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prssmd
Registered User
(8/19/03 2:25 pm)
Reply 		Yoga, Buddhism, Enlightened Masters, and Seminal Emissions
Yoga, Buddhism, Enlightened Masters, Witch Hunts,
Radical Feminists, and Seminal Emissions

There is much debate these days about the propriety of sexual relationships between spiritual teachers (both in the Hindu Yoga tradition and in Buddhism) and their students. Some people may wonder whether a fully enlightened person would even have sex at all. Would an enlightened person have transcended sex, or might she continue to indulge herself in the pleasures of the flesh?

For those who are interested in the history of religion, the question of an enlightened person's sexuality was a widely discussed issue as early as 2,300 years ago--not only in the past 15 years, during which time a large number of crazed American militant, radical feminist women, regretting their past VOLUNTARY sexual relationships with their male gurus in a Hindu yogic tradition or their male teachers of Buddhist meditation, have harshly and unfairly denounced nearly every enlightened man who ever taught yogic or Buddhist meditation in the U.S. (This witch hunt for spiritual teachers who are "sexual harassers" and abusers (who are usually male), carried out in numerous sanghas and ashrams throughout the U.S., has resulted in making the teachings less available and creating distance between teachers and students which is harmful to the teaching relationship.)

Getting back to the history of religion, various sects (not sex!) of Buddhists split off from each other over a variety of issues, including the question whether you could have seminal emissions if you were an Arahant (or Arhat, in Pali, or simply a "Buddhist saint")--i.e., a fully enlightened meditator in the early Buddhist tradition. Men only, please, as females of course wouldn't have ejaculations of semen, whether or not they were enlightened. Since Buddhist saints were always monks (or became monks shortly after enlightenment), celibacy was presumed, so "seminal emissions" apparently refers to involuntary seminal emissions during a Buddhist saint's sleep.

In the early days of Buddhism, there was a raging controversy over the "five points of Mahadeva," which are discussed in the KATTHAVATTHU. These points tended to take LIGHTly the enLIGHTenment of the enlightened Buddhist saint; one of the points stated that the saint was "still...with the release of semen." (What's wrong with that, anyway?!?) Mahadeva's points were attacked in the MAHAVIBHASA of the Sarvastivadans. This dispute cause a split between the Buddhist sects of the monks of the Mahasamghika and the Sthaviravadins. You can read about this dispute in Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism, by Willemen, Dessein, and Cox; Brill (Leiden), 1998. On the whole, it's a pretty dull book, and I wouldn't wish it to be required reading even for my worst enemy. I came across it while visiting the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts.

Edited by: prssmd at: 8/20/03 3:11 am
prssmd
Registered User
(8/26/03 5:36 am)
Reply 		Re: Seminal Emissions, Sense Pleasure, Christian & Buddh
I've been thinking about Christian and Buddhist, as well as yogic teachings on sex. Many people don't realize how much Buddhism and Christianity have in common. Striking similarities exist between the teachings of Jesus, especially as
portrayed in the Synoptic Gospels (the first three), and those of the Buddha, as depicted in the
Theravada suttas. Both maintain that attainment of the
ultimate human good - - salvation, in Christianity, enlightenment (nibbana) in
Theravada Buddhism - - requires self – denial, destruction of the passions, and
renunciation of the world. Both warn that worldly pleasures, especially sense-pleasure (including sexual pleasure), are inherently unsatisfactory.
Christian and Buddhist denigration of sense – pleasure is based in part on the notion that a person who experiences sense – pleasure is subject to suffering and so cannot be truly happy. Consequently, it is better for a sensual desire not to arise at all than for it to arise and be satisfied.

My position is that it is better for a sexual desire to arise and be satisfied than not to arise at all. However, I've never tried shutting down sexual desire through celibacy or some such practice.

Edited by: prssmd at: 8/26/03 5:40 am
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