April 1, 2006
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^:^:^ THE SOUTHWEST INSIGHT E'LETTER ^:^:^
^:^:^ Vol. 06.04 ^:^:^
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a service of the Great Western Vehicle
€ Mahapacchimayana €
a 4th wheel Buddhist tradition
http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/index.html
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jhana Meditation Sitting Groups !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maha-satipatthana Sutta (DN 22.21)
"And what is skilful meditation (sama-samadhi)? There is a case where an
aspirant who is withdrawn from sensory experience, withdrawn from unskillful
mental states -- enters & remains in the first meditative absorption
(jhana)"...
http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/mahasatipatthanasutta.htm
There are Jhana sensitive meditation groups starting in your area.
Email us for the nearest location.
Tucson, AZ Jhana, Satipatthana and Sutta Discussion Group.
8:30 AM to 10:00 AM on either Saturday or Sunday mornings
2506 E. Drachman, Tucson, 85716.
Contact: Mark Pirtle at mark@mpirtle.com or (520) 250-9027
Boulder, CO Jhana, Satipatthana Meditation and Sutta Discussion Group.
Contact: Michael Hawkins adreampuppet@yahoo.com
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Find out what the Buddha really taught
http://www.seeforyourself.org
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Buddhist Meetup !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First Thursdays most Buddhist Meetup Groups meet. To find the meeting in
your area click on this link http://buddhism.meetup.com/
%%%%%%% A CONTEMPLATIVE¹S CALENDAR %%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%% APRIL MAY %%%%%%%%
March 31, 7 PM Buddhism in Science, Dr. Alan Wallace RM S220 UA Aerospace
and Mechanical Engineering 1130 N. Mountain Ave. Tucson, AZ
http://www.DharmakirtiCollege.org
March 31, APR 1, 6, & 7 Celestine Prophecy, the movie will show at the
Church of Tamara, 3002 E. Ft Lowell, Tucson, AZ325-0513
APR-MAY ‹ Grove Burnett, will be Teachers-in-residence at Santa Fe Vipassana
Sangha, <http://www.santafevipassana.org>
APR 1st All Fools Day and Bike SWAP meet on 4th Ave. 7 AM to 1 PM
APR 1st 11:30 to 3:30 at 17th Street Market, 840 E. 17th St. Tucson, AZ
624-8821
APR 1, Socrates Saturday Morning Forum 1st, 2nd, & 5th Saturdays at Ward 6
Midtown Council Office (3202 E. First St, Tucson, AZ 370-6338 or
philwhite857@yahoo.com
APR 1st and 2nd, Retreat led by Dr. Alan Wallace "Balancing the Heart and
Mind" Dharmakirti College, Tucson, AZ admin@dharmakirti.org €
http://www.DharmakirtiCollege.org
APR 2, Daylight savings time begins.
APR 2, Sunday mornings from 10 to 11:30AM Gay-Lesbian-Bi-Trans meditation
group which meets at Wingspan, 425 E. 7th St., Tucson, AZ
APR 2, Sundays 6:30 8:00 PM, Singing Bird Sangha, Thich Nhat Hanh, Pima
Friends Meetinghouse, 931 N. 5th Street, Tucson, AZ
First and third Tuesdays 6:30-7:30 PM 2415 E. 6th St, Tucson
APR 2, 6-7 PM Sundays, Meditation and Chanting at Tucson Yoga Downtown. 148
S. Fourth Ave. Tucson, AZ 882-0597 or www.tucsonyoga.com
APR 3, 7-9 PM Make this human life meaningful, Khentrul Rinpoche at the
Historic Y 738 N. Fifth, Tucson, AZ 742-7895
APR 3, New Moon meditation at the Yoga Connection, 4893 E. Speedway Blvd.,
Tucson, AZ 323-1222
APR 3, 6:30 PM Spiritual Psychiatry lecture by Dr. Eve Wood at the Tucson
Medical Center 5301 E. Grant Rd., Tucson, AZ 326-1894
APR 3, 7 PM Tucson BPF meetings 1st and 3rd Mondays at Martin's house, 701
E. Mabel, Tucson. (520) 320-5883. bpf_Tucson@yahoogroups.com
HTTP://groups.yahoo.com/groups/bpf_Tucson/cal
APR 3, 7:30 pm, DUO GUARDABARRANCO in concert, Glendale Community College,
Glendale, AZ. FREE TO THE PUBLIC, info: ITZABOUTIME its@theriver.com
APR 4, 10 a.m. - Noon Interfaith Prayer Service Immigrant Dignity and
Recognition on the Arizona State Capitol Senate Lawn, Hosted by Interfaith
Leaders of Arizona, 1700 West Washington, Phoenix, AZ
APR 4, Green Party meeting, Historic Y, 738 N. Fifth Ave, Tucsons, AZ in the
conference room.
APR 4, 7:30 pm, DUO GUARDABARRANCO in concert, Mountain Vista Recreation
Center Social Hall, 1495 E Rancho Vistoso Blvd. FREE TO THE PUBLIC, info:
ITZABOUTIME its@theriver.com
APR 4-8, - Toward a Science of Consciousness, Center for Consciousness
Studies, Tucson, AZ
http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/Tucson2006.htm
APR 5, Wednesdays at 6:30 pm Bhagavad-gita class Rama Bhakti devi dasi
Chaitanya Cultural Center & Govindas, 711 E Blacklidge Drive, Tucson, AZ
520.623.3507
ramabhakti@southwestinterfaith.org
APR 6, Buddhist Meditation at Tara Mahayana Meditation Center, 1701 E. Miles
St, Tucson, AZ 296-8626
APR 6, Tucson Buddhist Meetup Group First Thursday @ 7:00 PM at the Epic
Cafe 745 N 4th Av Tucson, AZ 520-624-6844 *
http://buddhism.meetup.com/10/
April 7 The Dharma Debates, a high noon ³shootout² on the Mall outside the
University of Arizona Administration building.
April 7 5:30 to 6:30 Fridays, Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Hour, Dharma Kirit
College UA Pierce McCormick Building, 1401 E First St, Tucson, AZ
www.dharmakirticollege.org
April 7-9, Building a Solar Community in the Age of Aquarius, Double Tree
Inn, 445 N Alvernon Way, Tucson, AZ. 928 710-5833 *
www.tucsonheartscenter.com
APR 7,8,9, Triangle of Empowerment: Integrating Body, Mind and Spirit.
Andrew Weil ,M.D., Larry Dossey M.D., Gladys McGarey M.D., Rabbi Rami
Shapiro, Russill Paul and Michael Green and The Illumination Band. The Inner
Connection, Tucson, AZ € http://www.theinnerconnection.org/
APR 8, 3 - 5 pm Ted'S frEE CoMMunity SiNG at the Ada Peirce McCormick
Building Library* n.e. corner of Highland and 1st Street on the U of A
Campus, ITZABOUTIME. its@theriver.com
APR 8, 7:30-9:30 Phoenix Metro area Dances of Universal Peace 2nd and last
Saturdays at the SouthWest Institute of Healing Arts, Tempe, 110 E. Apache
Blvd (East of Rural) John Hinton (602)841-2843, or om4u@cox.net
APR 8-9 9am-5pm Seven-Point Mind Training led by Khenpo Sherab Ozer Rinpoche
at the Historic Y Building 738 N. 5th Ave call 520-465-1882
www.drikungkagyutucson.org
APR 9, Palm Sunday
APR 9, 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. Children's Dharma Class, Ages 5 to 10, 2nd Sunday
of each month. 931 N. 5th Ave., (Pima Friend's Meeting House, Tucson).
Activities will include Jataka tales, art projects, sharing and mindful
snacking. For more information call Katherine at (520) 290-1722.
APR 13th Full Moon, Passover
APR 13th: Sunset (6:31 PM) Planet Coexist's Full Moon Gathering at Tanque
Verde Falls near Tucson, AZ. Contact our office at 520-790-1757 or email us
at http://www.planetcoexist.com
APR 13-17: Chenrezig Drubchen, Traga Rinpoche, Gape Lama, Abao Lama, Bu Nima
Lama, Garchen Institute, Post Office Box 4318, Chino Valley, Arizona,
86323-4318 U.S.A.
http://garchen.net/events.html#chenrezig
APR 14 Good Friday, Pan American Day
APR 14 MENSA monthly meetings, Mama¹s Pizza 4500 E. Speedway Blvd. Tucson,
AZ 615-3996
APR 14-15, 7-9:30 PM Spiritual Partners 4, "The Mystic Embrace," Geshe
Michael Roach and Christie McNally, Two nights of free talks
at the Historic Y, 738 N. 5th Ave, Tucson, AZ, Call (520) 232-2024
http://www.diamondmtn.org/events
APR 15, Prescott, AZ Dances of Universal Peace 3rd Saturdays at the Prescott
College Chapel. Kris Rogers (928) 778-1606 or P.O. Box 480, Prescott, AZ
tigermoon@cybertrails.com or www.prescottdances.org
APR 15, 7:30-9:30 Tempe, AZ, Dances of Universal Peace 3rd Saturdays at the
Bodyworks Studio, 1801 S. Jentilly Ln., Suite B8, Tempe Terry Matthews
(480)998-9331 or (602)368-6784 or Terryamat@peoplepc.com
APR 16, Easter Sunday
APR 16, 7-10 PM "Sounds of Enlightenment: A Music and Dharma Concert," at
Anjali, 330 E. 7th Street, Tucson, AZ. Call (520) 232-2024
http://www.diamondmtn.org/events
APR 16-19, "Tibetan Heart Yoga Series IV," Geshe Michael Roach and Christie
McNally, at Anjali, 330 E. 7th Street, Tucson, AZ. Call (520) 232-2024
http://www.diamondmtn.org/events
APR 16 : 9am-noon, 2-5pm Medicine Buddha Empowerment & Practice Instruction
led by Khenpo Sherab Ozer Rinpoche at the Historic Y Building 738 N. 5th
Ave call 520-465-1882 www.drikungkagyutucson.org
APR 17, 6 PM Border Justice Passover Seder, no more deaths, Hillel
Foundation, 1245 E 2nd st. RSVP borderseder@yahoo.com or call Grace
777-7190.
APR 17, 7 PM Tucson BPF meeting at Martin's house, 701 E. Mabel, Tucson. 1st
and 3rd Mondays (520) 320-5883. bpf_Tucson@yahoogroups.com
HTTP://groups.yahoo.com/groups/bpf_Tucson/cal
APR 19, Sun enters Taurus
APR 19-22, 7 PM, Receive the Divine Mother¹s blessings Four Points Sheraton,
1900 E. Speedway at Campbell. 760-0364, www.karunamayi.org
APR 21 Lyrids meteor shower
APR 21-23 Mahamudra Practice Retreat led by Khenpo Sherab Ozer Rinpoche,
TBA, call 520-465-1882 www.drikungkagyutucson.org
APR 21-23, Dance Leader Training, Southwest Sufi Community, PO Box 373,
Silver City, NM 88062, contact: rabiya@zianet.com (505) 534-0431, Darvesha,
darvesh@starband.net
APR. 22, Earth Day
APR. 22, Discussion, with Pat Hawk Roshi, at Zen Desert Sangha, 3226 N.
Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
APR 23, at 2:00 PM (4th Sunday of each month) Antigone's Buddhist reading
group at Antigone's bookstore at, 411 N. 4th Ave. Tucson, AZ. They can be
reached at (520) 792-3715 to find out the book they are currently working
with or www.antigonebooks.com
APR 23, 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. 4th Sundays Children's Dharma Class, for older
kids, ages 10-14 info. 931 N. 5th Ave., (Pima Friend's Meeting House,
Tucson). For more information call Katherine at (520) 290-1722.
APR 23rd to 30th, Pima and Yaqui sponsored Casa Grande Sundance, Casa
Grande, AZ
APR. 26, Secretary¹s Day
APR. 27 New Moon
APR. 28-30: Sesshin, with Pat Hawk Roshi, at Zen Desert Sangha, 3226 N.
Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
APR 29, 7:30-9:30 Phoenix Metro area Dances of Universal Peace 2nd and last
Saturdays at the SouthWest Institute of Healing Arts, Tempe, 110 E. Apache
Blvd (East of Rural) John Hinton (602)841-2843, or om4u@cox.net
APR 29, Cornville, AZ, Dances of Universal Peace Last Saturdays at The
Earthship. Cathryn Swann (928) 634-1696
conscious@commspeed.net
MAY 5, 7pm BE HERE WOW! Buddhist Peace Fellowship, will be hosting Vipassana
teacher Wes Nisker's performance of "The Crazy Wisdom Show: A Comic
Monologue with Original Songs" at the Grace St. Paul Parish Hall, 2331 E.
Adams St, Tucson, AZ. Reservations: BPF, 701 E. Mabel St, Tucson 85719. Tel:
(520)323-5047
MAY 6-7: Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva): Chapter
10 on Dedication, Gape Lama, Garchen Institute, Post Office Box 4318, Chino
Valley, Arizona, 86323-4318 email questions@garchen.net or call
928-925-1237. www.garchen.net
MAY 9th to 14th Earth Dance which is in Tecate MX one hour south of San
Diego, www.earthdance8.org
MAY 12-14: The Liberating Dharma: Love is the Essence: A Women's Retreat,
Lama Lopon Barbara Du Bois, Garchen Institute, Post Office Box 4318, Chino
Valley, Arizona, 86323-4318 email questions@garchen.net or call
928-925-1237. www.garchen.net
MAY 19-21 Conference of the Birds, Southwest Sufi Community, PO Box 373,
Silver City, NM 88062, Contact: Basira Nickle, (505) 538-5034,
basira@southwestsuficommunity.org
MAY 20: Zazenkai, with Pat Hawk Roshi, at Zen Desert Sangha, 3226 N. Martin,
Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
MAY 20-23: The Twelve Links of Interdependent Origination
Tulku Nyima Gyaltsen Rinpoche, Garchen Institute, Post Office Box 4318,
Chino Valley, Arizona, 86323-4318 email questions@garchen.net or call
928-925-1237. www.garchen.net
MAY 23-29th, 6-day Jhana retreat near Boulder, CO, led by Jeff Brooks
(Jhananda) for the Great Western Vehicle at Jeff & Susan Combelic¹s Kiva,
Goldhill, CO. Contact: Michael Hawkins, P.O. Box 696, Boulder, CO
80306-0696, (303) 442-3985, adreampuppet@earthlink.net
http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/events/boulderretreat2006.htm
http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/events/boulderretreat2006.pdf
MAY 26, 9:30 AM 4:30 PM, Buddhist meditation in Theravada Tradition, led
by Venerable U Kelasa, at 7101 W. Picture Rocks Rd., Tucson, AZ 85743, PO
Box 569 Cortaro, AZ 85652, (520) 744-3400, FAX (520) 744-8021,
office@desertrenewal.org or www.desertrenewal.org
MAY 27-29: Guru Rinpoche Million Mantra Accumulation
Traga Rinpoche, Gape Lama, Bu Nima Lama, Lama Lopon Barbara Du Bois, Garchen
Institute, Post Office Box 4318, Chino Valley, Arizona, 86323-4318 email
questions@garchen.net or call 928-925-1237. www.garchen.net
MAY 29-June 4, the Migrant Trail ³We Walk for Life.² A 75 mile walk from
Sassabe to Tucson (520) 770-1373 or Migrant_trail@yahoo.com or
www.nomoredeaths.org or www.derechoshumanosaz.net
June ‹ Stephen and Martine Batchelor, will be Teachers-in-residence at Santa
Fe Vipassana Sangha, <http://www.santafevipassana.org>
June 14: Dharma Talk, by Pat Hawk Roshi. Discussion following, at Zen Desert
Sangha, 3226 N. Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
July-Aug 17 ‹ DaeJa Napier, will be Teachers-in-residence at Santa Fe
Vipassana Sangha, <http://www.santafevipassana.org>
Aug 6-12 Southwest Sufi Camp, Southwest Sufi Community, PO Box 373, Silver
City, NM 88062, Contact: John Foldan (505) 388-4536,
john@southwestsuficommunity.org
Aug 18-Sep 27 ‹ Lila Kate Wheeler, will be Teachers-in-residence at Santa Fe
Vipassana Sangha, <http://www.santafevipassana.org>
Aug. 26: Discussion, with Pat Hawk Roshi, at Zen Desert Sangha, 3226 N.
Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
Sept 17 Meeting of the Ways, Sufism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sweat Lodge, Dance,
Zikr, Southwest Sufi Community, PO Box 373, Silver City, NM 88062, Contact:
Basira Nickle, (505) 538-5034, basira@southwestsuficommunity.org
Sept. 22-24: Sesshin, with Pat Hawk Roshi, at Zen Desert Sangha, 3226 N.
Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
Oct 1-6 Sufi Session Retreat, Sitting meditation, Zikr, Dances, Southwest
Sufi Community, PO Box 373, Silver City, NM 88062, Contact: John Foldan
(505) 388-4536, john@southwestsuficommunity.org
Oct 2-December ‹ Jason Siff, will be Teachers-in-residence at Santa Fe
Vipassana Sangha, <http://www.santafevipassana.org>
Oct. 21: Zazenkai, with Pat Hawk Roshi, at Zen Desert Sangha, 3226 N.
Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
Nov. 8: Dharma Talk, by Pat Hawk Roshi. Discussion following, at Zen Desert
Sangha, 3226 N. Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
Dec. 16: Discussion, with Pat Hawk Roshi, at Zen Desert Sangha, 3226 N.
Martin, Tucson, AZ. http://www.zendesertsangha.org
+++++++++++++++ EDITORIAL +++++++++++++++++
Homosexuality in the Buddhist Tradition (abridged)
By Dharmachari Jñanavira
Introduction
The idea for this essay arose out of material I had gathered for my Ph.D.
thesis on the representations of homosexuality in Buddhist popular culture.
In order to contextualise modern understandings of homosexual desire as
experienced between men and between women, I found it was necessary to go
increasingly further back into Japanese history so that I might better
understand the foundations, or what Michel Foucault terms the `archaeology,'
which supports modern understandings and representations of homosexuality.
In so doing it became clear that `sex' was not only a culture-bound concept
but that the meaning and parameters of this term also changed enormously
over time even within the same culture. As Foucault has argued `it is
precisely [the] idea of sex in itself that we cannot accept without
examination'[1]. It also became clear that, if I was to understand Japanese
`homosexuality' in both its present and historical contexts, I needed to
bring under examination a whole host of concepts that implicitly structured
the way I `think' sex.
The very long and complex history of homosexual relations within Japanese
Buddhist institutions has only now come to light in the English-speaking
world with the recent translation of a few key documents and a number of
commentaries on them (these are referenced throughout the pages below). I
was struck, as I hope the reader of this essay will be, by how normative
sexual interactions between men in Buddhist institutions in Japan became,
and how these relationships were accepted by the wider society with
equanimity. Indeed, as I show, homoerotic relationships that had developed
in Buddhist institutions actually served as the basis for wider same- sex
sexual relationships between men throughout Japanese society from the
thirteenth to the end of the nineteenth century.
My point in making this research available in this journal is not to argue
that such relationships should become normative today, for the present
configuration of sexuality within modern western culture makes this
inconceivable. Rather, I would like to draw attention to the social forces
that make sexual friendships between older and younger men `ideal' forms of
relationship in some societies and yet define such relationships as abusive
or perverse in others. In making sense of this problem, I have found the
insightful work of Michel Foucault and his various postmodern and feminist
heirs to be most useful. These thinkers have done much to show how the
notion of `sex' in general, and more specifically, how the idea that
individuals inhabit or express themselves through distinct `sexualities' is
a modern innovation confined largely to those cultures with their roots in
northern Europe. I found that Foucault's ideas, which so far have only
really been tested in research done in western societies, were also useful
when applied to Japan, a country whose understandings of sexuality have been
informed by Buddhist ideas and practices.
I am increasingly convinced that `sex' is invariably tied in to
understandings of gender and that what is considered appropriate sexual
behaviour for male bodies and female bodies is dependent, in most part, upon
cultural constructions of `masculinity' and `femininity' which vary widely
over time and across cultures. For various reasons, in Japan the Buddhist
priesthood and the samurai military caste constructed a vision of the female
body in such a way as to minimize its attractiveness. Conversely, the
youthful male body was constructed as optimally desirable and a fitting
object of attraction for adult men. For men, same-sex sexual options were
not distinguished as different orders of sexual interaction (homosexual as
opposed to heterosexual) definitive of specific types of people (homosexuals
as opposed to heterosexuals) but were instead understood as simply a certain
style, one among many, through which sexual pleasure could be enjoyed. The
youthful male body was constructed and displayed as a fitting object of
aesthetic and sensual appreciation for other men throughout Japanese
history, beginning in Buddhist institutions from the ninth century and
reaching its apogee in the samurai towns of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
Because of the strong reactions that discussion of homosexuality can produce
in Anglo-American cultures[2], I have tried to make this an academic
argument, referencing all my sources and acknowledging my own speculations
as such. I hope that the material outlined here can encourage people to
think about the issues surrounding homosexuality, same-sex friendship and
the practice of Buddhism in new ways.
Buddhism and sex in Japan
>From the earliest times until today, indigenous Japanese religion, known as
Shinto, has maintained a sex-positive ideology, particularly with regard to
the role of sex in procreation. Even now, it is possible to see in village
festivals processions which feature enormous carved wooden phalli which are
taken out of the local shrine and paraded around the fields so as to bless
them and make them fecund. Unlike in Christian creation myths where the
advent of awareness of sexual dimorphism is seen to mark a deterioration in
the human condition (resulting in expulsion from Eden), in Japanese
mythology the divine ancestors Izanagi and Izanami are shown to be curious
and experimental about sex. The male Izanagi, tells his female companion
that he would like to take his `excessive part' and insert it into `the part
where you are lacking.' From this divine union springs the Japanese race.
Although Shinto is largely without a developed theological system, when sex
is theorized, it is usually understood to be a good thing, a `Way' or doo,
originating with the divine ancestors. As one seventeenth-century
theologian explains:
>From the beginning of the two support oomikami, Izanagi no mikoto and
Izanami no mikoto, down to the birds and the beasts who receive no
instruction, the intercourse of male and female is a way, like nature, that
has been transmitted to us. Since the procreation of descendants is a great
enterprise, it must be revered.[3]
The first challenge to Japanese nativism came with the introduction of
Buddhism in the seventh century. It was in contrast to Buddhism, the `Way
of the Buddha', that native beliefs became codified as Shinto or the `Way of
the gods'. It is, of course, impossible to describe the Buddhist attitude
toward sexuality because `Buddhism' is reformulated and re-expressed in
different cultures and at different times, adopting and redefining aspects
of the cultures in which it has taken root. However, as with Christianity,
there are broad outlines or features that have persisted over time and that
can be pointed to when attempting to make generalisations. Firstly, early
Buddhism discerned two forms of lifestyle appropriate to Buddhist believers:
monastic and lay. For those men and women ordained as bhikkhus or
bhikkhunis, total celibacy was required, while lay followers undertook to
take five `training principles,' the third of which was `kaamesu
micchaacaaraa verama.nii sikkhaapada.m samaadiyaami' (I take the rule of
training `verama.nii sikkhaapada.m samaadiyaami,' not to go the wrong way
`micchaacaaraa,' for sexual pleasure `kaamesu'). Unlike the Christian
penitentials of the medieval period, Buddhist texts do not go into great
detail explicating exactly what the `wrong' and `right' ways regarding
sexual pleasure actually are. As with other actions, they are subject to
the application of the golden mean: `[the deed which causes remorse
afterward and results in weeping is ill-done. The deed which causes no
remorse afterwards and results in joy and happiness is well done'
(Dhammapada). Rather than essentialising actions as good (puñña) or bad
(paapa), Buddhism instead utilised an ethic of intention, understanding acts
as skilful (kusala) or unskilful (akusala). Motivations were skilful or
unskilful, not in relation to a creator deity's designer-realist agenda but
in terms of the degree to which they resulted in a lessening of desire. In
Buddhism, desire was a problem, not because it was evil but because the
attachment it produced caused suffering.
Buddhism was essentially disinterested in procreation which was, after all,
seen as the mechanism whereby beings were chained to a constant round of
rebirths in sa.msaara. This necessarily brought it into conflict with the
indigenous cultures of Eastern Asia where, under Confucian influence, the
perpetuation of the family line was seen as an obligation to the ancestors.
Yet, although doctrinal Buddhism had little interest in procreation and
never developed a discourse about it, Mahaayaana Buddhism did utilise the
powerful imagery surrounding the sex act as a hermeneutic device. From the
fifth century in northern India, various Buddhist schools developed which
utilised sexual imagery as a means of communicating metaphysical truths such
as the non-differentiation of sa.msaara and nirvaa.na. Male Buddha and
bodhisattva figures were represented in sexual union with their female
consorts, thus giving a heightened exposure to female elements within the
tradition. Practitioners occasionally went beyond symbolism and integrated
sexual practices into their rituals. However, as with Taoist sexo-yogic
practices designed to promote long life, these practices were not meant to
result in ejaculation but to transmute sexual into spiritual energy. The
Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism founded by Kuukai (774 -835) developed
its own form of Tantra, Tachikawa Ryu, `the main sex cult of Japan'[4] which
taught that the loss of self in the sex act could lead to an awakening of
the spirit. These developments represent an important difference between
Buddhism and Christianity with regard to sex. As LaFleur comments: `there
does not seem to be anything comparable in Europe to the Japanese Buddhist
use of sexual union as either a religious symbol, or as increasingly became
the case, as itself a context for religious realization'[5]. What was
remarkable about certain trends within Japanese Buddhism was that sex came
to be viewed as a good in itself apart from its role in procreation. In
Japanese Buddhism, the divorce of sexuality from procreation enabled sex to
become a religious symbol released from the domesticating realm of the
family.
Although present, Tantric sexual imagery which involved the unification of
male and female was of marginal influence in Japan. Far more pervasive in
male Buddhist institutions was the influence of homoerotic and even
homosexual imagery where beautiful acolytes were understood to embody the
feminine principle. The degree to which Buddhism tolerated same-sex sexual
activity even among its ordained practitioners is clear from the popular
myth that the founder of the Shingon school, Kooboo Daishi (Kuukai),
introduced homosexual acts upon his return from study in China in the early
ninth century. This myth was so well known that even the Portuguese
traveller, Gaspar Vilela had heard it. Writing in 1571, he complains of the
addiction of the monks of Mt. Hiei to `sodomy', and attributes its
introduction to Japan to Kuukai, the founder of Koyasan, the Shingon
headquarters[6]Š
The homoerotic environment of Buddhist monasteries actually inspired a
literary genre, Chigo monogatari (Tales about acolytes), which took as its
theme the love between acolytes (chigo) and their spiritual guides. These
homoerotic relationships were `firmly grounded in the familiar structures of
monastic life'[10] and were meant to appeal to their Buddhist audience. A
common theme of these tales is the transformation of a Buddhist deity,
usually Kannon (Sanskrit Avalokite'svara), Jizoo (skt. Ksitigarbha) or
Monjushiri (Sanskrit Ma~nju'srii)[11], into a beautiful young acolyte. The
acolyte then uses his physical charms to endear himself to an older monk and
thereby lead him to Enlightenment. In the fourteenth- century Chigo Kannon
engi, Kannon takes the form of a beautiful novice to become the lover of a
monk who is longing for companionship in his old age. After a few years of
close companionship, however, the acolyte dies, leaving the monk desolate.
Kannon then appears to the monk, reveals that he and the acolyte were one
and the same and delivers a discourse on impermanence. Childs comments
that:
The homosexual relationship between the monk and the novice implied in this
tale expresses both Kannon's compassion and his accommodation to the needs
of a situation. Kannon has appeared to the old man to teach him about human
transience and the futility of earthly pleasures. This goal is
accomplished, because, as the monk's lover, Kannon has become fully
integrated into his life.[12]
Guth (1987) has argued that the homoerotic appreciation of beautiful young
acolytes also came to influence the way these bodhisattvas were depicted in
statues and paintings, there being an increasing trend which represented
Kannon, Ma~nju'srii, Jizoo as well as historical personages such as Kuukai
and Shootoku Taishi (an imperial prince closely connected with the
introduction of Buddhism to Japan) as `divine boys', closely modelled on the
young and beautiful acolytes resident in the monasteries.
Japanese Buddhism responded to the homoerotic environment created by a large
number of monks living together with youths and boys in a very different way
to Christianity which tended to respond to expressions of homoeroticism
within monastic communities with vehement paranoia, characterising sodomy as
the worst of sexual sins, even worse than incest[13]. Consider, for
example, the tone of this passage from Peter Damian's Book of Gomorrah,
written in 1049:
In our region a certain abominable and most shameful vice has
developed...The befouling cancer of sodomy is, in fact, spreading so through
the clergy or rather like a savage beast, is raging with such shameless
abandon through the flock of Christ that for many of them it would be more
salutary to be burdened with service to the world, than, under the pretext
of religion, to be enslaved so easily under the iron rule of satanic tyranny
..[14]
Buddhism's flexibility with regard to sexuality, as in other aspects of
human nature, derives from the doctrine of hooben (Sanskrit upaaya) or
`skilful means' wherein actions are not judged in and of themselves but in
terms of their motivation and outcome. Hence, even sexual attraction, which
in early Buddhism is considered a defilement, can be used as a means to
communicate the Buddhist truth or Dharma. Given Buddhism's prioritisation
of intention and consequence over the act itself it was possible for monks
(for whom sexual engagement with women was forbidden) to justify (or perhaps
rationalize) their sexual engagement with youths in terms of creating a
deeper or more lasting spiritual bondŠ
The famous Chigo no sooshi or Acolyte scroll is also often cited in this
context[17]. This is a series of five tales with illustrations produced
some time in the fourteenth century and kept in the Shingon Daigo-ji templeŠ
this scroll is preserved by a Buddhist institution as a `national treasure'
and I find it unlikely that the Vatican would find a place for a similar
work in its vaults. This suggests that sex did not occupy the same place in
the mind scape of Japanese Buddhists as it did in Christian consciousness
throughout the west. The result was a different kind of interiority, one
which did not judge actions as inherently right or wrong but insisted,
instead, upon their situationality and intentionality. This cultural gap is
clearly illustrated by the many encounters in the sixteenth century recorded
between Jesuit missionaries and Japanese monks who were criticised for their
addiction to the `unmentionable vice'. A sexual ethic which demonized
homosexuality as evil and depraved per se was not intelligible in the terms
available to Japanese of the premodern period; as Faure comments
`[homosexuality] was not an object of social reprobation and repression as
in Europe, where it had been strongly condemned by the Church since Aquinas
and was punishable at the stake'[18].
The lighthearted manner in which sexual infractions of the Vinaya were
treated by some monks is evident in the surviving diaries of priests, the
most famous of which, translated into English as Essays in Idleness is
Kenkoo's Tsurezuregusa, written in the fourteenth century[19]. Kenkoo
routinely describes priestly goings on: partying, drunkenness, pursuit of
boys and women, without any moral evaluation. He does not have a moralistic
agenda which utilises these stories to bring the protagonists to a bad end
and they stand in stark contrast to the French medieval fabliaux tales about
monastic sexual license which usually results in the priests being horribly
castrated[20]. Rather, he treats the priestly misbehaviour somewhat
humorously, as in the story of `The Acolyte at Omuro'[21]. Here, `a
ravishing acolyte' is invited out by a group of priests on a picnic.
Intending to impress him with their magical powers, they hide a basket of
food in the forest which they will then pretend to conjure up.
Unfortunately, a peasant watches the priests bury the food and steals the
hamper. Upon their return, the priests, searching for the food in vain
`presently fell to quarrelling most unpleasantly, and returned in a rage to
the temple'. Kenkoo's comment on this incident is simply that `any
excessively ingenious scheme is sure to end in a fiasco'.
As pointed out above, many sons of the samurai were educated in Buddhist
monasteries and Buddhist paradigms of intergenerational friendships, often
sexual in nature, influenced male-male relations in the homosocial world of
the samurai more generally. This was especially true in the Tokugawa period
(1600-1857) when the samurai became concentrated in great castle towns like
Edo (present-day Tokyo) where there were comparatively few women. That
there was a `positive moral value attached to male-male love relationships
among the samurai during this period'[25] is clear from the large amount of
literature dealing with these relationships. Collections of short stories
such as Ihara Saikaku's Nanshoku ookagami (Great mirror of manly love)[26],
collections of verse and stories like Kitamura Kigin's Iwatsutsuji (Wild
azeleas)[27] and ethical guidebooks for the proper conduct of male love such
as Shin'yuuki (Record of heartfelt friends)[28] and Hagakure (In the shade
of leaves)[29], all give a clear picture of the practice of male love as it
was ideally conceived.[30]
The generally low position of women in Japanese society and the presence of
nativist, Buddhist and Confucian discourses all linking them to sex and
pollution meant that `there was never a trace in Japan of the exalted awe
and adoration accorded to women in the European tradition of chivalry and
courtly love'[48]. That women were held in low esteem seems to further have
encouraged the development of homoerotic traditions in the monasteries where
spiritual beings came increasingly to be represented as divine boys. [49]
As Faure points out `in as much as women meant defilement, by rejecting
women--even if for young boys--monks thought that they were rejecting
defilement'.[50] Monks could court chigo or young acolytes without the
dangers of pollution or childbirth, and in the absence of a discourse which
defined same-sex sexuality as effeminising, could maintain their identity
and integrity as men. By the time of increased samurai ascendancy from the
thirteenth century, there was already a well-established homoerotic
tradition in Japanese monasteries in which boys, not women, were constructed
as fitting objects for adult male desire, a tradition which was well suited
to the masculine ideals of an increasingly militaristic society. Blomberg
notes that `[h]omosexual relationships between an older and a younger bushi
[warrior] who were attached to one another as knight and page, were
virtually the rule in feudal Japan'[51], attributing them to the `very close
bonds...commonly found in men's societies in many cultures'.[52] Not unlike
other warrior societies, particularly ancient Greece, in Japan `[t]he love
of women [was] regarded as disgraceful and a sign of weakness, whereas the
love of men [was] virile and honourable'.[53]
Afterword The history of homosexuality in Japanese Buddhism has attracted a
certain amount of academic attention in Japan and Japanese bibliographies on
the topic including both historical texts and their more recent commentaries
are immense.[54] I know of no other society which has preserved such an
extensive historical record of love between men. Modern western schema
which seek to divide individuals into `homosexuals' and `heterosexuals' seem
inapplicable to premodern Japan where an adult man was considered as likely
to fall for the charms of an adolescent youth as he was a young woman and
where a youth was encouraged to respond `sympathetically' to the desire his
beauty occasioned in an older man. This does not mean, of course, that the
modern division of human sexuality into stark `homo' or `hetero' options is
somehow false; it is simply a different construction, one which cannot be
dissolved simply by pointing out how other societies have conceived of
`sexuality' in very different ways. This is what Foucault was suggesting
when he argued that `it is precisely the idea of sex in itself that we
cannot accept without examination;' i.e., the idea that there is some
irreducible essence of `sex' which exists inside the body. This means that
with regard to sexual behaviour, we should be very cautious about deploying
such terms as `natural' or `unnatural' because how we see `nature' is
actually filtered through assumptions embedded in culture.
Japanese culture seems to have held assumptions about sexuality which differ
in important ways from those characteristic of Anglo- American societies
since the close of the nineteenth century. I have argued that these
Japanese expressions of homosexuality were culturally determined by a
variety of `discourses'. Firstly, the Buddhist discourse which separated
sex from procreation and secondly, Nativist, Buddhist and Neo-Confucian
discourses which identified women as `polluting' and a potential threat to
men. Yet, although women occupied a similarly disadvantaged position within
western Christian discourse, no Christian culture developed socially
validated and institutionalised homosexual relationships between men. What
then, was different about Japan that enabled these relationships to thrive?
Japanese misogyny alone cannot be a sufficient explanation, for within
Christianity `women' were subjected to a barrage of insults and
recriminations quite as unyielding as anything that Confucianism produced.
To a certain extent, the influence of Buddhism seems clear. As Faure
comments `Certain sexual habits considered "against nature" by the
Christians may have been encouraged by the antinomian teachings of
Mahayana'.[55] Despite painstaking regulations in the Vinaya against any
kind of sexual activity on the part of monks, including many forbidding
homosexual encounters, Buddhism in Japan developed a very lax attitude
towards sexual _expression on the part of monks, which has resulted in the
curious anomaly that because most monks now marry (and must do so for
succession to temple property follows family line)[56], it is only Japanese
nuns who live a celibate lifestyle today.[57]
Yet even the flexibility of Mahaayaana ethics in which actions which may
seem unethical can be understood as `skilful means' cannot fully account for
the flourishing of homosexual relationships within Japanese culture, for
similar expressions of male desire did not proliferate to the same extent in
China or in Tibet where Mahaayaana influence was equally as strong. Nor can
Shinto's sex-positive teachings be used to explain the development of forms
of physical love between men, for Shinto essentially valorized procreative
sex as a symbol of cosmic fertility: an ideology flatly opposed by Buddhism..
My speculation is that Buddhism's disinterest in procreation as a
spiritually significant act coupled with a social discourse which not only
understood women to be inferior to men but also polluted and potentially
polluting, meant that boys, not women became the bearer of the `feminine'
archetype. In a belief system in which the self is ultimately empty and is
caught up in a round of births where gender identity, like any other
`essential' feature, is transient and illusory, the blurring of gender
boundaries is not likely to become a major transgression, a heresy or a sin..
The history of homoeroticism in Japanese Buddhism is interesting because it
shows that `gender' like `sexuality' is not a fixed attribute of biological
bodies. Rather, both sex and gender are complex cultural performances which
are acted out with the body as opposed to `biological' realities which
emerge from within it.
To suggest what interest or implications the history of homosexuality in
Japanese Buddhism should hold for Buddhist practitioners in the modern west
is to enter into the realm of speculation but I would like to offer a few
ideas derived from my research into Japanese history and gender theory as
well as five years of living in Japan. When compared with many people in
modern Japan, the topic of homosexuality does seem particularly troubling
for westerners. The reasons are complex, but put simply, for over a
thousand years homosexual acts between men were considered to be among the
most sinful, according to Saint Aquinas, even worse than mother-son incest
(which at least had procreative potential--the only excuse for sex). In the
nineteenth century the sinful/virtuous paradigm for categorising sexual acts
was overturned by the medical notion of sick/healthy and later the
psychological characterisation of desire as perverse/normal. Homosexuality
in the west has always been placed on the negative side of these binaries.
Although the discourse attempting to `explain' homosexuality has recently
been transformed, the fundamental notion that it is `problematic' remains.
Modern western homophobia, which `others' same-sex desire onto a small group
of `homosexuals' and asserts that for the majority of `heterosexuals'
homoeroticism is a constitutional impossibility, is the product of a
comparatively recent change in the way sexuality has been configured in the
west.[58] Likewise, the idea that certain sexual acts or desires are
`against nature' is only intelligible in a system where `nature' has been
established according to a designer-realist deity's blue-print or design.
Hence, in our cultural context where homosexual desire has for centuries
been considered sinful, unnatural and a great evil, the experience of
homoerotic desire can be very traumatic for some individuals and severely
limit the potential for same-sex friendship. The Danish sociologist Henning
Bech, for instance, writes of the anxiety which often accompanies developing
intimacy between male friends:
The more one has to assure oneself that one's relationship with another man
is not homosexual, the more conscious one becomes that it might be, and the
more necessary it becomes to protect oneself against it. The result is that
friendship gradually becomes impossible.[59]
The famous Japanese psychologist, Doi Takeo, has commented on the anxieties
many westerners (his examples are drawn from American society) have in
developing same-sex intimacy. Doi argues that a major difference between
western and Japanese society is that in the west, it is relationships
between men and women which are most culturally valued, whereas in Japan it
is relationships between men and between women which are emphasised. He
argues that western men, in particular, have to prove themselves as men
through their ability to court and interact with women. Relationships with
other men are, on the other hand, fraught with anxiety because displaying
too much intimacy with another man invites suspicion of homosexuality. He
therefore identifies western homophobia as a limiting factor stopping men
establishing intimate bonds with other men. Doi[60] argues that `homosexual
feelings' however, are more prevalent in Japan. He says that he doesn't
mean homosexuality in the `narrow sense' but in the case where `emotional
links between members of the same sex take priority over those with the
opposite sex'.[61] These strong emotional bonds are not so much prevalent
among friends (which suggests an equality of relationship) but
superiors/inferiors. He mentions teacher and pupil, senior and junior
members of organisations, and even parents and children of the same sex.
Doi stresses that these desires are quite normal and may continue to be the
most important emotional attachments in a person's life, even after
marriage. The continuing importance in Japan of vertical homosocial bonds
between members of the same sex seems to be a pale reflection in modern
times of the common pattern of erotic friendship between junior and senior
men which took place throughout much of Japan's history and is related to
socialisation patterns in Japanese society which remain much more
sex-segregated than those in the west.
I found Doi's comments interesting as both western feminists[62] and gender
theorists[63] alike have argued that the `death' of male friendship in the
modern era is closely linked with homophobia. As Doi argues, the
prioritisation of opposite-sex relationships and the development of what
Japanese feminist Ueno Chizuko has called the western `couple culture' has
resulted in the modern west in the prioritisation of the marital
relationship and the consequent eclipse of close friendships between men
(and to a lesser extent, between women). Michel Foucault, too, argues that
we live in a world in which relationships have become `impoverished' because
of the over-valuation of family relationships:
We live in a relational world that institutions have considerably
impoverished. Society and the institutions which frame it have limited the
possibility of relationships because a rich relational world would be very
complex to manage...In effect, we live in a legal, social and institutional
world where the only relations possible are extremely few, extremely
simplified, and extremely poor. There is, of course, the fundamental
relation of marriage, and the relations of the family, but how many other
relations should exist...[64]
Unlike these modern theorists, however, as Buddhists we have Buddhist
traditions and approaches to draw upon. Whatever the reasons that have led
to the decline of male (and female) friendship in the west, it is clear that
as Buddhists we are in the unfortunate position of having to reinvent
spiritual friendship in a cultural context where this form of relationship
has been lost. One of the great obstacles that we must work against is the
homophobia resulting from centuries of Christianity's sex-negativism. This
homophobia is not only an obstacle on the psychological level inhibiting
men's attempts to develop close and intimate friendships with other men
(perhaps less of an issue in women's friendships), but also on a societal
level where intimate relationships between members of the same sex are
rendered suspect. If the history of homoeroticism in the Buddhist tradition
of Japan has any relevance to our lives as western Buddhists today, it is to
give us hope that there are other ways of interacting and other criteria for
judging friendships than those currently endorsed.
Jnanavira, Dharmachari. "Homosexuality in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition."
Western Buddhist Review, Volume 3. Journal of the Western Buddhist Order (12
Oct, 2005).
http://www.westernbuddhistreview.com/vol3/homosexuality.html
Your comments and opinions are most welcome, and please do let us know if
you wish your comments to be publicized in this journal.
May you dwell in the joyful home of the way
(Di.t.thadhammasukhavihaaraa)
Jeffrey S, Brooks
the Great Western Vehicle € Mahapacchimayana
PO Box 41795
Tucson, AZ 85717-1795
http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/index.html
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