Some statements on family, couples and women

I state the following so that people in my Facebook list or readers of my website and books should know who I am as I have never been evasive in matters related to my convictions. If you find these convictions unbearable, you can delete me now from your contact list without any comment, as I do not want to hear any complaints later. There are many modern and progressive teachers out there in the Buddhist world where you can choose from.

When people ask me about family, couples or women related issues, they find that:

- I am pro natural family (man and woman). I only make marriage ceremonies at my temple for men and women as Shakyamuni himself gave teachings on how to live together to couples made of men and women, NOT otherwise, thus being NO scriptural basis for homosexual couples. Unlike some deluded BCA (Buddhist Churches of America) temples,  I do not make gay weddings because the temple is NOT a place to institutionalize abnormal behavior and sexual misconduct. Amida's indiscriminative salvation does not mean that all our actions are now good and deserve a promotion or must be institutionalized in the temple. We are saved because we are incapable not because our blind passions are pure actions. Just like alcoholics or drug addicts are welcomed at the temple but we do not make ceremonies in which we drink alcohol or take heroin, we also welcome people who in their private lives are homosexuals (as long as they keep this to their bedroom!) or have other types of blind passions, (who does not have blind passions!  who can say he/she is pure and without mistake!), but we also do NOT make ceremonies to promote sexual misconduct. In short, all people are welcomed if their sole purpose for coming to the temple is to listen to Amida Dharma and receive faith.

 - I am against so-called "free love", changing partners, or so-called "open relationships/marriages", etc. which is also against Shakyamuni's teaching on sexual misconduct. Thus, as you see,  not only homosexuality is sexual misconduct. Buddhism has very tough morals which is why we, driven by our greed and blind passions, can hardly follow them. However, this does not mean we should use Buddhism to justify them, but rather be grateful to Amida for saving such wretched beings as us.

- In my teaching related to family and couples, I point out (to those who ask me), specific roles for men and women according to what Shakyamuni explained in the Sigalovada sutra, the "Seven Kinds of Wives" discourse of Buddha to Sujata, and others. This does not mean I stop women from having a career if they want it. It is not my job to give career advice. If you read Sigalovada Sutra and The Seven Kinds of Wives without any influence given by nowadays worldly ideologies, you will know what I mean by different roles for men and women.

-   I am against abortion. Abortion is killing no matter the circumstances the child appeared in his mother's womb. Life, according to Buddha Dharma starts in the moment of conception. Making abortion leads all those involved (mother, father, doctor and all those who supported that abortion)  to rebirth in the lower realms,  mostly in hell. The only escape from such terrible karmic consequences is to rely on Amida Buddha and if you do not do that, at least repent thoroughly, save lives and advise other people to never resort to abortion. Also, faith in Amida will not prevent you from repenting,  saving lives or advising people against abortion. People of faith should also say when they are wrong and advise others to not do evil deeds.

- I am against that kind of modern feminism who denies natural differences between men and women, hate men, look down on housewives and mothers, and who take as fundamental the promotion of abortion and treat the child in the womb as some kind of meat without conscience. However, if women fight for equal pay, equal respect, against domestic or street violence, etc, I have no problem with that, and even support it, but unfortunately, feminism recently is a far broad ideological set of ideas than normal women's rights. The jokes you sometimes see me making on my Facebook page are related to the above evil feminism, not with normal women who want normal rights which should exist in a normal society.
Men and women actually complement each other with their differences and there are fields of activity where women are more skillful than men and men more skillful than women (of course, there are exceptions too, that we must recognize!), which is determined by biological, mental and even karmic factors. I think we should cherish those differences rather than enforce ideological uniformity or talk about who is superior and inferior.
More than this, men and women are both equally saved by Amida Buddha through His Primal Vow, and He even made the 35th Vow to especially emphasize that He will save women.