirty, disgusting things happening inside their bodies on a physical level. I am sure that these ‘dirty’ things he mentions also extends to the spiritual realm. In short, in times when I have found myself overcome by desire, I have found it useful to imagine the dirty, more human aspects of an attractive woman. Like everyone else, she shits, sneezes, pisses, farts, and has pus, mucus, and sweat clinging inside and outside of her body. Inside she is foul! She is a human, and not someone to be placed on a pedestal.