anyone has ever asked the reason for chastity practiced by Buddhist monks?
There is in fact those who question "what's wrong with sexuality, if practiced between consenting persons or affecting third parties? ".
Nothing, from the point of view" society. "Therein lies the crux of the matter. To understand why sexuality is forbidden to the monks must go to the cultural roots of" Buddhism "the historical context in which it was born.
I will use two keys to interpret the question, we could say" marxistoide, "points out that the economic structure as a substantial cause of social phenomena, the other" spiritualoide " which looks at universal human tension toward transcendence, and in a sense is independent of socio-economic composition.
The context to be considered is North India 2500 years ago. That context was entirely different from the current Indian, and very similar to that of classical Greece. A multitude of small kingdoms and republics relatively autonomous, the agricultural footprint, but they were fast becoming urban commercial reality. Small city-state very similar to those found in Greece. And as in Greece, also in northern India, the transformation from an agricultural to a mercantile was causing great social upheaval, great anxiety that accompanied the rise of a middle class, in a sense comparable to the small European bourgeoisie born with the Protestant Reformation. This middle class is supported primarily with businesses.
La realtà rurale arcaica dell'India era quindi in crisi. Con essa, cominciarono a venir messe in discussione anche la religione tradizionale, e la rigida struttura sociale, improntata sulla famiglia patriarcale e le caste. Così, in quegli anni, come in Grecia nascevano le scuole filosofiche, e singoli maestri contornati da discepoli si interrogavano sui principi primi che regolavano la natura, anche in India gruppi sempre più numerosi di persone si ritiravano dalla società, inquieti delle sue regole e polemici verso la ritualità fossilizzata della religione arcaica, e cominciavano a far vita nomade, con lo scopo di trovare il senso della vita (detto in termini moderni).
The outward visible sign which communicated their status as persons Highway exit voluntarily by the company was made to shave the beard and hair, and dress in a robe of saffron. Their choice was a social withdrawal in the first place. Chose to boycott the company archaic and formalistic, leaving the caste they belong, not to work, living on alms.
practice chastity, why boycott the wedding, a pillar of society, was a powerful tool to break with the established order. So far the explanation marxistoide, cmq useful at this point.
These people who gave up their lives to go to the root of the social meaning della vita furono chiamati "rinuncianti", asceti... "Samana" era il termine sanscrito. La veste giallo-zafferano e la testa rasata venivano subito identificati nella società indiana d'allora come i segni di un samana (anche se alcuni samana a posto di radersi si lasciavano crescere i capelli all'infinito, ammassandoli poi in quelle trecce che oggi vengono chiamate dreadlocks, o rasta... ma lo scopo era lo stesso: identificare il soggetto come "ribelle", "asceta", "deviante"). Un ribelle, uno che non condivideva la società così com'era impostata, e che quindi se ne "tirava fuori", rinunciando a ogni possesso e status sociale, per la propria ricerca spirituale.
Tuttavia i samana erano generally well tolerated, and even - and this is a typical characteristic of the soul of India, survived until now - those who left everything in search of truth, who withdrew, was admired and respected. The ancient Indian literature is full of anecdotes in which the king went to the master samana for questioning on matters philosophical. Not the samana going to court, the king is going to bow to quitting.
And here it becomes necessary to test spiritualoide. The economy is not enough. The basis of spiritual vision of India was then that nature is a great cosmic game that we perceive in a distorted way, as a effetto ottico. E' un'enorme illusione sensoriale, un gigantesco miraggio, chiamato "Maya", che intrappola dentro di sé, come una gigantesca matrice, gli esseri viventi, umani e non, e li tiene catturati dentro di se tramite l'illusione sensoriale, tramite il farsi percepire come "realtà".
Gli esseri, ingannati dai loro sensi, non riescono a percepire la vera natura dell'universo in cui vivono, ossia la sua natura di "miraggio", illusione, inconsistenza, guizzo impermanente d'energia fluida, ma lo percepiscono come reale e solida la matrice, e così, illudendosi e ingannandosi, continuano a girare all'infinità in questa matrice condizionata, vita dopo vita.
Death lose the body of beings, but their consciousness survives the body, and driven by the desire to possess the natural reality that appears as solid and real, the illusion continues, taking therefore, unconsciously, a another body, and continuing to turn in on itself within the matrix, as in a dream, as if under hypnosis, life after life, unaware of the slave master.
This natural matrix made of mirage that capture by hiding under his illusory nature of human perception and being real, and keeps them in itself, life after life, endlessly, by subjecting them to pain and pleasure, endless hopeless, was called "Samsara".
All spiritual movements that were opposed to the social power of the old archaic religion, dominated by priests and rituals of animal sacrifices, drawing on the notion of Indian samsara.
This notion, however, is much older than the traditional religion, and probably derives from the indigenous peoples who inhabited the preariane India when it was invaded by Indo-European, which descended from the plains of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The Aryans brought down in the jungles of India to sacrifice their religious beliefs, rituals, worship of fire and wind, and many other elements that are similar to the religions of the first peoples of Europe. Arrivati in India, trovarono però un vasto "serbatoio" locale di idee religiose, praticate dai popoli indigeni indiani, e ne assorbirono una parte.
Questo "serbatoio" religioso locale indigeno restò però sempre sotterraneo durante la "colonizzazione" ariana dell'India, nella forma dello yoga. Ed era proprio a questo patrimonio culturale che andavano attingendo ora i samana, i rivoluzionari non-violenti che si ritiravano dalla società in disgregazione.
La concezione di Maya, matrice naturale del Samsara, il ciclo infinito di nascita-morte-rinascita da cui evadere per cercare la liberazione del proprio principio vitale, per accedere a un livello di realtà trascendente, absolute, unconditional, free from pain and death and rebirth ... this view that the ancestral spiritual samana were recovering at odds with the traditional rural society and religion is all Prearo cultural material, is the indigenous knowledge of the shamans of yoga, in fact so similar to the notions of all the indigenous peoples of the world.
Now, understand this, it is perhaps easier to understand why the samana, the Buddha, and in particular (who was a samana), considered more useful for their samana ascetic order of the prohibition of sexuality.
In summary, the vision of Samana was this:
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the purpose of life is to escape from the natural matrix of samsara, because in it there is no hope to escape the suffering produced by constant death and rebirth;
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the means by which nature, Maya, keeps all beings trapped in samsara, is "mirage" sensory, mental or blurring caused by a sensory perception is not clear, and therefore does not reveal the true nature of reality of the universe (that is, its inconsistencies, its ephemeral quality, like a rainbow or a mirage ... and here we would have to say much, because the current physics, quantum mechanics, came to similar conclusions about the nature of the universe spectacularly), but it does seem rather as solid, real, substantial, and induces beings to desire, thus keeping them yoked in the matrix;
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the way out of samsara is to "clean up" the sensory perception, allied with meditation and yoga to enable them to see reality for what it is, and then break the spell of Maya;
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once the perception becomes clear, you feel the nature for what it is, and we will 'wake up ", one" light ", as indeed did the Buddha (epithet translates precisely as" the awakened one ");
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to refine the sensory perception must devote all their energies the steps necessary to refine this, and that is meditation.
family ties, affections, and even the sex only an end in itself, are obstacles to that effect, because they use the mental energy that should be devoted entirely to meditation, and directing them to mislead the pleasure of the senses.
This pleasure is not a sin, as in the Christian tradition, it is an insult to a god ... none of this. The reason is more technical: it is a "distraction" in the literal sense, that is a dis-draw something, a drawing of something, which is the mental energy, and convey this something to satisfaction sensoriale.
Quindi, in conclusione, la sessualità, così come i legami affettivi che spessissimo ne derivano, non sono adatti alla vita di un samana, perché nella migliore delle ipotesi lo "distrarre
bbero" dalla pratica assidua e dura della meditazione, togliendogli tempo prezioso per dedicarsi all'affinamento della propria percezione sensoriale.
Il sesso non è un male, anzi è un piacere, e il Buddha affermò che se non vi fosse stata una via di fuga dalla matrice del samsara il sesso sarebbe stata l'unico, tra i piaceri di questa dimensione, in grado di portare una misura decente di consolazione agli esseri intrappolati nella catena dolorosa of birth-and-death.
However, because fortunately a way to escape from samsara and the nature and condition of access to the natural dimension of the Absolute, the unconditional, there, and passes through the refinement of our sensory perception, that this refinement is necessary collect all its efforts, all his time and all its energy, and sex that would make the best effort "poorer".
In conclusion, engage in sex, and emotions, which are among the sensory pleasures of the kind most tend to "capture", to intrigue, to conquer the people, take away time and energy to practice meditation, which is the only way to escape from the cycle of birth-and-death nature of the size of the conditioning, or by the mirage of Maya. Escape this natural matrix ephemeral and yet keeps us firmly caught, to the point where not even have consciousness, and come to think that this is the only real size in the universe ...
Escaping from this matrix is \u200b\u200bextremely difficult and only possible with a sharp and prolonged effort, through meditation. This is what supported the Buddha.
E 'for this reason that until now has been maintained the obligation of chastity for the Buddhist monks, who are the samana-day. Humans for which the "liberation" from samsara is the first objective, and there can be no distractions, otherwise the way ahead will become more unbearably long and winding.
A Mexican que recordara el dicho célebre del general Obregón, lo adaptaría así: "Pobre Italia, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca del Vaticano". Han pasado dos mil años desde que Cristo se le apareció a Simón de Galilea y le dijo que, con el nombre de Pedro, sería la piedra miliar fundadora de la Iglesia. La única institución que ha sabido sobrevivir y prosperar durante tanto tiempo en este mundo incalificable, sostiene, como es lógico, que no es del todo humana pero sí es seguramente romana. Italia es la patria concreta de la historia del catolicismo. Sus Papas universales la han gobernado en buena parte durante siglos, han matado mucha gente cuando creían que no había otro remedio y nunca han dejado de meterse en considering the country's life above their laws if necessary. Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger of Germany is to meet in April aged 82 and four of his pontificate, "is no exception to the rule. On the contrary, convinced that it should be consistent with its traditionalist religious intransigence, since he arrived has emphasized the vocation of the laity interference reproach. 
