[Buddha-l] Orders and Ordinations (was women & , er, religion)

[Jayarava]

Hi Alex

I'm not ashamed to be a pedant, and as an antipodean I sometimes use terms of abuse affectionately with friends like Dayamati - who can be a pedant, though usually only for comic effect or to win an argument! 

We speak English, yes? In English an order is simply a "body of persons living under a religious discipline". The WBO is straightforwardly included in this definition, and my entry into the WBO was clearly an ordination. Specifically I took on the religious discipline of the Order - a set of principial precepts and vows  - for life. There were other ritual aspects to the ceremony as well, but that's by the by. It so happens that the order I joined is an order of practising Buddhists. So I am quite unambiguously an ordained member of a Buddhist order - much like my pal who is "an ordained Zen priest", although I didn't get a certificate and cool robes like him. (I've already confessed my jealousy, and risen above it)

May Mañjuśrī save us from Buddhist Hybrid English, and narrow definitions of broad words.

Jayarava