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Tilakkhana

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    Gays, Marriage & Buddhism

    in Buddhism

    Posted

    (p.s. to Tittakhana, url posting is restricted for new members- keep posting and you will gain access; however, please be advised that forum rules restrict many types of urls, so be careful)

    Ok, thank's for the info :o I just wanted to post the url for Ajahn Brahm's Letter to Dalai Lama... It's always good to mention the sources.

    T.

    Gays, Marriage & Buddhism

    in Buddhism

    Posted

    Well, the Dalai Lama IS NOT the "world-revered leader of millions of Buddhists" but the leader of the Vajrayana Buddhism, i.e. Buddhist branch practised in Tibet. As this is Thai forum perhaps it could be more meaningful to read what a Theravada Bhikkhu could say on this topic and here you can read Ven. Ajahn Brahmavamso's (and Theravada Buddhism's) point of view:

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    The Dalai Lama was out of line when he said (according to your article in the West, April 15, Page 7) "if you are a Buddhist, homosexuality is wrong. Full stop." The Dalai Lama is not the 'Pope' of Buddhism and, charming as he often is, he sometimes gets it wrong. He is only the head of one of the four main sects of Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) and he speaks only for his group.

    The greater majority of Buddhists throughout the modern world are inspired to learn that the Buddha certainly did not discriminate against homosexuality. The core teachings of original Buddhism clearly show that it is not whether one is heterosexual, homosexual or celibate that is good or bad, but it is how a person uses their sexual orientation that makes for good or bad karma. For example a gay man in a committed, loving and joyful relationship with a male partner is definitely morally superior to a straight married guy who is unfaithful to his wife. Homosexuality is not wrong per se. However, it is bad karma to condemn homosexuality out of hand!

    The Dalai Lama's error is to look for his guidance in dodgy scriptures composed many centuries after the time of the Buddha. So the fact is that the Buddha, and therefore Buddhism, embraces gays and lesbians and transexuals with equity and respect. Too long has religious bigotry caused suffering to minority groups in our society. All religions should be more loving. Full stop!

    Ajahn Brahm

    Abbot of Bodhinyana Buddhist Monastery

    Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia"

    Ps: Why aren't I allowed to post a URL in this forum? :o

    T.

    Gays, Marriage & Buddhism

    in Buddhism

    Posted

    The reading i have done suggests that gays are born that way because they are suffering the karmic results of having broken the third precept in the past.

    The normal family unit produces a comfortable continuity to the rearing of children and having them around to take care of us when we are old,

    Gays will be missing out on this cycle. They are advised to practice Vipassana meditation to try and reduce their karma ..... as should everyone.

    I have read somewhere that some scriptures suggest a gay person cannot attain the fruits of Sotapannahood.

    Well, I can tell you that I know a number of 'normal' families where the parents don't get along with their children whatsoever... And we all know that there are many heterosexual parents living their last days abandoned in institutions / old people's homes. On the other side, there are many homosexual people with biological or adopted children so this reason you give us is not good enough :o

    It's true that we all are the products of our kamma (either being gay / heterosexual / black / poor / rich / ... ) that's why we all should practice Vipassana Meditation to reduce our kamma.

    T.

    Budda V Jesus

    in Buddhism

    Posted

    I once read an article showing the many changes, modifications and omissions the bible has been through. One of the passages or doctrines they (the Church / Power) decided to remove during one the their councils had to do with the idea of reincarnation. I have search on Google and found this other article:

    http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/reincar/re-imo.htm

    "Actually, the idea is found in the oldest traditions of Western civilization, as well as being taught throughout the ancient Near East and Orient. And there is solid evidence that during its first centuries, Christianity did indeed impart what it had learned about the pre-existence of souls and their reimbodiment.Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived during most of the first century AD, records in his Jewish War
    (3, 8, 5) and in his Antiquities of the Jews (18, 1, 3)
    that reincarnation was taught widely in his day, while his contemporary in Alexandria, Philo Judaeus, in various of his writings, also refers to reimbodiment in one or another form. Moreover, there are passages of the New Testament that can be understood only if seen against the background of pre-existence of souls as a generally held belief. For instance, Matthew
    (16:13-14) records that when Jesus asked his disciples "Whom do men say that I am?" they replied that some people said he was John the Baptist (who had been executed only a few years before the question was asked). Others thought he was Elijah, or Jeremiah, or another of the prophets. Later in Matthew
    (17:13), far from rejecting the concept of rebirth Jesus tells his disciples that John the Baptist was Elijah.

    John
    (9:2-4) reports that the disciples asked Jesus whether a blindman had sinned or his parents that he had been
    born
    blind. Jesus replied that it was in order that the works of God may be made manifest in the blind man, that is, that the law of cause and effect might be fulfilled. Or, as St. Paul phrased the thought: we reap what we sow. The blind man could not have sown the seeds of his blindness in his present body, but must have done so in a previous lifetime.

    The earliest Christians, especially those who were members of one or other of the Gnostic sects, such as the Valentinians, Ophites and Ebionites, included reimbodiment among their important teachings. For them it enabled fulfillment of the law -- karma -- as well as providing the means for the soul to purify itself from the muddy qualities resulting from its immersion in matter and the egoism we have developed in the first stages of our journey through earth life.

    After the original generations of Christians, we find the early Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr (AD 100-l65), St. Clement of Alexandria ( AD 150-220), and Origen ( AD 185-254) teaching the pre-existence of souls, taking up reincarnation or one or another aspect of reimbodiment. Examples are scattered through Origen's works, especially Contra Celsum
    (1, xxxii), where he asks: "Is it not rational that souls should be introduced into bodies, in accordance with their merits and previous deeds . . . ?" And in De Principiis
    he says that "the soul has neither beginning nor end." St. Jerome (AD 340-420), translator of the Latin version of the Bible known as the Vulgate
    ,
    in his Letter to Demetrias
    (a Roman matron), states that some Christian sects in his day taught a form of reincarnation as an esoteric doctrine, imparting it to a few "as a traditional truth which was not to be divulged."

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