When comedian Pete Holmes went on a spiritual hermitage with teacher Ram Dass, he never expected that he would face his biggest shame-horniness. Holmes opened up on "Salon Talks," about how he learned to embrace his sexual urges, with humor, of course.

It was all prompted by his journey to confront his evangelical Christian upbringing and rediscover his spirituality as an adult, which he details in his memoir "Comedy Sex God."

"These things we think are wrong about us, our temper, our envy or greed, and in my case, my blinding horniness…I was so embarrassed that all of this horniness was coming up, and I really wanted to jerk off. And I was like, I can't," Holmes told Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams about his time with Dass.

It was the repression of these feelings that helped Holmes discover an aspect of his spirituality he never embraced before. "Your resistance is what's causing you suffering. How you think it should be versus how it is, and in-between is your bad mood and your discomfort and your discontent."

Holmes finally realized the purpose for his strong sexual urges. "I had this very transcendent moment where I was like, the horniness, I thought, was in the way of my teaching. And then I realized that the horniness was the teaching."

Watch the full episode to hear why Holmes walked away from being atheist and more about "Comedy Sex God."