Category: Buddhist Ethics

All lay Buddhists are supposed to follow the Five Precepts. The third precept is to abstain from sexual misconduct. When the details of what counts as sexual misconduct we read passages such as this:

They give up sexual misconduct. They don’t have sexual relations with women who have their mother, father, both mother and father, brother, sister, relatives, or clan as guardian. They don’t have sexual relations with a woman who is protected on principle, or who has a husband, or whose violation is punishable by law, or even one who has been garlanded as a token of betrothal (AN 10.176 PMT)

It is important to notice what is considered sexual misconduct by early Buddhism.… Read the rest

Although the Buddha never discussed abortion directly, his teachings have direct application to the subject.

The Buddha said:

Bhikkhus, the destruction of life, repeatedly pursued, developed, and cultivated, is conducive to hell, to the animal realm, and to the sphere of afflicted spirits; for one reborn as a human being the destruction of life at minimum conduces to a short life span (AN 8.40 Bodhi).

The Buddha was very clear, the “destruction of life” has serious karmic consequences.… Read the rest