From: ramsey@math.hawaii.edu
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 96 13:52:29 HST
Subject: HAWAII, JAN. 8

			ANOTHER BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE ON
			     SAME-GENDER MARRIAGE

Hawai'i Association of International Buddhists (HAIB)
46-150 Hilinama Street
Kaneohe, HI 96744
Fax/phone:  247-1150

Mr. Tom Gill, members of this Commission, invited guests, ladies and
gentlemen of the Public:

	Good Morning.  I'm a member of the Hawaii Association of International
Buddhists, also know as HAIB.  We are an ecumenical association whose
individual members are drawn from the different Buddhist churches and temples,
representing different Buddhist schools, sects and subsects to be found
in Hawaii.  My viewpoints as a lifelong Theravada Buddhist (also referred to
as the Southern School) concerning Same-Sex Marriage were presented at a
symposium held by HAIB in November 1994.  That paper was included in HAIB's
latest Newsletter.  To-day's testimony is based on that paper.
	The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama, the Sakyamuni, the
fully Enlightened one.  He was born a Prince on the Indian sub-continent,
in a country which is now part of Nepal, more that 2,500 years ago.  It was
the accepted practice for some men to leave hearth and home and lead an
ascetic's life as a wanderer, to find answers to the mysteries of life, of
birth, suffering and death.  At age 29, he tired of the pleasures of palace
life and left to join the ascetics.  After 6 years of wandering and intense
meditation, he gained Enlightenment and became a Buddha.  His teachings have
been called "the Middle Way", for he was convinced that neither mortification
of the flesh nor the hedonistic way of life were conducive to reaching the
state of Nirvana; the ending of the relentless cycle of rebirths and attendant
suffering, referred to as Samsara [Samsara is in bold].  He offered the Four
Noble Truths which lead to the Eightfold Path:  right view, right thought,
right speech, right action or conduct, right livelihood, right effort, 
right attentiveness and right concentration.  The Sangha, the monks and nuns
of the Theravada School, who forsake the lay life and follow in the footsteps
of Sakyamuni, abide by the ten main precepts and over 200 other lesser ones.
One of these ten says:  "I will not indulge in any sexual activity".  Was
sex proscribed because it was a sin?  Not at all!  Sex was and still is
considered the strongest of all attachments, bonds, the glue that binds us
to Samsaric life.
	Practicing lay Buddhists keep the 5 precepts of Right Conduct, helping
us to lead moral lives.  One of them is--"I undertake to observe the 
precept to abstain from sexual misconduct".  So, what is sexual misconduct?
Buddha's admonition was "above all, do no harm, to others or to oneself".
so my understanding of sexual misconduct, when defined by that admonition,
would include adultery, rape, child molestation and sexual harassment.  On the
other hand, it would not include monogamous homosexual and monogamous lesbian
sexual conduct.
	Marriage is treated as a social contract, a civil affair in Buddhist
countries, and there are no religious ramifications associated with it.  And
in Theravada countries of Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Laos and Cambodia and,
to an extent, parts of Vietnam, whether married or not, the lay person is
expected to practice the 5 precepts of Right Conduct.
	Buddha, during his 45 years of ministry, was reaching out to and
teaching a stratified people whose social and religious lives were controlled
by a rigid caste system, based on the accident and circumstances of birth.
He taught that everyone, from lowborn to highborn, man, women and child 
could aspire to Nirvana, even in that very life.  This was heresy, unheard
of before, for he was proclaiming Equal Rights to the noblest of goals.  He
accepted everyone without prejudice, either as ordained disciple or lay
follower.  During his lifetime, among his followers were kings, queens,
princes, princesses, wealthy merchants, poor folks, people of all walks of
life, including a leper, a reformed and repented murderer and 3 courtesans,
whom nowadays we would refer to as call girls.
	So, to sum up:
1.    Sex is not a sin.  It is one of the sensual pleasures, attachment to
which is cause for being enmeshed is Samsara and a hindrance to achieving
Nirvana.
2.    Sexual conduct for lay Buddhists, when viewed by the dictates of 
Right Conduct, would exclude activities that would harm others or oneself.
But sexual conduct between monogamous homosexual and monogamous lesbian
partners would be permissible under the third precept.  Since marriage
encourages commitment and faithfulness, thereby deterring promiscuity, it
would be a great social boon to allow, to extend that status, to the 2
latter kinds of partners.  Society would benefit from stabilized relationships
and the sense of emotional security that would ensue.
3.    Sakyamuni Buddha's teachings all pointed to Equal Rights and Human
Rights.  And there is nothing in his teachings that would be considered a
deterrent to same gender marriage.
4.    The Buddhist teachings' emphasis on compassion, lovingkindness known
as Metta [Metta is in bold], and tolerance.  Rev. Yoshiaki Fujitani, an
ex-bishop [retired] of Jodo Shinshu Honpa Hongwanji, the largest Buddhist
congregation in Hawaii, said to me vis-a-vis this subject at hand "Amida
Buddha in his infinite compassion accepts all of us as we are".
	I would like to call upon this commission, and the State Legislature
to show the same compassion, empathy and aloha to those of a different
sexual orientation, just as we do to those different from ourselves because
of color, ethnic race, gender or religion.  I respectfully urge you to
confer on them the full rights and privileges of humanhood, on par with those
accorded heterosexual marriages.
	We have all heard and read of the economic pros and cons of such
an action, and I'm sure this commission will hear more from the invited guests.
But however cogent and well meant the arguments, the human rights and civil
rights of ALL of us are too basic, too grave, too precious to be swayed by
such considerations.  This great State of racial, cultural and religious
diversity, with a pervading ambiance of Aloha and tolerance, is the perfect
fertile soil to set an example of granting the human and civil rights to
ALL our people, including those of different sexual orientations.  We cannot
and should not tolerate discrimination and allow some to remain second
class citizens, deprived of their rights and privileges.

	Thank you.


					Submitted by DIANA PAW U
					    October 11, 1995