http://buddhawarrior.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/the-relevance-of-women-in-buddhism/ Dwelling in the Presence of the Name, of Amitabha Buddha Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:27:41 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://buddhawarrior.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/the-relevance-of-women-in-buddhism/#comment-7631 jlam Tue, 20 May 2008 08:24:45 +0000 http://buddhawarrior.wordpress.com/?p=456#comment-7631 There are really insightful thoughts in this post. It is true that nowadays we see many of the rituals in the Buddhist communities of various Schools that smell of patriarchal biases, especailly in the Mahayanist one. But as the post says, such a situation has more to do with the fact that it "has been the male sex that has formulated, systematized, and recorded Buddhist doctrine". And I would act: in most cases it's the male that have been dominating the everyday running of the Buddhist sangha. As far as the Buddhist doctrine itself is concerned, there is not much one can say about its being sexist and patriarchal. Many people might argue for their case by quoting the story about the Buddha's refusal, for several times, of Anada's request for his admitting women into his sangha, and about the Buddha's comment, in response to such a request, that the existence of the Dharma in this world was to shorten by 500 years. But that's an invalid argument. Justifications for the Buddha's words and deeds in this case have been put forward, but I don't intend to elaborate on them here. Suffice it to say that one would find it really hard to locate words of the Buddha that are patriarchal. And yes, I totally agree to the idea implied in the post: the future of Buddhism, as much as other religions, lies heavily in whether it is able to attract young women to become its followers. There are really insightful thoughts in this post. It is true that nowadays we see many of the rituals in the Buddhist communities of various Schools that smell of patriarchal biases, especailly in the Mahayanist one. But as the post says, such a situation has more to do with the fact that it “has been the male sex that has formulated, systematized, and recorded Buddhist doctrine”. And I would act: in most cases it’s the male that have been dominating the everyday running of the Buddhist sangha.
As far as the Buddhist doctrine itself is concerned, there is not much one can say about its being sexist and patriarchal. Many people might argue for their case by quoting the story about the Buddha’s refusal, for several times, of Anada’s request for his admitting women into his sangha, and about the Buddha’s comment, in response to such a request, that the existence of the Dharma in this world was to shorten by 500 years. But that’s an invalid argument. Justifications for the Buddha’s words and deeds in this case have been put forward, but I don’t intend to elaborate on them here. Suffice it to say that one would find it really hard to locate words of the Buddha that are patriarchal.
And yes, I totally agree to the idea implied in the post: the future of Buddhism, as much as other religions, lies heavily in whether it is able to attract young women to become its followers.

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