Four Types of Objects of Sexual Misconduct

Original text of Section Three of the Sūtra on the Karmic Aspects of the Five Precepts for Upāsakas: 佛告诸比丘。优婆塞不应生欲想欲觉。尚不应生心。何况起欲恚痴结缚。根本不净恶业。是中犯邪淫有四处。男女黄门二根。女者人女。非人女畜生女。男者人男。非人男畜生男。黄门二根。亦同于上类。

Explanation: The Buddha told the bhikṣus: An upāsaka should not give rise to lustful thoughts and lustful feelings; he should not even give rise to a lustful mind, let alone give rise to the bonds of greed, hatred, and delusion, and the fundamentally impure evil karma. Within this fundamentally impure evil karma, there are four kinds of objects with which one commits the offense of sexual misconduct: men, women, paṇḍakas, and those possessing both male and female sexual organs. When the object of sexual misconduct is a woman, this includes human women, non-human women, and female animals. When the object of sexual misconduct is a man, this includes human men, non-human men, and male animals. Paṇḍakas are likewise divided into human paṇḍakas, non-human paṇḍakas, and animal paṇḍakas. Those with both sexual organs include humans with both organs, non-humans with both organs, and animals with both organs.

Fundamentally impure evil karma refers to the defiled evil karma created by the fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. Other afflictions, such as the major, medium, and minor derivative afflictions, are all derived from the fundamental afflictions and are subordinate to them. Therefore, the evil karma created by derivative afflictions is light, while the evil karma created by fundamental afflictions is heavy. The arising of evil karma first comes from the stirring of the mind and the arising of thoughts. After lustful thoughts and a lustful mind arise, the karma of sexual misconduct is then created. The mind is the root, and karma is the adjunct; the mind is subtle, while the adjunct karma is coarse. In cultivation, one first subdues the coarse actions, and then subdues the mind. Therefore, if one cannot even subdue the coarse actions, the subtle mind will be even harder to subdue.

The object with which each sentient being commits sexual misconduct is not necessarily of the opposite sex; it may be of the same sex, a paṇḍaka, a person with both sexual organs, or one may simultaneously have sexual relations with both the same sex and the opposite sex. The object of sexual misconduct may also not be of the same species but of a different species, such as humans with non-humans, humans with animals, or non-humans with animals. There are extremely many kinds of non-humans, including ghosts, spirits, immortals, and so on. I once saw in a monastery a mentally deranged woman carrying a ghost fetus; in the middle of the night, a headless male ghost would often come to visit this woman, and this woman could not distinguish at all between good and bad, right and wrong. Her family came to the monastery wanting to abort the ghost fetus, and sought a spirit medium at the monastery to persuade the ghost to consent to the abortion. There was also a woman who was pregnant with a snake fetus—a python fetus belonging to the immortal class—and the python immortal also often came to visit that woman in the middle of the night. Such women have extremely heavy karmic obstructions, brought about by extremely heavy karmic offenses of sexual misconduct from past lives.

A paṇḍaka refers to a class of beings whose male or female sexual organs are incomplete or defective, who cannot have normal sexual organ function, and whose physiological functions are limited. Some of them are congenitally without male or female organs, and some have been castrated later in life, losing their male or female organs, or having them become incomplete or defective. Such beings also have very heavy karmic obstructions, all caused in past lives by sexual misconduct and other such reasons.

Because persons with both sexual organs simultaneously possess both male and female organs, they are inherently neither male nor female, but there is also a predominance, with one gender being primary. Therefore, persons with both organs are also divided into male and female: male dual-organ persons manifest the male organ more often, or perhaps manifest the male organ during the day and the female organ at night, while female dual-organ persons manifest the female organ more often, or perhaps manifest the female organ during the day and the male organ at night. Such dual-organ persons can neither survive in a male community nor in a female community, because their gender is indeterminate and problems arise very easily. Such beings likewise have very heavy karmic obstructions, also caused by committing sexual misconduct frequently in past lives. Therefore, the retribution for sexual misconduct is also very heavy.