Of course, even in Shakespeare’s time in England – men dressed as women because women were not permitted to act on the stage. The Vinaya Discipline seeks to completely “cut-off” all sexual activity in the environment, body, and mind. This includes heterosexual, homosexual, and beastiality. This is what a Buddhist monastic is expected to follow – whilst a lay-person may get married and have children – providing there is an element of sexual control. This often comes down to use in the West as “No Adultery” – but in the old Pali Suttas, it is explained in a slightly different manner. In the time of the Buddha, a rich lay-man could marry up to four wives – and as it was the Hindu custom for a man to marry sisters – the Buddha advised that “control” in this instance was not to engage in sexual activity with anyone outside his wife’s family. Replacing this with “Adultery” is a clear example of how the bourgeois (Christian) West has tinkered with Asian Buddhism – and attempted to alter its essential nature. Adultery in the monogamous (modern) West is not the same as adultery in polygamous (ancient) India.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 