I am sorry that I won’t be able to attend class 9. I need to stand by to look after my family members on Monday as the care-taker cannot come on that day. I will catch up by watching the class video.
Considering methuna dhamma, as an idiomatic expression for sexual intercourse. Wouldn’t it be more logical to call it methuna adhamma at least in the context of a monk’s behavior? My thought is that sex and fertility were once part of religion, a type of spiritual practice. So there could be a contrast here between the Buddha’s dhamma, which praises the Brahmacariya life, vs. other schools which made sex and fertility into spiritual goals, who actually practiced a methuna dhamma.
Possibly, ‘dhamma’ in this context refers less to ‘the doctrine’ or, ‘the way it is’ (big D Dhamma), and more to ‘a thing’ or ‘quality’ or even ‘practice’ in this context.
@stephen is exactly right. The word dhamma has so many possible meanings. So don’t get stuck on just one of its possible meaning as the capital-D Dhamma we are all familiar with.
“The sex thing” I like that! - it definitely gets the message across. The sex act or sexual intercourse.
Lesson III, Further Readings, Passage #3 from the well-known DN 22 ( Mahāsatipaṭṭhānasutta):
G&K alters the text just a wee little bit, but here is a nice recording by Ven. Jiv. (Sri Lankan style) @ the 1.20:56 mark (it will say it can’t scan for security – click Play Anyway).
John always includes the Sunday date for people in the Americas/Europe and the Monday date for people in Asia/Australia. I believe it should read 12/13 May.
