Hi, sorry if I'm going off-topic a little here, but I have a question regarding sexual fantasies in dreams and involuntary nocturnal emissions. I'd like to know what Buddhist scriptures have said about this(if at all) for someone who is completely abstaining from the point of view of ethics and Sila, but the thing I'm more interested to know is how do monks(or anyone else who's keeping the relevant precepts) deal with it and whether there are techniques to reduce or eradicate this problem?
Generalizing the above, what about dreams with one being violent or with other unwholesome actions? Again, sorry for being
Thanks in advance,
Dhammabodhi
masturbation what's wrong?
- Dhammabodhi
- Posts: 295
- Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 12:25 pm
- Location: New Delhi, India
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
"Take rest, take rest."-S.N.Goenka
-
- Posts: 1970
- Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:19 am
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
I don't believe scriptures explicitly describe sexual fantasies or nocturnal emissions. Points-of-view are based on commentaries, which derive various implications from the suttas. I believe that traditional Theravada commentaries regard sexual fantasies in dreams and nocturnal emissions as a mildly unwholesome action that ceases to occur for an Arahant, whose mind is fully purified. Eradicating sub-conscious sexual fantasies, though, among a layperson is not a reasonable goal.Dhammabodhi wrote:Hi, sorry if I'm going off-topic a little here, but I have a question regarding sexual fantasies in dreams and involuntary nocturnal emissions. I'd like to know what Buddhist scriptures have said about this(if at all) for someone who is completely abstaining from the point of view of ethics and Sila, but the thing I'm more interested to know is how do monks(or anyone else who's keeping the relevant precepts) deal with it and whether there are techniques to reduce or eradicate this problem?
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
Pun intended?tiltbillings wrote:His take on lay sexuality in general leave something to be desired
- Peter
Be heedful and you will accomplish your goal.
Be heedful and you will accomplish your goal.
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
I seem to recall there are rules in the Vinaya concerning this.Dhammabodhi wrote:I have a question regarding sexual fantasies in dreams and involuntary nocturnal emissions. I'd like to know what Buddhist scriptures have said about this(if at all) for someone who is completely abstaining from the point of view of ethics and Sila
- Peter
Be heedful and you will accomplish your goal.
Be heedful and you will accomplish your goal.
- tiltbillings
- Posts: 23046
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
Of course.Peter wrote:Pun intended?tiltbillings wrote:His take on lay sexuality in general leave something to be desired
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
44 posts and 3 days later and the OP hasn't come by to clarify their question. Glad I didn't waste time with it. Sorry to see you fine folks getting yourselves tied in knots over what you think they might have been asking.
- Peter
Be heedful and you will accomplish your goal.
Be heedful and you will accomplish your goal.
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
I see that happening quite often on discussion boards. Oh well, nothing wrong with a good conversation.
Dhammakid
Dhammakid
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
Hi Peter
Kind regards
Ben
No knots tied or untied!Peter wrote:44 posts and 3 days later and the OP hasn't come by to clarify their question. Glad I didn't waste time with it. Sorry to see you fine folks getting yourselves tied in knots over what you think they might have been asking.
Kind regards
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
Here's the facts:
- Masturbation is built upon Sensual desire. Good luck having a beat while considering how best to mow the lawn and hang out the washing.
- Sensual desire is a hinderance to practise.
- Kamma-Vipaka has it that a volitional action in the present will have an effect in the future. This is how habits are formed.
Nobody is going to burn in hell for having a beat, nor for having appropriate sexual relations with their partner - But it doesn't lead to Nibbana. Sensual desire is a hinderance.
- Masturbation is built upon Sensual desire. Good luck having a beat while considering how best to mow the lawn and hang out the washing.
- Sensual desire is a hinderance to practise.
- Kamma-Vipaka has it that a volitional action in the present will have an effect in the future. This is how habits are formed.
Nobody is going to burn in hell for having a beat, nor for having appropriate sexual relations with their partner - But it doesn't lead to Nibbana. Sensual desire is a hinderance.
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta
Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta
Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
- tiltbillings
- Posts: 23046
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
It may be a hindrance, but that does not mean it has to hinder anything.BlackBird wrote: - Sensual desire is a hinderance to practise.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
- puthujjana
- Posts: 106
- Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:13 am
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
- Contact:
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
Hi Dhammabodhi,Dhammabodhi wrote:Hi, sorry if I'm going off-topic a little here, but I have a question regarding sexual fantasies in dreams and involuntary nocturnal emissions. I'd like to know what Buddhist scriptures have said about this(if at all) for someone who is completely abstaining from the point of view of ethics and Sila, but the thing I'm more interested to know is how do monks(or anyone else who's keeping the relevant precepts) deal with it and whether there are techniques to reduce or eradicate this problem?
this is the first Saṅghādisesa rule:
Intentional emission of semen, except while dreaming, entails initial and subsequent meetings of the Community.
You can read Thanissaro Bhikkhu's explanation of it in chapter five of Buddhist Monastic Code I: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... .ch05.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Once you understand anatta, then the burden of life is gone. You’ll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy."
- Ajahn Chah
- Ajahn Chah
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
That doesn't sound right to me. If it's a hindrance then surely by definition it must hinder something. In the Nivaranasutta, SN. v. 97, the Buddha says of the five hindrances that they are "Makers of blindness, causing lack of vision, causing lack of knowledge, detrimental to wisdom, tending to vexation, leading away from Nibbana."tiltbillings wrote:It may be a hindrance, but that does not mean it has to hinder anything.BlackBird wrote: - Sensual desire is a hinderance to practise.
I take this to mean that hindering is an intrinsic property of the hindrances. 'Makers of blindness' is what the hindrances actually are, not something they might be. 'Leading away from Nibbana' is what the hindrances actually do, not something they might do.
How do you understand the passage?
- tiltbillings
- Posts: 23046
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
What is the nature of a hindrance?
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
Exactly what do you mean by "nature"?
metta
Chris
metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
- tiltbillings
- Posts: 23046
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:25 am
Re: masturbation what's wrong?
sabhava.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723