To my knowledge, there is no discrimination against homosexuals or repudiation of homosexuality in Shin Buddhism, or in fact other sexual practices. The Hawaii Shin sect recently made a public statement accepting Civil Union, which has been proposed in the Hawaii legislature as an alternative to same gender marriage in a society irrationally opposing it. This is an American problem, because of the close association with conservative Christianity.<\/p>\n
In general Buddhism there were prohibitions of any practice that cultivated the passions. It wasn\u2019t just same sex relationships that were of concern. Traditional love or sexual activity would also be stimulated by human passions. Becoming a monk was all about leaving those things behind. Until Shinran, there was the general belief that you could purify yourself through proper rituals and refraining from prohibited behavior. There were rituals where you confessed your evils in an effort to purify yourself and start over. Because of his experience, Shinran was more realistic, understanding that we can\u2019t simply purge ourselves of human passion and desires. He saw that Amida Buddha embraces us in spite of these problems and enables us to reach an environment \u2013 the Pure Land \u2013 where we can leave those passions that are no longer effective.<\/p>\n
In the Shoshinge (Hymn of True Entrusting) Shinran states: \u201cfudan bonno toku nehan,\u201d which means that we attain nirvana without cutting off passions. This is an important recognition. In another passage, he indicates that the amount of defilements or impurities aren\u2019t issues in receiving the embrace of the Amida Buddha\u2019s vow and the gift of true entrusting. Shin Buddhism is an affirming faith, accepting people as they are and helping them to develop deep spirituality to vitalize their living. What they do is a matter of their own conscience, while keeping Amida Buddha\u2019s intention in their minds.<\/p>\n
In short, from the standpoint of the Buddhist teaching generally, there\u2019s no problem with same gender relations. Still, you might find a problem with unreconstructed traditional members who aren\u2019t well-versed in the teaching, and who hold the same prejudices current in society.<\/p>\n
Gassho,
\nAl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To my knowledge, there is no discrimination against homosexuals or repudiation of homosexuality in Shin Buddhism, or in fact other sexual practices. The Hawaii Shin sect recently made a public statement accepting Civil Union, which has been proposed in the …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bschawaii.org\/shindharmanet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}