This issue is subjective and different Buddhists or Buddhist
teachers can have different views about this.
However, unlike other religions, Buddhism does not condemn
homosexuals whether to hell or whatsoever, and we have equal
compassion for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation..
and our Buddha Nature is equal regardless of gender, sexual
orientation, race, etc.
Story of Hui Neng: http://sped2work.tripod.com/huineng.html
His Holiness Hui Neng, who became the great Sixth Patriarch of
Ch'an (Japanese Zen) was a poor illiterate peasant boy from Hsin
Chou of Kwangtung. One day, after he had delivered firewood to a
shop, he overheard a man reciting the following line from the
"Diamond Sutra" - "Depending upon no-thing, you must find your own
mind." Instantly, Hui Neng became Enlightened. The full verse said:
"All Bodhisattvas (Compassionate Ones) should develop a pure mind
which clings to no-thing whatsoever; and so he should establish
it."
The man who recited this sutra encouraged Hui Neng to meet the
Fifth Zen Patriarch, Hung Jen, at the Tung Chian Monastery in the
Huang Mei District of Chi Chou. Hui Neng said to the Fifth
Patriarch: "I am a commoner from Hsin Chou Kwangtung (today, near
Canton in the south of China). I have traveled far to pay you
respect, and I ask for nothing but Buddhahood." "You are a native
of Kwangtung, a barbarian? How can you expect to be a Buddha?"
asked the Patriarch. "Although there are northern
men and southern men, north and south make no difference to their
Buddha Nature. A barbarian is different from Your Holiness
physically, but there is no difference in our Buddha
Nature." Master Hung Jen immediately accepted Hui
Neng as his disciple, but he had to hide this fact from the very
educated northern monks at the monastery. At the time of the Fifth
Patriarch, Ch'an was still influenced by Indian Buddhism, which did
not emphasize direct awakening, but the importance of study and
metaphysical debates. To protect Hui Neng, the Patriarch sent him
to the kitchen to split firewood and pound rice for eight months...
(continued in URL)
