BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1Private means private to the eye and private to the ear. Two people sitting in a placeprivate to the eye means that no one else can see if they wink, raise their eyebrows,or nod (§). If they are in a place private to the ear, no one else can hear what theysay in a normal voice.A secluded seat is one behind a wall, a closed door, a large bush, or anything at allthat would afford them enough privacy to commit the sexual act.According to the Commentary, private to the eye is the essential factor here. Even ifa knowledgeable man is within hearing but not within sight — i.e., he is sitting justoutside the door to the private place — that does not exempt one from the offensehere.The Vibhaṅga states that the presence of a man within sight absolves one from thisfactor only if he is knowledgeable enough to know what is and is not lewd. TheCommentary adds that he must also be awake and neither blind nor deaf. Even adistracted or drowsy man, though, if he meets these criteria, would absolve onefrom this factor.Intention. The non-offense clauses give an exemption for a bhikkhu "not aiming atprivacy," but the Vibhaṅga nowhere explains what this means. In light of itsdefinition of private, "aiming at privacy" could mean simply not wanting anyone nearenough to hear what he is saying or to see him wink, raise his eyebrow, or nod.The Commentary offers an alternative explanation, defining aiming at privacy asbeing impelled by any defilement related to sex, but this explanation opens as manyquestions as it tries to resolve. Does it refer solely to the desire for intercourse or toother more subtle sexually-related desires such as those listed in AN VII.47? That isthe discourse describing a brahman or contemplative who observes the celibate lifeby not engaging in sexual intercourse but whose celibacy is "broken, cracked,spotted, and blemished" by the joy he finds in any of the following activities:1) He consents to being anointed, rubbed down, bathed, and massaged bya woman.2) He jokes, plays, and amuses himself with a woman.3) He stares into a woman's eyes.4) He listens to the voices of women outside a wall as they laugh, speak,sing, or cry.5) He recollects how he used to laugh, converse, and play with a woman.6) He sees a householder or householder's son enjoying himself endowedwith the five sensual pleasures.7) He practices the celibate life intent on being born in one or another of thedeva hosts, (thinking) "By this virtue or practice or abstinence or celibate lifeI will be a deva of one sort or another."The joy a person finds in any of these things is termed a sexual fetter (methunasaṃyoga)that prevents him from gaining release from birth, aging, and death, andfrom the entire round of suffering. If the Commentary is indeed referring to this sortof thing when it mentions "defilements related to sexual intercourse" (methuna-344