Читать книгу Women in Buddhist Traditions - Karma Lekshe Tsomo - Страница 8

We can begin with the hypothesis that the teachings of the Buddha (“the awakened one”; ca. 563–483 BCE) offered women a new outlook on life and greater independence in charting the course of their lives. The brāhmaṇa social class in India was the most prestigious of the four primary social classes of that time. Although brāhmaṇas¹ were not necessarily priests, many brāhmaṇa men were priests, and they were the scholars and teachers of the Vedic scriptures composed in Sanskrit and conveyed orally for thousands of years. The worldview conveyed by the brāhmaṇas that was prevalent alongside Buddhism during the first millennium of its development on the Indian subcontinent included the āśramas, the four stages of an ideal life for a male (student, householder, retiree, and renunciant, that is, one who renounces household life to pursue the spiritual path). The brāhmaṇa worldview included four aims of life (puruṣārthas) for a male belonging to the first three varṇas, or social classes: sensual pleasure in marriage, prosperity, moral values, and liberation.

The Buddhist traditions trace their roots to Buddha Śākyamuni, who was born Siddhārtha Gautama sometime during the fifth or sixth century BCE in a park known as Lumbini, just north of what is today the border between Nepal and India. According to the traditional narrative, when he was just seven days old, his mother Mahāmāyā passed away and he was nursed and nurtured by her sister, Mahāprajāpatī, who proved to be an extremely kind foster mother. As a scion of the Śākya clan and the designated heir of his father’s principality, Siddhārtha grew up in relative luxury, enjoying all the pleasures of palace life, including innumerable courtesans. When he was sixteen years old, he married a beautiful cousin named Yaśodharā, who was also sixteen. After many years, she gave birth to a son, Rāhula.

Around that time, Siddhārtha’s prodigious curiosity led him to venture beyond the palace walls, where he discovered sickness, old age, death, and a calm, introspective renunciant. Because of his sheltered upbringing, he had not been exposed to the ancient Indian tradition of śrāmaṇas, seekers who renounce householder life in order to engage in contemplative practices and pursue spiritual goals. After the shock of encountering suffering for the first time, he was deeply impressed by the serene countenance of this homeless wanderer. These experiences led the young prince to abandon his luxurious life, his wife, and his newborn son Rāhula in favor of the spiritual path. He spent six years learning different philosophical perspectives and engaging in strenuous religious practices, including extreme fasting and other arduous feats, but he remained unconvinced and unfulfilled, so he sat down to meditate under a tree and resolved not to arise until he had discovered the true meaning of life. After six days of intensive meditation, he awakened to the true nature of things “as they are”: the problematic nature of human existence, the root causes of suffering, the possibility of ending suffering, and the way to achieve that goal. Gods, humans, and the earth itself acknowledged his discoveries. The Buddha (the Awakened One) spent the remaining forty-five years of his life sharing these discoveries with audiences all over northern India. It is believed by Buddhists that Buddha Śākyamuni, who lived during the present historical era, was not the only person to become awakened; there have been countless buddhas in previous eras, and there are many yet to come.

Buddha Śākyamuni (“sage of the Śākya clan”) taught a path to liberation from suffering and dissatisfaction that was open to all who wished to purify the defilements of their minds. His followers included women and men of all ages, social classes, and backgrounds. Although the Buddha probably did not intend to be a social activist, the path of wisdom and compassion that he taught was quite revolutionary at the time. In place of the worship of gods and performance of rituals, which were restricted to male religious specialists of the brāhmaṇa class, he taught an ethical interpretation of the law of cause and effect and an empirical method of self-discovery that could be practiced by everyone. The Buddha verified the prevailing belief in rebirth and the causal connection between actions and their consequences during meditation under the bodhi tree just prior to his awakening. He began to share his insights on the urging of divine beings and spent forty-five years teaching throughout northern India. He taught that mental defilements such as desire, hatred, ignorance, pride, and jealousy are the causes of repeated rebirth within the cycle of existence (saṃsāra). Rebirth inevitably entails suffering and dissatisfaction, and the only way to become free of suffering is to achieve freedom from rebirth. After gaining insight into these teachings and the contemplative practices that facilitate understanding, his disciples were sent out far and wide “in the four directions” to spread his teachings, and thousands of men and women achieved the state of freedom from suffering and dissatisfaction. They became known as arhats, beings who are free from mental defilements and hence liberated from suffering and the bondage of rebirth in the wheel of birth and death.

Based on the insights he gained during meditation, the Buddha explained that sentient beings take different forms in saṃsāra, the wheel of repeated becoming, and there is nothing indelible, intrinsic, or enduring about these identities. Accordingly, a person may be born in a different body—male or female—in different circumstances from lifetime to lifetime. The circumstances of being reborn in a female body were thought to be more difficult and so a male rebirth was thought to be preferable. Female bodies were considered more difficult because, for example, women experience the sufferings of menstruation, childbirth, and menopause. Women are vulnerable to sexual harassment and rape and, at the time of the Buddha, were thought to require protection. At marriage, a woman had to leave her natal home and go to live with her husband’s family, so daughters were often considered a liability—another mouth to feed until their marriage, which often required a large dowry.

In the patriarchal social milieu that prevailed in northern India at that time, women faced many limitations and difficulties. Aristocratic women such as the Buddha’s stepmother Mahāprajāpatī and wife Yaśodharā were subject to many restrictions, as were women of other social classes. In this context, the Buddha’s declaration that women and men alike were capable of liberating themselves from suffering and from the cycle of rebirth was revolutionary. On a practical level, his decision to allow women to enter the monastic community (Pāli: saṅgha; Sanskrit: saṃgha) offered women an alternative to domestic life and the socially prescribed roles of wife and mother. The verses of some of the earliest Buddhist nuns, recorded in the Therīgāthā, are testimony to the spiritual achievements and freedom these awakened women experienced.

From India, the teachings of the Buddha spread in many directions and, at various points in history, became the dominant worldview in many parts of Asia. The main branches of Buddhism that developed were Theravāda and Mahāyāna. The Theravāda branch prevailed primarily in South and Southeast Asia, while the Mahāyāna became dominant in North and East Asia. Social customs and family practices vary widely in Buddhist societies, influenced by earlier cultures. Tracing the links and divergences among Buddhist beliefs, social practices, and religious institutions will be key to our understanding of attitudes toward women.