Asocial Contract : Antinomian Transgression in Buddhism

Found : Asocial Contract : Antinomian Transgression in Buddhism

How can a Buddhist monk who drinks alcohol, fornicates with women, eat meat, kill, or acts generally irreverently still be considered a Buddhist monk? Recent scandals of Buddhist masters sleeping with their disciples or committing white collar crimes have made headlines across the world, but this trend is far from novel [1]. Transgressive behavior has existed for countless generations of monastic Buddhists. More recently, transgression has become a critical term and object of study in fields such as religion, anthropology, philosophy, literature, and history. Despite numerous studies on the matter, very few have attempted to exhaustively interpret the phenomenon and its role in Buddhism. Daoji, a thirteenth century Chinese monk, provides a fascinating example transgression in the Buddhist context. By exploring this and other historical andor fictional figures… a better analytical understanding of how transgression works might be gained.