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Kāma (Skt., Pali; Devanagari: काम) involves sensual gratification, sexual fulfillment, pleasure of the senses, love, and the aesthetic enjoyments of life.
In Hinduism, kāma is regarded as one of the four ends of man (purusharthas). Kama is the lowest step on the ladder of aims in Hindu life, below worldly status (artha), because even animals seek physical pleasures. The other two purusharthas are dharma and moksha.
In Buddhism's Pali Canon, the Buddha renounced (Pali: nekkhamma) sensuality (kāma) en route to his Awakening.[1] More generally, especially in the Theravada school of Buddhism, Awakening is preceded by insight (vipassana) which is bolstered by concentration (samadhi) that is developed through the meditative cultivation of jhana states, which are preceded by withdrawal from sensuality (vivicc'eva kāmehi).[2] Additionally, the Buddhist lay practitioner recites daily the Five Precepts, the third of which is a commitment to abstain from "sexual misconduct" (kāmesu micchācāra).[3]
- ^ See, for instance, Dvedhavitakka Sutta (MN 19) (Thanissaro, 1997a).
- ^ See, for instancmadhanga Sutta (Thanissaro, 1997b). For a version in Pali using Roman letters, see SLTP (n.d.), sutta 5.1.3.8.
- ^ See, for instance, Khantipalo (1995). Typical of Pali Canon discourses, the Dhammika Sutta (Sn 2.14) includes a more explicit correlate to this precept when the Buddha enjoins a follower to "observe celibacy or at least do not have sex with another's wife " (Ireland, 1982).
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