📙 The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women, by Vanessa R. Sasson

Snowbird · June 8, 2023, 9:09am

https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/gathering-women/

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Equinox Publishing Ltd (1 June 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 290 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1800503407
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1800503403
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.6 x 2.01 x 23.39 cm

Website includes an annotated table of contents. It’s available in hardback, paperback, and ebook.

From the publisher:

Sasson’s new book is a retelling of the story of the women’s request for ordination. Inspired by the Therigatha and building on years of research and experience in the field, Sasson follows Vimala, Patachara, Bhadda Kundalakesa, and many others as they walk through the forest to request full access to the tradition.

The Buddha’s response to this request is famously complicated; he eventually accepts women into the Order, but specific and controversial conditions are attached. Sasson invites us to think about who these first Buddhist women might have been, what they might have hoped to achieve, and what these conditions might have meant to them thereafter. By shaping her research into a story, Sasson invites readers to imagine a world that continues to inspire and complicate Buddhist narrative to this day.

An excerpt printed in Tricycle:

From the excerpt:

Much of the history of the early community is contained in the monastic codes of the Vinaya, but it does not tell us everything. The Vinaya provides us with the story of the women’s first attempt, the Buddha’s obscure rejection, and then describes the women pursuing the Buddha to ask again, but these codes are not the heart and soul of my retelling. My inspiration comes from the Therigatha.

Believed to be about two thousand years old, the Therigatha is a collection of seventy-three poems by some of the first Buddhist women who joined the monastic community. It may be the oldest surviving collection of women’s voices in the world.

What is particularly moving about these poems is not just that they are songs of women’s accomplishments but that their accomplishments often arrive on the heels of great suffering. The Therigatha does not gloss over women’s experiences. It does not idealize their circumstances or try to soften the blow. On the contrary, the stories preserved in the Therigatha are often devastating.

Of course, not all the women struggle, but for many, the stories are steeped in suffering. This is not because the Therigatha is an especially dark text but because suffering is quite simply a feature of human life in general. And perhaps of women’s lives in particular.

The women of the Therigatha are not limited by their suffering, nor does it define them. The wonder of it all is that, despite the pain (and perhaps in part because of it), these women tried for something more. They shook themselves free of their circumstances and walked into the forest to ask for what they needed and thought they could receive.

And, like so many other women, they did it together.

Author bio from her website:

Vanessa R. Sasson

Is a professor of Religious Studies at Marianopolis College where she has been teaching since 1999. She is also a Research Fellow at the University of the Free State in South Africa and a Research Member of CERIAS at UQAM.

Sasson is the author and editor of a number of academic books, most notably a collection entitled Little Buddhas: Children and Childhood in Buddhist Texts and Traditions (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Jewels, Jewelry, and Other Shiny Things in the Buddhist Imaginary (University of Hawaii Press, 2021). Her most recent academic book is the forthcoming edited volume with Kristen Scheible, entitled The Buddha: A Short Biography (Oxford University Press, 2023).

A few years ago, Sasson tried something new and converted her research into a novel. The book, Yasodhara and the Buddha (Bloomsbury, 2021) was the outcome and it has been received with wide acclaim.

Sasson has just completed the sequel to Yasodhara and the Buddha, which is focused on the women’s request for ordination. It is titled, The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women (Equinox, 2023). More academic novels are certain to follow.

Snowbird · June 8, 2023, 8:21pm

I found out about this through the publisher’s Mastodon post: EQUINOX PUBLISHING LTD: "Just published! Info & order at 25% off quoting …" - mas.to

Now I realize that there is a discount code for 25% off:

sujato · June 9, 2023, 12:58am

Awesome, thanks for posting. Vanessa’s work is great, she writes with imagination and empathy, and a deep knowledge of her subject.

Pat_G · June 10, 2023, 11:33am

Brilliant! Thank you Ven

Snowbird · July 6, 2023, 9:50am

Wondering if anyone has had a chance to get a hold of this book and give it a read.

Jasudho · July 6, 2023, 8:06pm

I’ve started reading it and am still in the earlier sections. So far, I’ve enjoyed it very much.

Professor Sasson’s writing is clear and expresses her love of the Dhamma through the inspiring stories of the Bhikkhunis.
I enjoy reading the book shortly before bedtime. The heart is inspired.

Pat_G · July 24, 2023, 11:29am

Look at what’s just arrived! will report back

sujato · July 25, 2023, 9:07am

OMG such a pretty cover!

Jasudho · July 25, 2023, 12:25pm

From the start, the story inspires as the women walking to see the Buddha dispense with pettiness and social restrictions – powerful determination without added distractions and nonsense.

A brief excerpt from The Gathering:

"What was with these women? First one, then the other, no one worrying about the mess her social status necessarily generated.
Vimala said…“My presence would be stain on their honor. I cannot travel with them. The likes of me with the likes of them…”

“You know nothing of the Royal Family or their intentions”, Baddha Kundalakesa admonished her. "The Queen Mahapajapati and Princess Yasodhara are not on this journey to make judgements. They are going to ask the Buddha for liberation. Titles and social hierarchies are being left behind. All we are now is a group of women and we are traveling together. All of us.

“Queens and prostitutes together?” Vimala whispered. “But that’s madness.”

“There is worse madness in the world than that. Shall we get going?”

And on they go…

sujato · July 26, 2023, 1:19am

What a fantastic line!

Snowbird · July 26, 2023, 1:42am

It’s really hard to get into the world view of people from so long ago. But we do get a parallel for the monks with the going forth of the 6 Sakyan princes when they requested to have Upāli ordained before them so that they would be required to pay respect to him.

Snowbird · November 8, 2023, 7:56pm

Snowbird · December 30, 2023, 6:23pm

Another interview:

Danny · March 5, 2024, 4:33pm

On the 30th of March Vanessa Sasson will gave a talk on Zoom about her book. You can register here.

2024-03-30T16:00:00Z→2024-03-30T17:30:00Z

Online via Zoom

After the Buddha achieved awakening, he welcomed men to join him in his practice. One day, the Buddha’s stepmother, Mahapajapati Gotami, approached the Buddha and asked if she too - along with the women who stood behind her - might join him in the monastic life. The story becomes a bit more complicated from there.