Bibliography
Gethin, Rupert. The Foundations of Buddhism.Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
Matsunaga, Daigan, and Matsunaga, Alicia. The Buddhist Con-
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Sadakata, Akira, et al. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Ori-
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DANIELA. GETZSEXUALITY
From the earliest beginnings of the religion, Buddhist
thinkers have recognized the human drive for sensual
gratification as an extremely powerful force. This
recognition, however, is difficult to characterize. While
sexuality has usually been viewed suspiciously, as a pri-
mary obstacle on the PATHto salvation, some Bud-
dhists have claimed that, used properly, desire and
pleasure can offer a shortcut to enlightenment for the
advanced practitioner. Also, since laypeople have al-
ways been an essential part of the Buddhist commu-
nity, fertility cults embracing a fecund sexuality have
played an important part in the repertoire of ritual and
iconography.
This entry outlines the tension in Buddhism be-
tween antipathy toward sex and the celebration of it.
As a religious tradition that has spread widely to di-
verse geographical regions over the course of some two
and a half millennia, Buddhism cannot be said to have
one fixed view of sex and sexuality. While it is impos-
sible to delineate a single Buddhist attitude regarding
sexuality, one can observe in specific doctrinal and his-
torical moments tendencies typical of the tradition as
a whole.
The celibate ideal: Buddha, arhat, monk,
and nun
Hagiographies of the Buddha, in their treatment of his
early years as the prince Siddhartha Gautama, place
great emphasis on the sensual nature of his royal
amusements. Having received a prophecy that the
prince would either become a universal monarch or a
great renunciant, Siddhartha’s father, King S ́ud-
dhodana, uses every means at his disposal to keep his
son’s mind firmly focused on the pleasures of this
world. Essentially, the young man is held prisoner in
a garden of earthly delights. With sumptuous palaces
and a large harem, Siddhartha has every opportunity
to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. The women of
celestial beauty who dote on the young prince, fore-
most among them his lovely wife, Yas ́odhara, are quite
prominently featured. Lavish gyneceum scenes are de-
picted in the written, illustrated, and carved biograph-
ical representations of the Buddha’s life. Every libidinal
urge he may have is gratified immediately. And yet, he
feels malaise in this paradisiacal setting.
Life in the palace compound is cloying and confin-
ing, so Siddhartha asks his charioteer to take him on
a tour outside the gates. There he sees various signs of
impermanence, which further disturb him, and he de-
cides to leave his life of royal ease and with it the world
of sexuality. As the prince escapes the palace by night,
he sees his women, usually so poised and bewitching,
sleeping in various states of dishevelment. Like so
many corpses they lie, their poses wholly unflattering,
threads of drool hang from the corners of their lolling
mouths. The sight fills him with disgust as he beats a
hasty retreat. After years of hard work in mental, spir-
itual, and physical cultivation, Siddhartha finds him-
self on the verge of enlightenment. MARA, wishing to
entice Siddhartha from the fulfillment of his aim, sends
his daughters to tempt the great man. Although they
are beautiful as they dance provocatively and flirt with
him, Siddhartha is unmoved. Even after the women
undergo a series of transformations in an attempt to
accord with a full range of male tastes in women, Sid-
dhartha remains steadfast in his pursuit of the goal of
enlightenment.
Vulnerability to sexual temptation remains a
barometer of spiritual fallibility in the Buddhist tradi-
tion far beyond this foundational story. Some accounts
suggest that the first schism in the Buddhist monastic
community was occasioned in large part by a debate
concerning the nature of the enlightened person, the
ARHAT. In the course of the debate, a monk named
Mahadeva proposed that arhats are limited in their
powers of omniscience, clairvoyance, and continence.
Among the five assertions this monk made is that al-
though the arhat has put an end to rebirth, escaping
the round of SAMSARA, he is still subject to nocturnal
emissions or so-called wet dreams. To make such a
claim was to suggest that the perfected person was still
subject to lustful thoughts, if only in his dreams. For
some members of the community, this was heresy.
Similarly, the story of the One-Horned Saint, a tale well
known in Buddhist Asia from India to Japan, describes
a religious virtuoso who has obtained many magical
powers (abhijña) as a result of his training and aus-
terities. While flying through the air one day, he isSEXUALITY