Lzh Mu Bu Pm Pj 1Sexual Intercourse

Explanation of the Methunadhamma Sutta (On Sexual Intercourse)

Background

The Methunadhamma Sutta is found in the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition, specifically in the Pāṭimokkhasutta, the most basic rules of discipline. This is one of the earliest regulations the Buddha set forth to govern the conduct of monks and nuns.

The background of this discourse is related to the Buddha’s building of a pure community of practice. When monastics were not yet self-aware, or engaged in conduct unsuited to the nature of the renunciant life, he gradually laid down rules. Methunadhamma, literally “the act of sexual intercourse,” is one of the first prohibitions, because it directly violates the nature of going forth, which is to renounce sensual pleasure (kāmasukha) in pursuit of liberation.

In the Vinaya Piṭaka, especially the Bhikkhu Pāṭimokkha, the act of sexual intercourse is classified among the highest violations: Pārājika (defeat), actions that cause a monastic automatically to lose monastic status, with no possibility of restoration in that life.

Main Content

The rule on Methunadhamma is not simply a prohibition against sexual intercourse. It expresses a profound principle: one who has gone forth has severed the bonds of sensual pleasure, including sexual desire (kāma-taṇhā) and craving for bodily gratification. Any act intended to satisfy sexual desire is regarded as a complete failure in relation to the renunciant ideal.

This rule applies equally to monks and nuns. There is no exception based on reason or context; that is the unchanging nature of Pārājika. If a monastic willingly engages in this act, or allows another to do what leads to it, that person’s monastic status is abolished.

This is not punishment in the worldly sense, but the natural consequence (paccaya) of violating the most fundamental matter of what a monastic has vowed.