Theos-Talk Archives (June 1997 Message tl00092)

At 12:37 AM 6/4/97 -0400, Eldon B. Tucker wrote:
>I came across the following quote by Kalu Rimpoche in
>THE GEM ORNAMENT OF MANIFOLD ORAL INSTRUCTIONS that
>seemed to nicely deal with the subject being discussed
>(page 98)
>
>QUESTION: If your heart is intending to share joy with
>another person and you are expressing your love for that
>person, how can anything you would do that would be
>mutually consenting be considered karmically negative?
>
>ANSWER: This is a complex issue. The karmic recommendation
>concerning sexual activity attempts to provide some kind
>of stability, so that our sexual activity does not become
>the main driving force in our life and a source of
>emotional stimulation and agitation. Therefore, general
>codes of sexual behavior which are more or less in accord
>with the general norm in the human realm are recommended,
>to try to keep the sexual aspect in proportion with the
>rest of life. I suppose a certain confidence in the Buddhas
>and Bodhisattvas as intelligent and omniscient teachers is
>required to accept that there is some validity to what may
>seem to be a rather curious or unnecessary stricture. What
>you say is quite true. If there is basic love and sharing
>between two people, it would seem that very little that is
>harmful would ever come of that. It still seems reasonable,
>however, that we would do well not to be sexually near a
>stupa, or in a temple, or in the presence of our teachers.
>This seems to show a reasonable respect.
>
>-- Eldon
>

Thanks for a very informative post.

There is a also a very interesting episode in the life of Shri
Shankaracharya, who many consider as one of the highest Adepts.

There was a debate competition in which he participated. Finally he defeated
the final participant and just before he was to be announced as the winner,
the wife of the participant challenged him. The wife was also a scholar and
elequent debater. He vanquished her and finally when he was about to be
declared a winner, the wife asked him some questions about sexual bliss or
some other related matter and told him that as a bachelor he could not
answer her from first hand information. No to be defeated, he found that
just then a king had died and he temporarily occupied the body and spent
some days in the king's body and had all the sexual experience with queen
and came back and answered all the questions and defeated the woman debater.

This simply goes to show that there is a place for sex and family life. The
simple question seems to be one of every one to ponder and decide whether
the advantages override the risks involved.

.....doss