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Looking At the Role of Women In Buddhism
by
Nicci Striker
Throughout Buddhist history, womens role has been far from fair. As Donald S. Lopez Jr. says in The Story of Buddhism, Those who seek a refuge from at it from Misogyny in Buddhism must always choose their texts carefully and ignore the fact that, regardless of the textual resources that may be available, the presence of Buddhism in a given society has not materially improved the status of women, although nunneries have often provided a welcome refuge for women.
Within Buddhism,it is almost not possible to miss that women are regarded and treated as being lesser than men. Yet thousands of smart, educated women practice Buddhism as non-clergy or nuns|Regardless of that obvious inequality, thousands of bright and educated women practice Buddhism as both laywmen and as nuns. Let s take a look at the role of women in Buddhism, both historically and from the modern day perspective.
The Start of It All
During the period which Buddha was born, the society was controlled by the caste system and had been extremely anti-women. So for the Buddha to eventually declare that anyone man or woman, could attain nirvana had been particularly ground-breaking. Because audio and video recording weren t available then, it is impossible to know for sure exactly what the Buddha actually said. After all, the sutras were written two hundred years after the Buddha s death and by monks. As we take a look back to 6th century India, this tidbit becomes more important to recall.
Siddhartha Gautama s mother passed when Siddhartha was a mere infant. He had been raised by his maternal aunt, Mahapajapati, who adopted him after her sister died..
Yrs later, Mahapajapati began to feel the same sense of discontent that drove so many men into the sangha. She felt a deep longing to humbly ask to be admitted, but knew only men were allowed to join the monastery. However, as time went on, she found that she couldn t stop herself from requesting admittance. After ridding herself of material possessions, she focused her time and energy engaging in compassionate acts. Now it was time to take the next step.
Like Jesus before her (under different circumstances), Mahapajapati was denied 3 times when she requested Buddha for to be permitted to be allowed into the sangha in Kapilavatthu. Cutting her hair and putting on a saffron robe, she had left Buddha to his thoughts. When Buddha left on his long trip to Vesali, he was soon joined by Mahapajapati, along with 500 women of noble-birth, all with hair removed and donning robes.
On this occasion as she approached the Buddha, she saw that he was meditating, and she did not want to intrude upon him|When they arrived, Mahapajapati didn t want to to bother Buddha from his meditations. But Ananda noticed her and the other women, and asked why all of them were dressed so. Mahapajapati explained that they had a longing for admittance to be part of the sangha, but that the Buddha had already denied her three times. Agreeing to speak as her representative, Ananda spoke to Buddha, who was rumored to have only hesitantly agreed to their admittance, but only if the women agreed to subscribe to the following 8 rules:
1. Every nun, regardless of how long SHE became ordained, must bow with respect to any monk, regardless of how long HE has been ordained.
2. From the age of 18, a girl will be able to request complete ordination but she must first go through a 2yr. basic program of training in the precepts. Additionally, her full ordination must be received from the groups of both monks and nuns.
3. It’s forbidden for nuns to find fault with monks for authentic or non-existent offenses; it is allowable for monks to criticize nuns for real offenses (though it is forbidden for non-existent ones).
4. Nuns may not accept food, beds, seats, or lodging before any monk present.
5. Any nun who breaks a single one of the rules, must do penance for 15 days under the scrutiny of the nuns and must request restitution from both the nun AND the monk community.
6. Every fifteen days, the nuns need to approach the group of monks and request their instruction.
7. It’s not acceptable for nuns to enter upon a rain retreat in a residence in which there are no monks.
8. Nuns who have finished the rain retreat need to request the ceremony of forgiveness from both communities, then confess to any infractions that might have been made.
After this, Buddha once said regretfully to Ananda, If women hadn t been admitted to be part of the community, the sangha would ve remained intact for 1000 years. But now that they have been admitted, the order will last only 500 yrs. . Misogynists say that Buddha once said that because he knew of the inborn evil of women; other people were less harsh and suggest that with both genders in the monastery, both the men and the women may likely give in to their physical desires.
As time went on, nuns and monks both got much longer lists of rules to adhere to, but depending on which tradition, nuns might have as many as one hundred more than the monks.
Like with all religions, there’s a fair amount of discrepancy about the way it all unfolded. Another version bandied about has been that the nuns were not allowed to travel by themselves was because a nun had been raped. In this sense, the rule was meant as protection, not injustice.
Regardless of a few exceptions, some rules clearly had been based on gender bias. In 5th century India, women were considered to be inferior to men. Having no chance to get any education, as well as limited personal freedom, women of all castes had been considered to be on par with the lowest of the castes, the Sudra. Again, we must remember that Buddha s decision to allow women as nuns of the sangha had been revolutionary, and controversial.
While the Buddha held forward-thinking views regarding the role of women in the sangha, contemporary members of the sangha disagreed. Born into the exact same social setting as the Buddha, many couldn t comprehend the reason why his attitude toward women was so lenient.
During the first Buddhist council meeting, Ananda was reprimanded and told to tell the council of his mistakes. After Ananda emphatically said he felt he had done no wrong, his mistakes were made clear to him. Three of the wrongs presented were that, (one) Ananda convinced Buddha to accept women admission into the sangha, (two) that women had been given the ability to pay homage over Buddha s remains before the men, and, (3) that Ananda allowed the womens tears to drop onto the Buddha s dead body. Ananda maintained that he did not think he had done anything wrong, did agree to express remorse, if that was what was required of him.
Tricia Stirling has written this course for the ULC Seminary. This is an excerpt of one lesson (of 30) from the Master of
Buddhist Studies Course
offered through the
Universal Life Church
Seminary. We have many courses available and each one carries with it an earned degree.
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Looking At the Role of Women In Buddhism