Homosexual Acts in the Early Buddhist Perspective

There are some disagreements among Buddhists regarding homosexual acts. Some say such acts are considered sensual misconduct, while some say not. I’m not interested in settling their disagreements, but would like to share my understanding on the matter based on early Buddhist texts.

Are homosexual acts considered sensual misconduct?

You may be familiar with the concept of “sensual misconduct”, one of the five basic actions that lay Buddhists should train themselves to abstain from. Does it include homosexual acts? Here’s an English translation of the Pāli Suttas’ description of how one abstains from sensual misconduct:

Abandoning sensual misconduct, he abstains from sensual misconduct. He does not get sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments, or even those crowned with flowers by another man.

There are two points to take note of:

  1. The above is clearly addressed to men. (During the Buddha’s time, women generally did not get to leave home to listen to the Dhamma.)
  2. There’s something that is not conveyed in the English translation: In the original text in Pāli, the sexual partners are all stated in the feminine gender, which means they are all female.

Thus, gay sex is excluded from “sensual misconduct”. With that, we may rightly assume that the same is true for lesbian sex.

One might say, “Maybe homosexual acts are fairly new phenomena. Maybe there weren’t such things and such people during the time of the Buddha, and therefore they are not included in how sensual misconduct was defined.” That’s a reasonable hypothesis, but it is not correct. Here’s why I say so.

In the Vinaya Piṭaka, the collection of texts on the monastic rules, we can find mentions of a kind of person called a paṇḍaka. Among those mentions is this story (paraphrased):

A paṇḍaka got ordained as a monk. Later, he approached some young monks and asked them to defile him. They shooed him away. Then he approached some large novice monks (less than 20 years old) and asked them to defile him. They too shooed him away. Then he approached some horse- and elephant-trainers and requested the same. They obliged, then spread it about, “These Sakyan-son monks are paṇḍakas. And those among them who are not paṇḍakas defile paṇḍakas. They are all not celibate.”

This story precedes the rule forbidding paṇḍakas from being ordained as monks. It may not be authentic, besides sounding rather strange, as many Vinaya stories do. However, it does provide obvious clues as to what paṇḍaka means. Based on this story, we can conclude that a paṇḍaka is a male who sexually desires males. Therefore, paṇḍaka probably means “gay”.

There’s a related term in the texts: itthipaṇḍakā. Itthi means “female”. So, itthipaṇḍakā is literally “female paṇḍaka”. If paṇḍaka means “gay”, then itthipaṇḍakā would mean ”lesbian”.

So, such people existed during the time of the Buddha, yet homosexual acts aren’t included in the definition of sensual misconduct.

How can homosexuals abstain from sensual misconduct?

In the above description on how one abstains from sensual misconduct, it is obvious that it’s directed at heterosexual males. So, what about homosexuals? If they wish to be virtuous Buddhists, how do they abstain from sensual misconduct?

I don’t know if there’s already a reasonable guideline for homosexuals. So, let me suggest this based on the above:

Abandoning sensual misconduct, he/she abstains from sensual misconduct. One does not get sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with committed partners, those who entail punishments, or  even those crowned with flowers by another person.

Do homosexual acts go against natural law?

One might ask, “Doesn’t engaging in homosexual acts go against natural law?” Well, “natural law” according to who? Just as for heterosexuals, having sex with someone of the same gender seems unnatural, for homosexuals, having sex with someone of the opposite gender seems unnatural.

Please refer to the description of how one abstains from sensual misconduct again. Notice that it is about ethics, not “natural law”. Speaking of natural law, is oral sex between heterosexual couples “natural” or not?

Parting words

Although many of us regard homosexual acts as somewhat wrong, the Buddha did not include them in his definition of sensual misconduct. So as Buddhists, we should take some time to think about this.

We do need to admit this: Our perceptions of right or wrong are very much influenced by how we’ve been conditioned. Thus, we need to consider that we might be wrong in certain matters. Then only can we relook at those matters with a more objective mind.

Many of us have been conditioned since childhood to think of homosexual acts as wrong, so it's hard for us to change how we perceive it. However, we need to consider if such negative perceptions of ours have led to harm in those with same-sex desires.

Let me end with a question for the heterosexuals: If you were born homosexual, and had come to have sexual desires for those of the same gender, how would you feel living in a world where people think homosexuality is wrong?

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