Buddhism and sexism

Buddhist women, including nuns, have suffered severe discrimination by Buddhist institutions in Asia for centuries. There is gender inequality in most of the world's religions, of course, but that's not an excuse. Is sexism intrinsic to Buddhism or have Buddhist institutions absorbed sexism from Asian culture? Can Buddhism treat women as equals and remain Buddhism?

The historical Buddha and the first nuns
Let's start from the beginning, with the historical Buddha. According to Pali Vinaya and other early scriptures, the Buddha originally refused to ordain women as nuns. He said that allowing women to enter Sangha would only make his teachings survive for half - 500 years instead of 1.000.

Buddha Ananda 's cousin asked if there was any reason women could not enlighten and enter Nirvana as well as men. The Buddha admitted that there was no reason why a woman could not be enlightened. "Women, Ananda, after being able to accomplish, are capable of realizing the fruit of reaching the flow or the fruit of the return or the fruit of the non-return or the arahant," he said.

This is the story, however. Some historians claim that this story was an invention written in the scriptures later by an unknown publisher. Ananda was still a child when the first nuns were ordained, so she could not have been able to advise the Buddha very well.

The early scriptures also say that some of the women who were the first Buddhist nuns were praised by the Buddha for their wisdom and many enlightenments accomplished.

Unequal rules for nuns
Vinaya-pitaka records the original rules of the discipline for monks and nuns. A bhikkuni (nun) has rules in addition to those given to a bhikku (monk). The most significant of these rules are called Otto Garudhammas ("heavy rules"). These include total subordination to monks; older nuns are to be considered "junior" for a one-day monk.

Some scholars point to discrepancies between the Pali Bhikkuni Vinaya (the section of the Pali Canon which deals with the rules for nuns) and other versions of the texts and suggest that the most hateful rules were added after the death of the Buddha. Wherever they came from, over the centuries the rules were used in many parts of Asia to discourage women from being ordained.

When most orders of nuns died out centuries ago, conservatives used rules that required the presence of monks and nuns ordained at the ordination of the nuns to prevent women from being ordained. If there are no ordained living nuns, according to the rules, there can be no nun ordinations. This effectively ended the full ordination of the nuns in the Theravada orders of Southeast Asia; women can only be novices. And no nun order was ever established in Tibetan Buddhism, although there are some Tibetan lama women.

There is, however, an order of Mahayana nuns in China and Taiwan who can trace its lineage to the first ordination of nuns. Some women have been ordained as Theravada nuns in the presence of these Mahayana nuns, although this is highly controversial in some patriarchal monastic orders of Theravada.

However, women did have an impact on Buddhism. I have been told that Taiwanese nuns enjoy higher status in their country than monks. The Zen tradition also has some formidable female Zen teachers in its history.

Can women enter Nirvana?
Buddhist doctrines on women's enlightenment are contradictory. There is no institutional authority that speaks for all Buddhism. The myriad schools and sects do not follow the same scriptures; the central texts in some schools are not recognized as authentic by others. And the scriptures don't agree.

For example, the largest Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra, also called Aparimitayur Sutra, is one of the three sutras that provide the doctrinal foundations of the Pure Land school. This sutra contains a passage generally interpreted in the sense that women must be reborn as men before they can enter Nirvana. This opinion appears from time to time in other Mahayana scriptures, although I am not aware that it is in the Pali Canon.

On the other hand, the Sutra Vimalakirti teaches that virility and femininity, like other phenomenal distinctions, are essentially unreal. "With that in mind, the Buddha said," In everything, there is neither male nor female. " Vimilakirti is an essential text in several Mahayana schools, including Tibetan and Zen Buddhism.

"Everyone acquires Dharma in the same way"
Despite the barriers against them, throughout Buddhist history, many women have gained respect for their understanding of dharma.

I have already mentioned Zen master women. During the golden age of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism (China, around 7th-9th centuries) women studied with male teachers, and some were recognized as Dharma heirs and Ch'an masters. These include Liu Tiemo, called "Iron Grindstone"; Moshan; and Miaoxin. Moshan was a teacher for monks and nuns.

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) brought Soto Zen from China to Japan and is one of the most revered masters in the history of Zen. In a comment called Raihai Tokuzui, Dogen said, "In acquiring dharma, everyone acquires dharma in the same way. Everyone should pay homage and take into consideration those who have acquired the dharma. Don't question whether it's a man or a woman. This is the most wonderful law of buddha-dharma. "

Buddhism today
Today, Buddhist women in the West generally view institutional sexism as vestiges of Asian culture that can be surgically removed by dharma. Some western monastic orders are coordinated, with men and women following the same rules.

“In Asia, the nuns' orders are working for better conditions and education, but in many countries they still have a long way to go. Centuries of discrimination will not be canceled overnight. Equality will be more a struggle in some schools and cultures than in others, but there is an impetus towards equality and I see no reason why this impetus will not continue.