Promotion of Greed

[Abhishek Venkatesh]

Dear Bhante,

My question is with respect to this particular line in the sutta,Talaputa Sutta: To Talaputa the Actor .
"Any beings who are not devoid of passion to begin with, who are bound by the bond of passion, focus with even more passion on things inspiring passion presented by an actor on stage in the midst of a festival."

Does this apply to just actors on a stage or just in general to any promotion of greed in the mind of another person?
Does this also apply to someone's profession where they make things which are used for the sake of entertainment? Say for example, someone who makes beautiful visuals appear on a mobile phone screen.

I wanted to ask this question because there's an incident in my life, when I carelessly clicked the "Like" button on the photo of a girl on Facebook, who I would consider as skimpily clad. This was frowned upon by many other women in my friends list and not mention the statistics that go behind the connection of skimpily clad girls to rapes(Couldn't really find a proper source for the statistic, but it's there in my mind and you'll find a lot of people who are of the same opinion). So to make a long story, short, did I just promote rape?

With Metta,
Abhishek

[Bhikkhu Jhanarato]

Dear Abhishek,

Hmm... well it is an interesting sutta. Here the Buddha seems to be saying that an actor will increase the defilements (greed, hatred and delusion) in those already defiled. However, it seems a bit strange to me that he is damning acting as a profession generally. However, that seems to be the thrust of the sutta.

As for your other question regarding Facebook, our monks don't use the service so I don't really know about "liking" and "friends". "Promoting rape" seems a bit harsh though.

With metta,

Bhante Jhanarato

[Bhante Nandiya]

Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the question is:
"If an actor, in the theatre or the arena, entertains and amuses people by truth and lies...", I think this sutta hinges partly on the rendering of "truth and lies", in the pali saccālikena which is comprised of sacca - truth, alika - lie. Thanissaro possibly misses the meaning with his rendering "imitation of reality", since the word lie/untruth is definitely in the compound, it's not about imitating, it's about distorting/masquerading. It's also worth noting that the sutta is probably talking about what we call a comedian. And comedians have a reputation for stirring up people by cruelly ridiculing and such.
Also note that in the sutta, the comedian is specifically stirring up people's lust, hate and delusion. It doesn't refer to a case where a comedian entertains by stirring up letting go, metta, and wisdom.
The Buddha furthermore recognizes a distinction based on the view of the comedian. In this case, if they believe they'll go to heaven through the use of such distortion of reality to entertain people, they they go to a specific hell. But if they're just entertaining by such means, without a distorted view, they might get an animal birth (which is quite a lot nicer than hell).

So what this sutta is really saying, is that deliberately stirring up lust, hate and delusion in others, is bad kamma, even if one is doing it to entertain, and particularly so if one believes it is meritorious.
It doesn't quite parallel with 'liking' things on facebook, unless you do it deliberately to provoke lust in others. Of course if you know something disturbs others (the women, in this case), you probably should abstain from doing it, particularly if you also suspect it's not a very wholesome thing to do.

Metta,
Ven. Nandiya.

[Guy Craft]

Hi Abhishek,

First of all, I would have to agree with Bhante Jhanarato's that it is pretty harsh (and I would even say untrue) to say that what "like" on Facebook could have anything to do with promoting rape.

With my limited understanding of female psychology, I suspect that the women who "frowned upon" what you happen to like are jealous of the object of your liking. It is just as natural for them to be jealous of more attractive women as it is natural for you to like what you see.

With all respect to the monastics, who take renunciation to a higher level than many of us lay people are prepared to - it needs to be acknowledged that this is one of the key differences between lay people and monastics. I do not personally see anything inherently immoral about skimpily dressed women (unless, of course, they are dressing skimpily in an inappropriate place, such as a monastery) and what they do on their own Facebook account is their own business. Also, you have no control over what you like, so I don't think a person has any right to make moral judgements about what you find attractive. Whether you wish to pursue what you like or not is another matter, and is not (inherently) a moral issue.

You have "asked a monastic", and a monastic has good reasons for sense restraint and not opening up a Facebook account - but they are not moral reasons, they are based on priorities. What is your priority in life? If it is Nibbana, then maybe closing your Facebook account is a step in the right direction - but what would I know.

Metta,

Guy

[Krispy Not]

I wanted to ask this question because there's an incident in my life, when I carelessly clicked the "Like" button on the photo of a girl on Facebook, who I would consider as skimpily clad. This was frowned upon by many other women in my friends list

Dear Abhishek,

When you accidently click the "like" button on facebook, you can always undo this by hovering over this and clicking "unlike".

Kind greetings,

[Stuart Corner]

Bhantes, Abhishek _/\_

I am thinking that maybe the problem with acting as profession is that it is all about fiction (lies) - it is never just about imitating reality ... even if plays/TV series/films are based in reality (like, say Shakespeares historically based plays), when they are fictionalised/dramatised, the actors are by necessity telling lies, and if they are good at acting (i.e. they engage the audience to the point where their lies are believed), then they are just doing a very good job at telling lies and hence adding to the delusion in the world, and inflicting the curse of habitual lying on themselves - at the very least they are pretending to be someone they are not. For those who are seekers of the truth, this is a problem.

Stuart
xxx

[Abhishek Venkatesh]

Dear all,

Thank you for your replies.

With Metta.

[Jo Tummers]

If you pushed the 'like' link, you can always undo that by clicking the 'i don't like anymore' or something similar (I have the Dutch version of Facebook so I don't know what it says exactly in English).

[Abhishek Venkatesh]

If you pushed the 'like' link, you can always undo that by clicking the 'i don't like anymore' or something similar (I have the Dutch version of Facebook so I don't know what it says exactly in English).

You know law of kamma, actions have consequences. Just clicking like once cause karmic consequences which couldn't reversed. For example, when you like something on facebook, what you like is published over your wall and when you unlike it people don't come to notice even though what you liked is removed from the wall. They are always under the assumption that you liked it.
Also when you click the like once, the consequence of that action causes you to get involved in other actions in a very quick fashion even before you can think of pressing the unlike button.

With Metta.

[Dheerayupa Sukonthapanthu]

May I add my two cents?

I've noticed that there are responses only from males, so I would like to share my 'female' point of view.

I'm a Thai and I can't claim that women of all nationalities are alike. Let's assume that you were frowned upon by Thai women, I would interpret that

1. They didn't like the fact that you openly expressed your lustful nature. Though we laypeople want to fall in love and get married and have children, but in my country, traditions dictate that you keep your sexual lust and preference to yourself (or to your close group of male friends). Demonstrating your sexual desire in public is a no-no. Are we a bunch of hypocrites? No comment here

2. They thought that you, being a man thus representing men, had no taste when it came to good women. If most or all men liked women who dressed inappropriately, where could a lady (i.e. us who have been taught to be prim and proper) get herself a husband? The fact that you liked sexily dressed women threatened our chance of getting noticed!

Don't lose your sleep over people's silly reactions.