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Women in Buddhism is a topic that can be approached from varied perspectives including those of
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
, and
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
. Topical interests include the theological status of women, the treatment of women in Buddhist societies at home and in public, the history of women in Buddhism, and a comparison of the experiences of women across different forms of Buddhism. As in other
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
s, the experiences of
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
women have varied considerably.
Scholars such as
Bernard Faure and
Miranda Shaw are in agreement that
Buddhist studies
Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the nature of the Budd ...
is in its infancy in terms of addressing
gender issues
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
. Shaw gave an overview of the situation in 1994:
In the case of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism some progress has been made in the areas of women in early Buddhism, monasticism and Mahayana Buddhism. Two articles have seriously broached the subject of women in Indian tantric Buddhism, while somewhat more attention has been paid to Tibetan nuns and lay yoginis.
However
Khandro Rinpoche
Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche (birth name Tsering Paldrön; born August 19, 1967) is a lama in Tibetan Buddhism. Born in Kalimpong, India and the daughter of the late Mindrolling Trichen, Khandro Rinpoche was recognized by Rangjung Rigpe D ...
, a female
lama in
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
, downplays the significance of growing attention to the topic:
When there is a talk about women and Buddhism, I have noticed that people often regard the topic as something new and different. They believe that women in Buddhism has become an important topic because we live in modern times and so many women are practicing the Dharma now. However, this is not the case. The female sangha has been here for centuries. We are not bringing something new into a 2,500-year-old tradition. The roots are there, and we are simply re-energizing them.
As a present evaluation of women (and equality) in Buddhism,
Masatoshi Ueki
is a Japanese scholar in Buddhist studies.
Ueki works with the original Buddhist texts (such as Sanskrit and Pali), which encompass the diachronic history of Buddhism, from Early Buddhism to Mahayana sutras (e.g., the Lotus Sutra and the Vimala ...
gave a diachronic textual interpretation of
Buddhist texts from
Early Buddhism The term Early Buddhism can refer to at least two distinct periods in the History of Buddhism, mostly in the History of Buddhism in India:
* Pre-sectarian Buddhism, which refers to the teachings and monastic organization and structure, founded by G ...
to the
Lotus Sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...
. Ueki examined the terms 'male' and 'female' as based not solely on the physical characteristics of each sex biologically but also on their functional roles within society, calling them the 'male principle' and 'female principle,' and concluded that no difference is preached in the Shakyamuni's teachings regarding the enlightenment of woman.
The establishment of the male principle in equal measure with the female principle is the natural order of things. They should never exist in a mutually exclusive relationship. They should not be an emphasis on one at the expense of the other, for both are indispensable. ... will the establishment of the true self be a fact of reality for both men and women.
Timeline of women in Buddhism
* 6th century BCE:
Mahapajapati Gotami
Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (Pali; Sanskrit: महाप्रजापती गौतमी, ''Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī'') or Pajapati was the foster-mother, step-mother and maternal aunt (mother's sister) of the Buddha. In Buddhist tradition, s ...
, the aunt and foster mother of Buddha, was the first woman to receive Buddhist ordination.
* 5th century:
Prajñādhara (Prajnatara), the twenty-seventh Indian Patriarch of Zen Buddhism and teacher of Bodhidharma, is believed to have been a woman.
* 13th century: The first female Zen master in Japan was the Japanese abbess
Mugai Nyodai
Mugai Nyodai ( ja, 無外如大, 1223–1298), was one of the first Zen abbesses and the first female Zen master
Zen master is a somewhat vague English term that arose in the first half of the 20th century, sometimes used to refer to an indi ...
(born 1223 - died 1298).
* 1880:
Madame Blavatsky and
Colonel Olcott became the first Westerners to receive the refuges and precepts, the ceremony by which one traditionally becomes a Buddhist; thus Blavatsky was the first Western woman to do so.
* 1928: A secular law was passed in Thailand banning women's full ordination in Buddhism. However, this law was revoked some time after
Varanggana Vanavichayen became the first female monk to be ordained in Thailand in 2002.
* 1966:
Freda Bedi
Freda Bedi (born Freda Marie Houlston; 5 February 1911 – 26 March 1977), also known as Sister Palmo or Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo, was a British woman who was jailed in India as a supporter of Indian nationalism and was the first Western wom ...
, a British woman, became the first Western woman to take ordination in
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
.
* 1971: Voramai, also called Ta Tao Fa Tzu, became the first fully ordained Thai woman in the Mahayana lineage in Taiwan and turned her family home into a monastery.
* 1976:
Karuna Dharma became the first fully ordained female member of the Buddhist monastic community in the U.S.
* 1981: Ani
Pema Chodron Pema ( or ) is a Tibetan name meaning " lotus", which originated as a loanword from Sanskrit ''padma''. People who have this name as one of their given namesNote that Tibetan names generally do not have surnames. See e.g. include:
Buddhist teacher ...
is an American woman who was ordained as a
bhikkhuni (a fully ordained Buddhist nun) in a lineage of
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
in 1981. Pema Chödrön was the first American woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
* 1988:
Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, an American woman formerly called Catharine Burroughs, became the first Western woman to be named a reincarnate lama.
* 1996: Through the efforts of
Sakyadhita Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women is a 501(c) organization#501(c)(3), 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1987 at the conclusion of its first conference and registered in California in the United States in 1988. Sakyadhita ...
, an International Buddhist Women Association, ten Sri Lankan women were ordained as bhikkhunis in Sarnath, India.
* 1996:
Subhana Barzaghi Roshi became the Diamond Sangha's first female roshi (Zen teacher) when she received transmission on March 9, 1996, in Australia. In the ceremony Subhana also became the first female roshi in the lineage of
Robert Aitken Roshi.
* 1998: Sherry Chayat, born in Brooklyn, became the first American woman to receive transmission in the Rinzai school of Buddhism.
[Encyclopedia of women and religion in North America, Volume 2](_blank)
By Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Marie Cantlon (pg. 642)
* 1998: After 900 years without such ordinations, Sri Lanka again began to ordain women as fully ordained Buddhist nuns, called
bhikkhunis.
* 2002: Khenmo Drolma, an American woman, became the first
bhikkhuni (fully ordained Buddhist nun) in the
Drikung Kagyu
Drikung Kagyü or Drigung Kagyü ( Wylie: 'bri-gung bka'-brgyud) is one of the eight "minor" lineages of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. "Major" here refers to those Kagyü lineages founded by the immediate disciples of Gampopa (1079-1153) w ...
lineage of Buddhism, traveling to Taiwan to be ordained.
* 2002: A 55-year-old Buddhist nun,
Varanggana Vanavichayen, became the first female monk to be ordained in Thailand. She was ordained by a Sri Lankan woman monk in the presence of a male Thai monk. Theravada scriptures, as interpreted in Thailand, require that for a woman to be ordained as a monk, the ceremony must be attended by both a male and female monk. Some time after this a secular law in Thailand banning women's full ordination in Buddhism which had been passed in 1928 was revoked.
* 2003:
Ayya Sudhamma Bhikkhuni became the first American-born woman to gain bhikkhuni ordination in the
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
school in Sri Lanka.
[The Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards (2006)](_blank)
[Bhāvanā Society Forest Monastery (2007)](_blank)
p. 165.
* 2003: On February 28, 2003, Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, formerly known as Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, became the first Thai woman to receive full ordination as a Theravada nun.
She was ordained in Sri Lanka.
* 2003: Saccavadi and Gunasari were ordained as bhikkhunis in
Sri Lanka, thus becoming the first female Burmese novices in modern times to receive higher ordination in Sri Lanka.
* 2004: Khenmo Drolma, an American woman, became the first westerner of either sex to be installed as an abbot in the
Drikung Kagyu
Drikung Kagyü or Drigung Kagyü ( Wylie: 'bri-gung bka'-brgyud) is one of the eight "minor" lineages of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. "Major" here refers to those Kagyü lineages founded by the immediate disciples of Gampopa (1079-1153) w ...
lineage of Buddhism, being installed as the abbot of the Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont (America's first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery) in 2004.
* 2006:
Merle Kodo Boyd
Merle Kodo Boyd (December 23, 1944 – February 20, 2022) was an American Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhist nun. She was the first African-American woman to receive Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism, as a Dharma heir of Wendy Egyoku Nakao in the White ...
, born in Texas, became the first African-American woman ever to receive Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism.
* 2006: For the first time in American history, a Buddhist ordination was held where an American woman (Sister Khanti-Khema) took the
Samaneri
A sāmaṇera (Pali); sa, श्रामणेर (), is a novice male monastic in a Buddhist context. A female novice is a ''śrāmaṇerī'' or ''śrāmaṇerikā'' (Sanskrit; Pāli: ''sāmaṇerī'').
Etymology
The ''sāmaṇera'' is a ...
(novice) vows with an American monk (
Bhante Vimalaramsi) presiding. This was done for the Buddhist American Forest Tradition at the Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center in Missouri.
* 2007: Myokei Caine-Barrett, born and ordained in Japan, became the first female Nichiren priest in her affiliated Nichiren Order of North America.
* 2009: The first Bhikkhuni ordination in Australia in the Theravada Buddhist tradition was performed in Perth, Australia, on 22 October 2009 at Bodhinyana Monastery. Abbess Vayama together with Nirodha, Seri, and Hasapanna were ordained as Bhikkhunis by a dual Sangha act of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis in full accordance with the Pali Vinaya.
* 2010: The
Soto Zen Buddhist Association
The Soto Zen Buddhist Association was formed in 1996 by American and Japanese Zen teachers in response to a perceived need to draw the various autonomous lineages of the North American Sōtō stream of Zen together for mutual support as well as ...
(SZBA) approved a document honoring the women ancestors in the Zen tradition at its biannual meeting on October 8, 2010. Female ancestors, dating back 2,500 years from India, China, and Japan, could thus be included in the curriculum, ritual, and training offered to Western Zen students.
* 2010: The first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in America (Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont), offering novice ordination in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, was officially consecrated.
* 2010: In Northern California, 4 novice nuns were given the full bhikkhuni ordination in the Thai
Therevada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
tradition, which included the double ordination ceremony.
Bhante Gunaratana
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk. He is affectionately known as Bhante G. Bhante Gunaratana is currently the abbot of the Bhavana Society, a monastery and meditation retreat center that he founded in High Vie ...
and other monks and nuns were in attendance. It was the first such ordination ever in the Western hemisphere.
The following month, more full ordinations were completed in Southern California, led by
Walpola Piyananda and other monks and nuns. The bhikkhunis ordained in Southern California were Lakshapathiye Samadhi (born in Sri Lanka), Cariyapanna, Susila, Sammasati (all three born in Vietnam), and Uttamanyana (born in Myanmar).
* 2011: In April 2011, the
Institute for Buddhist Dialectical Studies (IBD) in Dharamsala, India, conferred the degree of ''
geshe
Geshe (Tib. ''dge bshes'', short for ''dge-ba'i bshes-gnyen'', "virtuous friend"; translation of Skt. ''kalyāņamitra'') or geshema is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks and nuns. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug lineage, ...
ma'' (a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree) on
Kelsang Wangmo, a German nun, thus making her the world's first woman to receive that degree.
* 2012:
Emma Slade, a British woman, became the first Western woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in Bhutan.
* 2013: Tibetan women were able to take the
geshe
Geshe (Tib. ''dge bshes'', short for ''dge-ba'i bshes-gnyen'', "virtuous friend"; translation of Skt. ''kalyāņamitra'') or geshema is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks and nuns. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug lineage, ...
exams for the first time.
Geshe
Geshe (Tib. ''dge bshes'', short for ''dge-ba'i bshes-gnyen'', "virtuous friend"; translation of Skt. ''kalyāņamitra'') or geshema is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks and nuns. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug lineage, ...
is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks and nuns.
* 2015: The first
bhikkhuni ordination in Germany, the
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
bhikkhuni ordination of German nun Samaneri Dhira, occurred on June 21, 2015 at Anenja Vihara.
[Bhikkhuni Happenings - Alliance for Bhikkhunis](_blank)
Bhikkhuni.net. Retrieved on 2015-06-28.
* 2015: The first
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
ordination of
bhikkhunis in Indonesia after more than a thousand years occurred at Wisma Kusalayani in Lembang, Bandung.
Those ordained included Vajiradevi Sadhika Bhikkhuni from Indonesia, Medha Bhikkhuni from Sri Lanka, Anula Bhikkhuni from Japan, Santasukha Santamana Bhikkhuni from Vietnam, Sukhi Bhikkhuni and Sumangala Bhikkhuni from Malaysia, and Jenti Bhikkhuni from Australia.
* 2016: Twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns became the first Tibetan women to earn ''
geshe
Geshe (Tib. ''dge bshes'', short for ''dge-ba'i bshes-gnyen'', "virtuous friend"; translation of Skt. ''kalyāņamitra'') or geshema is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks and nuns. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug lineage, ...
ma'' degrees.
* 2022: Terri Omori is appointed the first female president of the 12,000 member strong
Buddhist Churches of America The Buddhist Churches of America (abbreviated as BCA in English, ' or ''Beikoku Bukkyōdan'' in Japanese) is the United States branch of the Nishi Honganji subsect of Jōdo Shinshū ("True Pure Land School") Buddhism.
The BCA headquarters is at 1 ...
.
Women in early Buddhism
The founder of Buddhism,
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
, permitted women to join his
monastic community
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
and fully participate in it, although there were certain provisions or ''
garudhammas''. As Susan Murcott comments, "The nun's sangha was a radical experiment for its time." Similarly, Gurmeet Kaur writes, "Neither in society nor the monastic order are women recognized as spiritual leaders above the authority of men. Bhikkuṇī are systematically taught and told to follow the footsteps of Bhikkhu through an institutional mechanism that is so strong that whosoever tries to challenge it faces backlashes from the Buddhist community."
According to Diana Paul, the traditional view of women in
Early Buddhism The term Early Buddhism can refer to at least two distinct periods in the History of Buddhism, mostly in the History of Buddhism in India:
* Pre-sectarian Buddhism, which refers to the teachings and monastic organization and structure, founded by G ...
was that they were inferior.
Rita Gross agrees that "a misogynist strain is found in early Indian Buddhism. But the presence of some clearly misogynist doctrines does not mean that the whole of ancient Indian Buddhism was misogynist."
There are statements in Buddhist scripture that appear to be misogynist, such as depicting women as obstructers of men's spiritual progress or the notion that being born female leaves one with less opportunity for spiritual progress. However, in societies where men have always been the authorities and the ones given wider choices, a negative view of women might be seen as simply reflecting the empirical political reality. Furthermore, the religious literature is more likely to be addressed to men. Hence we find the Buddhist emphasis on renunciation of sensual desires expressed in terms of the male's attachment to women more frequently than we find the reverse. The mix of positive attitudes to femininity with blatantly negative sentiment has led many writers to characterise early Buddhism's attitude to women as deeply ambivalent.
Foremost female disciples of Gautama Buddha
The Buddha provided the names of women, both mendicant and lay, who were exemplars of attainment and character. These are listed in the Pañcama Vagga and Chaṭṭha Vagga of the
Aṅguttara Nikāya
The Anguttara Nikaya ('; , also translated "Gradual Collection" or "Numerical Discourses") is a Buddhist scripture, the fourth of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that comprise the Pali ...
respectively:
*Foremost in seniority:
Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī
*Foremost in great wisdom:
Khemā
Khema (Pali: Khemā; Sanskrit: Kṣemā) was a Buddhist ''bhikkhuni'', or nun, who was one of the top female disciples of the Buddha. She is considered the first of the Buddha's two chief female disciples, along with Uppalavanna. Khema was b ...
*Foremost in psychic power:
Uppalavaṇṇā
*Foremost in memorizing the Vinaya:
Paṭācārā
*Foremost in speaking the Dhamma:
Dhammadinna
*Foremost in
absorption:
Sundari Nandā
*Foremost in
energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...
:
Soṇā
*Foremost in clairvoyance:
Sakulā
*Foremost in swift insight:
Bhaddā Kuṇḍalakesā
*Foremost in recollecting past lives:
Bhaddā Kāpilānī
*Foremost in great insight:
Bhaddakaccānā
*Foremost in wearing coarse robes:
Kisāgotamī
*Foremost in
faith
Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
Religious people ofte ...
:
Siṅgālakamātā
Foremost of laywomen
*Foremost in first going for refuge:
Sujātā Seniyadhītā
*Foremost as donor:
Visākhā
*Foremost in learning:
Khujjuttarā
*Foremost who dwells in
metta:
Sāmāvatī
*Foremost in absorption:
Uttarānandamātā
*Foremost in giving fine things:
Suppavāsā Koliyadhītā
*Foremost in caring for the sick:
Suppiyā
*Foremost in experiential confidence:
Kātiyānī
*Foremost in reliability:
Nakulamātā
*Foremost in confidence based on oral transmission:
Kāḷī of Kuraraghara
Women's spiritual attainment in Buddhism
The various schools and traditions within Buddhism hold different views as to the possibilities of women's
spiritual attainments.
[Women in Zen Buddhism: Chinese Bhiksunis in the Ch'an Tradition](_blank)
by Heng-Ching Shih One significant strand emphasizes that in terms of spiritual attainment, women and men have equal spiritual capabilities and that women not only can, but also in many cases have, attained spiritual liberation. Such a perspective is found in a number of sources of different periods, including early Buddhist literature in the Theravāda tradition, Mahāyāna ''sūtras'', and tantric writings. There are stories of women and even children who attained enlightenment during the time of the Buddha. Furthermore, Buddhist doctrines do not differentiate between men and women since everyone, regardless of gender, status, or age, is subject to old age, illness, and mortality; thus the suffering and impermanence that mark conditioned existence apply to all.
Feminist scholars have also postulated that, even when a woman's potential for spiritual attainment is acknowledged, records of such achievements may not be kept—or may be obscured by gender-neutral language or mis-translation of original sources by Western scholars.
Limitations on women's spiritual attainment in Buddhism
According to Bernard Faure, "Like most
cleric
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
al discourses, Buddhism is indeed relentlessly
misogynist
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced f ...
, but as far as misogynist discourses go, it is one of the most flexible and open to multiplicity and contradiction."
Faure states that the ancient and medieval Buddhist texts and traditions, like other religions, were almost always unfavorable or discriminatory against women, in terms of their ability to pursue Noble Eightfold Path, attain Buddhahood and nirvana.
This issue of presumptions about the "female religious experience" is found in Indian texts, in translations into non-Indian languages, and in regional non-Indian commentaries written in East Asian kingdoms such as those in China, Japan and southeast Asia.
Yet, like other Indian religions, exceptions and veneration of females is found in Indian Buddhist texts, and female Buddhist deities are likewise described in positive terms and with reverence. Nevertheless, females are seen as polluted with menstruation, sexual intercourse, death and childbirth. Rebirth as a woman is seen in the Buddhist texts as a result of part of past karma, and inferior than that of a man.
In the Buddhist tradition, positions of apparently worldly power are often a reflection of the spiritual achievements of the individual. For example, gods live in higher
realms
A realm is a community or territory over which a sovereign rules. The term is commonly used to describe a monarchical or dynastic state. A realm may also be a subdivision within an empire, if it has its own monarch, e.g. the German Empire.
Et ...
than human beings and therefore have a certain level of spiritual attainment.
Cakravartin
A ''chakravarti'' ( sa, चक्रवर्तिन्, ''cakravartin''; pi, cakkavatti; zh, 轉輪王, ''Zhuǎnlúnwáng'', "Wheel-Turning King"; , ''Zhuǎnlún Shèngwáng'', "Wheel-Turning Sacred King"; ja, 転輪王, ''Tenrin'ō'' ...
s and
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
s are also more spiritually advanced than ordinary human beings. However, as the Taiwanese
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
Heng-Ching Shih states, women in Buddhism are said to have five obstacles, including being incapable of becoming a Brahma King, ''Sakra'', King ''Mara'', Cakravartin or Buddha.
In the Five Obstacles theory of Buddhism, a woman is required to attain rebirth as a man before she can adequately pursue the Eightfold Path and reach perfect Buddhahood. The ''
Lotus Sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...
'' similarly presents the story of the
Dragon King's daughter, who desires to achieve perfect enlightenment. The Sutra states that, "Her female organs vanished, the male organs became visible, then she appeared as a bodhisattva".
Some scholars, such as Kenneth Doo Young Lee, interpret the ''Lotus Sutra'' to imply that "women were capable of gaining salvation", either after they first turned into a man, or being reborn in Pure Land realm after following the Path. Peter Harvey lists many ''Sutras'' that suggest "having faded out the mind-set of a woman and developed the mind-set of a man, he was born in his present male form", and who then proceeds to follow the Path and became an Arahant. Among Mahayana texts, there is a sutra dedicated to the concept of how a person might be born as a woman. The traditional assertion is that women are more prone to harboring feelings of greed, hatred and delusion than a man. The Buddha responds to this assumption by teaching the method of moral development through which a woman can achieve rebirth as a man.
According to Wei-Yi Cheng, the Pali Canon is silent about women's inferior karma, but have statements and stories that mention the Eightfold Path while advocating female subordination.
For example, a goddess reborn in the
heavenly realm asserts:
Such examples, states Wei-Yi Cheng, include conflating statements about spiritual practice (Eightfold Path, Dhamma) and "obedience to my husband" and "by day and by night I acted to please", thus implying unquestioned obedience of male authority and female subjugation.
Such statements are not isolated, but common, such as in section II.13 of the ''Petavatthu'' which teaches that a woman had to "put away the thoughts of a woman" as she pursued the Path and this merit obtained her a better rebirth; the ''Jataka'' stories of the Pali Canon have numerous such stories, as do the Chinese Sutta that assert "undesirability of womanhood".
Modern Buddhist nuns have applied Buddhist doctrines such as
Pratītyasamutpāda to explain their disagreement with women's inferior karma in past lives as implied in ''Samyutta Nikaya 13'', states Wei-Yi Cheng, while asserting that the Path can be practiced by either gender and "both men and women can become arhant". This is based on the statement of
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
in the ''Bahudhātuka-sutta'' of the
Majjhima Nikaya in the
Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
that it is impossible that a woman should be "the perfectly rightfully Enlightened One", "the Universal Monarch", "the King of Gods", "the King of Death" or "Brahmaa".
[Majjhima Nikaya III III. 2. 5. Bahudhaatukasutta.m-(115) The Discourse on Many Elements](_blank)
/ref>
Earlier limitations on attainment of Buddhahood
In Buddhism, Buddha (; Pali, Sanskrit: 𑀩𑀼𑀤𑁆𑀥, बुद्ध), "awakened one", is a title for those who are awake, and have attained nirvana and Buddhahood through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point ...
by women were abolished in the Lotus Sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...
, which opens a direct path to enlightenment for women equal to that of men. According to Nichiren
Nichiren (16 February 1222 – 13 October 1282) was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period.
Nichiren declared that the Lotus Sutra alone contains the highest truth of Buddhist teachings suited for the Third Age of ...
"
"Only in the Lotus Sutra do we read that a woman who embraces this sutra not only surpasses all other women but surpasses all men".
Women and Buddhahood
Although early Buddhist texts such as the Cullavagga
Khandhaka is the second book of the Theravadin ''Vinaya Pitaka'' and includes the following two volumes:
* Mahāvagga: includes accounts of Gautama Buddha's and the ten principal disciples' awakenings, as well as rules for uposatha days and monast ...
section of the Vinaya Pitaka
The Vinaya ( Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions rem ...
of the Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
contain statements from Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
, speaking to the fact that a woman can attain enlightenment, it is also clearly stated in the ''Bahudhātuka-sutta'' that there could never be a female Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
.
In Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
Buddhism, the modern school based on the Buddhist philosophy
Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in India following the parinirvana of The Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. The Buddhist path combin ...
of the earliest dated texts, The focus of practice is primarily on attaining Arhat
In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...
ship, and the Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
has examples of both male and female Arhats who attained nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
. Yasodharā, the former wife of Buddha Shakyamuni
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
and mother of Rahula, is said to have become an arhat
In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...
after joining the Bhikkhuni order of Buddhist nuns. In Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
schools, Buddhahood is the universal goal for Mahayana practitioners. The Mahayana sutras
The Mahāyāna sūtras are a broad genre of Buddhist scriptures (''sūtra'') that are accepted as canonical and as ''buddhavacana'' ("Buddha word") in Mahāyāna Buddhism. They are largely preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, the Tibet ...
maintain that a woman can become enlightened, only not in female form . For example, the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'', dated to the 4th Century, states that a woman about to attain enlightenment will be reborn as a male. According to Miranda Shaw, "this belief had negative implications for women insofar as it communicated the insufficiency of the female but never a woman body as a locus of enlightenment".
Some Theravada sutras state that it is impossible for a woman to be a bodhisattva, which is someone on their way to Buddhahood. A bodhisattva can only be a human (that is, a man).[Appleton, Naomi. "In the footsteps of the Buddha? women and the Bodhisatta path Theravāda Buddhism." Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 27, no. 1 (March 1, 2011): 33-51. ] These sutras do not deny that women can become awakened, but they are ineligible to lead a Buddhist community. If the aspiration to Buddhahood has been made and a Buddha of the time confirms it, it is impossible to be reborn as a woman. An appropriate aim is for women to aspire to be reborn as male. They can become a male by moral actions and sincere aspiration to maleness. Being born a female is a result of bad karma.
However, the Jataka tales (stories of the Buddha's past lives as a bodhisattva within the Theravada canon) mention that the Buddha spent one of his past lives as a princess. This is directly contradictory to the assertion that a bodhisattva cannot be born a female.
The appearance of female Buddhas can be found in the tantric iconography of the Vajrayana
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
practice path of Buddhism. Sometimes they are the consorts of the main yidam
''Yidam'' is a type of deity associated with tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism said to be manifestations of Buddhahood or enlightened mind. During personal meditation (''sādhana'') practice, the yogi identifies their own form, attributes and mi ...
of a meditation mandala
A mandala ( sa, मण्डल, maṇḍala, circle, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for e ...
but Buddhas such as Vajrayogini
Vajrayoginī ( sa, italic=yes, Vajrayoginī वज्रयोगिनी; , Dorjé Neljorma; mn, Огторгуйд Одогч, Нархажид, ) is a Tantric Buddhist female Buddha and a . The ''Vajrayogini'' cult dates back to the tenth ...
, Tara and Simhamukha
In Tibetan Buddhism, Siṃhamukhā (Tib. Senge Dongma) or Siṃhavaktra, also known as the Lion Face Dakini or Lion-headed Dakini, is a wisdom dakini of the Dzogchen tradition. She is represented as a fierce dakini with the head of a snow lion. H ...
appear as the central figures of tantric sadhana in their own right. Vajrayana Buddhism also recognizes many female yogini
A yogini (Sanskrit: योगिनी, IAST: ) is a female master practitioner of tantra and yoga, as well as a formal term of respect for female Hindu or Buddhist spiritual teachers in Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet. Th ...
practitioners as achieving the full enlightenment of a Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
, Miranda Shaw as an example cites sources referring to "Among the students of the adept Naropa, reportedly two hundred men and one thousand women attained complete enlightenment". Yeshe Tsogyal
Yeshe Tsogyal (c. 757 or 777 – 817 CE) , also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge", " Knowledge Lake Empress" (, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ), or by her Sanskrit name ''Jñānasāgara'' "Knowledge Ocean", or by her clan n ...
, one of the five tantric consorts of Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
is an example of a woman (Yogini
A yogini (Sanskrit: योगिनी, IAST: ) is a female master practitioner of tantra and yoga, as well as a formal term of respect for female Hindu or Buddhist spiritual teachers in Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet. Th ...
) recognized as a female Buddha in the Vajrayana tradition. According to Karmapa
The Karmapa (honorific title ''His Holiness the Gyalwa'' ྒྱལ་བ་, Victorious One''Karmapa'', more formally as ''Gyalwang'' ྒྱལ་དབང་ཀརྨ་པ་, King of Victorious Ones''Karmapa'', and informally as the '' ...
lineage however Tsogyel has attained Buddhahood
In Buddhism, Buddha (; Pali, Sanskrit: 𑀩𑀼𑀤𑁆𑀥, बुद्ध), "awakened one", is a title for those who are awake, and have attained nirvana and Buddhahood through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point ...
in that very life. On the website of the Karmapa
The Karmapa (honorific title ''His Holiness the Gyalwa'' ྒྱལ་བ་, Victorious One''Karmapa'', more formally as ''Gyalwang'' ྒྱལ་དབང་ཀརྨ་པ་, King of Victorious Ones''Karmapa'', and informally as the '' ...
, the head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
, it is stated that Yeshe Tsogyal—some thirty years before transcending worldly existence—finally emerged from an isolated meditation retreat, (c.796-805 AD), as "a fully enlightened Buddha" (samyak-saṃbuddha).
There are predictions from Sakyamuni Buddha to be found in the thirteenth chapter of the Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
Lotus Sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...
, referring to future attainments of Mahapajapati and Yasodharā.
In the 20th Century Tenzin Palmo
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (born 1943) is a bhikṣuṇī in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is an author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India. She is best known for being o ...
, a Tibetan Buddhist
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
in the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school, stated "I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form—no matter how many lifetimes it takes".
The divine feminine as Buddha Locana in Tantrism
The divine feminine is connected to the story of Gautama Buddha's enlightenment under the bodhi tree. When Mara appears to Gautama and questions his worthiness to become the Awakened one, Gautama calls upon Mother Earth to witness his merit throughout countless previous lifetimes by touching the ground. This gesture is known as the bhūmisparśa or "earth witnessing" mudra. While Mother Earth is associated with the Goddess Prithvi
Prithvi or Prithvi Mata (Sanskrit: पृथ्वी, ', also पृथिवी, ', "the Vast One") is the Sanskrit name for the earth, as well as the name of a devi (goddess) in Hinduism and some branches of Buddhism. In the Vedas, her cons ...
, Alex Wayman asserts that the divine feminine in Tantra is connected with a plethora of terms including prajna ('insight'), yogini ('female yogin'), vidya ('know how'), devi ('goddess'), matr ('mother'), matrka ('mother' or 'letters'), and mudra ('seal' or 'gesture'). The anthropomorphic expression of Mother Earth in Gautama's enlightenment story developed into the figure of Buddha Locana ("eyes") in Tantrism. As one of the Five Buddha Mothers that represents the purity of the element of earth, Buddha Locana is a fully enlightened female Buddha and is the consort of Akshobya according to the Guhyasamāja Tantra or "Secret Assembly." In the Guhyasamāja mandala, Buddha Locana occupies a higher status than Gautama Buddha as he was not able to attain enlightenment without her being called as a witness. Her title as a Buddha Mother, however, should not be mistaken as a child birthing figure in this context. Rather, the role of Buddha Mother refers to her primordial status. As a metaphorical form, Buddha Locana represents the all-seeing eye and mother figure that watches over humanity. Alex Wayman suggests that the metaphorical symbolism of the earth represents the power of arya-prajna, which provides the means to destroy illusion. The primordial nature and central significance of Buddha Locana can be seen in her placement in the mandala, as she represents the prajna of Vairocana
Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East ...
Buddha, who in turn is the dharmakaya of Gautama Buddha. Owing to this classification, Buddha Locana represents the high status of the divine feminine in Tantra, a status that surpasses the masculine principle.
Notable female tulkus
In the fifteenth century CE, Princess Chokyi-dronme (Wylie: ''Chos-kyi sgron-me'') was recognized as the embodiment of the meditation deity and female Buddha in the Vajrayana
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
tradition, Vajravarahi. Chokyi-dronme became known as Samding Dorje Phagmo (Wylie: ''bSam-lding rDo-rje phag-mo'') and began a line of female tulku
A ''tulku'' (, also ''tülku'', ''trulku'') is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor.
High-profile examples ...
s, reincarnate lamas. At present, the twelfth of this line lives in Tibet.
Another female tulku lineage, that of Shugseb Jetsun Rinpoche (Wylie: ''Shug-gseb rJe-btsun Rin-po-che'') (c. 1865 – 1951),[Lochen (c. 1865 – 1951) Ani Lochen (c. 1865 – 1951)](_blank)
/ref> began in the late nineteenth century CE. While she received teachings of all the Tibetan schools, Shugseb Jetsun Rinpoche was particularly known for holding a lineage of Chöd
Chöd ( lit. 'to sever') is a spiritual practice found primarily in the Yundrung Bön tradition as well as in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism (where it is classed as Anuttarayoga Tantra). Also known as "cutting through the ego, ...
, the meditation practice of offering one's own body for the benefit of others.[WAiB Pages Resources on Women's Ordination](_blank)
/ref> At the start of the twentieth century, Shugsheb Jetsun Rinpoche—also called Ani Lochen Chönyi Zangmo—founded the Shuksep or Shugsep (Wylie: ''shug gseb'') nunnery located thirty miles from Lhasa on the slopes of Mount Gangri Thökar. It became one of the largest and most famous nunneries in Tibet. Shugsep Nunnery, part of the Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
school, has been re-established in exile in Gambhir Ganj, India. The nuns of Shugsep continue their practices, including Longchen Nyingtig and Chöd
Chöd ( lit. 'to sever') is a spiritual practice found primarily in the Yundrung Bön tradition as well as in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism (where it is classed as Anuttarayoga Tantra). Also known as "cutting through the ego, ...
.
The Third Drubwang Padma Norbu ("Penor") Rinpoche, 11th Throneholder of Palyul Monastery, former Supreme Head of the Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
tradition, officially recognized the American woman Ahkon Lhamo in 1987 as the tulku of Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo during her visit to his Namdroling Monastery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
, India. As is customary, Penor Rinpoche sought confirmation of his recognition before announcing it. He received it from both Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Tashi Paljor, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche () (c. 1910 – 28 September 1991) was a Vajrayana master, scholar, poet, teacher, and recognized by Buddhists as one of the greatest realized masters. Head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism from 198 ...
(1910–91), the then Supreme Head of the Nyingma tradition who was on a teaching visit to Namdroling at the time, and the most senior Palyul tulku, the Second Dzongnang Jampal Lodro Rinpoche (d. 8/87).["Statement by H.H. Penor Rinpoche Regarding the Recognition of Steven Seagal as a Reincarnation of the Treasure Revealer Chungdrag Dorje of Palyul Monastery]
/ref>
Buddhist ordination of women
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
first ordination of women, ordained women as nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
s five years after his enlightenment and five years after first ordaining men into the sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...
. The first Buddhist nun
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gr ...
was his aunt and foster mother Mahapajapati Gotami
Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (Pali; Sanskrit: महाप्रजापती गौतमी, ''Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī'') or Pajapati was the foster-mother, step-mother and maternal aunt (mother's sister) of the Buddha. In Buddhist tradition, s ...
. Bhikkhunis have to follow the eight rules of respect, which are vows called The Eight Garudhammas. According to Peter Harvey "The Buddha's apparent hesitation on this matter is reminiscent of his hesitation on whether to teach at all," something he only does after persuasion from various devas. The ordination of women in Buddhism is and has always been practiced in some Buddhist regions, such as East Asia, is being revived in some countries such as Sri Lanka, and is newly beginning in some Western countries to which Buddhism has recently spread, such as the United States. As Buddhism spreads, its prevalence in Mahayana countries grows in popularity as well despite the decrease in Theravada Buddhist nuns. As William Nadeau explains in his book Asian Religions a Cultural Perspective, "In the Mahayana countries, however, the nuns' order remains strong, particularly in Tibet and in Chinese speaking communities."
Family life in Buddhism
In the Anguttara Nikaya (5:33), the Buddha tells future wives that they should be obedient to their husbands, please them, and not make them angry through their own desires.
Furthermore, the Buddha offers advice to married women in the Anguttara Nikaya (7:59; IV 91–94), where he tells of seven types of wives—the first three types are destined for unhappiness, while the last four, as they are imbued with long term self-control, are destined to be happy. These latter wives are characterised as caretakers (motherly-wife), companions (friend-wife) and submissives (sister-wife and slave-wife)—the Buddha thus endorsed a variety of types of wives within marriage.
According to Diana Paul, Buddhism inherited a view of women whereby if they are not represented as mothers then they are portrayed as either lustful temptresses or as evil incarnate.[
]
Motherhood
The status of motherhood in Buddhism has also traditionally reflected the Buddhist perspective that dukkha, or suffering, is a major characteristic of human existence. In her book on the Therigatha collection of stories of women arhats
In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...
from the Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
, Susan Murcott states: "Though this chapter is about motherhood, all of the stories and poems share another theme—grief. The mothers of this chapter were motivated to become Buddhist nuns by grief over the death of their children."
However, motherhood in Early Buddhism The term Early Buddhism can refer to at least two distinct periods in the History of Buddhism, mostly in the History of Buddhism in India:
* Pre-sectarian Buddhism, which refers to the teachings and monastic organization and structure, founded by G ...
could also be a valued activity in its own right. Queen Maya
Queen Māyā of Shakya ( sa, मायादेवी, pi, Māyādevī) was the birth mother of Gautama Buddha, the sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. She was sister of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, the first Buddhist nun ordained by the ...
, the mother of Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
, the founder of Buddhism, had a certain following, especially in Lumbini
Lumbinī ( ne, लुम्बिनी, IPA=ˈlumbini , "the lovely") is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Lumbini Province in Nepal. It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mahamayadevi gave birth ...
, where she gave birth to him. Since Maya died some days after his birth, Gautama Buddha was brought up by a fostermother, his mother's sister Mahapajapati, who also had two children of her own. She became the first Buddhist nun. Both of her children, her son Nanda
Nanda may refer to:
Indian history and religion
* Nanda Empire, ruled by the Nanda dynasty, an Indian royal dynasty ruling Magadha in the 4th century BCE
** Mahapadma Nanda, first Emperor of the Nanda Empire
** Dhana Nanda (died c. 321 BCE), last ...
and her daughter Sundari Nanda joined the Buddhist sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...
of monastics. The wife of Gautama Buddha, Yasodhara, was the mother of one son named Rahula, meaning "fetter", who became a Buddhist monk at the age of seven and Yasodhara also eventually became a nun.
One of the attractions for women in Vajrayana
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
Buddhism of following the path of a yogini
A yogini (Sanskrit: योगिनी, IAST: ) is a female master practitioner of tantra and yoga, as well as a formal term of respect for female Hindu or Buddhist spiritual teachers in Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet. Th ...
rather than that of a bhikkhuni nun was the opportunity to practice amidst family life with a husband or spiritual consort and possibly have children. Also Yoginis -unlike nuns- were not obliged to shave their hair. Machig Labdrön
Machig Labdrön (, sometimes referred to as Ahdrön Chödron, ), or "Singular Mother Torch from Lab", 1055-1149) was a female Tibetan Buddhist monk believed to be a reincarnation of Yeshe Tsogyal, and the renowned 11th-century Tibetan tantric ...
followed such a path, living in a monastery for a while but later leaving to unite with Topabhadra as her consort. According to Machig's namthar he cared for the children while she practiced and taught. Some of Machig's children followed her on the spiritual path, becoming accomplished yogins themselves. Tsultrim Allione
Lama Tsultrim Allione (born Joan Rousmanière Ewing in 1947) is an American author and teacher who has studied in Tibetan Buddhism's Karma Kagyu lineage.
Biography Early life and education
She was born in 1947 in Maine under the name Joan Rousman ...
, a recognised emanation of Machig Labdron, herself was a nun for four years but left to marry and have children. She has spoken of the contribution motherhood has made to her practice:
...in Buddhism the image of the mother as the embodiment of compassion is used a lot. She'll do anything for the children. As a mother I felt that depth of love and commitment and having somebody who I really would give my own life for—it was very powerful to have that kind of relationship. I also felt that I didn't really grow up until I had my children. There were ways that maturity was demanded of me and having children brought forth that maturity. So I wouldn't say my children were an inspiration in the sense of what I thought would have been a spiritual inspiration before I had children. More so I think meeting the challenges of motherhood with what I had learned made my practice very rich.
Romantic love, sexual conduct and marriage
In general, "While Buddhism regards the celibate monastic life as the higher ideal, it also recognizes the importance of marriage as a social institution." Some guidelines for marriage are offered. Although Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
practice varies considerably among its various schools, marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
is one of the few concepts specifically mentioned in the context of Śīla
Buddhist ethics are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha. The term for ethics or morality used in Buddhism is ''Śīla'' or ''sīla'' (Pāli). ''Śīla'' in Buddhism is one of three sections of ...
, the Buddhist formulation of core facets of spiritual discipline
A spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (often including spiritual exercises) is the regular or full-time performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual developm ...
. The fundamental code of Buddhist ethics
Buddhist ethics are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha. The term for ethics or morality used in Buddhism is ''Śīla'' or ''sīla'' (Pāli). ''Śīla'' in Buddhism is one of three sections of ...
, The Five Precepts
The Five precepts ( sa, pañcaśīla, italic=yes; pi, pañcasīla, italic=yes) or five rules of training ( sa, pañcaśikṣapada, italic=yes; pi, pañcasikkhapada, italic=yes) is the most important system of morality for Buddhist lay peo ...
contains an admonishment against sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, se ...
, although what constitutes misconduct from the perspective of a particular school of Buddhism
The schools of Buddhism are the various institutional and doctrinal divisions of Buddhism that have existed from ancient times up to the present. The classification and nature of various Doctrine, doctrinal, Buddhist philosophy, philosophical or ...
varies widely depending on the local culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
.
In Early Buddhism The term Early Buddhism can refer to at least two distinct periods in the History of Buddhism, mostly in the History of Buddhism in India:
* Pre-sectarian Buddhism, which refers to the teachings and monastic organization and structure, founded by G ...
, the Sigalovada Sutta of the Digha Nikaya
Digha is a seaside resort town in the state of West Bengal, India. It lies in Purba Medinipur district and at the northern end of the Bay of Bengal. It has a low gradient with a shallow sand beach. It is a popular sea resort in West Bengal.
H ...
in the Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
describes the respect that one is expected to give to one's spouse. However, since the ideal of Early Buddhism is renunciation
Renunciation (or renouncing) is the act of rejecting something, especially if it is something that the renunciant has previously enjoyed or endorsed.
In religion, renunciation often indicates an abandonment of pursuit of material comforts, in t ...
, it can be seen from examples such as the story of the monk Nanda
Nanda may refer to:
Indian history and religion
* Nanda Empire, ruled by the Nanda dynasty, an Indian royal dynasty ruling Magadha in the 4th century BCE
** Mahapadma Nanda, first Emperor of the Nanda Empire
** Dhana Nanda (died c. 321 BCE), last ...
and his wife Janapada Kalyāni that striving for the bliss
BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C b ...
of Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
is valued above romantic love and marriage. Despite having married her just that day, encouraged by his cousin Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
, Nanda left his wife to become a bhikkhu
A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...
in the Buddhist Sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...
. In stories like this from the Pali Canon, romantic love is generally perceived as part of attachment to samsara, the endless cycle of rebirth
Rebirth may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Film
* ''Rebirth'' (2011 film), a 2011 Japanese drama film
* ''Rebirth'' (2016 film), a 2016 American thriller film
* ''Rebirth'', a documentary film produced by Project Rebirth
* ''The Re ...
. Susan Murcott has pointed out that Early Buddhist attitudes to romantic love and marriage generally reflect the Brahman
In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part X ...
ic ideals of India at the time... including the recent rise of the renunciate ideal and the associated decline in the status of romantic love and marriage.
In Vajrayana
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
Buddhism, a sexual relationship with a consort is seen in a technical way as being a spiritual practice in anuttarayoga tantra intended to allow the practitioners to attain realizations and attain enlightenment. The union of tantric consorts is depicted in the yab-yum iconography of meditation deities.
Views of male Buddhist religious leaders about women
The 14th Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
spoke at a conference on Women in Buddhism at the University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
in 2007:
In 2009, at the National Civil Rights Museum
The National Civil Rights Museum is a complex of museums and historic buildings in Memphis, Tennessee; its exhibits trace the history of the civil rights movement in the United States from the 17th century to the present. The museum is built aro ...
in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
he said: "I call myself a feminist. Isn't that what you call someone who fights for women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
?"
He also said that by nature, women are more compassionate "based on their biology and ability to nurture and birth children." He called on women to "lead and create a more compassionate world," citing the good works of nurses and mothers.
In 2007 he said that the next Dalai Lama could possibly be a woman, remarking "If a woman reveals herself as more useful the lama could very well be reincarnated in this form".
In 2010 he stated that "twenty or thirty years ago", when discussing whether a woman could be a Dalai Lama in the future, he said yes but "I also said half-jokingly that if the Dalai Lama's reincarnation is female, she must be very attractive. The reason is so that she will have more influence on others. If she is an ugly female, she won't be very effective, will she?"
During a 2014 interview with Larry King
Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and 10 Cable ACE Awards. Over his career, he hosted over 50,000 interviews. ...
when asked if he thought we will ever see a female Dalai Lama he stated "Yes! That's very possible." he recalled telling a reporter in Paris many years ago that it is possible mentioning that there are some female Lama's in history dating "...six or seven centuries ago, so it is nothing new." He then recalled joking with the reporter, "If female Dalai Lama come, that female must be very, very attractive. t'sMore useful"
In 2015 he repeated this anecdote during an interview with the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
on refugees. When asked if the Dalai Lama could be a woman he answered "Yes". Recalling again an interview in Paris the possibility he said, "I mentioned, Why not? The female biologically
asmore potential to show affection and compassion...therefore I think female
should take more important role and then - I told the reporter - if a female does come her face should be very, very attractive." The interviewer Clive Myrie then asked if a female Dalai Lama must be attractive, he followed up, "I mean. If female Dalai Lama come, then that female must be attractive. Otherwise not much use." Myrie replied "You're joking, I'm assuming. Or you're not joking?" to which The Dalai Lama insisted "No. True!". The Dalai Lama then pointed to his own face, stating that some people think he is very attractive and continued to laugh.
Buddhist scripture about women
Mallikā Sutta
In the
Mallikā Sutta of the
Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
, King
Pasenadi
Pasenadi ( pi, पसेनदि ; sa, प्रसेनजित् ; c. 6th century BCE) was an ruler of Kosala. Sāvatthī was his capital. He succeeded after . He was a prominent (lay follower) of Gautama Buddha, and built many Buddh ...
expresses disappointment when Queen
Mallikā gives birth to a daughter instead of a son. In
Bhikkhu Sujato's translation of the Sutta, the Buddha responds to this disposition by stating:
Somā Sutta
In the
Somā Sutta, the
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
Somā is addressed by the evil god
Māra
Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology, Mother Earth, a feminine counterpart to Dievs. She takes spirits after death. She may be thought as the alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin and Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, somet ...
:
Somā responds to this taunt in verse:
At this response, Māra disappears.
Dhanañjānī Sutta
According to the
Dhanañjānī Sutta, Dhanañjānī, wife of the
brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...
Bhāradvāja, had deep faith in the Buddha. She persuaded her husband to speak with the Buddha, who later converted, ordained, and became an
arahant
In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...
.
Buddhist feminism
Buddhist feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal, and
social status of women within Buddhism. It is an aspect of
feminist theology
Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those reli ...
which seeks to advance and understand the
equality
Equality may refer to:
Society
* Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing
** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...
of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Buddhist perspective. The Buddhist feminist
Rita Gross describes Buddhist feminism as "the radical practice of the co-humanity of women and men."
Influential female Buddhist figures
Pre-sectarian Buddhism
*
Mahapajapati Gotami
Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (Pali; Sanskrit: महाप्रजापती गौतमी, ''Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī'') or Pajapati was the foster-mother, step-mother and maternal aunt (mother's sister) of the Buddha. In Buddhist tradition, s ...
, step-mother of the Buddha, first to seek and obtain ordination.
*
Yasodharā, Buddha's wife, became a nun and an
Arhat
In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...
.
*
Sanghamitta
Saṅghamittā (Saṅghamitrā in Sanskrit, nun's name Ayapali; 282 BC – 203 BC) was the eldest daughter of Emperor Ashoka (304 BC – 232 BC) and his first wife, Devi. Together with her brother Mahinda, she entered an order of Buddhist mo ...
(281-202 BC), daughter of emperor
Ashoka
Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...
, said to have brought Buddhism to
Sri Lanka.
*
Buddhamitrā was a Buddhist nun living in India during the 1st century who is remembered for images of
the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
that she erected in three cities near the
Ganges river.
Theravada
*
Dhammananda Bhikkhuni
Dhammananda Bhikkhuni ( th, ธัมมนันทา; ), born Chatsumarn Kabilsingh ( th, ฉัตรสุมาลย์ กบิลสิงห์; ) or Chatsumarn Kabilsingh Shatsena ( th, ฉัตรสุมาลย์ กบิ ...
(b. 1944), the first modern Thai woman to receive full ordination as a Theravada bhikkhuni and Abbess of
Songdhammakalyani Monastery, the only temple in Thailand where there are bhikkhunis.
*
Ayya Khema
Ayya Khema ( 25, 1923 – November 2, 1997) was a Buddhist teacher noted for providing opportunities for women to practice Buddhism, founding several centers around the world. In 1987, she helped coordinate the first-ever Sakyadhita Internationa ...
(1923-1997) was a German American Buddhist teacher and the first Western woman to become a
Theravadin Buddhist nun. She was very active in providing opportunities for women to practice Buddhism founding several Buddhist centers around the world and coordinating the first ever
Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1987 at the conclusion of its first conference and registered in California in the United States in 1988. Sakyadhita holds an international confere ...
. Over two dozen books of her transcribed dhamma talks have been published in several languages, and she also published her autobiography ''I Give You My Life'' in 1997.
*
Dipa Ma (1911-1989), Indian meditation teacher
*
Upasika Kee Nanayon (1901-1978), one of the most popular female meditation teachers in Thailand
*
Chandra Khonnokyoong
Chandra Khonnokyoong ( th, จันทร์ ขนนกยูง; ), 19 January 1909 – 10 September 2000) was a Thai ''Maechi'' (nun) who founded Wat Phra Dhammakaya. Religious studies scholar Rachelle Scott has described her as "the ...
(1909-2000), founder of
Wat Phra Dhammakaya
*
Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg (born August 5, 1952) is a ''New York Times'' bestselling author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in the West. In 1974, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts, with Jack Kornfield and Jos ...
(b. 1952), teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in the West
*
Mya Thwin (1925-2017), meditation teacher
*
Ajahn Sundara (b. 1946) and
Ajahn Candasiri
Ajahn Candasiri is one of the Theravāda Buddhist monastics who co-founded Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex, England, a branch monastery of the Ajahn Chah lineage. She is currently ordained as a ten-precept sīladhārā, the highes ...
(b. 1947) are nuns in the
Thai Forest Tradition
The Kammaṭṭhāna Forest Tradition of Thailand (from pi, kammaṭṭhāna meaning "place of work"), commonly known in the West as the Thai Forest Tradition, is a lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism.
The Thai Forest Tradition sta ...
*
Sylvia Boorstein
Sylvia Boorstein is an American author, psychotherapist, and Buddhist teacher.
Boorstein studied with Dipa Ma and is a co-founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California and a senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Soc ...
, American author psychoterapist and Buddhist teacher
East Asian traditions
*
Joko Beck
Charlotte Joko Beck (March 27, 1917 – June 15, 2011) was an American Zen teacher and the author of the books ''Everyday Zen: Love and Work'' and ''Nothing Special: Living Zen''.
Biography
Born in New Jersey, Beck studied music at the Oberlin ...
(1917-2011), founded the
Ordinary Mind Zen School
The Ordinary Mind Zen School is a network of independent Zen centers established by Charlotte Joko Beck and her Dharma Successors in 1995.
History
The school is unaffiliated with any Zen centers which fall outside of its own network, however ...
.
*
Merle Kodo Boyd
Merle Kodo Boyd (December 23, 1944 – February 20, 2022) was an American Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhist nun. She was the first African-American woman to receive Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism, as a Dharma heir of Wendy Egyoku Nakao in the White ...
, first ever
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
woman to have received
Dharma transmission in
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
, she leads the Lincroft Zen Sangha in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
*
Daehaeng, a popular Korean Buddhist nun who worked for the advancement of Korean nuns and founded the Hanmaum Seon Center.
*
Houn Jiyu-Kennett
Hōun Jiyu-Kennett ( Japanese: 法雲慈友ケネット, 1 January 1924 – 6 November 1996), born Peggy Teresa Nancy Kennett, was a British roshi most famous for having been the first female to be sanctioned by the Sōtō School of Japa ...
was a British roshi most famous for having been the first female to be sanctioned by the
Soto School Soto may refer to:
Geography
*Soto (Aller), parish in Asturias, Spain
* Soto (Las Regueras), parish in Asturias, Spain
* Soto, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles
* Soto, Russia, a rural locality (a ''selo'') in Megino-Kangalassky District of the Sakh ...
of Japan to teach in the West. She founded
Shasta Abbey
Shasta Abbey, located on sixteen forested acres near Mount Shasta in northern California, United States is a training monastery for Buddhist monks and a place of practice for lay Buddhists and interested visitors. It was established in 1970 by R ...
in Mt. Shasta, California.
*
Chân Không
Chân Không (born 1938) is an expatriate Vietnamese Buddhist Bhikkhunī ( nun) and peace activist who has worked closely with Thích Nhất Hạnh in starting the Plum Village Tradition and helping conduct spiritual retreats internationally. ...
,
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
ese
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
,
peace
Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...
activist, who has worked closely with
Thích Nhất Hạnh
Thích Nhất Hạnh ( ; ; born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo; 11 October 1926 – 22 January 2022) was a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet and teacher, who founded the Plum Village Tradition, historically recogni ...
in starting the
Plum Village Tradition
The Plum Village Tradition is a school of Buddhism named after the Plum Village Monastery in France, the first monastic practice center founded by Thích Nhất Hạnh. It is an approach to Engaged Buddhism mainly from a Mahayana perspective ...
.
*
Enkyo Pat O'Hara, teacher in the
Harada-Yasutani lineage. She is abbot and founder of the
Village Zendo __NOTOC__
Village Zendo is a combined Soto Zen, Soto and Rinzai Zen practice center in lower Manhattan. Originally located in the apartment of Enkyo Pat O'Hara, who founded the zendo in 1986, the Zen center took up the majority of space in O'Hara's ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. Chairperson of the Board of the National
AIDS Interfaith Network.
* Terri Omori, first female president of the
Buddhist Churches of America The Buddhist Churches of America (abbreviated as BCA in English, ' or ''Beikoku Bukkyōdan'' in Japanese) is the United States branch of the Nishi Honganji subsect of Jōdo Shinshū ("True Pure Land School") Buddhism.
The BCA headquarters is at 1 ...
.
*
Prajnatara, traditionally said to be a teacher of
Bodhidharma.
*
Ruth Fuller Sasaki
Ruth Fuller Sasaki (October 31, 1892 – October 24, 1967), born Ruth Fuller, was an American writer and Buddhist teacher. She was important figure in the development of Buddhism in the United States. As Ruth Fuller Everett (during her first ...
(1892-1967), the first foreigner to be a priest of a
Rinzai
The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan ...
Zen temple in 1958, and the only westerner, and the only woman, yet to be a priest of a
Daitoku-ji
is a Buddhist temple, one of fourteen autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. It is located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The "mountain name" ('' sangō'') by which it is known is . The Daitoku-ji temple complex today covers more ...
.
*
Cheng Yen
Cheng Yen (; born Chin-Yun Wong; 14 May 1937) is a Taiwanese Buddhist nun ( bhikkhuni), teacher, and philanthropist. She is the founder of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, ordinarily referred to as Tzu Chi, a Buddhist humanita ...
is a Taiwanese Buddhist nun (bhikkhuni) who founded the Buddhist Compassion Relief
Tzu Chi Foundation.
*
Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...
(Chinese empress who supported Buddhism in China)
* Zongchi, a disciple of
Bodhidharma.
Tibetan tradition
*
Samding Dorje Phagmo
The Samding Dorje Phagmo () is the highest female incarnation in Tibet''The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide'', (1988) p. 268. Keith Dowman. . and the third highest-ranking person in the hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Pa ...
, a lineage of female
tulku
A ''tulku'' (, also ''tülku'', ''trulku'') is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor.
High-profile examples ...
s
* Sera Khandro
Kunzang Dekyong Wangmo (1892- 1940), a
Terton, considered an emanation of
Yeshe Tsogyal
Yeshe Tsogyal (c. 757 or 777 – 817 CE) , also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge", " Knowledge Lake Empress" (, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ), or by her Sanskrit name ''Jñānasāgara'' "Knowledge Ocean", or by her clan n ...
*
Ayu Khandro
Ayu Khandro (Long Life Dakini), also known as Dorje Paldrön, lived from 1839 to 1953. She was a practitioner, yogini, and terton of Tibetan Buddhism in Eastern Tibet. An accomplished Dzogchen meditator, she is renowned for her extensive pilgr ...
(1839-1953), yogini and terton
*
Tare Lhamo (1938-2003), a female
Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
terton or treasure revealer
*
Kushok Chimey Luding (b. 1938), considered an emanation of
Vajrayogini
Vajrayoginī ( sa, italic=yes, Vajrayoginī वज्रयोगिनी; , Dorjé Neljorma; mn, Огторгуйд Одогч, Нархажид, ) is a Tantric Buddhist female Buddha and a . The ''Vajrayogini'' cult dates back to the tenth ...
*
Khandro Rinpoche
Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche (birth name Tsering Paldrön; born August 19, 1967) is a lama in Tibetan Buddhism. Born in Kalimpong, India and the daughter of the late Mindrolling Trichen, Khandro Rinpoche was recognized by Rangjung Rigpe D ...
(b. 1967), lama, teacher in both the
Kagyu and
Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
schools.
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Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Karma Lekshe Tsomo (born 23 September 1944) is a Buddhist nun, scholar and social activist. She is a professor at the University of San Diego, where she teaches Buddhism, World Religions, and Dying, Death, and Social Justice. She is co-founder of ...
(b. 1944) is an American Nun, Professor of Buddhist Studies at University of San Diego, author of many books on Women in Buddhism, founder of Jamyang Foundation and founding member of
Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1987 at the conclusion of its first conference and registered in California in the United States in 1988. Sakyadhita holds an international confere ...
.
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Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (b. 1943) is a Tibetan Buddhist nun, author, teacher and founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh, India. She spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation retreat.
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Pema Chödrön
Pema Chödrön (པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། ''padma chos sgron'' “lotus dharma lamp”; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism an ...
(b. 1936) is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist nun, author, and teacher. She has conducted workshops, seminars, and meditation retreats in Europe, Australia, and throughout North America. She is resident and teacher of Gampo Abbey, a monastery in rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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Thubten Chodron
Thubten Chodron ( — De Lin), born Cheryl Greene, is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun, author, teacher, and the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, the only Tibetan Buddhist training monastery for Western nuns and monks in the United States. C ...
(b. 1950) is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun and a central figure in reinstating the Tibetan Bhikshuni (Gelongma) ordination of women. She is a student of XIVth Dalai Lama, Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and other Tibetan masters.
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Robina Courtin (b. 1944) is an Australian Buddhist nun in the
Tibetan Buddhist
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
Gelugpa
240px, The 14th Dalai Lama (center), the most influential figure of the contemporary Gelug tradition, at the 2003 Bodhgaya (India).
The Gelug (, also Geluk; "virtuous")Kay, David N. (2007). ''Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantati ...
tradition and lineage of
Lama Thubten Yeshe and
Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 1996 she founded Liberation Prison Project, which she ran until 2009.
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Ani Choying Drolma (b. 1971) is a Nepalese Buddhist nun and musician from the Nagi Gompa nunnery in Nepal. She is known in Nepal and throughout the world for bringing many Tibetan Buddhist chants and feast songs to mainstream audiences. She has been recently appointed as the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador to Nepal.
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Yeshe Khadro (b. 1950), Australian ordained Buddhist nun who has worked in management and teaching roles for many
FPMT
The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) was founded in 1975 by Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who began teaching Mahayana Buddhism to Western students in Nepal. The FPMT has grown to encompass over ...
centres around the world. For the past 15 years she has been the director of Karuna Hospice in
Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
. In 2012, Yeshe Khadro was named a
Paul Harris Fellow by
Rotary International "in appreciation of the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world".
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Tsultrim Allione
Lama Tsultrim Allione (born Joan Rousmanière Ewing in 1947) is an American author and teacher who has studied in Tibetan Buddhism's Karma Kagyu lineage.
Biography Early life and education
She was born in 1947 in Maine under the name Joan Rousman ...
(b. 1947), American author and teacher who has studied in the
Karma Kagyu
Karma Kagyu (), or Kamtsang Kagyu (), is a widely practiced and probably the second-largest lineage within the Kagyu school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The lineage has long-standing monasteries in Tibet, China, Russia, ...
lineage
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Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo (b. 1949),
tulku
A ''tulku'' (, also ''tülku'', ''trulku'') is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor.
High-profile examples ...
within the
Palyul lineage of the
Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
tradition
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Sarah Harding (lama), teacher in the
Shangpa Kagyu
The Shangpa Kagyu (, "Oral Tradition of the man from Shang") is known as the "secret lineage" of the Kagyu school of Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism and differs in origin from the better known Dagpo Kagyu schools. The Dagpo Kagyu are the linea ...
tradition
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Judith Simmer-Brown
Judith Simmer-Brown is a Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies Emerita at Naropa University. She has expertise in Tibetan Buddhism, Women and Buddhism, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, Western Buddhism and Contemplative Educ ...
, Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies Emerita in
Naropa University,
acharya
In Indian religions and society, an ''acharya'' (Sanskrit: आचार्य, IAST: ; Pali: ''ācariya'') is a preceptor and expert instructor in matters such as religion, or any other subject. An acharya is a highly learned person with a ...
in the
Shambhala Buddhist
Shambhala Training is a secular approach to meditation developed by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa and his students. It is based on what Trungpa calls Shambhala Vision, which sees enlightened society as not purely mythical, but as reali ...
tradition
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Jan Willis
Janice Dean Willis, or Jan Willis (born 1948) is Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University, where she has taught since 1977; and the author of books on Tibetan Buddhism. She has been called influential by ''Time Magazine'', ''Newsweek'' (cover ...
(b. 1948), Professor of Religion at
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...
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Vicki Mackenzie
Vicki Mackenzie (born 1947), an author and journalist, was born in England and spent much of her early life in Australia. The daughter of a naval officer, she graduated from Queensland University and became a reporter at the ''Sun'' newspaper in S ...
(b. 1947), English author and journalist
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Lama Shenpen Hookham Susan Kathryn Hookham (née Rowan), known as Lama Shenpen Hookham is a Buddhist teacher who has trained for over 50 years in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
Biography
Lama Shenpen was born Susan Kathryn Rowan in Essex ...
(b.1946), is a British teacher and scholar in the
Karma Kagyu
Karma Kagyu (), or Kamtsang Kagyu (), is a widely practiced and probably the second-largest lineage within the Kagyu school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The lineage has long-standing monasteries in Tibet, China, Russia, ...
/
Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Shenpen was ordained as a nun in India by the
16th Karmapa
The sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (; August 14, 1924 – November 5, 1981) was the spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Followers believed him to be part of the oldest line of reincarnate lamas in Vajra ...
in the early 1970s who asked her to return to the West to teach. She became a translator for the first wave of Tibetan masters to Europe in the 70s and 80s, and her personal teachers include
Kalu Rinpoche
Kalu Rinpoche (1905 – May 10, 1989) was a Buddhist lama, meditation master, scholar and teacher. He was one of the first Tibetan masters to teach in the West.
Early life and teachers
Kalu Rinpoche was born in 1905 during the Female Woo ...
,
Karma Trinley Rinpoche,
Bokar Rinpoche, Gendun Rinpoche,
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche () is a prominent scholar yogi in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He teaches widely in the West, often through songs of realization, his own as well as those composed by Milarepa and other masters of the ...
who became her main teacher and encouraged her to teach and transmit
Mahamudra
Mahāmudrā (Sanskrit: महामुद्रा, , contraction of ) literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable". Mahāmudr ...
. On Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche's advice she gave up her nun's vows and went to Oxford University where she produced a seminal study of the profound Buddha Nature doctrines
Shentong_
''Rangtong''_and_''shentong''_are_two__distinctive_views_on_emptiness_(_sunyata)_and_the_two_truths_doctrine_within_Tibetan_Buddhism.
''Rangtong''_(;_"empty_of_self-nature")_is_a_philosophical_term_in_Tibetan_Buddhism_that_is_used_to_distinguis_...
_interpretation_of_the_Ratnagotravibhāga.html" ;"title="Rangtong-Shentong.html" "title="ccording to the Rangtong-Shentong">Shentong
''Rangtong'' and ''shentong'' are two distinctive views on emptiness ( sunyata) and the two truths doctrine within Tibetan Buddhism.
''Rangtong'' (; "empty of self-nature") is a philosophical term in Tibetan Buddhism that is used to distinguis ...
interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga">Ratnagotravibhaga], published as The Buddha Within (Suny Press), and gained a doctorate. Lama Shenpen is the spiritual director of th