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The Daily Dharma – September 11, 2021

Spirit of Sports Painting by Joel Jerry

Continuing from When you Greet Me I Bow . . .

The Buddha respected sexuality very deeply, I think, and saw its potential for disaster. He felt that though the spiritual path naturally and beautifully contains an erotic element, the chances for perversion of the erotic are very great. Because of this he taught the practice of celibacy as the path toward love. In fact, I would say that if celibacy is not a loving and warm practice it is not a true celibacy, it is only a justification for a coldness or distance that one naturally prefers, perhaps out of a fear of others. But a true celibate practitioner, because they are not attached to any one or several particular persons, is fee to develop a universal love and warmth that includes self and everyone, all held in the basket of the Way.

Norman Fischer
from When You Greet Me I Bow; Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen
Chapter: Falling in Love