Women in Buddhist Traditions

Оглавление

Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Women in Buddhist Traditions

CONTENTS

NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND PRONUNCIATION OF NAMES AND TERMS

Introduction

History in the Mirror

Buddhist Principles, Social Practices

Revolutionizing the Future

1. Women in Early Indian Buddhism

Buddhist Women at the Beginning

Representations of Women in Early Buddhist Texts

Mahāprajāpatī’s Going Forth

The Prediction of Decline

Women Disseminating the Dharma

Lamps of Liberation

2. Buddhist Women in South and Southeast Asia

Engendering Connections: Women in Theravāda Buddhism

Buddhist Women as Householders and Renunciants

Women in Burmese Theravāda Buddhism

3. Buddhist Women in East Asia

Women’s Responsibilities and Renunciation in Early Chinese Buddhism

Enlightenment in Female Form in China

Buddhist Women of Korea

Buddhist Women of Japan

East Asian Women in the Twenty-First Century

4. Buddhist Women in Inner Asia

Buddhist Women of Tibet

Luminary Figures

Freedom in Exile

Buddhist Studies and Full Ordination for Women

Tracing the Footsteps of Women in Bhutan

Women in the Revival of Buddhism in Mongolia

Women in the Buddhist Republics of Russia

Enlightened Transformation

5. Buddhist Women in the West

Pioneering Buddhist Women

Challenging Patriarchy, Building Alliances

Buddhism and Sexuality

Clashes and Acculturation, Cultural and Conceptual

Obstacles as Opportunities

6. Women’s Ordination across Cultures

The Debate over Full Ordination for Women

The Case for Celibacy

Ordination for Women in the Theravāda Tradition

Theravāda Nuns in Nepal

Theravāda Nuns in Sri Lanka

Theravāda Nuns in Thailand

Bhikṣuṇī Ordination in East Asia

Ordination for Women in the Tibetan Tradition

Slow Steps Forward

7. Grassroots Revolution

Being Good or Doing Good?

Buddhism and Gender Justice

Transnational Sisterhood: Women Transforming Buddhism

Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Intersections of Awakening

Social Justice, Inclusion, and Integrity

Conclusion

Buddhist Feminism in Asia: Intersections of Awareness

Gender Equity as a Transnational Buddhist Ideal

Buddhist Constructions of Gender

Transnational Pathways to Gender Equity

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION. INTRODUCTION: WHY STUDY WOMEN IN THE BUDDHIST TRADITIONS?

CHAPTER 1: WOMEN IN EARLY INDIAN BUDDHISM

CHAPTER 2: BUDDHIST WOMEN IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

CHAPTER 3: BUDDHIST WOMEN IN EAST ASIA

CHAPTER 4: BUDDHIST WOMEN IN INNER ASIA

CHAPTER 5: BUDDHIST WOMEN IN THE WEST

CHAPTER 6: WOMEN’S ORDINATION ACROSS CULTURES

CHAPTER 7: GRASSROOTS REVOLUTION: BUDDHIST WOMEN AND SOCIAL ACTIVISM

CONCLUSION

FOR FURTHER READING

NOTES. INTRODUCTION

1. WOMEN IN EARLY INDIAN BUDDHISM

2. BUDDHIST WOMEN IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

3. BUDDHIST WOMEN IN EAST ASIA

4. BUDDHIST WOMEN IN INNER ASIA

5. BUDDHIST WOMEN IN THE WEST

6. WOMEN’S ORDINATION ACROSS CULTURES

7. GRASSROOTS REVOLUTION

CONCLUSION

WORKS CITED

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Отрывок из книги

WOMEN IN BUDDHIST TRADITIONS

Series Editor: Catherine Wessinger

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The Buddha taught that all beings have the potential to purify their minds and become free from mental defilements, suffering, and rebirth. As the various Buddhist traditions developed, a woman could aspire to the highest goal envisioned by her tradition, whether to become an arhat (a liberated being), a bodhisattva (a being on the path to perfect awakening), or even a fully awakened Buddha. Even if the path was described as arduous, especially in a female body, a woman could achieve the highest goal her tradition had to offer, in theory at least. In the tradition known today as Theravāda (“path of the elders”), prevalent in South and Southeast Asia, the goal is to become an arhat, one who is liberated from cyclic existence. In the tradition known as Mahāyāna (“great vehicle”), prevalent in North and East Asia, the goal is to advance on the bodhisattva path to become a fully awakened buddha. Many statements denying that a woman can become a buddha appear in both Theravāda and Mahāyāna texts, but the existence of numerous female arhats during the time of the Buddha is ample evidence that women were able to achieve that specific goal. In the Mahāyāna tradition, it is believed that all sentient beings not only are capable of becoming buddhas but also will eventually become buddhas. It follows that women have the potential to become fully awakened buddhas. However, according to the Sūtrayāna branch of the Mahāyāna tradition, although it is possible for a woman to practice on the bodhisattva path and stages in a female body and eventually become a buddha, in her final lifetime she must appear in a male body, like Buddha Śākyamuni. In the Vajrayāna branch of the Mahāyāna tradition, which teaches practices of visualizing oneself in the form of a fully awakened being, it is said that a woman can become a buddha in female form. The classic example is Tārā, an exceptional woman who generated a strong determination to achieve full awakening in female form for the benefit of sentient beings, and successfully did so.14

Only the Mahīśāsaka, an early Buddhist school of thought, in which phenomena are regarded as existing only in the present moment, taught that a woman cannot become a fully awakened buddha, but this school died out in India long ago.15

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