I have always had problems with Buddhist Precept #3: avoid sexual misconduct. So what does that mean … exactly? The problem I have is that this precept was created a few centuries ago. From my point of view, the Buddha could not have imagined the number and forms of sexual visual images available today: MPS movies, pictures, online reading material, books, magazines, cell phones and various other items. Is it possible t still retain the same intent so many years ago?
For instance, the movie ‘Mystic River,’ implies sex of young children while the very graphic ‘Gia’ focused on the horrors of AIDS. Monster, Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who became a serial killer while Saving Face is a wonderful love story that addresses the pros and cons of Chinese-American family life and specifically how Wil (Michelle Krusiec) navigates her world as a lesbian.
On the other hand, the $10 – $14 billion dollar porn industry is simply making a profit versus saying much, if anything of value. One cannot tell Hustler, Playboy, Playgirl, and others really promote anything of value, although Playboy has said to have some well written, no sexual, content and hard hitting journalism. But the image remains the same.
In the end, precept 3 has been problematic for me. I guess in my world, for good or bad, I had to simply limit the precept accordingly:
We can either treat other people and other elements of our environment as objects of our calculation, exploitation and consumption, or we can see other people as we see ourselves.
While I am heterosexual, I want to be just like the characters in the movie ‘Saving Face’ and continually move toward seeing people as I want them to see me … regardless of how darn difficult it is.