The 21 Precepts
3
Don’t Be Promiscuous

3. DON’T BE PROMISCUOUS.1

1

Sex is the means by which the race projects itself into the future through children and the family. A lot of pleasure and happiness can come from sex: nature intended it that way so the race would go on. But, misused or abused, it carries with it heavy penalties and punishments: nature seems to have intended it that way also.

3-1. Be faithful to your sexual partner.

Unfaithfulness on the part of a sexual partner can heavily reduce one’s survival. History and the newspapers carry floods of instances of the violence of human passions aroused by unfaithfulness. “Guilt” is the milder evil. Jealousy and vengeance are the greater monsters: one never knows when they will cease to sleep. It is all very well to speak of “being civilized” and “uninhibited” and “understanding”; no talk will mend ruined lives. A “feeling of guilt” is nowhere near as sharp as a knife in the back or ground glass in the soup.

Additionally, there is the question of health. If you do not insist upon faithfulness from a sexual partner, you lay yourself open to disease. For a very brief period, it was said that sexual diseases were all under control. This is not now the case, if it ever was. Incurable strains of such diseases now exist.

The problems of sexual misbehavior are not new. The powerful religion of Buddhism in India vanished from there in the seventh century. According to its own historians, the cause was sexual promiscuity in its monasteries. More modernly, when sexual promiscuity becomes prevalent in an organization, commercial or otherwise, the organization can be seen to fail. No matter how civilized their discussions about it, families shatter in the face of unfaithfulness.

The urge of the moment can become the sorrow of a lifetime. Impress those around you with that and safeguard your own health and pleasure.

Sex is a big step on
the way to happiness and joy.
There is nothing wrong with it if it
is followed with faithfulness
and decency.

  1. 1. promiscuous: casual, random sexual relations.

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