Historical and societal baggage... hmmm one thing that i can see as a woman's exclusive impediment to liberation is the bond between mother and child. It is one bond presumably harder to break for women than men. Even today. Not just in the Buddha's time.
Remember that there were very few lay persons. It was Monk or nothing. And to be monk meant to give up everything. Yes societal baggage. You have to question it. As a Karate sensei said once; We do things because they are traditional, passed down along the lineage. What if someone was an idiot. You have a tradition of idiots. But are some seperations of the sexes helpful? When we sit on saturdays in our large mixed group, Suko has us now seperated, men on one side, women on the other. Because it is traditional. At first I resented it as some kind of inequal societal baggage. But let me digress. I don't know if this is my particular demon or not, but whenever someone new came to sit with us, for the first day they sat, while i sat meditating, sexual thoughts of me and them would arise. Men and women alike. The second time and consequent times those thoughts did not arise. But I found with the sexual segregation, when a new woman would come to sit with us, such thoughts did not arise at all. Out of sight, out of mind i guess. And sitting segregated with the men, yes, the thoughts did not arise on consequent sittings. So in a community of young men and women, overcoming thoughts of sex could more easily be overcome with the segregation. Doesn't help of course if you straddle the fence, so to speak. So I don't really have an answer. When i was studying Karate there was a heirarchy of knowledge as exhibited by belt rankings. Men and women, older and younger taught. Sometimes women taught men, sometimes younger taught older. As one woman resident instructor and senior black belt (first dan) once explained to a teen sandan (third dan) "No! You teach me. You are senior!" Even when students from Okinawa came to visit the dojo, when there was a young woman with them, she had the respect due her rank. And believe me should could kick the ass of any equivalent westerner. And wandering off on a thought, When you get a black belt, it is only the mark of a beginner. It only means you have been accepted as a tudent worthy of training. It's like your first kensho. DOesn't mean you're master. It only means able to learn. > <http://home.golden.net/~samu> < > There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. < ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
