You make very good points. If the garu-dhammas were created at the time of the establishment of the bhikkhuni sanga then why aren't the garu-dhammas included in the bhikkhuni patimokkha?

Every day, I bow to my buddha-rupa before meditation. I do this out of faith and respect for the Perfectly Enlightened One. But now when I read the story of the garu-dhammas I am supposed to accept that the Buddha lacked compassion for women. But no problem, Ananda has more compassion than the Buddha! Ananda will guide the way.

Richard Gombrich calls this story a forgery. If he were a Buddhist he would call it an insult to the Buddha.

But these aren't things to trouble us. It's more important to use them for reflection. The important thing is that all people have a convention where they can practice the samana life.

Paul O'Cuana

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Dhivan Thomas Jones <thomas@...> wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>