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I fear you contradict yourself in acknowledging Buddha's
concern for social pressures and his compromises made for that reason (although
I agree with you that to allow nuns at all was revolutionary), and then claiming
that because he opposed certain social conventions openly he was not vulnerable
to them. That is equivalent to saying, because sometimes A, never B,
even when giving evidence of B.
I suspect I am trying to argue with my better here, in
terms of understanding. I have only studied and practiced Zen for 2 yrs.
on my own - certainly I am no expert. And you appear to be a monk - I
extend my respect, but Buddha did say, did he not, to question all
teachers.
Kathleen
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 8:29
PM
Subject: Re: [Zen] Goats vs. Sheep
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
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