Karmamudrā (Sanskrit; "action seal," erroneously: kāmamudrā or "desire seal," Tib. las-kyi phyag-rgya) is tantric yoga involving sexual union with a physical partner, or a visualized simulacrum thereof. The aim of the practice is to control one's sexual energy, and the most advanced forms of yab-yum practice are often done mentally, without using a physical partner. Like all other yogas, it cannot be practiced without the basis of the inner heat yoga, tummo, of which karmamudrā is an extension. This sadhana is subsumed within the Six Yogas of Naropa. The iconography of yab-yum and the maitrī practice of Karmamudrā engenders cognition[1] of the upaya doctrine of interpenetration.
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The practise is controversial as it often has involved immature girls.[2] In cases where Western women have served as consorts to lamas, some have asserted that it only benefited the tulkus.[3][4][5] Some emperors also enjoyed Karmamudrā.[6] Bhutanese king Jigme Dorji Wangchuck banned the practice in his nation. Today there are sometimes court cases about it between the tulkus and their female followers.[7][8][9][10]
There are Taoist sexual practices. Sexual rites are also practised in some Hinduism temples.[11]