Yasoj
July 16, 2020, 12:39pm
47
Tilorien iSangha: Gender in Buddhism
A discussion between Venerables Somā (Empty Cloud Monastery, NJ, USA) and Vimala (Tilorien Monastery, Belgium).
31st July 2020 - 19.00-20.30h CEST
2020-07-31T17:00:00Z → 2020-07-31T18:30:00Z
What does gender have to do with Buddhist practice?
What does gender mean for us as Buddhists?
How do we look at gender and work within ourselves and how should we deal with this changing environment within the Sangha?
When we are born, we are either male or female. Or are we? This is the assumption on which our gender-binary world rests.
How can we relate to concepts of masculinity and femininity?
Does gender affect our spiritual capacities? How should we relate to each other’s genders?
Why is there gender discrimination in Buddhism and what should we do about it?
And how is the situation for LGBTIQA+ within Buddhism?
Venerables Somā and Vimala discuss their perspectives and personal experiences of being a female monk in a patriarchal system.
Ayya Soma is an Italian Buddhist monk living at Empty Cloud Monastery in New Jersey. As the co-founder of Buddhist Insights, a non-profit organization connecting people with monastics, she has learned the Dharma through the perspective of monks of all different traditions, and incorporates aspects from all of them in her own practice. Her spiritual path is inspired by the social engagement of her preceptor, Venerable Paññāvati Bhikkhuni; by the knowledge and wisdom of Ven. Robina Courtin; and by the compassion of Khenmo Drolma.
For more information on Ven. Somā and Buddhist Insights / Empty Cloud Monastery, see http://buddhistinsights.com/
Ven. Vimala’s writings on Gender in Buddhism:
I sit down with my cup of tea this morning and open up the paper. I don’t usually read newspapers but one of the headlines has caught my eye. It reads: “Are you ready for the sensitive man?” with a cartoon-picture of a man who throws away his porn- and car-magazines while holding a magazine on meditation. A tear flows out of his eye. It is an article about the changing gender-roles in our Western society. In the same paper there is also an article about the rising popularity of Frida Kahlo. The …
Recently I met Venerable @Akaliko in New York. He asked me my opinion regarding the translation of the word paṇḍaka, which will be used by Ajahn @Brahmali in his translation of the Vinaya. From our discussion I realized I did not have enough background knowledge to make a justified suggestion as to the most appropriate translation and that my earlier stance on the matter might have been a bit too easily accepted from other authors1 , who base their conclusions on meanings ascribed to the term in …
As a nun you are not only a pioneer, with much less support than the monks, both spiritually and financially and often don’t have a place to stay. Many monks pretend you don’t exist or treat you like some contageous disease because they fear their own defilements. You are cut off from your male friends because you have the wrong gender. Nuns try to find fault with other nuns for not keeping the rules the way they feel they should be kept out of fear of not being accepted themselves. And lay peop…
Our spiritual practice cannot not be seen as separate from the world we live in and the world we live in today in the West is vastly different from that of India at the time of the Buddha. The Vinaya, the monastic rules, or more precisely, the guidelines for our practice, is however flexible enough to accommodate for changes and we see in countless examples that the Buddha relaxed rules in certain circumstances or laid down new rules in reaction to new developments.
However, since the Vinaya ha…
As the other thread seems to have gone in the direction of material support for nuns, which is of course great and much needed and appreciated, I want to focus a little more here on another aspect I touched upon and something I only recently started fully appreciating.
Some years ago I did not notice this, or did not want to notice it, even though I heard other nuns say things. I thought it was just them. At first I took it all in my stride, thinking it’s part of the path, it’s just the way thi…
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