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Maithuna (ritual copulation)
Such tantric conceptions existed from the
Buddha-sect's very beginning. The Buddha himself speaks of certain
ascetics that turn sensuality into a path to nirvāna. "We must bear
in mind," wrote Vallée-Poussin in 1921, "that several [Buddhist] sects
allowed ascetics to enjoy 'unguarded' women (i.e., not married, not
engaged, etc.)... The episode of the former donkey driver (or bird
catcher) Arittha, who though an ascetic, claimed that love was no obstacle
to the holy life, [and] that of the ascetic Magandika, who offered the
Buddha his daughter Anupama, the 'Incomparable,' should be
noted." |
