The Sins of Illicit Sexual Conduct and the Blessings of Chastity

General Buddhist scriptures and treatises commonly discuss the various sins of illicit sexual conduct, and the various blessings of refraining from it. Take adultery, for instance: once you engage in it, you live in constant dread—dread that the other party's spouse will retaliate, perhaps even kill you. Look at how many crimes of passion happen today simply because a man toys with a woman: she has her own husband who won't tolerate the affair, and he comes after the offender. Many such cases arise from this very dynamic. If you keep a mistress outside your marriage, your relationship with your spouse is bound to suffer, and your home will be filled with discord.

After all, romantic love among human beings has an inherent quality—people naturally want it to be exclusive. If you scatter your affections, chasing one lover after another, your family life will inevitably fall apart. Worse, illicit sexual conduct awakens your baser instincts while your virtuous side gradually fades.

Once you fall into this pattern, both body and mind are damaged, and your health deteriorates. The pleasure you pursue comes at an enormous cost.

There was once a famous case: in the imperial palace, many of the court ladies were listless, sallow, and emaciated. The emperor found this puzzling—they ate well, so why were they so unhealthy? He asked the imperial physician what to do. The physician said, "That's easy. I'll write a prescription and they'll recover right away." "What kind of prescription?" asked the emperor. "Ten handsome men." When the ten young men were brought in, the women immediately brightened—chatting, laughing, eating heartily. After a while, their complexions were rosy and their figures full and healthy. But behind them stood ten men who were little more than skin and bone, looking barely human. "What are those?" asked the emperor. "The dregs of the medicine," replied the physician. You see—the ones who provide such "pleasure" ruin themselves in the process.

This is why Master Yinguang observed that very few people actually live out their full natural lifespan. Premature death is rampant: forty percent die directly because of illicit sexual conduct, and another forty percent die indirectly from it. Only twenty percent manage to live out their destined lifespan.

Premature death comes from indulgence in illicit sex and unchecked desire, which ruin one's health. Sudden and violent deaths arise from the same cause. On top of that, illicit sexual conduct demands money—you must keep paying out, and your wealth drains away day and night. You're also terrified of being found out, so you act furtively, which only makes others more suspicious. You lose all standing in your own home. Think about it: if your children see you engaging in such conduct, they'll look down on you. And when you try to correct them, they'll say, "Look who's talking—what about you?" You'll have nothing to say in reply. Relatives and friends will shun you as well. Such behavior plants the seeds for all kinds of karmic entanglement.

In the end, when you die, you fall into hell. When you emerge from hell, you may be reborn as a prostitute, or as a woman forced to share a single husband with many others. If you are reborn as a man, your own wife and daughters will be unchaste. All of these are consequences of illicit sexual conduct, ripening in this life and the next. This is why the ancients said, "Lust is the foremost of all evils"—among every kind of wrongdoing, illicit sexual conduct is ranked first.

If you refrain from illicit sexual conduct, your merit will grow. Others will praise you, and you need not fear retaliation or legal consequences. Your body and mind will find peace, and after death you will rise to the heavenly realms. A life of chastity, with the precept against illicit sexual conduct intact, becomes the very fuel for rebirth in the Pure Land. So this precept must be upheld firmly. If we give in to this craving, let the passage on the third evil, the third pain, and the third burning serve as a mirror for us all.

We all wish to seek happiness and avoid suffering, yet so often we get it backwards. Indulging in illicit sexual conduct brings intense suffering in its wake. We must remain alert to this—especially today, when such behavior has become all too common. It's even dressed up as "modern sensibility": this way of life is presented as romantic, even glamorous, as if a successful man without a mistress were somehow lacking. The inversion has gone very far. As Buddhist practitioners, we must keep our heads clear and refuse to be led by these worldly notions.