Buddhist & Western Views on Sex

Many different factors and issues can lead us to having sex with someone else’s partner. The most obvious are attraction to someone, longing desire and obsession with sex. Looking deeper, we discover such additional factors as dissatisfaction and boredom with our present sexual life, or confusion about how to express affection or how to deal with beauty, and many more. By treating the underlying causes, we can refrain from acting out our sexual fantasies and thus avoid the problems they inevitably bring.

I’ve been asked to speak today about Buddhist sexual ethics. Sexuality is obviously a topic that is of great interest to a lot of people. Especially when living in a close community in the countryside, as you are here, there can be a lot of confusion about sexuality and sexual relations. A lot of pain can arise from our own or our partner’s unwise sexual behavior. It can be helpful to look at the advice Buddhism has to offer in this area.

I’d like to make the discussion today rather informal. So I’ll speak for a while and, as we go along, if you have questions, please ask. Later in the afternoon, I think it would be good to have a discussion with questions and an exchange of ideas.

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