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by
Uwe Siemon-Netto
UPI Religion Correspondent
July 2002
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Sex between clergymen
and boys is by no means a uniquely Catholic phenomenon, a noted American
scholar said Wednesday -- it's been going on in Buddhist monasteries in
Asia for centuries.
"Of course, this is against the Buddhist
canon," Leonard Zwilling of the University of Wisconsin in Madison told
United Press International, "but it has been common in Tibet, China, Japan
and elsewhere."
"In fact, when the Jesuits arrived in China
and Japan in the 16th century, they were horrified by the formalized
relationships between Buddhist monks and novices who were still children.
These relationships clearly broke the celibacy rule," said Zwilling, who
has written extensively about this topic for more than three decades, and
was one of the first to do so.
Zwilling, who holds a doctoral degree in
Buddhist studies said in a telephone interview this practice continued
until well into 20th century.
Although the Buddha clearly proscribed sex
of any kind in monasteries, "we know of incidents where members of the
Bob-Dob, an order enforcing discipline among Tibetan monks, fought each
other over boys," continued Zwilling.
"They clobbered each other with huge keys
that were the tools of their trade. We also know that generations of Dalai
Lamas had their 'favorites,' although we have no proof that these
relationships were sexual."
Other studies show that Buddhist monks in
Japan practiced a non-sexual form of "pedophilia" as long ago as the 10th
century, according to Minnesota-based Ralph Underwager, a pastor,
psychologist and one of the world's leading experts on child abuse.
In an interview with Paidika, a scholarly
journal specializing in the phenomenon, Underwager and his associate
Hollida Wakefield pointed out that "the concept of Platonic love as an
asexual affection is describing pedophilia."
Underwager and Wakefield explained that the
Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Aristotle, the playwright
Aristophanes and the statesman-soldier Alcibiades "all claimed that love
motivated pedophilia."
But if they did, it wasn't in the sense of
sex.
According to Zwilling, monks having engaged
in "sex with penetration and ejaculation" face expulsion from the Sangha,
the monastic order that along with the Buddha and the Dharma (teaching) is
part of Buddhism's three-fold refuge.
"This is true whether a monk has broken his
vow of chastity with a woman, a man or a child," Zwilling said. "The
punishment will be less severe if there were no penetration or
ejaculation."
In that case, the offender would only be
disciplined, perhaps demoted in rank, but not evicted from the monastery,
the scholar explained.
"Actually, pedophilia is hardly mentioned
in Buddhism's canonical writings," he went on. "I have only come across
one passage describing the fate of a man who loved boys. He went to hell
and came to a river filled with acid -- and boys swimming it. They were in
agony.
"Out of his love for the children, the man
jumped in -- and had to suffer their pain."
Peter A. Jackson, a renowned Australian
researcher on Buddhism, has pointed out that in this faith all forms of
sexuality and desire must be transcended in order to attain the religious
goal of the extinction of suffering.
Citing the Vinaya, Theravada Buddhism's
monastic code of conduct, Jackson wrote, "Whichever monk has sexual
intercourse is ... a defeated one, and will not find communion (in the
Sangha)."
The Vinaya is very explicit in condemning
sexual misconduct, including auto-sodomy (one of its chapters is titled,
"The Case of the Monk with a Long Penis").
It does not single out homosexuality, though, which is treated as a third
gender in ancient Buddhist writings, said Zwilling.
However, the Vinaya does relate that
already some 2,500 years ago, the outrageous behavior of one "pandaka"
(homosexual, in Pali, the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism), has
prompted the Buddha to ban the ordination of such men.
The story reads thus:
"The pandaka had been ordained in a
residence of monks. He went to the young monks and encouraged them thus,
'Come all of you and assault me.'
"The monks spoke aggressively, 'Pandaka,
you will surely be ... spiritually destroyed. Of what benefit will it be?"
...
He went to some large, stout novices and
encouraged them thus, 'Come all of you and assault me.'
The novices spoke, 'Pandaka, you will
surely be destroyed. Of what benefit will it be?'
"The pandaka then went to men who tend
elephants and horses and spoke to them thus. 'Come all of you and assault
me.' The men who tend elephants and horses assaulted him.
"The Blessed One then ordered the monks,
'Behold monks, a pandaka is one who is not to be ordained, ... and (pandakas)
who have already been ordained must be made to disrobe.'"
According to Zwilling, homosexual behavior
may not land a Buddhist layman in hell. That kind of fate is reserved for
adulterers and rapists. On the other hand, a homosexual orientation is an
extended form of punishment for those who in a previous life have
committed such sins.
Prasok, a celebrated Thai newspaper
columnist writing on Buddhism, related that this was the fate of the
Buddha's personal attendant, Phra Ananda.
Wrote Prasok, "The reason he was born a
kathoey (Thai for homosexual) was because in a previous life he had
committed the sin of adultery. This led him to stew in hell for tens of
thousands of years.
"After he was freed from hell, a portion of
his old karma still remained and led him to being reborn as kathoey for
many hundreds of lives."
While this may sound a rather severe
punishment for a sexual transgression, Buddhism may have something even
worse in store for an unfaithful husband, Zwilling told UPI: "He could be
reborn as a woman."
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