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**lE3l6Lgn** · 01-04-2012, 09:47 AM

Hope this can be of some help too:

Nyanaponika Thera's introduction to "The Discourse on the Snake Simile" (MN22) has a good commentary about sexual abstention:

For the monk, however, it was expected that the ardor of his quest for the final goal, the serenity of mind and emotional satisfaction derived from meditation, and his relative freedom from external sense titillation — that all these and other factors should enable him to keep the sex urge well in check and his mind tranquil enough for allowing further progress (or at least effort) on the road to radical detachment. He who could not attain to that degree of self-mastery, was free to leave the Order, and no stigma was attached; and he was also free to return whenever he wanted. But inside the Sangha no compromise could be admitted unless the Buddha was to invite disintegration from within and disrepute from without.

MN 22
Moreover, Nyanaponika Thera, gives a footnote (#1) in relation to this subject:

Ari.t.tha, so says Comy being a learned exponent of the Teaching, was quite familiar with most of these "obstructions"; but, being unfamiliar with the Code of Discipline (Vinaya), he conceived the view that sex indulgence was not necessarily an obstruction for a monk. Ari.t.tha is said to have used a rather sophistic argument, saying, "If some of the five sense enjoyments are permissible even for lay adherents who are stream-enterers (sotaapanna), etc., why is an exception made as to the visible shape, voice, touch, etc., of women?" According to Comy, Ari.t.tha goes so far as to charge the Buddha with exaggerating the importance of the first grave offence (paaraajikaa) for a monk (i.e., sexual intercourse), saying that the emphasis given to it is like the effort of one who tries to chain the ocean.
The similes about sense-desires, given in the following section of the discourse, seem to support the commentary reference to sexual intercourse.
It is noteworthy that sexual abstention seems to be a result of a tranquil mind and emotional satisfaction obtained through meditation from where one of the most powerful cravings -sexual intercourse- is transcended.

01-04-2012, 09:47 AM	#3
lE3l6Lgn Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 440 Senior Member	Hope this can be of some help too: Nyanaponika Thera's introduction to "The Discourse on the Snake Simile" (MN22) has a good commentary about sexual abstention: For the monk, however, it was expected that the ardor of his quest for the final goal, the serenity of mind and emotional satisfaction derived from meditation, and his relative freedom from external sense titillation — that all these and other factors should enable him to keep the sex urge well in check and his mind tranquil enough for allowing further progress (or at least effort) on the road to radical detachment. He who could not attain to that degree of self-mastery, was free to leave the Order, and no stigma was attached; and he was also free to return whenever he wanted. But inside the Sangha no compromise could be admitted unless the Buddha was to invite disintegration from within and disrepute from without. MN 22 Moreover, Nyanaponika Thera, gives a footnote (#1) in relation to this subject: Ari.t.tha, so says Comy being a learned exponent of the Teaching, was quite familiar with most of these "obstructions"; but, being unfamiliar with the Code of Discipline (Vinaya), he conceived the view that sex indulgence was not necessarily an obstruction for a monk. Ari.t.tha is said to have used a rather sophistic argument, saying, "If some of the five sense enjoyments are permissible even for lay adherents who are stream-enterers (sotaapanna), etc., why is an exception made as to the visible shape, voice, touch, etc., of women?" According to Comy, Ari.t.tha goes so far as to charge the Buddha with exaggerating the importance of the first grave offence (paaraajikaa) for a monk (i.e., sexual intercourse), saying that the emphasis given to it is like the effort of one who tries to chain the ocean. The similes about sense-desires, given in the following section of the discourse, seem to support the commentary reference to sexual intercourse. It is noteworthy that sexual abstention seems to be a result of a tranquil mind and emotional satisfaction obtained through meditation from where one of the most powerful cravings -sexual intercourse- is transcended.
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