‘One who thinks: “I am woman” or “I am man” or “I am anything at all” is fit for Mara to address!’ –Bhikkhuni Soma |
This major work combines scrupulous research with creative imagination to investigate the diverse and sometimes problematic roles that women have played in Buddhist stories.
Serenity and insight are the two great wings of Buddhist meditation. This book collects virtually all the significant passages on this topic from the early discourses, carefully elucidated for the modern reader.
While the Satipaṭṭhana Sutta is often claimed to be the most important of the Buddha’s teachings, close textual analysis reveals that it is a composite text, with substantial differences between the many existing versions. The use of the fundamental term dhamma in fact reveals the text to be part of the early Abhidhamma movement.
It’s time. We need a new paradigm. For 2500 years Buddhism has been constantly changing, adapting, evolving; yet the myths of the schools insist that the Dhamma remains the same.
While discussion on women’s role in the Sangha proceeds, those who most need to take part in the discussion — the monks — are conspicuously absent. The issue is not so much a dialogue as a call to the darkness, for a sympathetic hearing that is just not there.
In preparation for the 2007 Congress on Buddhist Women’s Role in the Sangha, the Committee of Western Bhikkhunis asked for a historical presentation from a Theravāda point of view. I prepared the following to show that, while bhikkhunis are absent from the mainstream Theravādin institutions, they are very much present in the texts and history.
Through careful attention to the earliest Buddhist teachings, preserved in scriptures in Pali, Chinese, Tibetan, and Sanskrit, we can not only come closer to the Buddha’s original message, but can discern the teachings shared among all Buddhist traditions.
