celibacy
means for its release, whereas the self animates, guides, and supports the
body. The basic difference between the self and body is that the former
is eternal and the latter is perishable. Moreover, the body and self, for
Rāmānuja, are modes of God and constitute the body of God, who ani-
mates and sustains the body and self.
In spite of the tendency during the formative development of Buddhism
to view the body as impermanent, impure, and foul, another positive view
of the body is offered within the Buddhist tradition in medieval Japan by
the Zen master Dōgen, who views the body in a non-dualistic way,
enabling him to equate the body with items of nature, such as trees, grass,
wind, rain, water, and fire. Humans are separated from the world by their
bodies. In fact, no one can be absolutely certain where one’s body ends
and where precisely the world begins, and vice versa. Dōgen does not
reject the body, but rather he says that we quest with our bodies, and we
attain liberation with our bodies. Moreover, consciousness and the body
penetrate each other and are inextricably interwoven, with the body form-
ing the ground for the evolving of consciousness. The body is also iden-
tical to time and the Buddha-nature.
Further reading: Deleuze and Guattari (1983, 1988); Derrida (1978); Dōgon
(2007); Douglas (1966); Foucault (1978); Lakoff and Johnson (1999); Levinas
(1998); Merleau-Ponty (1962); Rāmānuja (1971); Shilling (2005)
CELIBACY
As a practice of refraining from sexual relations, celibacy can be found
cross-culturally in religious traditions. From a Western context, celibacy
originates from the Latin term caelebs, which means “alone or single.”
The Latin meaning is a bit misleading because it is possible to be celibate
and live in a community with other celibates, although uniformly of the
same gender. In Hinduism, celibacy is called brahmacarya, which is
practiced by ascetics and students (brahmacārin) studying the sacred lit-
erature. Since the terms celibacy and student come from the same Sanskrit
root, this suggests that celibacy is practically synonymous with being a
student. A vow of celibacy is essential for a Buddhist monk or nun
because its practice is part of a regimen to control and conquer sensual
desire by refraining from heterosexual, homosexual, or lesbian relation-
ships, whereas engaging in sexual relations increases a person’s desires,
which Buddhists recognize as self-defeating. Other religious traditions,
such as Judaism, Islam, Chinese religions with the exception of Buddhism,