What does Buddhism say about sex?
Monastic Buddhists (monks and nuns) take a vow of celibacy, and there are rules in the Vinaya for them. For monastics – sex is seen as getting in the way of their intensive Buddhist practice and because they are celibate there are many rules governing conduct between the sexes. Also, monastics have decided to live in a separate community as part of their individual effort to train and cut the ties of lay life – entering into a sexual relationship will mean that they are taking on responsibilities of caring for and loving another individual again. Lay people take vows to try not to do things that harm others (the Precepts) – this includes killing, lying, stealing, etc. and sexual abuse. Buddhism does not set down commandments ” thou shalt not….” but rather when the individual accepts the precepts they “promise to train myself in the precept of …..”. And it is seen as training – if we go “wrong”, we say ‘well I made a mistake and will try not to repeat it’, and then get on with our l
