How Women Were Accepted into the Sanghi
This article talks about the role Ananda played in women being allowed as nuns of Buddhist Monasteries. It's part of one lesson offered through the ULC Seminary.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to look at the role of women throughout the history of Buddhism and not feel that there exists a fair amount of inequality. 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 pick 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.”
Indeed, if one lines up the evidence, most it points to this: in Buddhism, women are dealt with and seen as lesser beings than men. Yet thousands of smart, well-educated women practice Buddhism as laywomen or nuns. We are going to examine the historical and recent place of women in Buddhism.
The Beginning of It All
During the period that Buddha was born, the society was controlled by the caste system and was extremely anti-women. So, Buddha rocked the Buddhist community to declare that achieving nirvana is possible for any person – man or woman. After all, the sutras were written 200 yrs. after the Buddha’s death—and by monks. This is an important thing to keep in mind as we go travelling backwards in history to India, 6th century B.C.E.
Yrs later, Mahapajapati began to experience the same sense of discontent that drove so many men into the sangha. She longed to ask for admittance, but knew only men were allowed to join the monastery. However, as time went on, she found that she could not stop herself from requesting admittance. She had cast off her material possessions then devoted herself to compassionate acts. She was then ready to move forward.
Mahapajapati approached the Buddha in Kapilavatthu then asked for admittance as a nun of the sangha three times. Three times he responded to her with only silence.. Cutting her hair and putting on the saffron robe, she had left Buddha to his thoughts. When Buddha embarked on his lengthy journey to Vesali, he was soon joined by Mahapajapati, along with 500 women of noble-birth, all with hair removed and wearing robes.
On this occasion as she went up to the Buddha, she noticed that he was meditating, and she did not wish to disturb him|After their arrival, Mahapajapati hesitated to bother Buddha from his meditations. Ananda became aware of their attire and inquired as to the reason. She told of having been denied 3 times for admittance 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 grudgingly agreed to their inclusion, but only if they agreed to subscribe to the following 8 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 complete the two-year long basic course on the precepts.
3. Nuns can never criticize monks for any reason, authentic or imagined, but monks may certainly criticize nuns for any real reason (although the faults must be real ones).
4. The needs of monks will always come before nuns in the matter of food, beds, seats or lodging.
5. Any nun who breaks one of the rules, must do penance for 15 days under the scrutiny of the nuns and must ask for restitution from both the nun as well as the monk community.
6. The nuns must ask for guidance from the monks every fifteen days, without fail.
7. It is never proper for nuns to enter upon a rain retreat in a place where there are no monks.
8. Nuns who have finished the rain retreat need to request a ceremony of forgiveness from both communities, and confess to any infractions that might have been made.
After this, Buddha once said remorsefully to Ananda, “If women had not been admitted into the monastery, the sangha would’ve stayed intact for 1000 years. However now that they have been admitted, the order will last only 500 yrs.”. Some suggest this came about because Buddha knew, in his infinite wisdom, that women were inherently evil; others point out that once women were admitted, monks may be much more inclined to give in to lust, and the same would also be true with nuns.
Over time, the lists of precepts grew for both monks and nuns, and today, nuns have about 100 more rules than monks do, (varying in number throughout traditions).
Like with all religions, there's a fair amount of discrepancy about how it all happened. Another story bandied about has been that the nuns weren‘t supposed to travel by themselves is because a nun had been raped.
Regardless of some exceptions, some precepts clearly had been based on gender bias. In India, during the 5th century, it had been assumed that women were inferior to men. The women had no chance for education, and their freedom was limited. Regardless of caste, women had been frequently thought to be comparable, caste-wise with the Sudras, the lowest of the castes.. Again, we must point out that Buddha’s decision to accept women into the sangha was revolutionary, and controversial.
Compared to to the other members of the monastery, Buddha‘s take on women‘s roles was thought to be quite progressive.
Ananada, at the initial Buddhist meeting, had been commanded to admit the error of his ways, which he adamantly denied having done. Even after the transgressions had been listed, he disagreed with their assessment. One listed, was his influence in the Buddha’s deciding to allow women into the sangha; another was that Ananda had allowed women to pay homage over Buddha’s remains before the men were allowed, and the third had been that he let the womens’ tears to fall on the Buddha’s body.
Tricia Stirling has written this course for the ULC Seminary.
|
|
Seminary Registration Form
|
|
|
