Awakened Woman e-magazine
goddessaltar.com

Women and Buddhism

Excerpt from Opening the Lotus, A Woman's Guide to Buddhism,
by Sandy Boucher. Part II: "The Dance of Gender" - pp. 47-61

 

Do Women Do It Differently?

Do women take a distinctive approach to the elements of the Buddhist path? I believe they do, because our life experience differs in many respects from men's.

Girls receive early social conditioning that is, in most cases, different from the training of little boys; women encounter particular expectations, dangers, and obstacles as well as encouragement to develop specific qualities in themselves, perform certain roles, follow particular paths. Because of this conditioning, the inner life of women is bound to be different from the subjective universe of most men. Certainly women are capable of doing any work that men do, and we have the examples of female doctors, lawyers, electricians, athletes, carpenters, CEOs, spiritual teachers, ministers, scholars, and scientists too convince us that no intellectual, spiritual, or physical achievement lies outside the realm of women's abilities. But we can surmise that women in these professions may approach their work in a distinctive manner or may view its practice and significance differently from their male colleagues. In some cases women's participation may change the nature of the profession itself.

Female spiritual teachers in the Buddhist tradition have and continue to offer the teaching in innovative and often recognizably female-oriented ways.

Women may take a more psychological approach to teaching, adapting their message to the twentieth-century, psychologically-oriented conciousnesses of their students.

Women teachers may be more accepting of the expression of emotion by their students. Some women practitioners tell of spending time in male-run environments where emotions were suppressed, and then going to a female teacher who encouraged them to acknowledge and fully experience whatever strong feelings might be coming up in them.

Other women teachers do not limit themselves to the traditional forms of practice but strike out to devise new methods or incorporate elements of other traditions. At a woman-led retreat you may find yourself dancing in a circle, reaching to the sky, touching the ground. You may be led on journeys of guided imagery. You may be invited to pay particular attention to the natural environment in which you practice, noting the life of trees, animals, rocks and streams and how this is interrelated with your own life.

How Have Feminists Affected American Buddhism?

Those of you who are interested in the issues raised by the most recent women's movement may wonder whether it has made a mark on the institutions and practices of American Buddhism. The answer is a definite yes.

Since the early 1980's, two groups of women have come together in Buddhist practice situations, though sometimes with difficulty: the women who had dedicated themselves early on to Buddhist practice and institutions, and the women new to Buddhism who had engaged in feminist political activism. Each group brought something crucial to the mix. Feminist women new to Buddhism insisted on equality, critique of hierarchy, identification of misogynist texts and practices, and altering of sexist language. Women with years of Buddhist practice brought patience, seasoned spiritual perspective, and a spacious view to the dialogue.

A series of conferences on Women and Buddhism, held across the country, allowed women to break out of their isolation and talk with other women and a few supportive men about the issues that concerned them. They allowed us to experience the teachings of some female Buddhist "masters" who came to give talks, and we were able to discuss volatile subjects like sexual abuse by male teachers. Women expressed their differences in perspective: creative, innovative practice versus more traditional forms; insistence on equality and nonhierarchical relationships in Buddhist centers versus a trust in the usefulness of traditional hierarchical structures; incorporation of goddess worship, shamanic and Native American elements into the practice versus a holding to the pure Buddhist forms. The conferences built understanding and trust among women Buddhist practitioners of all persuasions and gave many women the sense that they were not alone but had become part of a collective questioning of the forms within American Buddhism. They drew strength to challenge oppressive or abusive situations when they identified them within their own Buddhist environments.

As a result of the persistent, courageous efforts of these women and others, many Buddhist institutions have become more sensitive to women's particular needs, more open to women's spiritual leadership, and less hierarchical in their structures.

One particularly dramatic contribution of feminism to Buddhism has been the shift in perspective on sexual power abuse by teachers. Through the efforts of determined women and a few men, the veil of secrecy previously obscuring the issues of sexual abuse has been drawn aside, and a lively public debate has ensued about how to approach such incidents.

While abuses still occur, there is much more openness in confronting and dealing with them. Some Buddhist teachers are making efforts to establish a code of conduct to which all Buddhist centers would agree to subscribe.

Can Women Be Buddhist Leaders?

If you grew up in a Catholic household, you know well that women's participation in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is strictly circumscribed. Again and again I have heard the discouraging story of the little girl, fired by religious zeal, who asks to be the child who assists the priest at the altar. She is told that only boys can help to celebrate the mass. When those little girls grow up, they are acutely aware that only men can be priests who give the gift of God to the community.

In many Protestant denominations, through the efforts of dedicated women activists, women ministers are ordained and routinely officiate and preach in churches. In others, the doors are still closed to full participation. In some churches women are ordained but not given the full responsibilities of ministers. Lesbian women in particular find it difficult to be accepted and empowered by Protestant denominations.

Since the late 1970's, a number of women have become rabbis in the Jewish faith, generally in the more liberal synagogues and seminaries. In Orthodox settings no women are allowed to officiate. The Conservative, Reformed, and particularly the Reconstructionist or Jewish Renewal movements do allow women to become rabbis. While female rabbis still face prejudice, more and more of them are becoming the leaders of congregations. And some Lesbian rabbis also perform rabbinical duties in synagogues.

Can Buddhist women wear the robes and carry out the duties of religious celebrants? The answer is as varied as Buddhism itself.

In most Western Buddhist settings, women perform the same religious offices as men. At a Zen monastery you will see probably an equal number of women and men wearing black robes, ringing the bells, beating the drums, and giving the dharma talks.

In Vipassana settings, there is little official hierarchy; no one even wears robes (except an occasional visiting Theravada monk or nun). Women are very visible and influential in the Vipassana establishment.

Tibetan Buddhism's attitude toward women leaders is more complex. The tradition was brought to this country by maroon-robed monks in exile from their native Tibet, and in their Western sanghas, these foreign monks remain at the top of the hierarchy. But these monks have ordained Westerners, including a very few female lamas. Each of the four separate traditions or "schools" within Tibetan Buddhism takes a somewhat different approach to hierarchy and practice. Notable Tibetan Buddhist women leaders include Pema Chodron, an American woman who heads a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia, and Tsultrim Allione, who has broken away from male-led groups to establish her own center and teaching schedule. Many other Tibetan Buddhist women hold positions of authority in the male-run centers, but always subordinate to male leaders.

Soka Gakkai is as open to women's leadership as men's. They operate from a Japanese model, in which women's and men's activities are often pursued separately.

The immigrant sanghas generally reflect the traditional gender hierarchy maintained in Asian cultures. Men are usually at the top, and women support their work. There are, or course, exceptions, as the sanghas become more Americanized. For example, a Japanese-American woman serves as a fully ordained priest in Shin Buddhism, a largely Japanese denomination.

Are There Goddesses in Buddhism?

Many contemporary women are intrigued by the idea of an ancient goddess culture, a time in prehistory in which women shared equally with men in all dimensions of public and private life. Archeological research in the Middle East has unearthed evidence of a peaceful agricultural society in which female divinities or perhaps one divinity, the Great Goddess associated with earth and the cyclical creation of all life, were venerated. According to this theory, this egalitarian, nurturing society was conquered and taken over about five thousand years ago by peoples from a more Northern, warlike society, and the centuries of patriarchal aggression and hierarchy began. The conquerors overthrew the goddesses and enthroned a single creator-god.

However, in some religions, vestiges of the early goddess figures have survived. In Christianity, the Virgin Mary can be seen as a goddess. The Virgin of Guadeloupe in Mexico City and other great virgins hold tremendous power in their particular cultures. Female saints like Joan of Arc and Teresa of Avila, while they were actual historical figures, have accumulated almost the glamour and influence of goddesses.

In Judaism the deity is sometimes called Shekinah, a feminine name. This word is used for the comforting, more personal aspect of God. The Hebrew goddess Asherah and the Canaanite goddess Astarte were worshipped in Hebrew temples before the masculine god took over. Perhaps the Shekinah is their legacy, a concession to the need to connect with and venerate female essence.

In Buddhism a number of powerful female emanations hold sway. The two best known of these, whose images you may come across, are Kwan Yin and Tara.

 

If you have looked at Buddhist art, you've noticed that many representations of the Buddha or other embodiments have decidedly feminine characteristics: breasts, delicate facial features, softly draped clothing. Buddhists believe that as beings achieve more refined levels of enlightenment, the distinctions of sex and gender fall away, leaving a transgendered or genderless figure. Nevertheless, the Buddhas or other figures with breasts and sweet girlish smiles are always referred to as "he." Similarly, male Buddhist teachers who have studied with or venerated female teachers or forbears may express feminine qualities in their teachings, but they retain their conventionally masculine assumptions and sense of entitlement.

Kwan Yin

Kwan Yin (also spelled Quan Yin, Guan shih yin, Kannon, and Kwannon-sama), the Buddhist female embodiment of compassion, is the most revered goddess in Asia. She originated in China and is venerated in Japan, Korea, and throughout Southeast Asia. In Burma, for instance, statues of the goddess of compassion can be found in almost every home. While she is a Buddhist embodiment of the highest spiritual attainment, Kwan Yin also has the wide popularity of a folk goddess.

A lovely, playful goddess, Kwan Yin grants the wishes of those who call upon her, especially women, and exerts particular power over childbirth. Her name means "She Who Harkens to the Cries of the World," for she is the one who arrives to save people from burning buildings, pluck them from train wrecks, and to offer general relief from suffering. It is Kwan Tin who listens to the voices of the poor and oppressed.

Kwan Yin came to China from India in the form of the Buddhists Avalokitesvara, the embodiment of compassion in a male form. But as she became more Chinese, she also became more womanly, until finally she took on a completely female character and appearance. Soon she was identified with various real life women who were discovered to be deities after their deaths. When Kwan Yin assumed human and Chinese identities, she achieved a widespread national following. Some scholars believe that Kwan Yin's female nature resulted from the fusion of the qualities of Avalokitesvara with the Taoist Queen Mother of the West. Others see her origin in the early Indian, later Tibetan, goddess Tara.

If you come upon statues or paintings of Kwan Yin, you will see her in one of several forms. these different embodiments of Kwan Yin derive from the Chinese appearances. the development of Kwan Yin began with Ta pei Kuan Yin (who started out in life as the Princess Miao-shan), the thousand-armed, thousand-eyed goddess of compassion (a counterpart to Avalokitesvara, who also has a thousand arms and eyes). Ta pei is later depicted with just two arms and two eyes, holding a green willow branch and a bottle of pure water or life-giving nectar, symbols of healing.

Next came Nan hai Kuan Yin, the "Kwan Yin of the South Sea," who is shown with a male and female companion and a white parrot. Sailors from the Southern port cities of China venerate her and call upon her to save them from stormy seas.

Accounts from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries describe another manifestation, Yu-la Kuan-yin, otherwise known as "Kwan Yin with the Fish Basket," "Mr. Ma's wife," and "Kwan-Yin with Chained Bones," names deriving from the vivd stories of her arrival in people's lives. When her human embodiment died, her bones were found to be attached to each other by golden chains, a sure sign of divinity.

A surprising and provocative form of Kwan Yin was known as the "Woman of Yen-chu," a woman who gave away sex to any man who asked her, in order to free him of his unhealthy desire. She was the sensual Bodhisattva who used bodily desire to achieve enlightenment. (Learning about her, I pondered a possible connection between the Woman of Yen-chu and the temple priestesses of antiquity, whose religious duties included sexual intercourse.) Later, when the rather puritanical Confucianism became popular in China, this Kwan Yin fell into disrepute and was no longer worshipped.

Finally, there is the "White-robed Kwan Yin" (Pai-i Kuan-yin), a goddess capable of granting children. Often depicted holding a baby, she was not a mother herself but represented universal motherliness. The veneration of Kwan Yin grew to include the chanting of mantras to petition White-robed Kwan Yin to grant the male children necessary for ancestor worship and funeral rites.

>>>next

<<<back

<<<Contents