Dharma Talk about “I was born homosexual”
Hello. Today, Pomnyun Sunim held a meeting with the Jungto Daejun (정토대전: Jungto collection of Buddhist scriptures) Committees all day long, and made a livestream Dharma Talk through YouTube.
The day began with the early morning prayers of the community at the Jungto Hall in Seoul.
After finishing the “1000-day practice”, Pomnyun Sunim left Seoul at 6am and headed to the Mungyeong Retreat Center. As he was running on the highway, the sun began to rise slowly.
After arriving at the Mungyeong Retreat Center at 8 am, he had a meeting with the Jungto Daejun Committees. Today, he has a meeting with the Buddhist Thought Team. In the morning, the Buddhist Thought Team presented what they were researching for.
After lunch, the Sociology Chapter Committee presented the examples of democracy, sexism, and racism, and organized the concepts of what Buddhism refers to as justice one by one.
“ Thanks for your work.” Sunim Said.
Later, Sunim and committees decided to hold a meeting with the resident dharma teachers tomorrow morning. After briefly reviewing their agenda, the meeting ended at 4:30 pm. Pomnyun Sunim took a break and went to his office to work.
At 7:30 pm after sunset, Sunim started the livestream Dharma Talk on YouTube. Since it is an open live broadcast that anyone can watch on the YouTube channel ‘Pomnyun Sunim’s Dharma Talk’, many people have started to connect.
When Pomnyun Sunim’s introduction video was released, about 6,300 people connected at the same time. He started to give a greeting.
“The cold winter has passed and a warm spring is coming. Here in front of me, I put a bunch of plum blossoms in a glass bottle.
The weather is still cold at the Mungyeong Retreat Center where I am. But now the plum blossoms are beginning to bloom. The southern regions already have plum blossoms. Looking at the news, it is said that the cherry blossoms in Seoul bloomed the fastest in the 100 years since formal weather observation began. Rhododendron and magnolia are flowers in April, but this year they bloomed in late March. I went to Namsan Mountain in Gyeongju a few days ago, and azaleas were in full bloom not only in the sunny place, but also on the mountain ridge.”
“On a good spring day like this, your mind should be spring, but your mind is still in the middle of winter, isn’t it? Through today’s dialogue, I hope that you can awaken the spring in your heart by melting your frozen heart.”
There were many questioners, so Sunim shorten the opening story and started to take a question right away. 200 members of the audience entered the video conference room and 8 of them asked questions directly to Sunim. One of them introduced himself as a LGBTQ person and asked how he should live in this society. Many people who watched the conversation with Sunim were very moved.
Born as a LGBTQ, how should I live in this society?
“ I hesitated to ask my question. I was born homosexual. After many years of suicide attempts, I suffered from depression, and after various attempts, I admitted that I could not fix it, and now I am trying to live a normal life. While surfing the internet, I found Pomnyun Sunim on YouTube, and I kept your dharma teaching in my mind, so I started to practice for 108 days. I am trying to return to the society again little by little. Is it a sin if I hide my gender identity and marry the opposite sex like a normal person? If that doesn’t work, how should I live in this society as a LGBTQ?”
“You have presented a dilemma. It is the Buddha’s teaching that a person should not discriminate against anything that is given by birth. Skin color, nationality, gender, etc. are given by birth and are not chosen by the person. Discriminating against people is contrary to nature and it is against the truth.
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However, the problem of marrying a heterosexual person without revealing your homosexuality needs to be considered. Regardless of your sexual orientation you should always be honest with your spouse. For example, if you married someone of the opposite sex and had a child without revealing your homosexuality, you are living a lie. Those who marry with one not knowing the other person is homosexual will inevitably lead to suffering for both spouses.
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If you really want to marry, I think you must be honest with her before you get married. Even if you are passive in the marital relationship, you need to be honest with the other person that it is because of a natural physical reason and only get married if the other person agrees.”
“From the end of April, we plan to broadcast the live Dharma Talk on YouTube every Friday and I expect to get more questions. I want to talk more, but we are running out of time.
Today, there were more messages specifically saying thank you to Pomnyun Sunim in the live chat window.
At last, Happiness School was introduced to participants. People who want to study their hearts deeper will meet again at Happiness School. Then Sunim ended today’s session.
Tomorrow, Sunim will have a meeting with the Jungto Daejun Committees all day and then livestream the Friday Dharma Talk in the evening.
