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The Manichaean Elect, or monks and nuns, were understood by many to be celibates. Others, however, saw them as sexually active but reluctant to conceive children or marry in the normal sense of the word.  The extreme secrecy of the Manichaean monastics and their rites has prohibited historians from coming to clear concise views on this matter, although most assume them to have been celibate after tradition Buddhist patterns. Some ancient writers also have concluded that they abstained from all sexual relations:

"They abstain also from marriage and the rites of Venus, and the procreation of children, that virtue may not strike its root deeper in matter by the succession of race; nor do they go abroad, seeking to purify themselves from the stain which virtue has contracted froth its admixture with matter.  Of  the Manichaeans - Alexander of Lycopolis

"Gnostics throughout history (people like the Manichaeans of St. Augustine’ s time) have tended to reject procreation because it involves us in the material universe, which is evil. At the same time they encourage sexual behavior that does not lead to children. George A. Kendall

"Such virgins as there are said to be among the heretics and among the followers of the infamous Manes (Mani) must be considered not virgins but prostitutes."   Epiphaneus, 22.38

"Manichaeans appeared in Aquitaine, leading the people astray. They denied baptism, the cross, and all sound doctrine. They did not eat meat, as though they were monks, and pretended to be celibate, but among themselves they enjoyed every indulgence. They were messengers of Antichrist, and caused many to wander from the faith."  - Adhémar of Chabannes (c. 1018)

"The rule of life in the epistle of Manichaeus was laid before them. Many thought it intolerable, and left; not a few felt ashamed, and stayed. They began to live as they had agreed, and as this high authority enjoined. - Morals of the Manichaeans, chapter 20, by Augustine

Manichaeans were known for birth control among their lay members. There are some accusations of impropriety (from the catholic viewpoint), many made by Augustine in his debates with Faustus the Manichaean bishop. Catholics viewed the sex act as evil in its very nature, and Augustin attacked the Manichaeans for promoting non fertile sexuality among lay followers.

"Lastly, there is the symbol of the breast, in which your very questionable chastity consists. For though you do not forbid sexual intercourse, you, as the apostle long ago said, forbid marriage in the proper sense, although this is the only good excuse for such intercourse. . . . Didn't you warn us before to watch as carefully as possible for the time after the monthly period, when a woman may be expected to conceive, and to abstain from intercourse at this time, lest a soul be enclosed in the flesh? It follows from this that, in your opinion, marriage was not intended to beget children but to satisfy desires". - Morals of the Manachaeans, chapter 18, by Augustine

"The second practice of the Listener which he does is this, that the man should give to the Elect a son of the Church . . .  so that every good which this one whom he has given,. that Listener who gave him has a share therein (Mani, Kephalia 193: 4 11).

"Then I explain to you, my disciples, that there is yet another Gate (Sect) that derives from Msiha (Messiah). They are called "Zandiqi" ( Saints) and "MardMani"(of Lord Mani). They sow seeds in concealment and entrust their part to the darkness. Men and woman lie together, gather up the seed, they put it into wine and they give it to drink to the souls  and say that it is pure. They invoke the wind, fire, and water; they pray to the sun and the moon, when their spirit dies, they are like the flies on the vase. The vapor rises and catches them; they loose their wings, are taken and fall inside. They are called "the Election (Elect) that Mar Mani has elected." Ginza Right 9:1

These could have been malicious rumors, or true accounts. Historians do not know for sure. Such begs the question, however, would it have been against the Manichaean ethic for a monastic to be sexual if he or she did not produce children from the encounter? The ex-Manicahean Augustine made a serious accusation in his De Haeres,  46:

"Augustin mentions a disgusting ceremony in which human semen was partaken of by the Elect in order to deliver the imprisoned light contained therein (De Haeres. 46), and he calls this ceremony a sort of Eucharist. But his confessed ignorance of the doings of the "Elect" discredits in some measure this accusation." INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON THE MANICHAEAN HERESY, By Albert H. Newman, D.D., LL.D.

"Let him be accursed who believes the Rulers of the Darkness were bound in the sky, having confined in themselves in pains and misery the Life Substance that is, the part of God and in this way it was liberated from their members; When the blessed Father, who has Light Ships and various little dwellings, namely the Sun and the Moon, changes His Powers into beautiful women whom He sets before the male Rulers of the Darkness to lust after, and into handsome men whom He sets before the female Rulers of the Darkness to lust after, so that by this same lust the Life Substance which is the part of God might be freed and purified out of their members." Anathema Against Manichaeaism

"Moreover, when you are so eager in your desire to prevent the soul from being confined in flesh by conjugal intercourse, and so eager in asserting that the soul is set free from seed by the food of the saints, do you not sanction, unhappy beings, the suspicion entertained about you? For why should it be true regarding corn and beans and lentils and other seeds, that when you eat them you wish to set free the soul, and not true of the seeds of animals? For what you say of the flesh of a dead animal, that it is unclean because there is no soul in it, cannot be said of the seed of the animal; for you hold that it keeps confined the soul which will appear in the offspring, and you avow that the soul of Manichæus himself is thus confined. And as your followers cannot bring these seeds to you for purification, who will not suspect that you make this purification secretly among yourselves, and hide it from your followers, in case they should leave you? - Morals of the Manachaeans, chapter 18, by Augustine

Manachaeans apparently did not consider all  bodily pleasure as evil even though they considered the body a product of dark evolution. One argument in this direction is the Manichaean propensity to prepare somewhat lavish meals, compared for instance with the Jain practice of eating ever more simple and bland food. Manichaeans were known as garlic-onion eaters, food shunned by many Buddhists.  So it may be inferred that Mani taught culinary enjoyment, a bodily pleasure, but orchestrated such to a divine purpose. Could he have done the same for sexuality?

It is perhaps noteworthy to notice that Manichaean monks and nuns lived together in the same location, and not separate as did Catholic monastics.

"When the Lords (monks/electi) and the Ladies (nins, electae) take meals at the moanstery, or go out when they are invited, they should each be brought two cups or bowls with water . . . "charter of a Manichaean monastery in Kocho

Tantric sexual behavior among monastics is consistent with Bon and Nyingma traditions from Tibet and is not out of harmony with their strong spiritual focus and higher monastic morals. Whether or not Manichaean monastics practiced some sort of higher tantric sexuality cannot be absolutely proven from the present historical record although circumstantial evidence seems to imply they did. If they did practice some sort of limited intimacy among themselves, such intimacies would have been carried out for purely altruistic spiritual purposes and not some sordid release of lower desire. The Manichaeans monks were not hypocrites, nor were her nuns given over to licentious abandonment. What ever the secret practices of this ancient brother sisterhood, they were in full accord with the advanced ethical teachings of their founder Mar Mani and in full accord with the secret teachings and practices of Yeshu (Jesus) and Miryai (Magdalene) and other great Nazorean Apostles of that Good Realm.