So, because of the "Let's Coexist" thread seeing as many people admired Buddhism, I would like to know what is the Buddhist stance on homosexuality? Now my dad's side of the family are mixed Muslims and Mahayana Buddhist so from what I learned from them was that homosexuality was a violation of the 3rd precept regarding inappropriate sexual behavior I asked one of my uncles who's a monk why and he said something along the lines of "In homosexuality they have sex from the anus or from the mouth (oral), according to the 3rd precept that is a sexual misconduct" So I know that there are different types of Buddhism and they all vary in some ways but that's what I've learned from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective but what i didn't get was that in ancient India Buddha mentioned the Ubhatovyanjanakas which are basically hermaphrodites and Pandakas which are passive homosexuals and Buddha acknowledges both of them as genders stating that there were 4 genders (last one being Eunuchs) So if they were acknowledged as genders does that mean that they were accepted? That in Buddhism homosexuality isn't a sin?
Buddha gave no teachings in regard to homosexuality. However, certain branches of Buddhism say that it's wrong.
Thanks for clearing my misunderstanding :bang:, whenever I asked the monks question about this i never got a clear answer so i was confused...
Plus whenever i try to research more there's so much intertwining and confusing history involved and where I live there's like one temple that's mainly Mahayana Buddhist, a Tibetan Buddhist temple, and a Thervada Buddhist temple which I've all asked the same question regarding homosexuality.
Yes! I hope a Buddhist shows up on this thread and helps us out in knowing more! LoL Who will our hero be!?!
Yeah. My family is mixed with taoism and buddhism religions and they never had direct teachings regarding homosexuality. It's actually pretty unclear. Buddhism is somewhat mixed with east Asian culture as well.
There is no record in the Pali canon (the oldest set of Buddhist scriptures) that describe the Buddha ever meeting anyone who was in a same-sex relationship. In Japanese Zen Buddhism there are cases of monks taking male lovers, but but I'm not sure these were entirely consensual relationships given the book I read about this practice describing them as "youths" and thus probably underage. In Western Buddhism homosexuality is generally not considered a problem, although monks and nuns are expected to be celibate in almost all sects of Buddhism in any case. My particular temple includes sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy.
Thank you for you're insight, I'm starting to think that all the monks I asked didn't answer me from a Buddhist perspective but there own opinion...
There was a very prominent incident several years ago when the Dali Lama characterized homosexuality as being nothing more than anal sex and being non-Buddhist in nature, but the Dali Lama is the head of only one of several sects of Tibetan Buddhism, which in turn is only one of the three major groupings of Buddhism (Tibetan/Vajrayana, Mahayana, Theravada*). *Theravada, strictly speaking, is closer to being a single Buddhist sect, whereas Vajrayana and Mahayana encompass easily dozens of sects. Theravada is, however, the only surviving school of "classical" Buddhism.
Actually, if one is to follow the Buddhist path ALL sexual relations have to be severed. It created attachment, which are hindrances to achieving enlightenment. So Buddhism is not discriminating against homosexuality, all forms of sexual desire is frowned upon. That said, Buddhism is indifferent to most forms of sexual expression, which it shares with most Eastern Religions. To them, since all things in existence is nothing more than a "sankhara", the myriad of things in the Universe is nothing to be too worked up about. In Taoism, since all things come from Tao (similar to the concept of Logos or Brahman) all things are of equal status and thus should be treated as such.
I've been looking into this, and Mahayana buddhism in general isn't all that open to homosexuality. However, Tibetan buddhism (in particular, the Dalai Lama) stated that homosexuality is a bit unnatural. However he encourages others to show respect and tolerance to other people, including the LGBT community.
I used to practice Buddhism and I couldn't find anything about homosexuality in Buddha's teachings. He seemed to speak a lot about celibacy.
