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21.06.2012

Summer Term 2012

Seminar: Reading Theory in English: Bernard Fauvre, “The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality”

Lecturer:

Presenter:


Chapter 4: Clerical Vices and Vicissitudes

Part 2 (p.172-206)



The Juridical Background

  • Edict of 1873: Monks are now allowed to eat meat, take wives freely etc. (This edict deplores corruption) how corrupt must your circle be if are forced to lower the rules like that in order for everyone to be an acceptable monk

  • The role of Shintô: (anti-Buddhist atmosphere), promotion and support majority, as Buddhism was already seen as degenerated => leave Buddhist monks to their degeneration

  • Inner rule of the sangha now supplemented by an external rule. Code for Monks and Nuns (Sôniryô) State legislation

  • Ambivalent situation. Monks must be authentic symbols of the Buddha and therefore cut their ties to the secular world. Yet the state often tried to make monastic life more transparent.

    How did these conditions arise?



    The Reformation of the Vinaya

    After Ganjin there was the unexpected results of lowering the minimum age to receive ordination => observance of precepts declined => Reforms in various places 1155-1350

  • In Nara there was still a gap between the study of Vinaya and its practice, monks still keep young boys as toys or eat meat.

  • Massive ordinations lead to many dissolute monks versus only a few true followers (The bodhisattva precepts were conferred on all kinds of people, even prostitutes)

  • Observation of precepts became stricter by 1292 especially having guests over night was prohibited

  • Many schools face transgressions in this troubled period, even Zen and the school of the pure land which again led to reforms, mainly addressing drinking and intersexual relations.

  • Internal problems led to reforms but the main impact was to come from the state







    The Evolution of state Legislation

    The text jumps around between 645 and Meji times after 1868. It is hard to fully connect time, the role of Buddhism within the society and how changes might have influenced or affected the monastic life in total.

  • After the Taika reforms of 645 monastic control in the hand of 10 masters who issued a series of codes of conduct. Only few deal with sex, and even if you were to transgress rules e.g. not to sleep in a nunnery, you would still be able to amend for that defiance. They code stated that one, who would transgress the rule was to be punished appropriately. But how exactly is not mentioned. Sankai (three precepts no meat, no alcohol, no aphrodisiacs) meat here serves as a countermeasure to carnal lust, at first glance it seems unrelated to sexual desire though

  • Self ordination is seen as a problem from 780. As many decided to become monks only to bypass taxes, their motivation had little to do with renunciation, thus they continued a secular lifestyle. An official ordination system was introduced later on, but foul practice continued. => most humans are rotten to the bone.

  • General laxity cannot be controlled, sometimes there are punishments like 825 in Nara (2 Monks exiled) but punishments like that could be considered as rare. In 914 Miyoshi Kiyoyuki addressed the throne, he sees Buddhism as degenerated (p.177)

  • With the Vinaya renewal there is a big change in jurisdiction (13th century). Once tolerated transgressions were now subject to directly being dealt with by the state.

  • However the state itself is far too lenient with monks. E.g.: A woman and monk meet at the crossroads => he tries to rape her, she screams for help => detention of the monk through the police => he later is set free, the girl is brought to jail. Reasoning: By walking alone at night she summoned evil. She is guilty of evoking desire in the monk. The same occurrence between a laymen and woman would have been a different case. (p.178)

  • State only intervened if the transgressions affected the society as a whole, not individuals.

  • In 1235 the Bakufu annexed laws to keep monastic rules from being transgressed. One example of a nenbutsu practitioner, who had it all, meat, women, alcohol, association with evil people. His house was torn down and he was exiled from Kamakura.

  • Again transgressions get out of hand throughout the schools. Counter measures taken through annex laws (nearly 400)… might be an inspiration on how to have a good time

  • During the Edo period (1600-1868) rules by the Bakufu supported the rules of the clergy. => Punishments were actually enforced and became more frequent. Wrong behavior became an offense, a criminal one at that.(p.181)

  • In the Meji Era the above offences were tolerated again by the government.





    Illicit Sex

  • Ritual sex became licit at least in the Vajrayâna. However other Mahâyâna texts allow for flexible redefinitions of what can be considered an offence => sacred sex found its way into Japanese Buddhism

  • Nyobon (means as much as assault. Most times monks attacked women and raped them) has been reinterpreted as the unavoidable reaction to female temptation => women were denied access to monasteries

  • Certain tendencies can be found that sexual relationships and marriage became common for Japanese monks. On the other hand stories about monks who successfully found their way to hell by taking a wife can be exist (e.g. in the Sô Myôtatsu soshô chûki)

  • Story of the monk Ensai 1175 displays how arbitrary punishment was. (p.184)

  • Ritual incubation led to promiscuity => free sex (grizzly stories to prevent intercourse like that from happening existed p. 185)

  • As if granting monks the right to marry was not enough, many stories of adulterous monks can be found in the 15th century.

  • In the Edo period transgressions were severely punished

    -1671: Monk crucified after having intercourse with a nun

    -1720: Hidden rooms were found in monasteries -> monks sent into exile

    -1738: public crucifixion as standard punishment for adultery

    -1796: 70 monks were bound and displayed for 3 days after being seen in the red light district => banished

    -sometimes detention did not work out for the police in Ôsaka, as the sheer number of offending monks exceeded the number of prison cells

    -pillory and monk heads displayed at prison gates after executions

    The aim of the Edo government to keep the status quo affected the Buddhist lifestyle. Transgression could not be tolerated, monks had to be monks. Regardless transgressions continued to occur.

    Married Monks

  • Characteristic feature of Japanese Buddhism => hard to mix married and unmarried monks

  • Even Kyôkai (author of the Nihon ryôki) himself, a fully ordained monk took a wife

  • Many examples of men who had children prior to being ordained as monks and who continued their secular life afterwards

  • Blood lineage becomes a common practice p.194/195 (Succession from a monk to his wife and children are too many to be listed) => Paradox situation, focus might be lost

  • Hints at pedophilia p.194, marriage tolerated as a compromise

    Married and meat eating monks have existed since the time of the Buddha

    Order or Freedom

  • Both monastic discipline and state law pursue the same goals, however the penal system of the state gets harsher as time progresses till 1868

  • Edo punishments hard because religion had to fit the immobility role, there is no place for transgression

  • Outcasts find a ghetto/asylum in monasteries /muen quality double edged sword (…when they recite nenbutsu they become restless like monkeys or horses and do not hide their pudenda… p201)

  • Despite all attempts to curb monks… transgressive behavior persisted

  • Many texts have to be seen as anticlerical critique (there are always 2 sides of a fence)

  • Buddhism not more corrupt than in earlier periods, more records of punishments, harder punishments, Buddhism was “domesticated”.

  • Nevertheless corruption cannot be denied. For many monk aspirants the freedom of a life in a monastery was equal to a path of selfishness and corruption.



    Possible topics for discussion:

    1. What do you think after reading this chapter are the main reasons for the degeneration of Buddhism? (self -ordination, leniency, state involvement, etc.)

    2. What do you think is the purpose of chapter 4 in the context of the whole book? Why does Fauvre torture us with a 60 page sequence of transgressions and how they were dealt with? He himself calls his way of presenting these “facts” as tedious.





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