Up until recently, there wasn't a lot of study on Buddhist women to be found. As women in Buddhism have changed the religion and played a crucial part, recent studies have concentrated on feminism research. When it comes to women's access to leadership roles, other religions like Judaism and Christianity exhibit subordination. The status of women has changed in many religions. Women are still not allowed to hold certain top positions, though. Buddhism is viewed as having a more accepting and equitable attitude toward women, but it too has some gender segregation. Specifically, it’s found that Buddhism culture is not discriminate against women, but the teachings and salvation do. A woman in Buddhism has intricate symbolic meaning attached to their role that is ideal to their status and explains how they contribute to the spiritual journey of this religion.
History of Woman
According to Naomi (42), Buddhism was introduced in Japan, and most of its founders were male associates. However, women’s role in the founding of Buddhism is not that hidden. This is given by the fact that the first three nuns of Japan being the first monastic to be ordained were women. Notably, the powerful position held by shamans in ancient Japan reflects women’s pioneering role they played in the introduction of Buddhism in Japan (Naomi 44). Contrastingly, the ordination ritual did not follow the laid down orthodox guidelines in the Buddhist monastic traditions. For instance, Zenshin, the daughter of Chinese immigrants was of a tender age, 12, when she was ordained. Being common knowledge, someone at the tender of 12 cannot make proper decisions on issues of a high magnitude such as ordination. But her ordination, as well as two other women, were fronted by Soga no Umako who had vested interest in Buddhism in order to gain political advantage over his rivals. It is thus in order to assert that being ordained as a nun was not a matter of personal choice but rather obeying the commands (Naomi 42-43). In ancient Japan, the few earlier generations created congregations known as dojo. The first dojos were under the leadership of Marrie couples of the bozu religious leaders and his wife bomori. As Starling stipulates, the wives’ ideals were to be in consonant with other laid down moral guides governing womanhood and the household she manages a religious role” (Starling 277)
Women Importance based on Social Class
Important to note is that the role of women in Buddhism religion was obscure before the twentieth century. As a matter of fact, there was not an ordination of women in the religious realms not until in the 20th century. This signifies that women’s role in the religion did not get the deserved recognition earlier enough. According to Starling (274), when women’s identities were recognized as religious professionals, it was solely dependent on the position they held in the family.
In the non-celibate clerical tradition of the Jōdo Shinshū, where religious transmission is frequently based on birthright inheritance, we might expect to find–and do find –that women’s identities as religious professionals are derived from their position within the family. This is true in the case of women in the elite tier of the institution, examined here, and for the wives of local congregations or smaller parish temple (Starling 274)
However, in as much as there was no ordination for women in Shin tradition in the medieval ages, they still regarded themselves as nuns. This is evident when the character for a nun (ama or ni) is attached at the end of their names, and also their visual representation indicates they had adopted the appearance of nuns who had shaven or covered heads (Starling 274-275; Gross 68).
Katsura Noriko (1995, 2002) and Lori Meeks (2010) in their works document that women in medieval Japan may have conformed to a broader pattern of privately ordained lay nuns, novices, or widow nuns. According to the scholars, there was the wide usage of the nun category typified by the usage of terms such as goke ama (widow nun), ama sogi (partially tonsured nun)or ama nyudo (lay nun). In most cases, these women were ordained privately in groups at a temple by a preceptor who conferred to them Buddhist vows. As such, these women were allowed to practice Buddhism privately while still being attached to their family roles (275).
The fact that both official and unofficial records of a priest in Japan that dates back to ancient times does not depict priests as celibates, and that the passing on of significant temples was based on birthright inheritance is a clear indication that women played a role in the Buddhism religion, though in the background. Records, however, do not put it clear their status or relationship to Buddhism. Accordingly, the non-celibacy nature of priests indicated the acceptance of clerical marriages during the Meiji era. Therefore, its illegality or being unspoken of these relationships may have kept women from getting status or religious influence as wives, widows or daughters of monks (Starling 280).
Woman and Priests
In the 1980s, monks made attempts to force nuns to return to the traditional gendered rules which encompassed the eight special rules in Vinaya. These rules subordinated nuns to monks (Lee and Han 65) while monks become guardians of nuns. Notably, the female gender was lowly placed in the society and religious spectrum (Lee and Han 58). They were downplayed by the religion (Naomi 49) besides having rules governing the ordination of women and living in monasteries in the period 1895-1945.
Important to say is that women’s role in religion was accepted openly when their role in the temple was legalized in the 20th century. This legalization paved the way for women to manage the temple as well as ordain. When their husbands who were priests were not present to conduct religious activities, women had to step in to execute the mandate of their spouses (Starling 277). They were considered as proxy women (Naomi 38). What beats logic is why the temple inheritance system was male dominated yet women too could act as priests and conduct priesthood roles successfully as well as get employed as stipulated by Japanese legislation (Starling 280: Naomi 38). Naomi (36) opines that women still had their identities derived from their roles as wives or widows, mothers and daughters. Conversely, the male dominance was not left without being unchallenged. The issue resulted in the Shin women’s movement which got support from other movements such as the burakumin, which advanced against discrimination in Japan (Starling 270).
Life of Buddhism Woman
Arguably, as contrasted to other religious and societies settings, a Buddhism woman enjoyed a better treatment in the form of a myriad of privileges accorded to her. This is not to say that they had no challenges or discrimination whatsoever. As discussed hereinabove, a Buddhism woman encountered some challenges or discrimination in her society and her practice of religion. Most importantly is that Buddhism does not consider women as inferior gender (Lee and Han 55). Similarly, sexual violence was not condoned in Buddhist society (Gross 85). Unlike other societies where defiance shown to the male counterparts attracted a severe punishment, we establish that the Buddhism society was tolerant and a woman could debate with men and have their way. This is notable when after several persuasions and debate between Ananda and Buddha, she was eventually accorded her request. Additionally, Mahapajati and her colleagues defied the odds and took the path of transforming themselves into monastic by shaving their heads, donning in monastic robes and followed the Buddha and the male monks on barefoot as is the ritual with Buddhism (Gross 68; Willis 61). Another classical example is when Satomi abandoned the traditional roles expected of a woman as “good wife and wise mother” to further her course of spiritual enlightenment (Masako 373; Starling 277).
“…Satomi rejected the traditional role of ‘good wife and wise mother,’ which was the dominant mode of her time, and instead struck out on the path to spiritual enlightenment” (Masako 373)
This arguably was a clear sign of rebellion as it went against the social norms at the time. However, the society permitted it since it valued the woman gender and did not look down upon them as is the case with other religious societies.
Earlier on, as it is synonymous with most traditional settings and societies, a woman’s place was considered as home. Besides being looked down upon, she was taken as a man’s possession. She had to carry out all domestic chores and the roles of a mother and a wife (Lee and Han 60; Masako 376), precluding them from participating in religious activities as well as holding religious and other social positions.
I don’t think that being a woman was very relevant to my personal spiritual quest [gudō]. On the other hand, the world of priests is a man’s world, so there are some things I’m not able to do because I’m a woman. Even before I came up against that, however, I had a household, and was a mother and a house- wife. Therefore my situation kept me from being able to do those things [that is, undertake the same disciplines as a man] from the very start (Masako 370)
A woman was kept on constant watch even while she was a teacher (Masako 374). Talking of teaching, a majority of women got motivated to become enlightened and become teachers. The support and inspiration were derived from Gautama who had many women followers (Cabezón 4). They taught children principles or Buddha Dharma such as respect and taking care of parents (Lee and Han 61). This explains why the Buddhism society has so many women holders of PhDs in the teaching fraternity. These educated characteristics of the women can explain why such women practiced modern practices such as birth control and the number of children they wanted depended on their choice (Gross 96). It is unlike other religions institutions which condemn birth control through pills or any other method, thus, standing out fairer to others.
Buddhist Salvation
In as much as early Buddhism women encountered challenges in realizing soteriological parity with their male counterparts (Deris 61), the Mahayana Buddhism believed that it was not possible for women to become Buddha in their female bodies (Starling 277). As such, there was a profusion of speculation concerning what such a belief could translate to regarding women’s salvation. In the Chinese Buddhism, women are less likely to get salvation owing to their belief that women “have a lower capacity for spiritual practice than men” (Lee and Han 62). The myth that woman has bad karma inherited from previous generations is what plays a role in the assertions of incapacity of women to obtain salvation. Deris opine that the belief of women being incapable of becoming Buddha or the transformation into a man if “left unchallenged, this assumption limits the empathetic imagination to witness and respond to the suffering of others” (Deris 61).
The Current State of Buddhism
A significant transformation has been witnessed in Buddhism now as contrasted to the ancient. The last 20 years has seen a lot of changes triggered by the advancement in technology and access to the internet. There are tremendous improvements in communications as a result of globalization affecting most of the Buddhism culture (Gombrich xii). Contact with the British as well as other faiths such as Christianity has contributed immensely to the transformation of Buddhism. This has resulted in the erosion of some cultural aspects of ancient Buddhism. Besides creating a society of religious pluralism, the contact, as well as exposure to technological advancements, has resulted in what Gombrich terms “Religious Pluralism (Gombrich 196).
Similarly, the modern Buddhism has started practicing certain cultures such a same-sex marriages. There have been concerted efforts to fight for the rights of lesbians, gay, and bisexuals which saw the first gay marriage taking place in Asia. The contemporary society has changed traditional practices and customs to the extent of altering the consciousness of individuals in the name of improving the society (Lee and Han).
Additionally, there have also been positive changes in norms. The past few years has seen the number of ordained nurses increase tremendously to the extent of overtaking “the number of ordained monks in all Buddhist organizations in Taiwan” (Lee and Han 58). According to Lee and Han (58), the ratio is approximately three to four nuns for each monk. Moreover, the status of women has risen and amassed a lot of respect in the society. They exert influence in several social organizations connected to social welfare. Besides, they play leadership roles in highly ranked Buddhist organizations such as Fo Guang Shan as well as nuns opening their organizations and teaching in renowned organizations (Lee and Han 58).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the woman in Buddhism experienced a fairly better society that than women in other established religious institutions. However, the teachings of Buddhism, as well as salvation, does discriminate a woman to a certain extent. This is as far as taking religious roles is concerned. Besides this, the women in Buddhism have symbolic meaning attached to their role that was ideal their status in society. This explains why they have immeasurably contributed to the spiritual journey of this religion.
Works Cited
Appleton, Naomi. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Vol. 27, No. 1 (Spring 2011), pp. 33-51
Cabezón, José Ignacio, ed. Buddhism, sexuality, and gender. Suny Press, 1992.
Chengpang Lee and Ling Han. “Mother and Moral Activist: Two Models of Woman’s Social Engagement in Contemporary Taiwanese Buddhism.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 19 (3):54-77.
Derris, K. (2014). Interpreting Buddhist representations of motherhood and mothering. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 30(2), 61-79,174. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.siena.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1563997265?accountid=13858
Gombrich, Richard F. Theravada Buddhism: A social history from ancient Benares to modern Colombo. Routledge, 2006.
Gross, M. Rita “ The Householder and the World-Renunciant: Two Modes of Sexual Expression in Buddhism.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 22 ( Winter 1985): 81-96.
Kuroki Masako 黑木雅子. "A Hybrid Form of Spirituality and the Challenge of a Dualistic Gender Role: The Spiritual Quest of a Woman Priest in Tendai Buddhism." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 38, no. 2 (2011): 369-85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41331491.
Starling, J. (2013). Women's religious affiliation in the Jodo Shinshu. Religion Compass, 7(8), 273-283. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12053
Willis, Janice D. "Nuns and benefactresses: The role of women in the development of Buddhism." Women, religion, and social change (1985): 59-85.
