His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama recently told an audience there is no reason his successor, the 15th Dalai Lama, could not be a woman. Unfortunately, he added that he thought an attractive female might be more effective than an ugly one. But let's leave that alone for now.
A few days ago Zen teacher Grace Schireson spoke at my Zen center on women in Buddhism. The sensei is also a clinical psychologist and author of the book Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens and Macho Masters, which is very good. If you're interested in women's issues in Buddhism, I recommend it.
Anyway, while there may be no gender bias in the dharma, one cannot say the same for institutional Buddhism. And much of the institutional bias is hardwired into Buddhism via the Vinaya, the rules for the monastic orders established by the historical Buddha. In the Vinaya recorded in the Pali Canon, nuns were given more and stricter rules than monks, including the eight Garudhammas, or special grave rules. Among other things, under the Garudhammas all nuns are junior to all monks and may not scold or "advise" a monk.
However, there are other versions of the Vinaya, just as old as the Pali one, in other languages that do not include the Garudhammas, and scholars say this means the Garudhammas probably were added later and are not what the historical Buddha himself taught.
In her talk, Grace Schireson said that some scholars also question the validity of the Maha Pajapati ordination story. Maha Pajapati was a sister to the Buddha's mother, Queen Maya, and also was married to the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana. When Queen Maya died, Pajapati became the Buddha's stepmother as well as his aunt. Pajapati also would become the first woman ordained as a Buddhist nun. In very early Buddhism, Maha Pajapati was venerated as a fully enlightened Buddha.
The story most of us have heard is that after the Buddha had realized enlightenment and began teaching, Pajapati and other women of her household asked to be ordained as his disciples. The Buddha refused the request three times, and only relented when his cousin and attendant Ananda asked if women could realize enlightenment as well as men. Yes, they could, the Buddha admitted, and agreed to ordain the women as nuns. But then he went into a lamentation on how the inclusion of women would bring about the premature end of the order and his teachings.
According to Schireson Sensei, some scholars suspect this story was added later, also. One, she said, Ananda would have been a boy when this must have happened; and two, there are other narratives, just as old, that say the Buddha simply ordained Maha Pajapati and other women without all the drama.
Today, in parts of Asia where monks are highly venerated, the orders of nuns disappeared centuries ago. Reconstituting them is, um, problematic, mostly because the Vinaya provides that ordained nuns must be present at the ordination of nuns. So, with no nuns, nuns cannot be ordained. As a result, full bhikshuni ordination has become a raging controversy.
So, many women shave their heads, where the robes, and live the lives of nuns, but they cannot receive ordination. They have an inferior status to monks and receive much less community support. (There are exceptions; in Taiwan, for example, I understand there are more nuns than monks and the nuns are at least as repected.)
Last year senior monks of a Thai Buddhist order in Australia held a nun's ordination, officiated by a nun ordained into another order to make it "legal." But the ordination resulted in the excommunication of the head monk, Ajahn Brahm, and the revocation of the monastery's status as part of the Wat Nong Pah Pong sangha.
To his credit, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has issued a statement supporting the ordination of nuns. However, it's not clear to me if Tibetan nuns even now are able to receive full ordination (gelongma). If any of you know how that's going, please speak up.
I've written about women in Zen before, but I'm learning a lot of cool new stuff from Grace Schireson's book that I'll discuss in a later post. I will just mention that Japanese Zen nun's orders haven't reached America yet. Here, women receive the same ordination as men, which means that, technically, the women are monks. Some ordained western Zen women prefer to be called "monastics" rather than monks. Just don't call them "monkettes."
In the kadampa tradition, there is no difference between monks and nuns. Moreover, some of the senior theachers are nuns.
These rules for women were created in India, a place and during a time when wives were expected to throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. And were thrown on if they didn’t leap.
Mind you this is the same social order that raided the early civilizations that were to be Greece and Rome, conquering the then-matriarchal cultures, and subjugating the populace to a patriarchal theocracy. (Every wonder why there is Juno | Jupiter, Hera | Zeus parings? Appease the conquered.)
Game over, boys.
“And I also mentioned in case Dalai Lama’s incarnation one female comes then must be very attractive female. So the very reason, you see more influence to others, an ugly female then may not much effective,” added Dalai Lama.
And now, the list of the ugly mugs that launched a thousand ships.
~* Eleanor Roosevelt
~* Queen Elizabeth
~* Mother Teresa
~* Indra Ghandi ( last one is *so* ironic, heh?)
And now, beloved Dalia Lama, that it is proven untrue that a woman of beauty is more compassionate, wiser, less ignorant, and over all more influential than the woman of common appearance with great compassion, wisdom, intelligence, and patience, take it back.
Ah, I think what the Dalai Lama was trying to say, is that people are more receptive to beautiful women, but to be honest, if you are misogynistic, it doesn’t matter if a woman is beautiful or garish, you’ll still dismiss her words.
Produce.
The alliance for Bhikkhunis is an excellent source of information on issues about full ordination for nuns in the Theravada tradition. Bhikkhuni ordination was lost in the entire Theravada tradition for obscure historical reasons, but is being reintroduced, primarily in Sri Lanka. The requirement that existing fully ordained nuns be involved in new full ordinations has been met through the support of Mahayana nuns, whose lineage in China actually originally came from Sri Lankan nuns about sixteen centuries ago and has continued without interruption.
By the way, many people describe the expulsion of Ajahn Brahm from the Thai order in which he was ordained as excommunication. This word is somewhat loaded by its Catholic associations; it really does not mean anything in Buddhism. Ajahn Brahm is still a Buddhist monk, he just no longer has his previous affiliation.
I’m confused at the 4 women listed by comment #2. If your point is that it doesn’t matter what a woman looks like to be capable then why judge how she looks at all.
In my opinion, all the women listed were in some cases average and others even lovely in their younger years, but ages catches up to everyone. In other words, they’re normal women.
If you’re American that would explain a great deal. We’re inundated from birth with a culture that condemns average beauty to the extent of people doing everything they can to attain this perfect ‘look’ the media speaks of.
I do agree with Produce (#3) on the point that he probably meant for those same marketing purposes the general public may respond more favorably initially, or give their attention to briefly, to someone who is pleasing to the eye. Not necessary of course, but it does make life easier when you need to capture the attention of those whom you speak to.
Yes, Nicole, I agree you are 100% right about age… impermanence, impermanence, impermanence.
So why even bring up appearances? I agree there, too. It was the Dalia Lama’s quote, please note.
Makes me wonder about the awkward teenage years and being raised in a monastery. Perhaps not really relating to women as people.
In the varja practices of having a real life sexual consort for practice in very rare instances for monastics, the instructions are for it to be a young girl instructed in how to do so. With true yogi an yoginis, it is a life-long partner.
The instructions are directed to men only. I guess it is so that the old guy – you have to be very advanced in practice for this to be permissible- can get it going on, where a woman his equal in maturity is not as appealing as a sex object.
Women can practice this also, but no criteria are given.
So, objectification of women throughout. And I sit with the Gelugs.
In the Tantric Buddhist tradition there are many yoginis of advanced skill and merit, but they tend not to be famous, working behind the scenes so it seems. I am a student of one who is the personal secretary of a famous Lama, and she has mentioned that she doesn’t seem to be the right sex to become a well known teacher. I’m certainly glad (and lucky) to receive her guidance and blessings, fame not required. I’ve also met other yoginis and teachers who seem quite capable. I don’t think the Buddha and great teachers ever thought less of women’s capacities to practice, but there has been cultural bias creeped into the monastic institutions. This can be reversed through recognition of skill and deep compassion now that women in many cultures are becoming free from second class citizenship. Incidentally, I don’t look to the Pali scriptures as the defining documents of early Buddhism. I’m sure they contain much of Lord Buddha’s words and intent, but there are other schools descended from the time of Buddha that aren’t Theravadin.
It’s true that many Mahayana schools go by a version of the Vinaya that is somewhat different from the Pali one, but I understand that version also has the rule that nuns have to be present at the ordination of other nuns. And I understand this is why it’s an issue in Tibetan Buddhism — Tibetan nuns’ orders were allowed to die, and if you don’t have any old nuns you can’t make new nuns. However, in other Mahayana schools the nuns’ orders can trace a lineage back to the original nuns who were ordained by the Buddha, so this isn’t an issue that one finds everywhere in Asia.
From a blog post called The Dakini’s Warm Breath (a reference, I’m assuming, to Judith Simmer-Brown’s book by the same title):
“Racism, sexism and exploitation of human beings are not things that are easy to talk about rationally because there is no real rationale for any of these things to exist. We feel undone by their very existence. While they are a part of our condition as humans they are not part of our essential nature. We can choose to transform the righteous anger we feel about such wrong doings into action and loving thoughts with enough practice.”
As far as I am aware, several western nuns from Samye Ling monastery in Scotland have been to Sri Lanka with abbot and meditation master Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, where they took full gelongma initiation.
Suggest Dali keep focus on what she say and do, not how she look!
I knew an American Tibetan-Buddhist Nun that went to Taiwan and recieved full Bhiksuni ordination from a Mahayana lineage extant in Taiwan. I think full Bhiksuni ordination will be availiable in Tibetan Vajrayana soon, when technical difficulties are worked out, as I recall from a previous post about HH Dalai Lama and Karmapa on the subject. Also, a couple of well known female Buddhist Teachers/Yoginis are Khandro Rinpoche and Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. They are proof that it can be done by qualified female Lamas. And, as I mentioned before, this is besides the many qualified female Yoginis behind the scenes.
In Taiwan,I understand there are more nuns than
monks and the nuns are at least as respected.
You are absolute right . In fact one of the two most respected religious figures in Taiwan is a Buddhist nun.
She is Dharma Master Cheng Yen, the founder of Tzu Chi
Foundation . She is very well-known in the Chinese-speaking
world [ie Taiwan, mainland China, Hongkong and overseas Chinese communities.] Just a brief description
of the many activities and projects undertaken by the
Foundation : it has built hospitals and a university [these
are non-profit entities ] in Taiwan . It is also actively involved in international disaster relief , environmental protection and community volunteering .
At the risk of sounding sycophantic ,I may compare her many accomplishments to the Blessed Mother Teresa.
In terms of international recognition and fame , of course
Mother Teresa far surpasses Master Cheng Yen [this is partly due to her works were widely reported in the West, while the Master's achievements are mainly
reported in Chinese-speaking world.] But in terms of
service to humanity , I don’t think the Master will pale in
comparison to Mother Teresa . For more please google
Master Cheng Yen or Tzu Chi Foundationn .
Hi dear Madam,
If you pork between the bricks of a beautiful building..still u may find some dusts,sands etc…But we need to understand that purpose of the building was to be safe from thunderbolts rather than from the enevitable dusts. So, it is up to you and me as where the pure interest be searched for. Why you people feel like to do such studies and writings? Do u believe that one will understand buddhism and the vinay pitaka by reading Schireson’s book or by seeing american nuns who don’t like to be called as monk but likes monastics? Dalia Lama said, an attractive women…..can u understand what he mean??? He was expressing low feelings about half grown or fast concluding people like you who are easily attracted to attractive things..he mean..if a beautiful girls speaks of buddhism then may be people will come and listen to the dhamma ,, Buddhism”. I am sorry…try to answer the following points:
1). what is the purpose of becoming monk?
ans: it is for the four immeasurables i. love ii. compassion iii. sympathetic joy iv. equanimity.
2). what is the purpose of becoming a nun?
ans: same,
3). what can be differences between nuns and monks?
Ans: not the soul, not the rights, not the freedom, not the love,not the compassion and not the enlightenment—means equally intellectual,
NOW TELL ME, IS IT POSSIBLE TO BRING A SCOPE OF DISCREMINATION OF ANY KIND IN BUDDHISM.????
BUT..Yes Physically as a truth..both can’t be same, except for the souls..most of the things are different..so Buddhism takes care of this variations in the vinay pitaka…EYES OF BUDDHISM CAN’T NEVER BE CLOSED . In buddhism three things are very very crucial:
1. Speculation means an invalid INPUT signal in the algorithm of Buddhist logics and so a sure error. 2. If you dont’ understand a problem as problem, you are part of the problem.
3. For understanding Buddhism, we have to have the minimum level of love, compassion, joy and equnimity.
take care…