Luang Por Liem: The Ways of the Peaceful - Wat Pah Nanachat

Restraint
Luang Por Liem gave the following advice when replying
to questions of the monks and novices at Buddha-
Bodhivana Monastery, Melbourne, in May 2006.
To practice Dhamma means protection. It makes one strong
and creates solidity and stability. This depends on conducting
oneself with restraint, as it is mentioned in a principle we are
using, called patimokkhasamvara, to practice restraint within the
training rules of a monk (patimokkha).
We can also look closer at the akaraniyakicca, the things
never to be done by a monk, that are about actions in which our
conduct needs to be different from that of the people in the world,
householders, or average unenlightened beings who are
dominated by the powers of desire, sensuality and lustful feelings.
It is in the first one of the “things never to be done”, that the
Buddha spoke about interactions with the opposite sex, namely
forbidding sexual intercourse. This goes against the grain. It really
feels like this goes against our nature, but we resist following it in
order to change our habits of acting like people in the world. We
don’t give sexual activities much importance, as they are all about
dirty things. One can say that they bring us into situations where
we lose our freedom. Seeing it this way maybe helps us
understand this point better.
What is called “restraint” is all about changing one’s habits,
coming out of darkness and seeking the light – or the bright and
the pure, as one might call it. Maybe we don’t yet see and
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