[Buddha-l] Query on authority of Buddhist texts on sexuality

[Richard Hayes]

On Apr 22, 2010, at 10:50 AM, Sharon Smith wrote:

> I am writing a book chapter on Buddhism and sexuality in terms of what
> Buddhist texts have to say on these issues.

By Buddhist texts, do you mean to include texts written by modern Buddhists in the West? If so, you might be interested in looking at David Loy's latest book entitled Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution (Wisdom Publications March 10, 2008). Also worth looking at is Robert Aitken's Mind of Clover. Both those books have thoughtful and sensitive essays on sexuality from a Buddhist perspective. (I once heard Aitken say in a talk that American have the most complex sexual karma on the planet. If what he meant is that hardly anyone is more confused about sexuality than Americans have been in recent decades, he may have a point, provided we exclude from discussion the folks living in the Vatican.)

> My query concerns the relative weighting of what Buddhist
> scriptural texts say compared to other 'authorities', social/religious
> tradition and personal experience.

Buddhists are all over the map on this one. It would be difficult to generalize in any way that is not a simplistic distortion.

> I may be wrong, but it seems to me that Buddhism is 'less
> fundamentalist' than other faiths.

Nichiren and the schools that have followed his approach are good antidotes to that impression. And right here on buddha-l we have been exposed to some Western Buddhists who have been on the fundamentalist side of the spectrum. Most of them got disgusted with us and left.

>  For this reason, in my chapter, I am
> focusing on how Buddhists live out these issues.  I would be grateful to
> hear colleagues' views on these matters.

About twenty years ago there was a book called The Biology of Religion, which combined extensive anthropological observations with a Darwinian perspective. Their aim was to see which religious doctrines and practices are most conducive to the survival of the human species. The book had chapters on sexual attitudes and practices around the world. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the author of the book. In trying to retrieve it, I came across a book with that title written in 1983, but I'm afraid I can't be sure whether that was the study I just described. I gave my copy to a friend long ago.

Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
MSC03 2140
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001