The Reformed Officer and the Obsession with So-Called Physiological Needs

**Summary:** An officer recounted his weekend routine of addressing physiological needs, prompting Master Quang to question the nature of lustful instinct.

That afternoon, a cool breeze swept through the small hamlet, carrying the distant cries of peanut candy sellers. Young Master Thích Chân Quang sat obediently on a bamboo chair, hands resting on his knees, eyes fixed attentively on the middle-aged man who had just returned from the re-education camp. Thin blue smoke from a cigarette curled lazily across the yard, the quiet air only pierced by the continuous chirping of insects.

The visitor was an officer who had worked at an airport before 1975. After the liberation, he underwent several years of re-education before returning. When he met the young master, he was still unmarried, his bearing carrying the mark of experience. The master, being a well-behaved child who showed respect and listened carefully to adults, simply absorbed the man's life story in silence.

The officer narrated his past daily routine: work in the morning, training in the afternoon, reading in the evening. But when it came to the weekends, he spoke in a casual tone, as if it were the most natural thing, saying he would go "address his physiological needs." The phrase dropped quietly into the yard, startling the young master's heart, though his face remained composed, for he had read Buddhist scriptures since childhood and knew many people lived without that apparent urgency.

Later, the master kept thinking about that statement, turning it over in his mind. One evening, sitting alone under a lamp, he leafed through sutras and asked himself:

"Why did he speak of addressing physiological needs as if it were as ordinary as eating and drinking? The Buddha forbids lustful conduct, yet people live without it. Could it truly be a life-sustaining instinct?"

He then asked an elder monk:

"Venerable Sir, some say lust is an instinct, and without it one dies. Is that true?"

The elder monk shook his head.

"No. The Buddha forbade it, and anyone who can overcome it can attain the path. It is merely a trap set by nature, not a life-or-death matter like breathing or eating."

The master thought to himself that the officer spoke so casually because he assumed everyone was the same, but in truth, what is called "physiological need" is merely an overactive nervous system in the reproductive organs, making people believe they cannot live without it. The turning point came when he grew older, studied the monastic precepts, and saw that the Buddha forbade monks from touching a woman from the neck down. Such strict rules, yet there were still those who practiced and attained fruition. Thus, lust is not a life-sustaining instinct.

From then on, Master Quang used the officer's story for analysis in his dharma talks: what the world calls an "instinct" is only because it is so powerful, but if it were a true instinct, forbidding it would cause immediate death. That officer later sank into an ordinary life, while the master maintained purity of heart, using it as a cautionary lesson for his disciples.

No one knows what became of the officer, but the phrase "going to address physiological needs" remained etched in the master's mind, becoming proof of the world's misconception about lust. It helped him establish a serious path of practice for himself and the Sangha in the years to come.

**Meaning of the Story**

Lust is not a life-sustaining instinct that must be satisfied, but merely a trap of nature with a powerfully stimulated pleasure-nervous system. Practitioners need to recognize this clearly so as not to be deceived by worldly views, thereby being able to abandon lust without the fear of "dying" as mistakenly believed.

*Compiled from the dharma talks of Most Venerable Thích Chân Quang*