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Jose Ignacio Cabezon. Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism). Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2017. viii + 617 pp. $39.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-61429-350-7. Reviewed by Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette (Ghent University) Published on H-Buddhism (March, 2021) Commissioned by Ben Van Overmeire (Duke Kunshan University) There was perhaps no better time for José Ig‐ spanning classical genres of literature in three an‐ nacio Cabezón’s book, Sexuality in Classical South cient Asian languages, Pāli, Sanskrit, and Tibetan. Asian Buddhism, to appear. The year 2017, follow‐ While Cabezón provides a broad overview of the ing the exposure of the widespread sexual-abuse rich perspectives on sexuality ancient Indian allegations against Harvey Weinstein, saw the sud‐ Buddhist texts offer, he rarely takes a definite posi‐ den rise to fame of the #MeToo movement, an in‐ tion on contemporary debates. It is after all to be ternational effort to promote justice for those suf‐ expected of a history manual that it will open fering various forms of sexual abuse. Since then, doors to dialogue rather than close them. Hence the need has been felt for informed discussions on Cabezón’s book can be well integrated into broad‐ themes such as sexual violence, sexual diversity, er discussions on ritual purity, ritual taxonomy, or and sexual discrimination, to name but a few even on Buddhist Madhyamaka, for example, as it areas of concern related to gender and sexuality provides textual evidence for a variety of hermen‐ in general. Cabezón’s work is carefully designed to eutical strategies in matters of sex. The book is provide historical background precisely on such is‐ driven by the laudable conviction that “any seri‐ sues relevant to contemporary international com‐ ous study of Buddhism and sexuality must take the munities of scholars and followers of Buddhism. As classical texts into account” (p. 5). a reference work, this book is set to remain a Upon opening the book, I found it rather un‐ monument in the field for a long time. Though not fortunate that the table of contents has been de‐ totally virgin, as pioneering work had already be‐ signed as a very minimalistic account of the whole gun with scholars like Bernard Faure and Janet Gy‐ work. Each of the eight chapters enumerated atso, for example, the field had not yet produced therein have numerous and meaningful subdivi‐ anything close to the towering and detailed 617- sions and it would have been most convenient, in page-long overview presented here by Cabezón, the spirit of a reference book, to include them in H-Net Reviews the table’s listing to facilitate browsing. In an at‐ pected, is quite colorful, too. According to the tempt to provide such an overview, this review will Smṛtyupasthāna, for example, sex in hell is com‐ therefore present a broad sketch of the book’s con‐ pulsive and thwarted. It ends in torture. Worst of tent while trying to make its subdivisions more ap‐ all, it is repetitive and cyclical (pp. 47-48)! Sexual parent. I will focus my comments on a few exem‐ sinners are principally found in hot hell no. 3, plary issues while presenting the main topics in or‐ “compression” or “crushing,” and in hot hell no. 7, der, chapter after chapter. I must apologize in ad‐ “really hot,” the second worst of all hells (p. 48). vance for the length it requires. My general con‐ There are various subhells suited for men who en‐ cern here is to present to the reader an exhaustive, gage in different forms of misconduct, including useful, and traceable overview of the wide cover‐ oral and anal sex, the rape of women or of young age of literature and problematics assembled un‐ boys, bestiality, and so on (p. 48); there are special der Cabezón’s praiseworthy title. hells for lustful monks as well (p. 49). The Great Lo‐ To anchor the Buddhist discourse on sexuality tus Hell (mahāpadma), for example, is the abode of in the broad thought-paradigm of its plurimillenni‐ the latter, along with homosexuals (p. 50). Men al tradition, Cabezón usefully begins his study with who seduce nuns (p. 55), monks who seduce lay an exploration of the Buddhist cosmology of sex women (p. 55), men who rape laywomen (p. 56), (chapter 1). He further divides the literature women who tempt monks (p. 56)—the book covers grouped in this section depending on whether the the karmic outcomes imagined for a complex ty‐ cosmological concerns of the texts are “temporal” pology. On the basis of this, Cabezón speculates or “spatial.” Within the temporal passages, one that the rape of nuns must have been widespread finds myths recalling how human beings progress‐ (p. 63). He also posits a relation between the ively fell from subtle to ever grosser bodily forms, Buddhist how greed or craving (p. 22) for food allegedly dharmaśāstra-s (p. 67). In conclusion, Cabezón bound humans to the earth and made them lose stresses that the strangeness of the hell literature their natural luminescence while gaining in bad reflects the concerns of their likely authors: habits. In such literature, it is pleasure, and not monks/men (p. 72). Most important, to recast such procreation, that is the main purpose of sex (p. 32). discussions within the monastic worldview in Notions of romantic love are simply absent (p. 33). which they took place, Cabezón remarks that, in Spatial cosmological concerns discuss the various general, the Buddhist path functions to reverse the Buddhist realms of existence, including the realms devolutionary momentum of history that is articu‐ of form, the higher realms, and the hells. Cabezón lated by such cosmologies (p. 76), to transcend highlights the types of sexual activities conceived time and space and the cosmological-historical or‐ as taking place therein. We learn that higher spirits der altogether (p. 77). In other words, one should enjoy more refined types of sex (p. 38); that sexual not be surprised to notice that Buddhist monasti‐ misconduct is unknown in the form realm, while cism mirrors the imagined pure way of life of the sexuality is totally absent from the realm of the first humans. We have here a telling illustration of formless gods onward. In brief, sexuality prevails the famous Eliadian ritual-effort at the reversal of only in the desire realms, where there is an implicit time, supported by an implicit taxonomy of purity. hierarchy, however, concerning whose sex is the Cabezón generally shies away from such theoriza‐ best. Ages before the advent of the internet, for tion, however, as I will demonstrate further on. hell literature and that of the Buddhist cosmologists, the best sex was considered The second chapter takes us to a broad discus‐ to be that which requires the fewest senses, the sion on desire and human sexuality according to least effort, and the smallest amount of physical Buddhist sources of a more psychological and contact (p. 42). The discussion on the hells, as ex‐ philosophical bent. This section is perhaps the 2 H-Net Reviews most useful to frame the ideological underpin‐ ancillary factors that contribute to sexual desire nings of Buddhist sexual theories in religious stud‐ (pp. 138-141) and about sex and love (pp. 142-162). ies classes. Of crucial significance is the notion We learn that the “function of desire” is to attach the mind Buddhists the belief that marriage did not require to the object, binding or fastening it to the wished- love, and that as long as one was not violating for thing (p. 98). Cabezón highlights five recurring conventional morality, there was nothing ignoble Buddhist views toward “desire”: 1) Sense desire oc‐ or unethical about having sex for the sheer pleas‐ curs only when in contact with the beautiful or ure of it (p. 145). Finally, Cabezón assesses the agreeable; (p. 101). 2) Desire involves the misrep‐ strengths and weaknesses of the Buddhist doctrine resentation of the object; (p. 102). 3) When a mind of sexual desire. According to him, its strength lies predisposed to reifying objects experiences some‐ in considering that sex is for pleasure, allowing for thing as pleasurable, this causes the mind to dwell a candid acknowledgement of the tremendous di‐ on the object or to “stick” to it, refusing to let go; (p. versity of sexual desires (pp. 162-163). The simpli‐ 104). 4) Desire leads to a compulsion to acquire the city and parsimony of the Buddhist theory also object so as to realize the pleasure that is thought play in its favor in the eye of the author (p. 164). to be associated with it; and (p. 104). 5) Desire is un‐ However, this simplicity has a downside (p. 165). able to bring lasting happiness (p. 105). The section The fact that all lust is seen as coming from sense moves on to discuss the widespread practice of perception is too simplistic for Cabezón, for whom prostitution in ancient India (pp. 106-114). Sexual it appears “narcissistic and genitally obsessed,” ob‐ desire and the sexual act then come into focus livious of any notion of “mutuality” (wanting to with Cabezón’s own attempt at formulating an en‐ give pleasure to someone else) (p. 168). He non‐ compassing Buddhist definition of “sexual desire.” etheless concedes that “it is hard to imagine In brief, “sexual desire is a yearning for bodily someone really having sex apart from some kind pleasure. It can either be self-directed (autoerotic) of physical contact” (p. 167). On this last comment, or directed at another. In the former case, it is one may observe that new developments in artifi‐ yearning for or relishing of the pleasurable tactile cial intelligence may eventually trigger Cabezón’s sensation that results from self-stimulation of imagination. that Buddhists shared with non- one’s own genitals. In the latter case, it is a yearn‐ With chapter 3 we move into a general discus‐ ing for and relishing of the pleasurable feelings sion on the function of monasticism and its meth‐ that come from erotic flirting, nongenital tactile ods in dealing with sexuality. Cabezón lists three contact, or genital-tactile pleasure achieved in de‐ types of interventions generally considered by pendence on another” (p. 116). Sexual desire is al‐ Buddhist authors to deal with lust: 1) to take dis‐ ways object directed (p. 124) and that object can be tance from the object of desire (p. 175); 2) to apply human, animal, or even a spirit (p. 124). The same, appropriate antidotes (pp. 175-177); 3) and, for the the opposite, or the third sex may be its object (p. most advanced, to meditate on emptiness and no- 124), just as it may be a whole body or a part of it self (p. 177). Moral discipline, concentration, and (p. 135). In itself, sexual pleasure is a mental state wisdom are then presented as complementary and is therefore nonphysical (p. 126). Cabezón strategies for dealing with desire (p. 177-201), fol‐ then examines what the monastic code (Vinaya) lowed by a discussion on the difficulty of celibacy has to say about sexual desire (pp. 132-138). Basic‐ (pp. 201-206) and the alleged efficiency of monasti‐ ally, if the act does not involve desire, it is not the cism in dealing with desire (pp. 207-219). This sec‐ type of sex that results in “defeat” (breaking one's tion also contains an interesting theoretical dis‐ vows) (p. 138). The discussion moves on to exam‐ cussion on the relation between the Vinaya (as a ine what scholastic sources have to say about the legalistic ritual code) and Buddhist soteriology (pp. 3 H-Net Reviews 195-200). Cabezón argues that “there is no reason Along with chapter 2, chapter 5 is perhaps not to see the Vinaya as operating both function‐ most appealing to scholars versed in Buddhist ally/sociologically and soteriologically” (p. 198). philosophy. Its general thematic is the antidote of While I agree with Cabezón, I believe that the argu‐ wisdom as a means to deconstruct sexual desire. ment could have been made stronger by involving The basic principle here is that the most funda‐ ritual theories in the discussion, if only to illustrate mental cause of desire is delusion, “ignorance” (p. how legalism, ritualism, and soteriology com‐ 250). Ignorance requires a firm and solid object to monly work in tandem to anchor metaphysical cling on to. It literally creates objects (p. 256). beliefs in concrete communal experience. Yet, as These mental fabrications require a thorough de‐ noted already, Cabezón seldom ventures onto construction, through analysis. Here comes a sec‐ broader comparativist theories. The scope of the tion on Nāgārjuna and his deconstruction of de‐ book being broad enough already, one can under‐ sire, stressing the therapeutic value of analysis (pp. stand this theoretical stance. Yet I feel that, at 257-60). This section is followed by the deconstruc‐ times, a broader theoretical scope would have tion of desire in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra (pp. been possible without losing focus. A further theor‐ 260-263); by how Madhyamaka deconstruction ization of the intersection of ritual norms and eliminates desire (pp. 263-266); by how to theorize sexual taboos could be done, however, in the con‐ the emptiness of bodies and the reappropriation of text of a religion class on Buddhist sexuality in beauty (pp. 266-273); by how Mahāyāna scriptures South Asia. in general, and Madhyamaka in particular deal with sex and gender dichotomies (pp. 274-278); and Chapter 4 is dedicated to those practices which aim at curbing lust through meditation. Within this finally, by what to do with Āryadeva’s deconstruc‐ are listed practices that fight desire through con‐ tion of the self through gender (pp. 278- 280). The templation (pp. 223-27) and those meditations last subsection is most fascinating, dealing with which focus on the impurity of the body (pp. sex in the aftermath of wisdom, the Mahāyāna an‐ 227-236). As is to be expected of a literature pro‐ tinomianism and its control (pp. 280-296). Again, duced by monks, the texts depicting such practices Cabezón formulates a general hermeneutic prin‐ put greater emphasis on the foulness of the female ciple of broad significance, this time concerning body (p. 228). Interestingly, Cabezón explains that, the theorization and hierarchical classification of because they fail to address the most fundamental competing claims to authority coming from within cause of desire, that is, ignorance, these forms of Buddhism. “When we examine the Buddhist tradi‐ meditation are “at most balms that bring tempor‐ tion as a whole, we find that what is proscribed by ary relief to the symptoms of desire” (pp. 238-239). one law is often prescribed by another, higher law. Following a presentation of the synthetic treat‐ Hence what is antinomian from the earlier ment of such practices by the Tibetan author Po‐ Buddhist ethical perspective comes to be con‐ towa (pp. 239-241), the chapter concludes with a re‐ sidered 'pronomian' from the perspective of a new flection on the general mentalist attitude of nomos—in this case, the law of the Mahāyāna” (p. Buddhist authors toward desire. Cabezón stresses 286). One is here tempted to see this hermeneutic that further dialogue on desire between Buddhism principle as another reflection of the most com‐ and modern science, and especially with psycho‐ mon hierarchical classification scheme found in logy, are a desideratum (p. 245), but he himself of‐ South Asian philosophical doxographies: the latter fers little in this respect but preliminary lines of in‐ truth expands the previous one. Pedagogy and quiry summarizing his previous points. rhetoric are here intertwined. Within this last sec‐ tion one also finds a brief reference to recent sex 4 H-Net Reviews scandals, but this angle is not deeply explored. (p. “other” (pp. 379-385). An expose on sexual devi‐ 292). ance and social marginalization in the broader so‐ Sexed bodies, gender, and sexual desires take cial context of South Asia follows (pp. 385-389), and center stage in the sixth chapter. Here, again, we learn that Buddhist texts never challenge Buddhist speculation is not homogeneous (p. 300). Brahmanical literature in their denigration of To launch the discussion, Cabezón presents an queer people (p. 386). As an aside comes a brief but overview of the European and North American insightful discussion on lists in Buddhist literature theoretical perspectives on these issues (pp. (391-393). Then, the anti-queer rhetoric behind the 300-305), followed by a discussion on gender in se‐ ethical and cognitive denigration of paṇḍaka-s is lected non-Buddhist literary genres (pp. 305-312), made clear (pp. 389-391) before the chapter moves before getting deeper into the various degrees of on to an enumeration of lists of bodies classified the theorization of gender found in selected as queer found in various literatures: lists of queer Buddhist sources (pp. 312-320). An interlude on the people in the medical literature (pp. 393-403); Buddha’s sex ensues (pp. 320-326), moving on to a queerness in the Nārada Smṛti (pp. 403-406); Pāli more sobering overview of gender norms from the Buddhist lists (406-413); saṇḍha-s (impotent or cas‐ treatment of celibacy in the Vinaya (pp. 326-333). trated men) and their relationship to paṇḍaka-s Cabezón notes that the Vinaya’s treatment of wo‐ (pp. 413-421); the Sanskrit paṇḍaka lists (pp. men’s sexuality is highly androcentric (p. 329) and, 422-432); and the five female paṇḍaka-s (pp. that, when sexual norms are constructed negat‐ 433-441). According to Cabezón, the typology of ively, the door is open for loopholes to be exploited male paṇḍaka-s allows us to deduce what it means (p. 333). The following subsection explains how the to be a normal male (p. 431). Normative male sexu‐ Buddhist tetralemma (catuṣkoti/fourfold negation) al desire is, first and foremost, the desire to penet‐ serves as an organizing principle grounding dis‐ rate. As for normative women, they are those wo‐ cussions on sex, gender, and desire (pp. 334-350). men who offer to men an “unambiguous, hospit‐ This discussion is meaningful for the wider prac‐ able, and nonthreatening receptacle for the phal‐ tice of categorization within Mahāyāna Buddhism. lus” (p. 439). When it comes to discussing the neu‐ Here, Cabezón also argues that a case can be made ter gender, Mahāyāna antinomianism, and Tantra for a Buddhist acceptance of a third gender (p. (pp. 441-447), we are reminded that “nowhere do 345). Then the Abhidharmika view on related top‐ we find the slightest hint that a tantrika ever took ics is enunciated (pp. 350-360) prior to a discussion (or could take) a person of the same sex as a part‐ on the male and female faculties in the Pāli tradi‐ ner in sexual yoga” (p. 446). In the last section of tion (pp. 361-367). The chapter concludes on the chapter, on the end(s) of deviance (pp. 448-451), Buddhist theories concerning the role of sexual de‐ we read that taxonomies of queerness had a prac‐ sire in conception and how sex and gender arise in tical reason. The clergy needed to know whom not fetuses (pp. 367-371). to ordain in order to avoid ill-repute (p. 446). How‐ ever, Cabezón also alludes to the possibility that Chapter 7 offers a detailed treatment of the such theories betray deeper motives of social en‐ Buddhist construction of sexual deviance. The gineering—to create an ideal community cleansed overall focus here rests on queerness and queers of deviant bodies and abnormal sexual desires, for (paṇḍaka-s). We are first introduced to a queer example. For this reason, he suggests that the time story from the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya (pp. has come to challenge the assumptions behind 373-379) before proceeding to a discussion of the these views. He benevolently recognizes that hypothesis that the chief purpose of the Buddhist Mahāyāna Buddhism offers a fertile ground on typologies of queerness is the control of the sexual which to elaborate such a “queer Buddhist theo‐ 5 H-Net Reviews logy” discourse (p. 447). Yet he does not take up the unclean which are imperfect members of their challenge of enunciating what such a discourse class.”[2] In other words, in many known ritualist would look like. Unfortunately, Cabezón’s rather mindsets, strange crossovers, mixtures, and simil‐ descriptive enunciation of Buddhist treatments of ar hybridizations of preestablished categories set queerness does not make a full argument on its in scriptures are ritually unclean and improper for own—in favor of reforms for example—but leaves holy life. If the ideological principles at play behind it short of a strong rallying point: a conclusion. ingrained hygienic views are, as Douglas suggests, This is perhaps better left to be done in the derived from ancient myths and ritual customs in classroom or in conferences, in fact, using order to micro-legislate the behaviors of entire Cabezón’s book to facilitate otherwise difficult dis‐ communities, even up to their minute dietary cussions. Cabezón’s caution is appreciated. habits, the same likely holds true when it comes to A quantity of queer details found in literature other hygienic concerns, such as those related to is not in itself an explanation for their meaning in sexuality. Integrity of form, or conformism, is a human history, nor does it alone offer any reason prime ritual concern in human cultures world‐ as to why things should be different. Here again wide. It tends to reverberate in diverse metaphys‐ one feels that, in the context of a classroom, ics as well as in politics. Read in the context of ritu‐ Cabezón’s arguments could be engaged further in al taboo, the Vinaya ban on queerness and abnor‐ dialogue with well-known theories in religious mality reveals a common human attitude towards studies. In this case, I particularly suggest in‐ impurity and dirt, a mindset in tune with deep psy‐ volving it with the kind of conceptual analysis of chological habits of severe consequences in the so‐ the notions of “pollution” and “taboo” found in cial environment of yesterday, today, and tomor‐ Mary Douglas’s Purity and Danger (1966). The ad‐ row. If these habits were to be acknowledged for vantage would be to sustain Cabezón’s considera‐ what the theoretical study of religion allows us to tions on the ritual context of these discriminative see them as, as expressions of taboos—perhaps the taxonomies of queerness. After all, Cabezón insists equivalent of “mental formations” (saṃskāra-s) in that the Buddhist ban against sexual minorities is theoretical Buddhism—for example, grounded in an idea that belongs to the Vinaya (p. 451). This col‐ cultural notions of ritual purity, then Mahāyāna lection of texts, as we know, is primarily vested in Buddhism could indeed, as Cabezón suggests, offer legislating the collective performance of monastic a fertile ground for their refutation, through an rituals and routines, telling what to do and what analytical contemplation of a Nāgārjunian kind, not to, in different contexts built out of narratives. for example. However, once undertaken, it is likely When it comes to their ban on deviant bodies and that this same analytical criticism eventually abnormal desires among the members of the leads to a much broader reform than a “queer Buddhist monastic community, one may insight‐ Buddhist theology.” For, since a renewed perspect‐ fully draw parallels with Douglas’s general law ive on “gender,” “hybridity,” and “normativity” about clean and unclean meats in Leviticus, would unavoidably affect the entire taxonomy of wherein, as a rule, hybrids and other confusions Buddhism, and since taxonomy is so intimately re‐ are abominated. “To be holy is to be whole, to be lated to ritual practice, such a theoretical shift, one; holiness is unity, integrity, perfection of the in‐ even if it appears to deal only in abstract categor‐ dividual and of the kind,” she observes, while ies, would reverberate throughout the “reformed” pointing out that dietary rules merely adapt the Buddhist church, in deed and creed. In other metaphor of holiness, that is, not being “mixed up” words, while it is conceivable to imagine a pro- or “confused,” both being signs of decay and per‐ queer reform of Buddhism, it is impossible to pre‐ version.[1] She later adds that “those species are dict how this reformed religion will develop in the 6 H-Net Reviews future. The general caution of Cabezón, felt [1]. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Ana‐ throughout the book, is thus again warranted. If a lysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: queer Buddhist Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), 55. theology takes roots, would Buddhism be the same or different? What would [2]. Ibid., 66. Nāgārjuna say? The final chapter of Cabezón’s book is dedic‐ ated to Buddhist sexual ethics and the evolution of views on sexual misconduct. Michel Foucault’s the‐ ories on the power dynamics at play behind West‐ ern shifts of discourses on sexuality are introduced herein. Cabezón wonders whether similar shifts in discourses can be noticed in India. This section “traces the evolution of the doctrine of sexual mis‐ conduct from the Pāli sources through a sampling of Indian Sanskrit works down to the writings of Tibetan scholars” (p. 456). It is subdivided as fol‐ low: lay sexual ethics in the Pāli Suttas and Jātakas (pp. 456-470); wives and their classification (pp. 471-485); Indian scholastic literature on sexual misconduct (pp. 485-508); the Tibetan sources (pp. 508-519); and the conclusion: Buddhist sexual eth‐ ics then and now (pp. 519-528). In summary, Cabezón concludes that it is the Sanskrit scholastic tradition that is principally responsible for the more restrictive sexual ethic that became stand‐ ard in later Indian and Tibetan Buddhism (p. 508). Among the Tibetan sources, the most complete and systematic treatment comes from Tsongkhapa’s Lam Rim Chenmo (p. 510). Can Cabezón’s book be easily introduced in the context of a standard academic course on reli‐ gion or Buddhism? It undoubtedly can and should. For the study of religion, it provides ample materi‐ als to illustrate the significance of symbolic tax‐ onomies in defining ritual and social norms, for example. The style of the work as well as its main topics are accessible even to nonspecialists. As I hope to have made clear, the scope of this research is of the same magnitude as its academic signific‐ ance. Once more, José Ignacio Cabezón has both enriched and indebted his field. Notes 7 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-buddhism Citation: Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette. Review of Cabezon, Jose Ignacio. Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism). H-Buddhism, H-Net Reviews. March, 2021. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55945 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 8