It has been interesting to see different points of view expressed regarding gender issues in Buddhism. Sorry if this comes a bit late, but I wanted to mention an article by Ute Hesken, 'The Legend of the Establishment of the Buddhist Order of Nuns in the Theravaada Vinaya-Pitaka', in Journal of the Pali Text Society, vol.26, 2000. She does some close textual analysis to reveal the possibility that the story of the establishment of the Order of nuns together with the eight guru-dhammas is likely to date from after the Buddha's time. Prof. Richard Gombrich therefore calls it a 'forgery'. It is inconsistent with various aspects of early vinaya traditions. It seems to me that this scholarship allows us in good faith to put aside what appears to be some institutional misogyny in the early Buddhist sangha, and concentrate on the Buddha's teachings which were practised by both bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, lay men and women, to good effect.

Dhivan

www.dhivan.net



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