And then there's Brahmacarya. Sexual responsibility. Regarding others as human beings rather than as male and female bodies. The spirit of this precept is conservation of energy for the purpose of spiritual practice. This includes not only sexual restraint, but protecting our energy for instance by avoiding endless chattering with no clear purpose.
In ancient and medieval era Indian texts, the term brahmacharya is a concept with a more complex meaning indicating an overall lifestyle conducive to the pursuit of sacred knowledge and spiritual liberation. Brahmacharya is a means, not an end. It usually includes cleanliness, ahimsa, simple living, studies, meditation, and voluntary restraints on certain foods, intoxicants, and behaviors (including sexual behavior).
As you might imagine there is more stuff written about the yama concerned with sexual behaviors than all of the other precepts combined. Screw around with someone's ability to screw around and all hell breaks loose. On the other hand there seems to be a huge effort to find meaning in this yama that goes behind simple sexual behavior. I guess if you're messing with sex you better have a lot of stuff in your cannon or nobody is going to listen.
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