I'd say that it was likely there were some additional rules for women, as the Buddha would have been concerned that the Bhikkuni's could not be faulted in terms of their practice relative to men, in a society that was overwhelmingly patriarchal. It's interesting that he was willing to establish the Bhikkuni order and allow women to ordain despite that, and despite the fact that he considered it would shorten the life span of the Dharma as it were. The rules that in effect relegate Bhikkunis to a lower position than Bhikku's are later accretions. There is certainly no evidence that the Buddha was vulnerable to 'to societal conventions' as he was more often than not quite clear in his opposition to any social conventions that went against the Dharma, such as cast, the idea of a soul, reincarnation and so on.
Genryu ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Kathleen Knight" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Zen] Goats vs. Sheep Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 20:22:33 -0400 The story, as I was taught, was that Buddha's own aunt wanted fervently to become a nun. At first there were only monks. The Buddha finally consented, but established many rules for nuns, stating as well that even the most senior nun was junior to the most junior monk. Either this teacher (from the Great Courses collection of Harvard) was mistaken, or Buddha was, as I said, vulnerable himself to societal conventions. Unless of course, you believe he was right in doing this. Kathleen _________________________________________________________________ Want to block unwanted pop-ups? Download the free MSN Toolbar now! http://toolbar.msn.co.uk/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/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/
