[Buddha-l] women & , er, religion

[jkirk]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for mentioning Japan. 
As an anthropologist (that label could be read as
anthro-apologist, no?) I tend to agree with you about women and
blood. If men bled hard they might die; women bled monthly,
repeatedly, and didn't die. Hence, something mysterious and scary
about them.  Eventually, probably after the beginnings of
ag-culture, when men took more control of resources, men acted as
if such blood was contaminating to men, to the earth, and to
their rituals. Their fear and dread had to be controlled. The
only place where we find this phobia reversed ritually is in
Hindu (and Buddhist?) tantra. But tantra was mostly secretive,
and so such a reversal did nothing for the ordinary situation of
women. ) There's much more but no point in going into it here.)

In China, before the modern era, the blood of childbirth was so
strongly held against women that their spiritual destination was
hell, even though it was the only way for men to get sons. 

Back to Japan: I just read a wonderful article about shamanism in
Japan, by a Japanese scholar--the shamans were 90% women, of
various social origins. The miko, for ex., began as a shaman who
was possessed by deities, but evolved into a Shinto shrine
dancer. Eventually shamanism became co-opted to some extent by
both Buddhism and Confucianism, such that some of the ritual
structure remained but not the whole magilla.  The shamanesses
were socially complex, not all from the same classes or groups.
These women controlled a lot of the spiritual landscape, so to
speak--prophecy, divining, talking to the spirits of the dead.
You can find the article (open access) here:
 http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/easia/nufound.cfm go to the pdf
article by Hori Ichiro.

Best,
Joanna




-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Michael
Paris
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 4:54 PM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] women & , er, religion

I'm not aware that there are fully ordained Tibetan nuns, at
least outside the West, but I only know what I read in the
Buddhist rags, for whatever that's worth. In fact, I believe
there was something about just this by Rita Gross in one of their
recent issues.

I'm also not aware of female Zen temple heads in Japan, nor
female Shin ministers. There may be, but I've never know of any.
Does anyone? In fact, other than the independent Shin temple in
Chicago, I don't know of any female Shin ministers in the USA.
None in the BCA, anyway.

These bizarre prejudices against women go back to ancient tribal
taboos, blood not the least (IMHO, of course) and have acquired
the status of commandments written in stone. Absurd, certainly,
but such irrational behavior shows how little humankind has in
reality advanced over the millennia. We are thinly-disguised
barbarians.


Michael Paris




jkirk wrote:
> Jimmy Carter has finally left the Southern Baptist church.
> Article is here:  http://tinyurl.com/nwxf8r
>
> Things not much better in Buddhism around the world. Only in
China or 
> Taiwan and in some Tibetan lineages, can women be fully
ordained nuns, 
> (is that right about Tibetans? I'm thinking of Pema Choedron,
for 
> ex.). The Thai sangha and Sri Lankans claim the bhikkhuni
ordination 
> was lost, so that is that. Dr. Chatsuman Kabilsingh in
Thailand, in 
> 2003, was finally ordained a full bhikkhuni in Sri Lanka, the
first 
> Thai woman to be ordained in a Theravada monastic lineage
(wikipedia).  
> Today she runs a monastery for women and has ordained several,
but the 
> official Thai sangha continues to discredit her.
> Meanwhile, in Buddhist majority countries, Buddhist women still
get 
> the hind tit in many other ways besides being refused
ordination.
> That someone as pious as Carter finally has made this move says
a lot 
> for how his consciousness has purified over the years.
> Joanna
(quotation snipped)

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