Buddhist Priests Behaving Badly

One of my main goals here at Purgatory is to build a network of relationships with other bloggers who are very knowledgeable in their own fields. For example, the site Coin Laundry has helped me expand my knowledge about Judaism, while Mormon411 has done the same regarding the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Recently while I was on Twitter I met the writer of Views of Japan, Junpei Hayakawa aka James Kemlo. Views of Japan has many beautiful pictures of that country, and while there I found a very interesting article named Buddhaspeak of the Japanese Buddhist priests pt. one. The writer was a Buddhist monk (now an atheist), and this piece has some fairly shocking insights about the slang the priests use in public so that no one is aware of their dirty laundry.


Here are a few slang words.

kishiko (place of truth) for toilet,
moku (eyes) for money,
ryõgyaku (spiritual globes) for testicles,
nazu (caressing) for bondage,
kotsuen hokki (sudden enlightenment) for erection,
bodai no gokui (ultimate stage of enlightenment) for ejaculation,
hibutsu (hidden Buddhas) for vagina,
bonnon (Brahma’s voice) for screaming out during sex,
koan (Buddhist riddles) for kissing,
jõgyõ (pure practice) for sexual relations with only the one same male partner,
and geten (non-Buddhist texts) for pornography.

I can imagine some of those terms being adopted by their Catholic counterparts in the West. What? You think I may be giving the Buddhist priests too hard a time by comparing them with the clergy of the worldwide criminal organization known as the Catholic Church?

Here is a bit more about how Buddhist priests in Japan conduct their business.

The Japanese priests penchant for little boys has a highly developed system of slang surrounding it too. I think there are probably more terms relating to sexual interactions with young boys than any other subject. Zennanshi (nice young boy) is the most common slang term for a Buddhist priest’s young male lover. A sexually active priest is called a zokubutsu (worldly Buddha) and he might take part in nembutsu, or chanting to the Buddha, (masterbation) with his young boys. A young boys penis wet with sperm is called a nurebotoke (wet Buddha). Jõdõ (entering the priests hall for a meal) means oral sex with a young boy. Then there is sandõ (three roads of transmigration) for oral, anal and masterbation with a young boy. 

The best one of all is when a priest is termed a bakebotoke (transformed Buddha). I used to think it had a true religious meaning until I learned that it mean’t a priest who wears women’s underwear under his robes or dresses in drag during his breaks!

LiP