Not A Shame

Met an 80-year-old Bikuni on the sidewalk. Happily talking about her Dharma sisters, she kept using the word "single" and finally reached a conclusion, "Most are single, though some were married..."

"Were you married?" I smiled.

"You guess?" She seemed nervous.

"Well, Lord Buddha was once married." I meant the royal wedding.

"Oh no, no," She became even more nervous than before, "he just pointed his fingers at her and it all just happened!" She meant the birth legend of Ven. Arhat Rahula.

"Yes, that's right." I smiled again. Wedding in terms of social-legal meaning or biological-reproductive metaphor, it's not a shame. No need to get anxious over it, even after the Tonsure ceremony. Society as a whole respects married couples as parents or expectant parents, not people indulging in desires.

Even you got married or fell in love countless times in the bitter sea of Samsara, you will still become Buddhas in the end. Through fingers or other part of human bodies, reproduction process is as illusory as the cycle of life and death.

後記：異性戀家庭機制於在家與出家兩個層次展現種種價值矛盾。一個極端是高調公開推廣宣揚並肯定淫欲的繁殖功能，一個極端是突顯貪染惑業並以欲界業報為恥。虛妄的心念呈現兩極化的價值定位：完全不以為恥或深感慚愧羞恥。世俗有世俗的共業業緣與國家機器運作方式。佛陀都親自示現藉由皇家婚禮娶妻生子的如幻法相，有過婚姻生育經歷的出家眾大可坦然，無庸苦惱。