The Criteria for Determining Whether One Has Violated the Precept Against Sexual Misconduct

The mind is the chief culprit in sin. If there is no lustful mind but there is sexual conduct, then no precept is violated. At the very least, the Mahāyāna takes the mind precepts as primary, mainly observing the wholesome or unwholesome attributes of mental activity and the nature of the mind. Bodhisattvas on the bhūmis who have attained meditative concentration (dhyāna) of the first dhyāna or above have eliminated the fundamental lustful mind. In order to guide and embrace sentient beings, they sometimes have no choice but to engage in sexual conduct, yet within it their minds remain unmoved, without craving—meaning that during the act there is no physiological reaction at all, and no stirring of mental activity—so they fundamentally cannot violate the precepts. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra also says that a person who has severed sexual desire, when engaging in sexual conduct, experiences it as tasteless as chewing wax—without flavor, without any pleasure, without any mind that craves enjoyment. Only such a mind will not violate the precepts.

But if one does not have meditative concentration of the first dhyāna or above, and has not eliminated the affliction of craving, the mind has no grip on itself and will inevitably cross the line and violate the precepts. Therefore, a person who is not abiding in meditative concentration of the first dhyāna or above must never go and test or experiment with their own spiritual attainment, and must not imitate such behavior. You cannot claim, "I too am unmoved in mind and will not violate the precepts." With insufficient wisdom of your own, unable to understand what "unmoved mind" means, you will often be unable to make an accurate and truthful judgment.

The Mahāyāna bodhisattva precepts in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra are bodhisattva precepts taught specifically for bodhisattvas on the bhūmis who possess the concentration of the first dhyāna. Pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattvas) cannot uphold them and cannot accomplish this, let alone ordinary worldlings (pṛthagjana). Yet nowadays some groups confer the Yoga bodhisattva precepts upon ordinary worldlings. The person conferring the precepts does not themselves even have the qualification to receive and uphold such precepts—how could they be qualified to confer such precepts on others? It is simply nonsense. Most sentient beings in the Sahā world are children of one size or another who do not understand things, utterly willful and capricious, and very hard to teach and transform.

The sexual misconduct prohibited among the five precepts is the precept concerning the mark (lakṣaṇa). One must clearly distinguish what is sexual misconduct and what is proper sexual conduct. "Proper" refers to conduct between husband and wife that conforms to legal regulations and accords with the wishes of both parties; in terms of the precepts, it does not violate the five precepts, though occasionally it may violate the bodhisattva precepts. "Misconduct" is the opposite of this: it is improper, infringing upon the rights and interests of citizens, harming the interests of the parties involved or of related persons. Unmarried cohabitation does not break the law and does not violate the precepts, but it contravenes modern public order and good morals. In ancient times there was no marriage system, no registration or certificates and the like; by modern rules, even couples who were husband and wife would count as unmarried cohabitation. But because this conduct was recognized by both families and by society at large, it did not violate the moral norms of that time, and so it also counted as "proper."