The Body is Theravada Buddhist Monasticism

I had many things to say about this piece, although short, it was dense. Perhaps my thoughts are ill conceived due to the way the text was written. There were a few parts that I did not fully understand. The thought to really get my mind going was that after all this talk of banning sexual desire, both conscious and unconcious, when it comes to other desires (like food) there are exceptions. It is said that Buddha was very lavish in his young life and after seeing 'the other half' he lived a life empty of all valuables. He then realized the road to englightenment is a middle path of moderation. Why is there no sexual middle path? There is a description of moderation in food and aesthetichs but why not desire? Is it that we are unable to handle sex in moderation? Is it the parental or elder thoughts, as my youth adivsior would say, "dating leads to mating". I found this incredibly interesting. To ban sex even in dreams holds this desire so highly not even with the chance of moderation. Which brings the question, how is reproduction seen? Is it work?

A few other things I would like to touch on are the two body's, repulsion of the body, and repulsion of food. The two body's are truth and form. From reading it seems as though the truth is what we do with our bodies, ritually etc and the form is our aesthetic, the holder. If this is correct then the body of truth is the body we have to control. In a literal sense of wordplay, the control of truth and lack of control of form is intriguing.

The text also mentioned the repulsion of food. I honestly felt incredibly nauseous reading and could barely stomach my lunch. IN correlation to food, fat is seen as gross. This is much like our culture in the west. But what do they think of our perception of Buddha as an obese male?

Lastly, the body is gross. We have discussed this very thoroughly in class but in Buddhism this is the focus to emit desire via meditation. In the intense descriptions it is seen that the most desirable parts are incredibly disgusting. Genitals are extremely repulsive in aesthetics and action. While the mouth, also sexually desirable, is gross. It is aesthetically wet and not pleasing and given what we now know is full of germs and many other things. How is this what we desire?

Two thoughts:
If white is pure why are there robes not white? You would assume they would be to symbolize their purity and be able to show impurities so drastically.
Would Buddhist be 'for' artificial insemination?