Women's Acceptance into the Buddhist Monasteries
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by: onlineordination
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Word Count: 1092
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 Time: 12:38 PM
Throughout Buddhist history, womens’ role has been far from equal. 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.”
In Buddhism,it is almost impossible to miss that women are seen as and treated as being inferior to men. Yet thousands of intelligent, educated women study Buddhism as non-clergy or nuns. Let’s take a acquaint ourselves with of the role of women practicing Buddhism, both throughout history and looking at it from the modern day perspective.
The Start of It All
During the time which Buddha had been born, the society had been ruled by the caste system and was extremely anti-women. So, Buddha rocked the Buddhist community to make it known that attaining nirvana was possible for any person – man or woman. As with the Gospels, the sutras had been written well after Buddha died (some two hundred years) and they were written by the monks, who were, of course, all men. This is an important thing to remember as we travel backwards through history to India, sixth century B.C.E.
Mahapajapati, feeling driven throughout the years by a similar dissatisfaction that had driven multitudes of men before her, longed to ask to be allowed into the sanghi, but knew of the prejudice against women joining. However, as time went on, she found that she couldn’t stop herself from requesting admittance. She rid herself of her material things and devoted herself to compassionate acts. Now it was time to take the next step.
As Jesus before her (under different circumstances), Mahapajapati was turned down 3 times when she requested Buddha for to be permitted to be allowed into the sangha in Kapilavatthu. She left him to his meditations, but shaved off her hair and put on a saffron robe. Now it was time for Buddha to make his long journey to Vesali, and along with five hundred other women of noble birth who had also removed their hair and were clothed in a saffron robe, Mahapajapati followed in his footsteps.
This time as she approached the Buddha, she saw that he was meditating, and she did not wish to intrude upon him|When they arrived, Mahapajapati hesitated to intrude upon Buddha from his meditations. Ananda became aware of their attire and inquired as to the reason. She told of having been denied three times to be admitted to the sangha and of their powerful desire to be admitted. Agreeing to speak as her representative, Ananda spoke to Buddha, who was rumored to have only hesitantly agreed to their admittance, but only if they agreed to adhere to the following eight rules:
1. Every nun, regardless of how long SHE has been ordained, must bow with respect to any monk, regardless of the amount of time HE has been ordained.
2. Before a young woman is allowed to apply for full ordination no earlier than age 18, she must first finish the 2 yr. long basic training course on the precepts.
3. It is not allowed for nuns to find fault with monks for real or non-existent offenses; it is allowable for monks to find fault with nuns for true offenses (though it's forbidden for non-existent ones).
4. The needs of monks will always come before nuns in the matter of food, beds, seats or lodging.
5. Any nun who violates a cardinal rule of conduct must go through disciplinary penance lasting fifteen days inside the group of nuns and then must seek out restitution belonging to front of the communities of both nuns and monks.
6. The nuns have to ask for guidance from the monks every 15 days, without fail.
7. Unless there are monks present, nuns shall not go in a rain retreat.
8. Nuns who have finished the rain retreat should ask for the ceremony of forgiveness from both communities, then admit publicly to any infractions that might have been made.
After that, Buddha said regretfully to Ananda, “If women had not been admitted to be part of the monastery, the sangha would’ve remained intact for 1000 years. But now that they've been admitted, the order will last only five hundred yrs.”. Some suggest this came about because Buddha knew, using his infinite wisdom, that women were inherently evil; other people point out that as soon as women were admitted, monks may be much more inclined to give in to lust, and the same would also be likley with nuns.
Over time, the lists of precepts expanded for both monks and nuns, and today, nuns have roughly one hundred more precepts than monks do, (varying in number throughout traditions).
The story we just outlined has been told and re-told many times, but some don’t agree on how it all unfolded. Another version bandied about has been that the nuns weren‘t supposed to go travelling by themselves is because a nun had been raped.
Regardless of some exceptions, some precepts undoubtably had been based on gender bias. In India, during the 5th century, it was assumed that women were inferior to men. With no possibilities to get any schooling, as well as limited personal freedom, women of all castes were considered to be on par with the lowest of the castes, the Sudra. For the times, Buddha‘s decision to accept women into the monastery had been both revolutionary and controversial.
While the Buddha held progressive views on the role of women within the sangha, contemporary members of the sangha disagreed.
During the first Buddhist council, Ananda had been scolded and ordered to admit his errors in judgment. After Ananda emphatically said he felt he’d done no wrong, his mistakes were clarified for him. One of them brought up, had been his influence in the Buddha’s deciding to allow women to be part of the sangha; another was that Ananda had allowed women to pay homage over the bodily remains of Buddha before the men had been allowed, and a 3rd was that he allowed their tears to fall on the Buddha’s body.
About the Author
Amy is the President of the Universal Life Church Seminary and author of multiple books and courses on ceremonies and various spiritual belief systems.
Tricia Stirling has created this class for the Universal Life Church Seminary. This is an excerpt of one lesson (of 30) from the Master of Buddhist Studies Course offered through the Universal Life Church Seminary.
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