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Tolerance toward homosexuality
Buddha taught that, given the workings of the laws of kamma, individuals can be born with a number of characteristics and predispositions, including beauty, intelligence, artistic ability, eye-color, skin tone, and sexual orientation.
We know that he recognized homosexuality, for it is explicitly mentioned in the Vinaya, the code of discipline he laid down for monks and nuns. For them, all sexual activity--between sexes, with the same sex, or with oneself--is strictly prohibited. Serious offenses result of in expulsion from the order. Lesser offenses must be confessed before the monastic community but do not require expulsion.
Buddhist literature includes a story of a man (married and with children) who became a woman, married, bore more children, and then became a man again. After all these dramatic experiences, he foreswore the homelife, became a celibate monk, and attained arahatship.
Of course, lay Buddhists are not required to be celibate, but all Buddhists voluntarily undertake the Five Precepts, the Third of which is to abstain from sexual misconduct.
Buddhist ethics, which are based on compassion, suggest three criteria for determining what is right and wrong. All thought, word, and deed can be measured against these criteria to determine whether it is wholesome or unwholesome.
According to the first principle, we should act toward others as we would like them to act towards us. In the Samyutta Nikāya Buddha advises against adultery:
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A noble disciple should reflect like this: "If someone were to have sexual intercourse with my spouse I would not like it. Likewise, if I were to have sexual intercourse with another's spouse they would not like that. For what is unpleasant to me must be unpleasant to another, and how could I burden someone with that?" As a result of such reflection one abstains from wrong sexual desire, encourages others to abstain from it, and speaks in praise of such abstinence. |
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The second principle concerns the consequences or effects of an act. Any behavior which causes harm to oneself and others can be called blameworthy, while any behavior that causes no harm to (and perhaps even helps) oneself and others can be called praiseworthy. "The deed which causes remorse afterwards and results in weeping and tears is ill-done. The deed which causes no remorse afterwards and results in joy and happiness is well-done." (Dhammapada)
According to the third principle, behavior can be considered right or wrong depending on whether or not it helps us to advance toward our goal. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is Nibbana, the ending of suffering, a state of mental peace and purity. For Buddhism, anything that leads us in that direction is good. Someone once asked the Buddha how after his death it would be possible to know what was and was not his authentic teaching, and he replied:
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The doctrines of which you can say: "These doctrines do not lead to letting go, giving up, stilling, calming, higher knowledge, awakening or to Nibbana"-- you can be certain that they are not Dhamma, nor discipline, nor the word of the Teacher. But the doctrines of which you can say: "These doctrines lead to letting go, giving up, stilling, calming, higher knowledge, awakening and to Nibbana"-- you can be certain that they are Dhamma, they are discipline, they are the words of the Teacher.
--Anguttara Nikaya
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The Buddha specifically mentions several types of unskillful sexual behavior for laypeople. The most common is adultery, which involves deceit and a betrayal of trust. Since homosexuality is never explicitly mentioned in any of the Buddha's discourses, we must assume that it is meant to be considered in the same way that heterosexuality is. Wherever there is mutual consent, where no adultery is involved, there is no violation of the third precept. In Buddhism it is not the object of one's sexual desire that determines whether a sexual act is unskillful or not, but rather the quality of the emotions, the consequences, and the intentions involved.*
* For a more complete discussion of this topic, see "Homosexuality and Theravada Buddhism," by A. L. De Silva, at <www.buddhanet.net/homosexu.htm>, from which most of this section has been taken. |
