Padma Sambhava
Buddhism and Homosexuality
Homosexuality has been gaining huge inroads lately, from Supreme Court decisions to legalized marriages in foreign countries (I guess Massachusetts and California will soon qualify as a foreign country), but at what cost? What people do behind closed doors should be their business, they should have the right to work out their karma without prejudice. It's the doors of consciousness and the effect on embodiments in the future that should concern the soul.
Padma Sambhava (730-805), a Buddha, brought Buddhism to Tibet. He spent 55 years there transmitting advanced and secret teachings to his students. Many of these students (tertons) were intended to reveal certain teachings (termas) at later times for future generations. They would of course, reincarnate to do that. Yeshe Tsogyal, a princess, was his chief disciple. Padma Sambhava had some pointed instruction for Yeshe Tsogyal on the subject of sex and homosexuality. The following quotes are taken from one of the most important termas ever transmitted by Guru Rinpoche or Padma Sambhava. It is known as the Dakini Teachings and it is a treasure map to the salvation of one's soul.
"Sexual Misconduct ...
There are also occasions on which it is unsuitable to have intercourse even with your rightful companion. ...
3. It is unsuitable to have intercourse in an inappropriate orifice, such as engaging in the manner of animals.
Tsogyal, ... As before, the act of sexual misconduct is consummated by means of the four completing aspects, and again there are three types of results.
1. Through the result of ripening you will be reborn in the three lower realms. Even if you do take rebirth in the higher realms, you will have fights with your spouse and so forth.
2. The dominant result is that even in future lives your helpers, spouse, and so forth will be unresponsive and show various acts of ingrattitude.
3. The result corresponding to the cause is that your unwholesome habitual tendencies will cause you to take pleasure in sexual misconduct.
Tsogyal, if you give up these acts and refrain from engaging in them, you will obtain the opposites of their results, so abandoning them is of great importance. ..."
(Dakini Teachings, pp. 39-40)
Yeshe Tsogyal
Though these may be secret teachings, it is hardly a secret as to what he means. It is interesting to note that 'orifice' as used in the sentence does not necessarily apply to one orifice, but that's another matter.
He simply spells it out: there will be problems with relationships in future lives leading to potential sexual aberrations that seem 'normal.'
He states that one will be reborn in lower realms. While it could mean traveling through life barely aware of anything beyond the physical self and selfish needs, it could also mean the astral plane or purgatory, the place that some near death experience people sometimes find themselves, if they are aetheists, are possessed or have uncontrollable desires that rule their world in the afterlife. They can be stuck in these lower realms which can literally seem like hell for 100's of years but usually it is shorter. These past momentums will be coming back with the soul however when it is time to reincarnate. It will seem completely natural to engage in homosexual activities again. They will be stuck in this negative matrix of their own choosing (from a past life) until they wake up. The Buddha woke up to his buddha nature. One cannot break the bonds of habitual behavior without illumination. God's love for each individual is boundless. In every embodiment, He will let the soul know what needs to be done to move on to the next level. Sexual misconduct is one of the most powerful acts and emotions that can hinder the soul.
Buddhism's greatest vulnerability lies in its adherrants tendency to intellectualize Buddha's message. Today one can come up with all sorts of buddhist quotes and justifications for certain acts and desires. People tend to forget that one of the main tenets of Buddhism is that wrong desire causes suffering, not just in this life but most assuredly in future ones.
Padma Sambhava knew when he transmitted the Dakini Teachings that he would be reaching across time and space, imploring all souls to wake up to one's buddha nature and forsake momentums of the past.
William House
Editor, Reverse Spins
At Amazon.com, click on picture
Daknin Teachings; PadamaSambhava's Oral Instructions to Lady Tsogyal
