The Beauty of Sila Ajahn Jayasaro

The Beauty of Sila
Ajahn Jayasaro 

"The third principle underlying the life of a samana deals with integrity, restraint and chasteness in matters related to the sexual instincts of the body. That a group of young men — most of you young, Ajahn Vipassi and I are getting on a bit — are able to lead a completely celibate life, this is almost unbelievable to many people in the world. They assume that we have some kind of sexual release, that we must have homosexual relationships or else that we masturbate. They don’t think it’s possible to live this way. People these days can hardly credit the idea that a community of men can live in a completely chaste way, and not be utterly screwed-up, repressed or misogynist. Maybe we are! — if we were repressed we wouldn’t realize it would we? But I don’t think so. I think our community is living the ‘Holy Life’ in a resolute but intelligent way. And though it’s not difficult all the time, for almost everyone there are periods when it is definitely challenging. It’s a struggle, and it is fitting to feel a sense of wholesome pride in the fact that you can do it."

The Beauty of Sila

Ajahn Jayasaro 

http://www.watpahnanachat.org/beauty-of-sila

Inset: Ajahn Jayasaro, Ajahn Siripanyo and Prayudh Payutto (Somdet Phra Buddhakosajarn). Prayudh Payutto is a renowned Buddhist scholar in Thailand, he holds the rank somdet phra rachakhana. Ajahn Jayasaro was the abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat from 1997-2002. Ajahn Siripanyo is the only son of Ananda Krishnan, one of the wealthiest Malaysian.

7 January 2023