Sex and Buddhist monasticism?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Renunciates have always faced the lure of desires, aversions, and delusions making the ordinary (non-accomplished), uninstructed Sangha ripe for abuses.

How would Buddhism be any better a tradition if it concealed serious rule violations by its monastics? Most stories that come to our attention are not actually alleged to have been acts committed by "monastics" who follow many precepts. They are usually the deeds of "novices," who are probationers in training to keep ten precepts.

• The Buddhist Monastic Code (English)
  

For fully ordained monks and nuns, four acts are considered "defeat offenses" entailing immediate expulsion and loss of ordination from the Buddhist Monastic Order.

This is true for all Buddhist schools, even if lesser rules have been altered over the centuries. The historical Buddha set up a celibate monastic tradition with many disciplinary guidelines dealing crucial requisites and minor etiquette. Why?

The Buddha explained that it was ultimately for the good of humans and devas, so that the teachings would remain in the world as long as possible. More specifically, the rules are in place to increase confidence in the Sangha so that people will become receptive to hearing the Dharma and practicing for the benefit of one and all. It is also for the peace and progress of sincere monastics and the training of those able to be trained.

By following the Five Precepts, lay Buddhists do not face the same restrictions as those who follow hundreds of guidelines. Nor do they risk losing their status for lapses. If Buddhists conceal the disqualifying offenses of monastics -- an act as unskillful as making false allegations -- the Dharma is lost. There are only four monastic acts that cannot be remedied:

1. murder
2. sexual penetration of any kind
3. stealing
4. falsely claiming spiritual attainments

DEFEAT: (Sanskrit, pārājika-dharma), a group of four offenses that are the most serious in the Buddhist monastic code of discipline (Prātimokṣa). The penalty for any of the four is lifelong expulsion from the monastic order (Sangha). The four are (1) sexual intercourse; (2) serious theft; (3) murder; (4) falsely claiming to have attained supernatural powers [or the stages of enlightenment]. A monastic who commits a "defeat" (the traditional etymology of pārājika) offense is compared to "a person whose head is cut off, or a withered leaf dropped from the tree, or a stone slab split in two, or a palm tree cut from the top [which is incapable of regrowing]." Such a person has been defeated and cannot be readmitted to the Order (encyclopedia.com).

• Shock at lama Sogyal Rinpoche's past
• The Politics of Well-Being: Gurus behaving badly
• VIDEO: sex abuse allegations vex Vatican
• AUDIO: Father Lopez Lopez, another case of Vatican molestation
• Group speaks out against priest convicted of child molestation
• SNAP: The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
• Catholic priest extradited to Ireland to face molestation charges
• Hare Krishnas sued for child sexual and physical abuse