The Seven Bonds of Sexuality (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly translation (Methuna Sutra, AN 7.47)

What does Buddhist philosophy say about sexuality? (Suite101.com)

   

WARNING: These "bonds" are applicable only to monastics and intensive practitioners (such as those on retreat) adopting Eight Precepts, which goes beyond the ordinary Five Precepts.

 

SAVATTHI, ancient India - The Brahmin Jāṇussoṇī approached the Buddha and exchanged greetings with him. When this courteous exchange was concluded, Jāṇussoṇī sat down respectfully at one side and said:

   
“Does the Blessed One profess to be a celibate practitioner (brahmachari)?”

  
“Brahmin,” the Buddha replied, “if rightly speaking one were to say of anyone, ‘He lives the perfect and pure supreme (brahmachari) life, unbroken, untorn, undiluted, spotless,’ he would rightly be speaking of me. For, Brahmin, I live the perfect and pure supreme life, unbroken, untorn, undiluted, spotless.”

  
“But, Master Gautama, what is the break, the tear, the dilution, the blotch of the supreme life?”
 
7 Faults of the False Brahmachari 

Prince Siddhartha prior to his spiritual quest

1. “Herein [within this Dharma], Brahmin, a certain ascetic or Brahmin, declares that he is a real brahmachari. For he does not indulge in sexual intercourse (coupling) with women. But he consents to being rubbed, massaged, bathed, and kneaded by women. He relishes it, longs for it, and savors it. This, Brahmin, is a break, tear, dilution, and a blotch of the supreme life.

  
“This, Brahmin, is called one who leads the impure supreme life, who is devoted to indulging in coupling. He is not freed from birth, decay-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, physical pain, mental pain: He is not freed from disappointment, I say!

2. “Furthermore, Brahmin, a certain ascetic or Brahmin, declares himself to be a total brahmachari. Nor does he indulge in coupling with women. Nor does he consent to being rubbed, massaged, bathed, or kneaded by women. But he jokes with women, plays with them, jests with them. He relishes it, longs for it, and savors it.
   

“This, Brahmin, is a break, tear, dilution, and a blotch of the supreme life. This, Brahmin, is called one who leads the impure supreme life, who is devoted to indulging in coupling. He is not freed from birth, decay-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, physical pain, mental pain: He is not freed from disappointment, I say!

   

Kinnari, beautiful (bird) people (Crorlz/Flickr)

3. “Furthermore, Brahmin, a certain ascetic or Brahmin, declares himself to be a real brahmachari. For he does not indulge in coupling with women. Nor does he consent to being rubbed, massaged, bathed, or kneaded by women. Nor does he joke, play, or jest with women. But he gazes and looks eye to eye at women. He relishes it, longs for it, and savors it.... He is not freed from disappointment, I say!

 
4. “Furthermore, Brahmin, a certain ascetic or Brahmin, declares himself to be a real brahmachari.... But he listens to the sounds of women through a wall or through a fence as they laugh, talk, sing, or weep. He relishes it, longs for it, and savors it.... He is not freed from disappointment, I say!

 
5. “Furthermore, Brahmin, a certain ascetic or Brahmin, declares himself to be a real brahmachari.... But he recollects his former laughing and chatting and playing with women. He relishes it, longs for it, and savors it.... He is not freed from disappointment, I say! 

  

Mara tries to tempt an enlightened nun

6. “Furthermore, Brahmin, a certain ascetic or Brahmin, declares himself to be a real brahmachari.... But he sees a householder or a householder’s son being entertained, showered, and serviced with the cords of sense-pleasures.... He relishes it, longs for it, and savors it.... He is not freed from disappointment, I say!

 
7. “Furthermore, Brahmin, a certain ascetic or Brahmin, declares himself to be a real brahmachari. For he does not indulge in coupling with women. Nor does he consent to being rubbed, massaged, bathed, or kneaded by women. Nor does he joke, play, or jest with women. Nor does he gaze or look eye to eye at women. Nor does he listen to the sounds of women through a wall or through a fence as they laugh, talk, sing, or weep. Nor does he recollect the previous laughing and chatting and playing with women. Nor does he see a householder or a householder’s son being entertained, showered, and serviced with the cords of sense-pleasures. 

 

“But he lives the supreme life aspiring for rebirth among one of the groups of devas (shining ones) thinking, ‘By this observance or vow or austerity or supreme life, I shall become a deva or one [reborn] among them.’ He relishes it, longs for it, and savors it. This, Brahmin, is a break, tear, dilution, and a blotch of the supreme life.

 
“This, Brahmin, is called one who leads the impure supreme life, who is devoted to indulging in coupling. He is not freed from birth, decay-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, physical pain, mental pain: He is not freed from disappointment, I say!”

 
The Buddha has overcome all bonds

Ascetic Siddhartha accepts food from a woman

“And as long as I noticed that one or more of these seven bonds of sexuality were as yet unabandoned by me, to that extent, Brahmin, I did not claim to be supremely awakened in the peerless full enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, brahmas, this generation with its recluses and Brahmins, its rulers, and people.

 
“But, Brahmin, when I did not notice any of these seven bonds of sexuality unabandoned in me, to that extent, Brahmin, I claimed to be supremely awakened in the peerless full enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, brahmas, this generation with its recluses and brahmins, its rulers and people.

“And the knowledge and vision arose in me, ‘Unshakable is this liberation of mind/heart. This is my last birth. There is no more rebirth to come.’”

   
Jāṇussoṇī goes for guidance

When this was spoken, the Brahmin Jāṇussoṇī said this to the Buddha: “Excellent, Master Gautama! Excellent! Master Gautama! It is just as if one were to set upright what had been overturned, or were to reveal what was hidden, or were to show the way to one who was lost, or were to hold up a lamp in the dark so that those with eyes could discern forms. In just the same way, by numerous examples, has the Dharma been made clear by Master Gautama.

  
“I go to Master Gautama for guidance and to the Dharma and to the community of [accomplished] disciples. May Master Gautama remember us as lay followers who have gone for guidance from this day forward as long as life shall last.”

Kinnaras (Flying Men) Landing

Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy demonstrates his jet-powered wing during a test flight in May 2008. Rossy -- who calls himself "Fusion Man" — landed in Britain after crossing the English Channel from France using only his a jet-powered wing (AFP/File/Fabrice Coffrini).

Icon of Garuda, Srirangapattana Temple artifact, Karnataka, India (© Vikas Kamat has compiled a fascinating array of pictures depicting the man-bird Garuda in Indian Art).

Garudas, Suparnas, and Kinnaras are half-men, half-bird hybrids. These chimeras were said to live north of India. With the ability to fly, there is a suggestion of Aryan (modern Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, upper-Indus Valley civilization) being influenced by extraterrestrial sources — sufficiently technologically advanced to fly.

The Vedas were reporting flying craft (vimana) thousands of years ago [as previously covered by WQ]. Whether utilizing jetpacks, wings, or hybrid biology, human flight were known even by the time of the Buddha (twenty-five centuries ago), and many canonical references are made to them. The Kinnaras inhabit their own kingdom.

Have such things — chimeras or the technology for individual flight — ever existed? Do they exist now? (Yes, we have video). Would it even be genetically possible to sprout wings? (They were for this modern cat).

Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy, seen here flying in May 2008, propelled by a jet-powered wing strapped to his back, an aide said (AFP/File/Fabrice Coffrini).

Swiss man flies over Channel on jet wing

David Stringer (AP)

DOVER, England — A Swiss daredevil crossed the English Channel strapped to a homemade jet-propelled wing Friday, parachuting into a field near the white cliffs of Dover after a 10-minute solo flight.

Yves Rossy leapt from a plane at more than 8,800 feet, fired up his jets, and made the 22-mile trip from Calais in France. Rossy passed over a thin strip of land in front of South Foreland lighthouse, looped over onlookers, and opened his parachute, his wings still strapped to his back.

"It was perfect. Blue sky, sunny, no clouds, perfect conditions," he said. "We prepared everything and it was great."

The trip across the Channel is meant to trace the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot, the first person to cross in an airplane 99 years ago. The lighthouse was the site of Guglielmo Marconi's experiments with radio telegraphy in 1898. Bleriot used the white building as a target during his pioneering flight, the building's manager, Simon Ovenden, said.

Several hundred spectators rushed to greet the pilot, trying to take photographs with cameras and cell phones. "It's a remarkable achievement, we saw the climax of his attempt as he came down to earth with his parachute. It's been an exciting afternoon," said Geoff Clark, a 54-year-old onlooker from Chatham, in Kent.

The carbon composite-wing weighs about 121 pounds when loaded with fuel, and carried four kerosene-burning jet turbines that kept him aloft. The wing had no steering devices. Instead, Rossy moved his body to control its movements.

He wore a heat-resistant suit similar to that worn by firefighters and racing drivers to protect him from the heat of the turbines. The cooling effect of the wind and high altitude also prevented him from getting too hot. Mark Dale, the senior technical officer for the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, described Rossy's flight as a "fabulous stunt."

Yves Rossy parachutes in to land, after crossing the English channel with a jetpack, in Dover, southern England 9/26/08 (Reuters/Kieran Doherty).

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The Mythological Story of Garuda

Jyotsna Kamat Ph.D. (Bangalore, India)

According to the Hindu Puranas, Garuda is the son of the sage Kashyapa [Kassapa] and Vinata. His elder brother is Aruna, the charioteer of Sun god Surya. Vinata and her sister Kadru once saw the heavenly horse Uchhaisravas grazing near the seashore. Vinata said it was a pure white steed. Kadru insisted that its tail was black. They went on arguing until Kadru suggested that they come the next day and check again. Whoever was incorrect would have to become the slave of the other.

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Finding that her observation was incorrect, Kadru with her son Karkota's help, painted Uchhaishrava's tail black. And poor Vinata became her slave. When Garuda, also the son of a slave, had to serve Kadru and her sons, who were serpents (nagas), he was very much annoyed. He approached Kadru and asked how he and his mother could be liberated. She told him that the only way was to bring nectar (Amrita) from the land of "gods" (devas). With the blessings of his father, Garuda set off for the celestial realm of the gods.

After reaching that world, Garuda fought the guards who kept a vigil on the pot of nectar and crossed the hurdles of various weapons. Lord Indra had also come to recover the nectar of immortality. Garuda faced him fearlessly. Pleased with his valor, Indra allowed him to take the Amrita-kalasha (pot of nectar) but warned that the serpents should not have access to it.

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He also blessed him that he would have a diet of serpents. Garuda flew back and placed the nectar pot before Kadru, who wanted her progeny to become immortal. She ordered them to have a bath before having a drink of the nectar. When the reptiles [Reptilians] left to bathe, Indra appeared and carried the pot back to heaven. When the serpents returned there was no nectar. They tried to lick the drops fallen on grass, which split their tongues.

Thereafter Garuda flew to freedom with his mother and later became the vehicle of Lord Vishnu. Garuda (Indian eagle) is never seen eating carrion as vultures do but is supposed a clean bird. Known for speed, it flies very high in the sky. It became a symbol of courage, faithfulness, and unflinching duty. There are many sacred places named after Garuda. Suparna (with prettier wings) is another popular name of this mighty anthropomorphic bird. Source

Are the Various Realms Real?

The Wheel of Existence depicting Buddhist cosmology (Arrow River Hermitage)

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The historical Buddha taught that there were 31 Realms of Existence, which proficient meditators are able to access and verify. This is a simplified cosmology, of course, because each plane is more complex and diverse than any map could easily indicate. For example, the Human plane we are all familiar with is interspersed with invisible worlds we know little about.

Within this apparently straightforward realm, there are invisible microscopic worlds, worlds under the sea (with sea-serpents and sea-nymphs), anthropomorphic bird beings (garudas), the incomprehensibly complex animal world (ticcharana), the realm of hungry ghosts (petas), serpents/reptilians (nagas), goblins (yakkhas), and light beings (bhumi-devas or dryads), and sycophantic angels (gandhabbas). From time to time, the world is visited by extraterrestrials (asuras) and even gods (brahmas) and demigods (devas) and miserable demons (rakshasas and maras).

The Buddha consulting with brahmas ("gods"). More IMAGES of the Buddha and other beings

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Humans themselves are not one thing but rather live such different lives that a visitor from outer space would probably not recognize one as being the same species as the other or as any different from primates (including yetis and ogres). The questions runner deeper than Homo sapiens. Are there other genetic lines, or what exactly are kinnaras, suparnas, dakinis, rakshasas, rudras, and bhutas?

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What are the three dominant types of non-human beings the Buddha repeatedly makes reference to when speaking of this world "with its devas and maras and brahmas" from his very first sermon (Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Truth) onward (SN 56.11; SN LVI 11, etc.).

(For a general discussion of these beings, see Wikipedia "Kinnara Kingdom" or "cryptozoology").

The complexity of the world Buddhism lays out boggles the mind, except that the mind chooses to dismiss this cosmology as mythical, arcane, or simply the product of a superstitious and unscientific Indian cultural inheritance. As for the existence of "mermaids" (sea devas), just to reference one example, one would need to explain away the Buddha's chief disciple Maha Mogallana's declaration:

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"In the middle of the ocean

There are mansions aeon-lasting,

Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming

With a clear translucent lustre,

Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance

In complex, intricate rhythms"

(MN 50.25, Nanamoli/Bodhi translation).

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Naturally, the question arises from time to time:

Are the various realms real?

Arrow River Forest Hermitage

This question, although natural enough, is hopelessly naive. Before we can even begin to answer it we need to get some inkling of what exactly "reality" is anyway. And that is far from a straightforward question.

We could turn this question on its head and ask just how real is this familiar human realm we live in? It is a plain fact that everything we know and experience is a product of our sense organs. We never know the external world itself, but only our fabricated image of it, built up by the mind from incoming sense data. The ultimately real remains an elusive abstraction.

Some writers have tried to explain away the various realms as purely psychological states. There may be some truth to this, so long as we are consistent enough to include the present "reality" as well. It is certainly true that we can access heavenly and hellish mind-states while in the human form. But that does not at all preclude the possibility of arising after death into a more intense and inclusive form of those states.

To deny categorically the possibility of heaven and hell being, in some sense at least, real, is to be very narrow-minded. Who can say what possibilities exist within the universe? Why should the limit of the familiar be the limit of the real?

Finally, it should be noted that the Buddha himself was quite clear on this question.

Since there actually is another world, one who holds the view "there is another world" has right view (MN 60). It is known to me to be the case, that there are gods (MN 100). There can be no doubt of the sense in which the Buddha taught about karma, rebirth and the various realms.

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The Goddess Ambika leading the eight Mother Goddesses in battle against the Demon Raktabija, folio from Devimahatmya (Glory of the Goddess), early 18th century book/manuscript (Indian history as mythology),

UFOs in Buddhist perspective

Six silvery saucer shaped objects are found in this artwork from a Buddhist temple in Dharamsala (home of the Dalai Lama), Himachal Pradesh, India.

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UPDATE (July 30, 2008): AP reports "Lake found on Titan, a moon of Saturn"

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Extraterrestrials are consistent with Buddhist cosmology. Moreover, other intelligent beings certainly exist.

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Not only are there unseen beings on this planet, benevolent and otherwise, there are celestial beings on various planes, in other "world systems," on other planets. Rebirth in those worlds may take place according to one's karma. It is clear that, from Buddhist accounts, this world and intelligent, bipedal life is far older than accepted archeology admits of. Finally, there are ordinary beings historically who seem to be of extraterrestrial origin (e.g., kinnaras).

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Kinnaras

In Sanskrit kinnara refers to the inhabitants of the Kinnara planet; a kind of gandharvah—inhabitants of various planets...(www.vedabase.net/k/kinnara).

In Buddhist mythology and Hindu mythology, Kinnara are paradigmatic lovers, celestial musicians, half-human and half-bird. Their character is clarified in the Adi parva of the Mahabharata, where they say: "...Never do we become mother and father. No offspring is seen in our lap. We are lover and beloved ever-embracing. In between us we do not permit any third creature demanding affection. Our life is a life of perpetual pleasure." They are also featured in a number of Buddhist texts, including the Lotus Sutra.

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In Southeast Asian mythology, Kinnaris, the female counterpart of Kinnaras, are depicted as half-bird, half-woman creatures. One of the many creatures that inhabit the mythical Himavanta, Kinnaris have the head, torso, and arms of a woman and the wings, tail, and feet of a swan. She is renowned for her dance, song, and poetry, and is a traditional symbol of feminine beauty, grace, and accomplishment. (Source: Wikipedia Kinnara entry). Similarly, there are garudas, suparnas, devas, nagas, asuras, and rudras—all of whom might be regarded as ETs in today's terminology.

All that having been said, these recent reports may be regarded as good news:

• Former astronaut is accusing NASA of massive cover up. (Reuters 7/29/08)
• Vietnam reports UFO explosion. (Reuters, 5/28/08)
• American Buddhist Net reports UFO police chase. (American Buddhist, 6/22/08)
• Larry King: UFOs have interfered with nuclear missles. (CNN, 7/28/08)