Gender Aspects in Buddhism

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Gender Aspects in Buddhism

• By Esther and Meliza

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Buddhist Geography
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A Brief History of Buddhism

• 350 million Buddhists in the world ? the third
  largest of the worlds religious traditions
• The religion is based on the teaching of
  Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as The Buddha
• He lived approximately 557 B.C. to 477 B.C.
• The word "Buddha" means a Supremely Enlightened
  One or Fully Awakened One (also a Tathagata) who
  has won the realization of the True Permanent
  Absolute Reality, THE ULTIMATE TRUTH
• The word Enlightened One or Fully Awakened does
  not specify any gender

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(No Transcript)
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The Buddhas Controversy

• The Buddhas mother was Queen Maya, she had a
  dream that she was going to be a mother of a very
  important divine being
• In the mythical story Queen Maya dies 7 days
  after her sons birth
• Our Interpretation Queen Maya dies, she is no
  longer needed in the human world, is this because
  she has served her purpose and is no longer
  needed?

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Queen Maya dreaming
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Controversy continued.

• The king did not want his son to lead a life of a
  religious leader, so he hid the real world by
  flowering him with luxuries and entertainment
  within the palace walls
• Our Interpretation A son to any father is
  important, but a son to a king has imaginable
  expectations
• Men are expected to follow in the fathers
  footsteps, and carry on the royal family blood
• Siddhartha stays within the palace, marries a
  woman who he has children with

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Controversy Continued...

• At the age of 29, Siddhartha leaves the palace,
  his wife and his children and spends 6 years
  looking for Truth
• Our Interpretation Mythical stories of the past
  contain issues of sadness and unethical behavior
• The mythical fact that the Siddhartha failed to
  comply with his gender role as a provider is
  looked down upon as a fault concerning gender
  issues in the Buddhist culture
• Nothing else is known about his children and wife
  that he abandoned

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Siddharthas Wedding Ceremony
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Gender Buddhism

• There is very little, if any at all, in Buddhism
  that identifies it with a particular sex
• The Buddha himself was historically a man, but
  the essence of Buddhism does not involve any
  extolling of the personality of the Buddha
• What the Buddha discovered was a universal law
  which existed independently of all the Buddhas,
  and which others, male or female, can discover by
  following the directions of the Buddha
• Our interpretation there is no difference
  between woman and male in practice and devotion
  to the Buddhist culture and way of life, but this
  does not explain the separation in status

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Gender Inequality Buddhism

• The Buddhists doctrine of rebirth says that
  gender can change over successive transmigrations
• Therefore, there is no male or female, but only a
  single karmic stream
• Another popular misunderstanding in many Buddhist
  countries is that negative ("unskillful") karma
  results in a man being reborn as a woman, and
  positive ("skillful") karma has the opposite
  effect.
• Our Interpretation therefore femininity
  represents negative karma, and that Men who do
  not behave properly will live a life as a female

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Gender Inequality Buddhism Continued

• So on, do male Buddhists live a life of fear to
  be ethical so they will never have to experience
  the wows of their female counterparts?
• This idea of negative karma inevitably deciding
  that a male will be reborn as a woman is a clear
  distinction between the inequality in Buddhist
  culture

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An Excerpt

• This records the taunt of Mara to the Theri Soma
  that no woman could reach "the high ground of the
  wise" because she has only the "two-finger
  knowledge (dvangulapaññâ)"

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Mara taunting Theri Soma

• ittibhâvo kim kiyirâ  What matters being a
  woman 
• cittamhi susamâhite  If with mind firmly set
•   ñânamhi vattamânamhi 
• One grows in the knowledge   
• sammâdhamma.m vipassato 
• Of the Right Law, with insight?

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Female Bodhisattvas and Buddhas

• In Vajrayana (or Tibetan) Buddhism there are many
  female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
• The most well known is Green Tara whose name
  means 'She who saves
• There is also the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin, whose
  name means 'Compassion' as well as Prajnaparamita
  who is known as the mother of all Buddha's
• she represents anicca (the fundamental truth of
  life)
• Our interpretation This shows that the truth of
  Buddhism can be represented to people in both
  male and female forms.

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The difference between Monks and Nuns

• Buddhist nuns were not able to climb the ranks as
  spiritual leaders in the Buddhist monastic
  system.
• Even though the ascetic lives of monks and nuns
  have both been respected in the tradition of
  Buddhism, it would be wrong to say that the
  Buddhist nuns were respected on par with the
  Buddhist monks
• There are a number of examples in Buddhist
  doctrine, as well as in the discipline of the
  Vinaya-pitaka system that explains the status of
  nuns as being below and instructed by monks.

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Monks and Nuns continued

• According to the early Vinaya-pitaka, the Buddha
  allowed women to become nuns after his disciple
  Ananda requested it
• The Buddha gave eight extra rules for nuns
  (bhiksuni) believing that women have to overcome
  unique obstacles.
• Buddhists respected the bhiksuni. However, the
  merit of monks (bhiksu) was considered greater
  than that of bhiksuni in the Vinaya-pitaka

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Monks and Nuns continued

• For example, women, according to the
  Vinaya-pitaka, were physically weak, dependent,
  and too sensitive
• based on the idea this would prevent nuns from
  being hindered by their weaknesses
• Buddhist nun could not become a teacher of
  monks, and only monks could be the teachers of
  nuns.

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MONKS
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Buddhist Nuns
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Article Bastion of Buddhism Faces Gender Debate

• In Nakhon Pathom, Thailand a temple is run by a
  female monk ordained two years ago in Sri Lanka
  as Dhammananda Bhikkhuni
• One of only a few women to have challenged the
  male makeup of Thailand's 300,000 monks, she now
  wants to extend that right to other women, and
  has turned to the Senate for help.
• a subcommittee is considering a proposal to
  permit the ordination of women as monks, but the
  country's Buddhist clergy, known as the Sangha,
  whose ruling council of elders has long opposed
  the idea

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Conclusion

• The Bastion debate do you agree with the female
  argument or do you think that tradition should
  gravitate to whats left of the teachings?
• How would a female leader in the Buddhist world
  change the face of such an old religion?