The Ordination of Theravadin Nuns



Oh dear, I'm about to stick my neck out and be controversial.
You see, I'm sick of all this nonsense surrounding the full ordination of women into Theravadin Buddhist orders.
This is the 21st Century for heaven's sake. Buddhist nuns exist in large numbers all over the world. Yes, even in Thailand, where thousands of women live as nuns in everything but name. They wear robes - albeit white ones - they shave their heads, they follow the rules, they are treated by the lay community as religious women. All they lack is official ordination.
So let's just accept reality, and acknowledge that, just maybe, the obscure passages in the Pali Canon that the conservative Thai monastic hierarchy clings to may not be holy writ.
Women and men are equal in Buddhism, and have equal access to enlightenment.
The Buddha himself ordained women.
Monastic orders have existed for women within Mahayana Buddhism for more than a thousand years.
The reactionary chauvinists in Thailand who seek to block women from ordination and seek to punish those monks who ordain them represent all that is ugly and wrong in Buddhist tradition.
There, I've said it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Absolutely!

You go, girlfriends!

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