What's Buddhism point of view about LGBT and same sex marriage?

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anhphan

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I see that Buddhist teachings don’t tell us much about LGBT and Buddha didn’t have a clear view on LGBT.
 
Does Buddhism address sexual ethics at all?

I thought it was more about detachment from the world rather than moral theology,
 
Due to your post I’ve dug around a bit on the subject and it seems that early Buddhists did not address the matter of homosexuality.
 
Since buddhism isn’t really a religion in the same sense a Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc it would make sense that they might not really go into that kind of morality.
 
I’ve skimmed through Wikipedia (not the most reliable source, I admit) and it seems that the Jesuit fathers in China and Japan found homosexual activity to be rampant amongst Buddhist monks- they decried the situation as deplorable.
 
Although I’m not especially familiar with Buddhist teaching on homosexual acts, Buddhism certainly does address morality. The Noble Eightfold Path, which is an essential aspect of Buddhist teachings, addresses several aspects of morality.
 
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anhphan said:
I see that Buddhist teachings don’t tell us much about LGBT and Buddha didn’t have a clear view on LGBT.
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As with most religions, the conservative wing of Buddhism is against LGBT while the liberal wing allows it. You can find both opinions if you look.

The Buddha, like Jesus, never performed a marriage. He left marriage laws to the local rulers and marriage ceremonies to the local religion.
 
The early Buddhist texts do not specifically mention heterosexuality or homosexuality. For lay people, one of the five precepts is to not abuse sexuality, which means not using it in a way that is harmful to oneself or others. For monastics, strict celibacy is the requirement. Using sex as a drug can be harmful, and so can lying, cheating, not taking care to protect oneself and others against disease, etc. It can also be practiced wisely, with love and compassion. Whether one is gay or strait has nothing to do with it, imho. Gays seem to have the advantage that unwanted pregnancies do not occur, and therefore not abortions, which is considered to be destruction of human life and a serious offence in Buddhism.

However, lust is a fetter that binds sentient beings to the cycle of samsara, and at the third stage of enlightenment (using the map of the early Buddhist texts, there are others), one becomes asexual and incapable of having intercourse. This is a good thing, from a Buddhist point of view.
Salibi said:
the Jesuit fathers in China and Japan found homosexual activity to be rampant amongst Buddhist monks- they decried the situation as deplorable.
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Those Buddhist monks would be violating their precepts, just like Catholic monks also break their vows by engaging in sexual acts. It is a serious offence, but not more serious because of homosexuality, in my opinion. EDIT: It might actually be less serious, since there is no risk of an unwanted pregnancy, abortion or neglect of fatherly responsibility with gay breaking of celibacy.
 
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I would imagine that in India / Southeast Asia the “conservative wing” would be the majority?
 
twf said:
I would imagine that in India / Southeast Asia the “conservative wing” would be the majority?
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I seriously doubt it, and I also think it is a mistake to label them conservatives. Buddhists are generally less hung up about sex, even in traditional countries. Yes, all attachments are ultimately negative and should be discarded, but sexual acts are not in a special class of actions. Buddhists countries are usually very anti abortion, because it is the destruction of human life at an early stage, but typically not nearly as anti LGBT-rights as certain Christian cultures have been.
 
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anon99031074 said:
because it is the destruction of human life at an early stage, but typically not nearly as ant
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However Ayurveda offers certain potions that would induce “natural” abortion (that means no mechanical medicine involved).
 
I thought the Chinese were traditionally pretty anti-homosexuality? Lots of Buddhist influence there.
 
rossum said:
As with most religions, the conservative wing of Buddhism is against LGBT while the liberal wing allows it. You can find both opinions if you look.
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It makes sense to label Christians who are hold anti LGBT-views as conservatives or fundamentalists, since the the Old Testament, and certain Pauline letters in the New Testament (but not Jesus himself) condemns homosexuality with very harsh language. In Buddhism it does not make sense, in my opinion.

In nearly 6000 pages of early sutras, not once is homosexuality mentioned by the Buddha, but lust is mentioned a vast number of times. So from the Buddha’s point of view, it probably did not matter what gender one lusted after, but that lust itself is a fetter that binds sentient beings to samsara. So to the extent that Buddhism has picked up homophobia, that homophobia doesn’t come from the early sutras or Buddha himself, but is cultural baggage from another source. Which means it is hardly conservative Buddhism to be homophobic.
 
Mary888 said:
However Ayurveda offers certain potions that would induce “natural” abortion (that means no mechanical medicine involved).
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Ayurveda is a part of Hinduism, and not Buddhism.
twf said:
I thought the Chinese were traditionally pretty anti-homosexuality? Lots of Buddhist influence there.
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Lots of taoist, confucianist, communist, etc., influence too. I see no reason why it should come from Buddhism, since, as I have pointed out above, the early Buddhist texts common to all schools of Buddhism do not find sexual orientation worth fuzzing about.
 
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JimR-OCDS said:
Buddhist teaching on lust

Jim
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Sure, the same pali word that is translated lust can also be translated greed. So it includes sexual lust, but doesn’t exclude other forms of addictions. I disagree when the author of the webage says the precepts do not deal with sex. They clearly do. For monastics, celibacy is the requirement. For lay people, not abusing sexuality is the requirement. That is spelled out in some detail in the sutras, and covers all forms of partner-stealing or trying to seduce someone unavailable, for a variety of reasons. It would of course include rape and other forms of sexual abuse.
 
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No, they deal with lust, not sex

Try to learn the difference and you’ll see it’s in line with Catholic Teaching

Years back I saw a film “Spring, Summer, Fall. Winter”

In short, a Buddhist monk who took a child that was left to him by the mother, raised him and tried to educate him

The one point he made to the child when he was now a young man who had lust for the woman visiting. “Lust will take possession of you and if you allow it, will even lead you to murder.”

Sure enough, the youngman ended up murdering the woman, when she broke it off with him.

Jesus never taught against sex, but lust.

Jim
 
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Lust is the catalyst for sexual misconduct

Hope this helps

Jim
 
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