Chapter 5 Summary

A few days later, Japhy and a woman named Princess stop by Ray and Alvah's house for a visit. Princess is young, about twenty, and has gray eyes, yellow hair and white skin. Ray finds her very attractive. Ray goes to the kitchen to get some wine, and when he returns, he finds Japhy, Princess and Alvah nude. Japhy is sitting in a Yoga position with Princess on top of him in the state that Japhy calls yabyum. Ray is taken aback and spends several moments contemplating his feelings toward sex. Ray has striven to avoid sex, feeling that his Buddhist path of enlightenment is best followed by eschewing desire and physicality. His life without lust, or more accurately his life with lust actively suppressed, has led him to happiness, and he feels conflicted by the sudden sexual desire he feels for the...