Women And Religion Paper

04 Buddhism A

We now move on to our second religion, Buddhism. As with Hinduism, we will spend time looking at some of the main aspects of this religion as a way of introduction, before focussing on issues that specifically concern women.

General Facts

Unlike the case of Hinduism, which had no individual founder, the origins of Buddhism can be traced back to the historical figure known as Siddhartha Gautama. There is still considerable debate surrounding the precise years of his birth and death; in fact, the difference of opinion can vary up to a century. However, the most widely accepted dates are 560-480BCE. This means that Buddhism is about 1000 years younger than its mother religion, Hinduism. The reason why Hinduism is seen as a ‘mother’ religion to Buddhism is simply the fact that Siddhartha Gautama lived in northern India and thus grew up in a Hindu context. The sources say that his father was the ruler (raja) of a small kingdom known as Sakya, located in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. This is why he is sometimes known as “Sakyamuni” (the wise one from Sakya). Today, you would have to travel to Nepal to visit his birthplace.

Like all Hindus, Gautama was expected to marry and have a family when he reached the appropriate age. The pressure on him to do so was even greater given that he was heir to the local throne and his father wanted to ensure a smooth transition between generations. According to the stories, his father was so worried that Gautama might be distracted from his duty to become the next ruler, that he raised the boy in the safety of the palace and ensured that he had a happy, comfortable life. Sheltered from the darker side of human existence, Gautama grew up and married a princess from a neighbouring kingdom. After about ten years, she gave birth to a son, and the old king was very happy that everything was turning out as he had planned.

However, things don’t always go according to plan and the tradition says that one day a curious Gautama went on an excursion outside the palace walls to encounter the world first-hand. What he experienced would change his life forever and Buddhists refer to the event as “the Four Sights”. It is said that, for the first time, he saw a sick person, an old person, a dead person in a funeral procession, and a holy forest-dweller. The encounter with old age, sickness and death made him realise that the palatial pleasures and political power were ultimately transient and could not bring lasting satisfaction. The encounter with the holy man made him realise that the key to absolute happiness and liberation from the wheel of reincarnation could only be found outside the palace, in the forest. After several weeks of soul-searching, he made the most important decision of his life at the age of 29. He would leave his wife, child, father and his entire lifestyle, and go the woods in search of enlightenment. So, one night, he quietly left, riding to the boundary of the kingdom where he cut his long princely hair and donned the yellow robes of a beggar. It was the night of his Renunciation. In our eyes such a drastic step looks like abrogation of duty but Buddhists see it as a decision for the greater good since it meant that the world would gain a Buddha.

Gautama did not find enlightenment immediately. In fact it took seven long years of study, meditation and fasting before the key insight came to him, under a tree in a place now known as Bodhgaya. On that night, he not only recalled all of his past reincarnations, but he also became aware of the key to liberation: the Four Noble Truths. In a nutshell they are:

1. Life is full of suffering 2. The cause of suffering is ignorant desire. 3. Suffering and reincarnation can end (nirvana). 4. There are eight things you can do to reach nirvana (the Noble Eightfold Path).

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Gautama becomes the Buddha

Grasping the Four Noble Truths was like waking up and becoming fully aware of all things. He had become a Buddha (“enlightened one”). So the term “Buddha” is not his family name but a title given to him once he had reached enlightenment. The next critical decision was what to do next. He could remain under the bodhi tree (it was a type of fig tree) and enjoy the state of nirvana or he could share his newfound secret with others. After some deliberation he chose the latter and went looking for the five companions that he had lived with for many years in the forest. When he found them, he sat them down under a (different) tree and shared with them his discovery. They accepted his teaching and became his first monks. The event is known as the First Sermon and it marks the beginning of Buddhism as a religious movement.

The First Sermon

Gautama lived for another 45 years in which time he constantly travelled around northern India, teaching and establishing communities of monks. Finally he died of a stomach disorder, lying peacefully under a tree (different again) and passing into complete nirvana. Buddha statues that have him reclining on his right side are depicting his death.

The dying Buddha Gautama

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Size and Extent

Today, there are approximately 380 million Buddhists across the world, making it the fourth or fifth largest religion (depending on how you count “Chinese religion” with its mix of Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism). Buddhists can be found in almost all cultures and societies today, indicating that, unlike Hinduism, it has been a missionary religion from the beginning. Indeed, Buddha Gautama sent his monks out on the roads in pairs to take his message to all who would listen. Ironically, it spread across most of eastern Asia but almost disappeared in its native land, India.

The main subdivision within Buddhism is between the Southern (Theravada) and Northern (Mahayana) schools. As the names suggest, these are roughly geographical with most Theravadans living in places like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand whilst the largest Mahayana communities are found in China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. Tibet is sometimes singled out as a third branch of Buddhism, sprouting from the Mahayana school.

The main theological difference between the two schools concerns the way in which one can achieve nirvana. The Southern school tends to emphasise the need for individual effort: one has Buddha Gautama’s teachings and example, now it is up to each person to follow these with discipline and commitment. A person who masters the Buddha’s teachings and is able to put these into practice perfectly is called an ‘arhat’. In other words, they will not be reincarnated again but will enter nirvana after this present life ends. The Northern school tends to emphasise the availability of help from above for those struggling to progress. This school believes that some arhats who have died, deliberately delay nirvana so that they can remain in the world and assist others. These spiritual beings are known as ‘bodhisattvas’ and their motive is compassion for all beings – an important ideal in Mahayana Buddhism.

Key Beliefs

Because of Buddha Gautama’s Indian background, it is not surprising to find that much of the Hindu tradition has been carried over and accepted in Buddhism. One of the main concepts that Buddhism has inherited from its mother is the reincarnational model of human existence. As with Hinduism, Buddhists believe that beings are born, die and are reborn over and over again in a long series of lives. Thus, the wheel of reincarnation (also called samsara) is a common Buddhist artistic motif. Typically the wheel is held by the god of death and is divided into six sections, each representing one of the worlds or dimensions into which beings can be reborn (gods, semi-gods, humans, hungry ghosts, animals and hell). Inside this, there is a circle that is half light and half dark, representing beings ascending or descending (as they die each time) between the six worlds according to karma. At the very centre of the wheel there are a pig, a rooster and a snake chasing each other in a closed circle. The three animals respectively represent the vices that bind us to the wheel of reincarnation: ignorance, greed and hatred. As in Hinduism, the aim is

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to escape from the wheel and reach ultimate liberation. What Hindus call moksha, Buddhists call nirvana.

The Buddhist Wheel of Life

What is different between the religions is that Buddhism does not place much importance on the role of the Hindu gods. A few of them appear occasionally as background characters in the stories of the Buddha, but they are not Supreme Reality and they do not save us from the wheel. In fact, Buddha hardly mentioned gods in his many teachings, focussing instead of the Four Noble Truths. For this reason, many commentators think that Buddhism should not be called a “religion” but rather a “philosophy” since it is basically interested in relieving, and eventually eliminating, suffering by ending reincarnation. In fact, Buddha notoriously refused to describe nirvana except to say that it was the end of suffering and rebirth, and it was definitely worth striving for – but it is not an eternal state of blissful harmony with a creator or redeemer God. Despite the lack of a God, there are many “religious” aspects to Buddhism including praying to higher beings, especially in the Mahayana tradition. For this reason many are content to call it, somewhat paradoxically, a “non-theistic religion”.

Scriptures

We noted that Hinduism has no single “bible” but rather a plethora of sacred books, some of which are given top priority by some schools and others by other schools. The Buddhist scriptures are a bit more defined, although there is still some blurriness. The most important texts for the Southern (Theravada) school are found in a collection known as the Three Baskets (“Tri-pitaka” in Sanskrit). The triple basket metaphor suggests that there are three collections of writings, each of which has its own distinctive literary genre and contents. The first basket is called the Vinaya (“discipline”) and is essentially a collection of rules and regulations for monks. The second, and most popular, is the Sutta (“threads”), which contains thousands of sermons, allegedly from Buddha Gautama. The third is the Abhidhamma (“higher learning“), which is a heavy, philosophical treatise used only in advanced Buddhist studies.

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Although the Northern (Mahayana) school accepts the Three Baskets as canonical (having the highest authority) it also adds its own texts that are claimed to capture genuine teachings of Buddha Gautama. The most famous is the Lotus Sutra, which introduces key Mahayana themes such as the bodhisattva and compassion. So there is some intersection but not a perfect overlap between the Theravada and Mahayana traditions regarding which books are the most authoritative.

HIGHER BEINGS

We now commence our examination of the key elements in Buddhism that pertain to women’s status and, as with the other religions, we begin with the concept of divinity and femininity. In Hinduism we discovered a significant, explicit acceptance of the feminine alongside the masculine in ideas about divinity. There were goddesses alongside the gods, and even an entire school devoted to the Mother Goddess as the supreme deity. However, as noted above, Buddha Gautama said little about the gods and ascribed no real significance to them. So it would seem that, without a Supreme Being, the issue of God’s gender is not an issue in Buddhism. Yet, in many ways, the Buddha himself takes on some of the key roles usually ascribed to the gods or God in other religions. As supreme teacher he is the source of an eternal truth that transcends time and space. As ethical model, he is the epitome of moral goodness and should be emulated in thought and action. As one who still helps those who pray to him, he is the saviour who delivers us from suffering.

What often comes as a surprise to students is that Buddhism speaks of more than one Buddha. There is certainly Buddha Gautama, the 6th Century BCE Indian prince from Sakya, who left his family, found enlightenment under the tree and established a new religious movement of monks and lay people. But the Theravada tradition claims that Gautama was not the first and will not be the last Buddha. In fact, they claim that Gautama is the 28th Buddha in a long line from the past that will continue into the distant future. The previous (27th) Buddha was known as Kassapa, and the next one to come (29th) is known as Maitreya. These Buddhas are not historical in our normal sense of the word, but rather mythological. The time-spans between Buddhas are enormous – tens of thousands of years – but the reason for the continuous need for a Buddha in each epoch, is the belief that his teaching gradually fades from memory and, thus, humanity needs to be reminded of the long lost truth. Indeed, Buddha Gautama did not claim to invent the Four Noble Truths. He simply recovered them for a world that had forgotten. Maitreya will do the same in the millennia to come; and so on.

The line of Buddhas

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There is not only a line of Buddhas in terms of time. There is also a group of Buddhas associated with direction and space. In the “Pure Land” school of the Mahayana tradition, it is believed that there is a Buddha figure residing in a “pure land” in each of the five cardinal directions: north, south, east, west and centre. These are known as the “celestial” Buddhas since their lands are located in the heavens. Constant prayer and devotion can result in a person being reincarnated in a pure land in their next life. The advantage is that it is very easy to live the Buddha’s teaching in such a salubrious, wonderful place and, thus, nirvana is virtually guaranteed after one dies there.

The five celestial buddhas of

Tibetan Buddhism

Each of the five celestial buddhas has their own name and their own special iconography in terms of skin colour, hand position and so forth. As it happens, the Buddha of the Western paradise, known as Amitabha (O-mi-to-fu in China and Amida in Japan) is the most popular across much of Asia. Each celestial Buddha is also assisted by a bodhisattva. As mentioned above, these are beings who have achieved nirvana but, because of their immense compassion, deliberately postpone it so that they may remain in this world to help others. The icon below depicts the classical fourfold vow of the bodhisattva:

The vows of a bodhisattva

The many beings are numberless; I vow to save them. Greed, hatred and ignorance rise endlessly, I vow to abandon them.

Dharma gates are countless, I vow to wake them. Buddha’s way is unsurpassable, I vow to inhabit it fully.

The bodhisattva who assists Amitabha is known as Avalokiteshvara (“the Lord who looks down in mercy”). His task is to gather as many beings possible and bring them to Amitabha’s pure land, from where they will easily gain nirvana. As in Hindu art, Avalokiteshvara is depicted with many arms, symbolising his ability to reach out to

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unlimited numbers of devotees. Tibetan Buddhists believe that Avalokiteshvara is incarnate in the Dalai Lama and that Amitabha is incarnate in the Panchen Lama. Avalokiteshvara takes the form of Kwan Yin in China and Kwannon in Japan.

Avalokiteshvara

So, in terms of women’s issues, there are four pertinent questions that we should ask: 1. Are there any female Buddhas? 2. Was Gautama a female in a previous life? 3. Can a woman become an arhat (enlightened)? 4. Are there any female bodhisattvas?

1. Are there any female buddhas?

The simple answer is ‘no’. All of the twenty-nine buddhas on the official list are male and one of the reasons for this is the tradition that every buddha has 32 marks on his body at birth, signifying his special destiny.

The 32 marks of a Buddha

1. Level feet 2. Spoked wheel on feet 3. Long fingers 4. Pliant hands and feet 5. Webbed fingers and toes 6. Full-sized heels 7. Arched insteps 8. Stag-like thighs 9. Hands reaching below knees 10. Well-retracted male organ 11. Arm length equal to height

12. Dark coloured hair roots 13. Curly bodily hair 14. Golden body 15. Ten-foot aura around him 16. Smooth skin 17. Well-rounded shoulders 18. Well-filled armpits 19. Lion-shaped body 20. Erect and upright body 21. Full, round shoulders 22. Forty teeth 23. White, even spaced teeth

24. Four pure white canine teeth

25. Lion jaw 26. Saliva that improves taste 27. Long, broad tongue 28. Deep, resonant voice 29. Deep blue eyes 30. Eyelashes like a bull 31. W h i t e l i g h t b e t w e e n

eyebrows 32. Fleshy protuberance on

head

The relevant one here is number 10: a “well-retracted male organ”. In some lists this is described as a “sheathed” organ. The principal point behind this seems to be every buddha’s detachment from sexual desire. Of course, Gautama was a married man and successfully had a son by his wife but his renunciation meant eventual adoption of the celibate life. However, the explicit reference to a male organ is often used by conservative Buddhists to argue that a Buddha can never be a woman. As it is written in the Basket of Threads, only a male can achieve the top five “ranks of existence”:

“It is impossible that a woman should be the perfectly Enlightened One, the Universal Monarch, Indra god, Mara god or Brahma god.”

Some authors point to a possible exception in the Mahayana story of Queen Srimala. She was taught by the Buddha and perfectly understood his doctrine, preaching it to her

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people and converting them. As a result, the Buddha promised that she would be reincarnated in a future life as a “pure land Buddha”. However, the story does not specify whether, as a pure land Buddha, she would be in male or female form. Thus, it is an ambiguous example, and the general rule seems to remain in place: a Buddha always appears in male form.

2. Was Gautama a woman in a previous life? If all buddhas are male in their last reincarnation, is it possible that they may have had a female form in one or more of their previous lives? If so, is this a problem? One cannot usually remember one’s previous lives in the Hindu and Buddhist systems as there is a sort of natural amnesia during the death-rebirth phase. Nevertheless, both religions admit that those advanced in the art of meditation may be able to recover memories of several of their most recent reincarnations. Thus, the claim that Buddha Gautama recalled all of his previous existences on the night of his enlightenment is a powerful one, setting him apart from all other beings of his age. The stories of those previous existences can be found in a set of writings known as the Jataka Tales. These are located in the Basket of Threads in the Tripitaka and they are often used for the religious and ethical education of younger Buddhists, since most of them take the form of a morality tale. Typically the Buddha is reincarnated as some sort of animal and encounters a challenge in which he displays a particular virtue such as honesty, courage or courtesy. Consequently, the Jataka Tales have been compared to Aesop’s fables from the Western tradition. Some of the animal forms of his previous lives include fish, quail, goose, deer, monkey, elephant, rabbit and swan (note that the last example is female). When he is in human form it is almost always as a man but there is an exception in the story of Rupavati who was willing to cut off her breast in order to save a starving mother and her child. As a result, we are told that she was transformed into a man, implying that being male is a superior state to being female. This idea echoes the Hindu notion that being male represents a more advanced stage on the way to moksha than being a woman. Indeed, the introduction to the Jataka Tales states boldly: “A Buddha-to-be could NEVER be reborn as a woman after consciously setting out on this path.” A similar idea is expressed in the “Ten Stages Sutra” (Dasabhumika Sutra) from the Northern school. In this text, there are ten stages of advancement that must be mastered by a Buddha-to-be:

1. Joyous: rejoices at realizing a partial aspect of the truth 2. Stainless: free from all defilement 3. Luminous: radiates the light of wisdom 4. Radiant: flame of wisdom burns away earthly desires 5. Difficult to Cultivate: surmounts illusions of ignorance 6. Manifest: supreme wisdom begins to manifest 7. Gone Afar: rises above states of the two vehicles 8. Immovable: dwells in truth of Middle Way beyond perturbation

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9. Good Intelligence: preaches the Law freely 10. Cloud of Doctrine: benefits all sentient beings with the dharma

Some authors argue that one cannot progress beyond level 7 in a female body, again suggesting that being a woman may be possible early on but that a male body is required for those last reincarnations approaching Buddhahood.

3. Can a woman achieve enlightenment?

So it seems that being a Buddha is traditionally bound up with being male, not only in the final reincarnation when it occurs, but also in previous lives, especially after a certain critical point along the way. The next question is whether being a female is an obstacle to reaching the state of an arhat, namely someone who has mastered the Buddha’s teachings and perfectly puts them into practice. Such a person will not be reincarnated but will enter nirvana at death. In contrast to the general rejection of the notion of a female Buddha, the tradition is much more positive regarding the potential of women to become an arhat. In fact, there are plenty of examples of both male and female disciples of Buddha Gautama who were recognised as arhats during his lifetime.

One of the most outstanding examples is Mahapajapati, the Buddha’s aunt and stepmother. According to the stories, Gautama’s mother died a week after he was born and her sister, Mahapajapati, married his father and thus became his stepmother. So she was the one who raised him as a child. As we will see later, she was also the first nun and acted as leader of the early nuns for many years.

Mahapajapati

Other examples include the two outstanding nuns Khema and Uppalavana, who parallel the two chief male disciples, Sariputra and Mogallana. Just as Sariputra was considered the wisest and most intelligent of the monks, Khema was considered as the wisest and most intelligent of the nuns. Originally she was one of the most beautiful women of her time and became the consort of King Bimbisara, a supporter of Gautama. One day, the Buddha Gautama met her and showed her a vision of an even more beautiful woman but, as Khema watched in wonder, the vision began to age rapidly, growing old and then dying before her eyes. As the woman’s corpse decayed in front of Khema, she realised the transience of physical beauty and committed herself to the Buddha’s teaching, becoming an arhat there and then.

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Khema’s vision of a rapidly ageing women

Similarly, Uppalavanna was singled out as the female disciple of the Buddha with the greatest mastery of miraculous powers, just as Mogallana was the miracle virtuoso among the male monks. Uppalavanna also achieved the state of an arhat. As we shall see in the next lesson, the question of whether a woman can achieve enlightenment and become an arhat in a female body was the very question put to Gautama when there was some doubt as to whether women should be allowed to become nuns alongside the monks.

4. Are there any female bodhisattvas? If women are capable of achieving the state of arhat – as evidenced by concrete examples such as Mahapajapati, Khema and Uppalavanna above – the next question is whether any of them delay nirvana out of compassion and remain in this world as bodhisattvas in female, rather than male, form. Again, the answer is affirmative, at least in certain Buddhist traditions. The most obvious example is Kwan Yin, who is very popular among Chinese Buddhists. Kwan Yin is a female form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who assists the Western Buddha, Amitabha. Her name is an abbreviation of the Chinese phrase: “one who hears the cries of the world”, which is very similar in meaning to Avalokiteshvara (see above). Indeed, the Lotus Sutra states that the bodhisattva can appear in either male or female form and it is interesting to note that in Japan, Avalokiteshvara does take on the male form as Kwannon. Kwan Yin is often depicted in art as young woman wearing a white robe and carrying a jar of water and a willow branch, with which she sprinkles the water over humankind in order to cleanse and purify us.

Kwan Yin

Another important female figure from the Tibetan tradition is the bodhisattva Tara. Like Avalokiteshvara and Kwan Yin, Tara also hears the cries of a suffering humanity and reaches out to help us. A popular legend describes how she was born from the tears of Avalokiteshvara. In fact, one version describes her in two forms: White Tara, born from a tear from his right eye, symbolising the day and peaceful meditation; and Green Tara, born from a tear from his left eye, symbolising night and action. If you look closely at the

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image below, you will notice that Green Tara has her right leg extended, symbolising her readiness to step into our world and save us.

White Tara Green Tara

The Irrelevance of Gender

Although Buddhist tradition does not seem to accept the notion of a female Buddha, nevertheless there seems to be no conceptual problem regarding women being outstanding disciples and models. Indeed, the examples cited above are but a few of the many actual cases of female arhats and bodhisattvas. Moreover, when one begins to quarry the Buddhist tradition, there is ample material that supports the notion that gender is ultimately irrelevant when it comes to spiritual advancement. Here are some strands in the tradition that support this idea.

a. Change of Sex Texts

There are a number of early Mahayana stories that follow a basic plot line: i. A young girl astounds a group of male elders with her wisdom (suggesting that she

has achieved enlightenment) ii. The sceptical audience objects that this is impossible for someone in a female body iii. The girl disagrees and miraculously turns herself into a male to prove her point.

One example of this genre is the story of the Dragon Princess found in the Lotus Sutra. In this case the girl is only 8 years old and it is one of the Buddha’s champion disciples, Sariputra, who objects. Another example is that of 12 year old Vimaladatta who has to deal with Mogallana’s objections – again, one of the Buddhists foremost male disciples is involved.

b. Sunyata (“emptiness”)

This is a key idea in a type of Mahayana writing known as the Wisdom literature (Prajna paramita). Key examples are the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra. The claim is that although individual things seem to be real, they are ultimately “empty” of any real essence. What is real is not the individual things of this world but the bedrock of existence on which all individual things stand (also described as the “matrix of being” in which all individual things subsist). The teaching stresses the connectedness of all things rather than their separate individual existence, which is really an illusion. So some writers think that this idea of sunyata should also be applied to gender. It means that, in the end, gender differences are empty of real significance and should not be the basis of discrimination and exclusion. One story that illustrates the point is the Vimalakirti Sutra which tells how Sariputra (one of those two key male disciples we met earlier) asks an enlightened goddess why she does not take male form. She responds by causing them both to swap bodies: she becomes a he and he becomes a she. It is very similar to the change of sex

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texts described above only here both characters are affected. The goddess then articulates the point that a shocked Sariputra has just learned: “In all things, there is neither male nor female'”

c. Anatta (“non-self”)

Complementing the concept of sunyata (the emptiness in all individual things), is the notion of ‘anatta’ which means ‘non-self’. If all individual things are ultimately empty of any real substance, then this applies also to the self. In the end, even our sense of ‘self’ is an illusion, which is a rather radical idea for those of us accustomed to thinking that it is the one thing that I can be sure exists (Descartes’ famous dictum was: “I think therefore I am”). When Buddha examined our sense of self (the “I” that we constantly refer to in our daily statements), he claimed that he did not find any solid reality there in which we can put trust or confidence. Instead, he claimed that the self is just a loose combination of five fleeting, cloud-like elements (skandas): body; sensations; perceptions; desires; and consciousness. What this means is very much a matter of debate in Buddhist circles, but it does suggest that we need to let go of ego-centric thoughts and be willing to abandon even the self in the long run. Again, feminists argue that if this is true, then clinging to gender is flawed since it is just part of those fleeting elements that loosely make up the elusive self.

d. The Three Bodies Theory

Finally there is another Mahayana teaching called the “three bodies” theory. This does not mean that the Buddha has three bodies. What it refers to is three different ways of thinking about the Buddha; three different levels of understanding that reflect the depth of one’s wisdom. The first “body” or level of understanding is the physical. In other words, when you think of the Buddha, you think of Gautama who lived on our earth 2500 years ago and had a real physical body, which was cremated and the ashes distributed across many monasteries throughout Asia. Admittedly it was a male body and indeed the tradition has presumed that every Buddha in the long series appears in a male body. But this is only a basic, rudimentary understanding of the Buddha. The second level is the “enjoyment body” or “vision body” which describes how the Buddha appears to his followers when they enter a deep state of meditation and prayer. Typically those who have had such visions speak of a glorious, golden, radiant body with supernatural features. Many Buddha statues have some of these features. Moreover, the vision can be of Buddha Gautama but it can also be of other buddhas and bodhisattvas, including female forms of the latter such as Kwan Yin and Tara. But even these vision bodies are limited since there is a third level of understanding called “Buddha nature”. At this level, when one thinks of the Buddha, one is not thinking of a male or female human figure at all but rather a more abstract notion. True Buddhahood is really a state of mind – an attitude and understanding that transforms one’s view of the reality and brings nirvana. One could say that the true body of the Buddha is “supreme truth” itself (indeed we do commonly use the phrase a “body of truth”). At this level, gender becomes irrelevant since this Buddha “body” is a potential in all sentient beings that needs to be realised.

Feminine metaphors

Commentators also point out that there are plenty of “feminine” metaphors in Buddhist literature, which reflect the value of the female and suggest the ultimate irrelevance of gender as an absolute category.   One example is the concept of “Buddha nature” that is linked to the third body of the Buddha (see paragraph above). For example, it is sometimes described as “tathagata garbha” – Buddha “womb”. The imagery is powerful since it suggests that all of us (men and women – all sentient beings) have a spiritual womb within us that must “give birth” to Buddha nature.

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Another case is the feminine imagery used to describe the wisdom of the Buddha. Here is an example:   “I pay homage to the perfection of wisdom. She is worthy of homage. She is unstained, and the entire world cannot stain her. She is a source of light, she is mother of the bodhisattvas” (Large Sutra on the Perfection of Wisdom)

Indeed there is a Tibetan tradition that provides a list of traps or stumbling blocks on the way to becoming fully enlightened. One of them is negative treatment of women who are seen as the personification of wisdom: “If one disparages women who are the nature of wisdom, that is the fourteenth root downfall.” (The Perfect Conduct/ Tibetan)

Some statements

There have also been many statements by outstanding Buddhist practitioners and teachers over the centuries endorsing the ultimate irrelevance of gender. Here are a few well known ones:

Moshan Liaroan, a 9th century abbess, popular teacher and the only woman listed as a Chinese Ch’an (Zen) master, said: “enlightenment has no visible characteristics (sex)”.

Her famous student Zhixian, openly acknowledged both his male and female teachers as genuine sources of insight:

“I got half a ladle at Papa Linchi’s place, and I got half a ladle at Mama Moshan’s place, which together made a full ladle. Since that time, after having fully digested this, I’ve been satisfied to the full.”

Dogen, the 13th century Japanese master who founded the Soto Zen school stated: “By what right are only males noble? The empty sky is the empty sky; the four elements are the four elements; the five skandas are the five skandas; to be female is exactly the same… both male and female can attain the Way.”

Dogen

Even the current Dalai Lama as acknowledged that one of his future successors may be a woman:

Westerners are fascinated by the idea that the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama could be a woman. Theoretically, yes, that is possible. The very goal or reincarnation is to serve the Buddha Dharma. Consequently, according to circumstances, if a Dalai Lama in a female form can help beings better serve the Buddha Dharma, why deprive ourselves of that? (Spiritual Autobiography p. 62-3)

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The current Dalai Lama

Video Women in Buddhism 9 mins Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Perth 2006)

Listen for: • Her definition of feminism • Examples of gender inequalities in Buddhism • Her list of great Buddhist women:

Sujata – the first Buddhist? Mahapajapati – the first nun Kwanyin – the symbol of compassion Tara – saviouress Machig Lapdron – a real historical woman

• The significance of the two altars in the Vietnamese convent

Conclusions

Given all that we have noted above, it is perhaps not surprising that many commentators think that Buddhism, in its theory, is relatively neutral on the question of gender, making it a popular choice among Westerners sympathetic to the feminist cause and seeking escape from Western religious patriarchal structures. Here are some quotes:

“less patriarchal, more egalitarian than other major religions” “its core teachings are gender free” “there is no patriarchal symbol for ultimate reality, namely a single, male God” “there are female forms of higher beings alongside the male” “it is theoretically open to women achieving full enlightenment”

However, the same commentators sadly note that, in practice, Buddhism has not been so gender neutral. Despite the irrelevance of gender in its core doctrines, over the centuries Buddhist institutions and practices have frequently been unmistakably patriarchal. Again, here are some quotes from the same commentators:

“the most problematic manifestation of patriarchy have been Buddhist institutions” “the social situation does not correspond to the ideal” “longstanding patriarchal realities remain” “there is a massive irreconcilable conflict between view and practice” “Buddhism has accommodated patriarchy rather than opposed it”

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So we must now turn from the theory to the practice and identify more precisely these patriarchal elements in the tradition, and to what extent contemporary Buddhists (men and women) defend or challenge them.

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