Sex In The Scriptures

[camerata]

I was a bit surprised to find this episode in a book I'm reading. Mallika was the beautiful daughter of a garland-maker in the time of the Buddha. After giving alms to the Buddha, she was noticed by the king, who took her as his wife. She became a pious and very famous lay disciple of the Buddha and had many excellent rebirths. According to the Dhammapada Commentary, though, there was just one incident which caused her to be reborn in a hel_l realm (but only for seven days). One day she was drying herself after bathing and her pet dog mounted her from behind. Apparently she let the dog have its way and the king happened to see the incident, which is presumably how the story got out.

Frankly, I think this tells us more about the writer of the Dhammapada Commentary than about Mallika herself.

[thaibebop]

I think you're right. I don't know what that story has to do with anything.

[OldSarge]

There is considerably more and more explicit sexual depiction and description in the folklore of the East than there will ever be in the West. That includes religious imagery and folk tales etc which have accumulated around all of the religions of the East. See, for instance, the older version of the story H.M. the King graciously sponsored and translated into English just a few years ago. I have forgotten the name of it, but the older version was considerably "sexier" by Western standards than the more recent version. Read the Ramakien in various translations and pay close attention to the actions of Hanuman.

The West's cultural expressions have been considerably restricted as to sexual depictions both in words and pictures by the Christian element in our culture. Note that mention is seldom made of the "sexy" parts of the Christian Bible, but I refer you to the Song of Solomon and the tale of Lot, with particular attention to what happened after the destruction of the city of Sodom and his wife's being turned into a pillar of salt, just for two instances. Read earlier editions of the "Brothers Grimm" and "Mother Goose", etc, as well as the more traditional "fairy tales", those which were published prior to about 1890 give or take were considerably more blunt than the "bowlderised" editions of later years. Read Sir Richard Burton's "Arabian Nights" in the first edition. It has been largely within the last 120 years, in Europe and perhaps since the Great Revival in the 1830's, in the U.S. that those "sexy" parts of traditional tales and stories have been supressed as being "not healthy" or "dreadfully sinful" or something like that. And, of course, Christianity itself doesn't think well of sex, in general and that distaste on the part of the Roman Church's heirarchy shows over the centuries .. not in their own behavior except in the last 200 or so years, but in what they "allow" to the laity. And do remember what the Victorians - both in America and Britain - thought about sex: if we just ignore it, it will go away. Rather like late 20th Century Americans about war, eh?

So, in short, it is hardly surprising that such content is contained in stories in and around the Buddhist tradition; nearly every other religion in the world has them, apart from Islam and Christianity; and to be honest, I haven't read the Quran thoroughly so there may be what our British friends call "juicy bits" in there as well. And what those parts have to do with the stories is fairly simple: it is in part "realism" so that the readers will understand that the persons were in fact human and, in part, they are re-tellings of traditional morality tales complete with the "nasty stuff", as moderns might characterize it.

Edited May 24, 2006 by OldSarge

[bankei]

There are plenty of similar stories like that, especially in relation to the discussion of the vinaya. This is probably a natural progression of case law, as a monk having sex is a very serious issue, so just what consitutes sex would need to be established.

Some of the stories include

- The monk with the subtle neck (ie he could bend forward far enough)

- The monk with the long penis who can insert it in his own anus

- The monk asleep with an erection who is ridden by several village woman while asleep (not an offence as he didn't know!)

- The monks who trained a monkey

- Having sex with a corpse, or part of a corpse

Interesting stuff

Bankei