[Buddha-l] Nakedness

[Richard Hayes]

On Wednesday 28 March 2007 10:18, Joy Vriens wrote:

> And I just wondered whether one of the reasons of
> Buddhism's "success" in the West wasn't the fact that Buddhist bhiksus were
> more or less decently clothed.

According to the vinaya, there was a time when Buddhist mendicants walked 
around without clothing. The neighbors reportedly complained, so followers of 
Gotama were required to dress modestly.

I once attended an ordination in the (admittedly highly idiosyncratic) FWBO in 
which the person being ordained said "I came into the world naked. I will 
enter into the spiritual life the same way." His discarded all his clothing 
and walked barefoot in snow at a depth well beyond beyond his ankles to the 
ordination site. The outside temperature was about -20C. After the ordination 
he redressed. Oddly enough, he did not have a funeral several days later. 
Indeed, he never even got the sniffles. Fortunately, his ordination attire 
did not set a norm that others aspired to achieve.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes