Phụ nữ trong quan niệm Phật giáo thông qua nghiên cứu kinh điển Phật giáo Nguyên Thủy. Dường như có những quan điểm đối lập trong thái độ của Phật giáo đối với phụ nữ. Một số nhà quan sát khẳng định Phật giáo là một tôn giáo do nam giới thống trị, không chấp nhận phụ nữ vào hệ thống cấp bậc và do đó là một thế lực giữ cho phụ nữ ở cấp thấp hơn và bị bóc lột. Mặt khác, cũng có người tranh luận rằng phụ nữ trong các xã hội Phật giáo ở châu Á thực sự độc lập và tự tin hơn phụ nữ ở các xã hội châu Á khác và điều này là do Phật giáo nhấn mạnh đến quyền của phụ nữ và ủng hộ nguyện vọng tinh thần của họ. Số khác cho rằng sự phân biệt nam nữ không liên quan đến cốt lõi của Phật giáo. Họ lập luận rằng, Phật giáo vượt qua quan điểm nhị nguyên và những người quan tâm đến những vấn đề này đang đi lệch ra khỏi con đường tâm linh đích thực.
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Japan: Keeping and Creating Tradition," Bulletin of the Nanzen Institute for Religion and Culture 14
(Summer 1990): 38-51
42 A short autobiography appears in the preface of her book, The Way to Peace: The Life and Teachings of the
Buddha (Kyoto: Hozokan * Publishing Company, 1989), pp xix-xxvi.
43 See Samu Sunim, "Eunyeong Sunim and the Founding of Pomum-Jong, the First Independent Bhikshuni
Order," Women & Buddhism (Toronto: Zen Lotus Society, 1986), pp 129-62.
44 Myongsong Sunim describes the training of Korean nuns in "The Water and the Wave," in Walking on
Lotus Flowers: Buddhist Women Living, Loving and Meditating, ed Martine Batchelor (London: Thorsons,
1996), pp 75-83
45 See, for example, Hi Kyun Kim, "Children's Culture and Popular Buddhism in Korea: The Work of Jebeom
Sunim," Sakyadhita: International Association of Buddhist Women 8.1 (1997): 3-6.
46 See Diana Paul, The Buddhist Feminine Ideal: Queen Srimala* and the Tathagatagarbha*(Missoula:
Scholars Press, 1980) and Alex and Hideko Wayman, The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala (Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1974)
47 Kenneth K S Ch'en comments on the existence of a Buddhist women's society in Tun-huang as early as the year 959 C.E., a society that encouraged religious practice and friendships among women, be it with rather
rigidly imposed discipline Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1964), p 293
48 Ch'en also notes that statistics on the clergy in the Chinese chronicles routinely include nuns, although they record a decrease in the numbers of nuns relative to the numbers of monks over time For example, in the K'ai-yuan era (713-741) there were said to be 50,576 nuns and 75,524 monks, but by the time of K'ang-hsi (1662-1721) during the Ch'ing dynasty, there were a mere 8,651 nuns to 110,292 monks It is not clear whether this decrease reflects a decline in the social status of women or whether some other factor is accountable
49 She tells her story in "Enlightened Education," in Walking on Lotus Flowers: Buddhist Women Living,
Loving and Meditating, ed Martine Batchelor (London: Thorsons, 1996), pp 84-94.
50 William Hu, "Glorious Honor for a Humble Nun," Sakyadhita: International Association of Buddhist
Women 5.2 (1994): 12-13.
51 Chien-yu Julia Huang and Robert P Wellner, "Merit and Mothering: Women and Social Welfare in
Taiwanese Buddhism," Journal of Asian Studies 57.2 (May 1998): 379-96.
52 The Triple Platform Ordination refers to a ceremony that includes receiving the novice precepts, the
precepts of a fully-ordained bhiksuni*or bhiksu*, and the bodhisattva precepts.
If you like this book, buy it!
Trang 253 Miranda Shaw presents a thorough study of women in Tantric Buddhism in Passionate Enlightenment:
Women in Tantric Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) A feminist critique of women's role
within this tradition is found in June Campbell, Traveller in Space: In Search of Female Identity in Tibetan
Buddhism (New York: George Braziller, 1996).
54 See Reginald Ray's "Accomplished Women in Tantric Buddhism of Medieval India and Tibet," in
Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives in Non-Western Cultures, ed Nancy Falk and Rita Gross (San
Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979), pp 227-42
55 See Janice D Willis, Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publication,
1989)
56 A report by D Batsukh, President of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, Ulaan Bataar, that thirty
women had received the ten precepts of a sramanerika *from Mongolian bhiksus*in April 1991 proved
unfounded In fact, these women received the five precepts of a laywoman (upasika*).
57 Four Mongolian nunsThubten Chodron, Thubten Dechen, Thubten Dolma, Thubten Kunzestudied Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan grammar, meditation, and English for three years at Jamyang Choling Institute in
Dharmasala, India Three more Mongolian nuns are currently studying at Ganden Choling Nunnery in
Dharamsala and two are at Khachoe Ghakhyil Nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal
58 The five precepts of a laywoman (upasika) or a layman (upasaka*) are to refrain from: (1) killing, (2)
stealing, (3) lying (especially about one's spiritual achievements), (4) sexual misconduct (principally adultery), and (5) taking intoxicants
59 Resources on the transmission of Buddhism to the West include Steven Batchelor, Awakening of the West:
The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1994); Rick Fields, How the Swans Come to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1992);
Emma Layman, Buddhism in America (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1976); Helen Tworkov, Zen in
America; Five Teachers and the Search for an American Buddhism (Tokyo and New York, Kodansha
International, 1994); Christmas Humphreys, Zen Comes West: The Present and Future of Zen Buddhism in
Western Society (London: Curzon Press, 1997).
60 Anne C Klein, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1994), p xvii
61 Additional resources on Western women in Buddhism include Sandy Boucher, Turning the Wheel:
American Women Creating the New Buddhism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); June Campbell, Traveller in
Space: In Search of Female Identity in Tibetan Buddhism (New York: George Braziller, 1996); Marianne
Dresser, Buddhist Women on the Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier; Lenore
Friedman, Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America (Boston: Shambhala, 1987); Rita Gross, Buddhism after Patriarchy: A
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Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1993); and Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Buddhism through American Women's Eyes (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion
Publications, 1995)
62 For instance, the term for the Buddha's spiritual offspring, a phrase that occurs frequently in Mahayana *
sutras*and prayers, was originally translated as "the Buddha's sons," but is now widely being translated as "the
Buddha's children." Again, in the '70s and '80s, the leadership of most Western Buddhist centers was in the
hands of men, while the bulk of the work was done by women, but in the '90s women began to assume visible leadership roles Previously, almost all visiting teachers from Asia were male, but in the '90s this began to
change For example, in the early phases of the Tibetan/ Benedictine Monastic Exchange Program all the
Tibetan participants were monks, but since 1987 nuns have regularly been included in the delegations The
Beastie Boys specifically requested, through the Milarepa Foundation, that nuns as well as monks be invited to chant at the huge Tibet Concert held in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in June 1996; as a result, eight nuns were invited from Dharamsala The event, which attracted 200,000 people, began and ended everyday with
chanting by both nuns and monks, and a special tent was erected where Buddhist chanting was performed
continuously by the nuns and monks, alternately and together Subsequent Tibet events held in New York in
1997 and Washington, D.C., in 1998 routinely included nuns
63 See, for example, S R Goyal, A History of Indian Buddhism (Meerut, India: Kusumanjali Prakashan,
1987), pp 292-98 Goyal tries to argue that the large numbers of educated women identified with early
Buddhism were actually the product of Brahmanical society, and contends, fancifully enough, that women of the day received equal training in the Vedas
64 The eight special rules for bhiksunis*are discussed in Tsomo, Sakyadhita, pp 223-24; in Yong Chung's
M.A thesis, "A Buddhist View of Women: A Comparative Study of the Rules for Bhiksunis* and Bhiksus*
Based on the Chinese Pratimoksa*" (Berkeley: Graduate Theological Union, 1995), pp 87-97; and Akira
Hirakawa's Monastic Discipline for the Buddhist Nuns: An English Translation of the Chinese Text of the
Mahasamghika*-Bhiksuni-Vinaya (Patna, India: K P Jayaswal Research Institute, 1982), pp 35-37.
65 Nancy Schuster Barnes notes that although the Buddhist monks and nuns are alike in appearance and
lifestyle, "by imposing rules on nuns which would place them in a permanently inferior position in all their
interactions with monks, the monks reserved for themselves the control and leadership of the entire samgha*."
See "Buddhism," in Women in World Religions, ed Arvind Sharma (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1987), p 108
66 I am indebted to Kusuma Devendra and Friedgard Lotermoser, whose ongoing Vinaya research has
uncovered textual evidence to support these findings
67 In her article, "An Image of Women in Old Buddhist Literature: The Daughters of Mara*," Nancy Falk
notes that the positive view toward women
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Trang 4evident among the early Buddhists declines sharply around the time written Buddhist literature began to
appear Women and Religion, ed Judith Plaskow and June Arnold (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1974),
p 105
68 The charge of creating a schism in the Sangha * is commonly leveled against those who advocate a
restoration of full ordination for women, even though the Buddhist texts clearly state that one nun (or monk) alone is incapable of creating a schism The charge is serious, because creating a schism in the Sangha is
categorized as one of the five heinous crimes that result in a rebirth in the lowest hell, Avici The other four
heinous crimes are patricide, matricide, killing an arhat, and shedding the blood of a Buddha.
69 For example, when a delegation of sixteen bhiksunis*from the Sino-Indian Institute of Buddhist Studies in
Taiwan attended the International Buddhist Studies Conference held in Tokyo in 1983, a Japanese speaker
stated, from the podium: ''The presence of so many nuns is evidence of the decline of the Dharma."
70 For example, informants in Burma report that whereas monks may receive an offering of 10,000 kyats for
participating in a ceremony, nuns at the same ceremony may receive only ten Although the differential varies
by country and situation, the privileged status of monks is evident in the far greater material support they and their monasteries receive Paradoxically, this support is offered primarily by women donors
71 From Thich Nhat Hahn, Innerbeing: Commentaries on the Tiep Hien Precepts (Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax
Press, 1987), p 17
72 Bhiksuni* Zhengyan, founder of Ciji Foundation, received the Magasasay Award in 1992 (See Sakyadhita:
International Association of Buddhist Women 5.2, [Summer 1994]: 12-13.) Maeji Khunying Kanitha
Wichiencharoen, director of the Thai government's Commission for the Promotion of the Status of Women, has founded a shelter which serves as a haven for battered women, unwed mothers, and pregnant women who are HIV positive She was ordained as an eight-precept nun following the Third Sakyadhita Conference in Sri
Lanka in 1993
73 The life of Dr Ambedkar and the movement he inspired are described in two recent articles: Christopher S Queen's "Dr Ambedkar and the Hermeneutics of Buddhist Liberation" and Alan Sponberg's "TMBSG: A
Dhamma Revolution in Contemporary India," in Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia,
ed Christopher S Queen and Sallie B King (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), pp 45-71,
73-120 Also see Hilary Blakiston's book, But Little Dust: Life amongst the Ex-Untouchables of Maharashtra
(Cambridge, U.K.: Allborough Press, 1990)
74 Queen and King, Engaged Buddhism, pp 2, 34n.
75 For example, see Fred Eppsteiner, The Path of Compassion: Writings on Socially Engaged Buddhism
(Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Publications, 1988); Ken Jones, The Social Face of Buddhism: An Approach to
Political and Social Activism
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(London: Wisdom Publications, 1989); Dhananjay Keer, Dr Ambedkar: Life and Mission (Bombay:
Popular Prakashan, 1990); Sulak Sivaraksa, Seeds of Peace: A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society
(Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1992); Chan Khong, Learning True Love: How I Learned and Practiced
Social Change in Vietnam (Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1993); Ken Jones, Beyond Optimism: A
Buddhist Political Ecology (Oxford: Jon Carpenter, 1993); Thich Nhat Hahn, Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change (Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1993); Christopher Queen and Sallie B King, Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996).
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Trang 6PART I
BUDDHIST WOMEN IN ASIAN TRADITIONS
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South Asian Traditions
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Trang 8The Female in Buddhism
Elizabeth J Harris
Antithetical positions seem to be present in Buddhism's attitude to women Some observers insist that
Buddhism is a male-dominated, patriarchal religion, unwilling to accept women into its hierarchy and therefore
is a force keeping women subordinate and exploited On the other side, it has been argued that women in
Buddhist societies of Asia are actually more independent and self-confident than women in other Asian
societies and that this is due to a Buddhism that stresses the rights of women and supports their spiritual
aspirations Still others maintain that the male/female distinction is irrelevant to the core of Buddhism They
argue that Buddhism transcends this duality and that women and men who are concerned with this issue are
deviating from the true spiritual path
The subject is a vast one that encompasses over two and a half thousand years, across varying countries in Asia and Europe, and the different schools of Buddhism Here I will restrict my discussion to Theravada Buddhism
and to an assessment of the attitudes found in the five nikayas *of the Pali canon I will ask what evidence in
these texts justifies any or all the above polarized views, examining the material in the spirit of free enquiry
advocated by the Buddha himself in his advice to the Kalamas.1 I have been influenced by two main factors: a feminist perspective concerned with the place of women in society and the roles forced upon her, and my belief that religion should provide resources for the human journey and the human struggle in the context of the
world's political, social, and economic realities
Two levels of material about women emerge from the Buddhist texts The first is the level of symbol and
image, in which the female represents something larger than herself, embodying forces central to
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life and death The second level is the flesh-and-blood reality, the reality of individual women living within the constraints and contradictions of society Each will be dealt with in the following discussion
Examining the religions of the world, certain images of women arise again and again First, there is the image
of woman as temptress, the incarnation of evil Here, the woman appears as the witch, the serpent, and the
siren She is a danger to man's spiritual progressa force that can lure a man with false promises of fulfillment, only to bring him to destruction Second, there is image of woman as mother Here, woman is the symbol of birth, regeneration, and mature, self-giving lovethat to which men often yearn to return In both these images, temptress and mother, the female is surrounded by mystery The first image is dangerous, while the second is life-giving There is also a third category, of woman as the mystic, the goddess, as one who has transcended
the material and, perhaps, the sexual to gain mystical knowledge and wisdom Here, the feminine is linked with ultimate spiritual reality It becomes part of a godhead or, in some religious groups, the truest expression of the Absolute
Woman as Temptress
Passages can be extracted from the texts to build up a seemingly impressive case The argument could begin
with words which question a woman's ability to become a respected member of society and present her as
morally reprehensible For example, when Ananda * asks why women never sit in court, embark on business,
or reach the "essence of the deed," the Buddha is said to reply:
Womenfolk are uncontrolled, Ananda Womenfolk are envious, Ananda Womenfolk are greedy,
Ananda Womenfolk are weak in wisdom, Ananda.2
In addition, an uncontrolled sexual appetite is attributed to women in certain texts of the Pali* canon The
following passages, taken from different texts, are attributed to the Buddha:
Monks, I know of no single form, sound, smell, savor and touch by which a woman's heart is so
enslaved as it is by the form, sound, scent, savor and touch of a man Monks, a woman's heart is
obsessed by these things.3
Monks, womenfolk end their life unsated and unreplete with two things What two? Sexual intercourse
and childbirth These are the two things.4
If you like this book, buy it!
Trang 10Such words allude to an inherent licentiousness in woman Thus, she becomes an obstacle to the spiritual
progress of man, and, in addition, the embodiment of evil:
Monks, I see no other single form so enticing, so desirable, so intoxicating, so binding, so distracting,
such a hindrance to winning the unsurpassed peace from effort, that is to say, monks, as a woman's
form Monks, whosoever clings to a woman's forminfatuated, greedy, fettered, enslaved, enthralledfor
many a long day shall he grieve, snared by the charms of a woman's form 5
Monks, if ever one would rightly say: it is wholly a snare of Maraverily, speaking rightly, one may say
of womanhood: it is wholly a snare of Mara*.6
A quote from Mahaparinibbana* Sutta*illustrates how members of the Sangha* are advised to respond in the
face of this snare When Ananda asks how men should conduct themselves with women, the Buddha's reply is:
"As not seeing them, Ananda."
"But, if we should see them, what are we to do?"
"No talking, Ananda."
''But, if they should talk to us, Lord, what are we to do?"
"Keep wide awake, Ananda*."7
These quotes appear to make a strong case for misogynist attitudes Yet, of course, there is danger in selecting passages at random Without context and comparison, the analysis is not complete For one thing, it is
unreasonable to believe that all parts of the Buddhist scriptures bear equal weight Furthermore, the texts were first committed to memory and it is not impossible that additions were made by the disciples, who succumbed
to the prejudices of the wider society Passages that raise such suspicions must be compared with a spectrum of texts and analyzed in sociohistorical context
Sexuality within Buddhism
A larger doctrinal context is needed for this and can be found in the Buddhist treatment of sexuality as a whole
An important text here is the Aggañña Sutta, a mythological story of the development of human society.
According to this story, self-luminous beings descend to earth from a world of radiance Gradually concepts of private property, the division of labor, and an elected ruler evolve Each stage in this evolutionary process is
presented as a deterioration due to ever-increasing
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