[itititit]

@Kaarine: Ooops! I made a mistake. When I wrote "They distract", I should have written "It distracts", by which I mean the attachment, not the experiences. Sorry!

@Element: That's a good way to look at it, I think. When I read the Vinaya suttas, it's very clear that the Buddha wasn't proclaiming by fiat some heavenly decree. Instead, he made the Vinaya rules as responses to problems that arose either within the Sangha or between the Sangha and the lay people. That is, the rules arose out of pragmatism, not moralism, and I think it's most consistent to look at his advice to laypeople in the same light. Cheers!