[Buddha-l] Meanwhile Down Under

[Dayamati]

On Nov 4, 2009, at 9:00 AM, Weng-Fai Wong wrote:

> I sense another of "East vs West" split here. For Western Buddhists,  
> having
> a bhikkhuni Sangha seems urgent, if not a must. For a lot of Asian  
> Buddhists
> (esp. in Theravadan countries), however, it seems less pressing.

Yes, I think the difference is largely cultural. I tend to see it as  
an "Enlightenment vs Enlightenment" split. Some Buddhists are deeply  
influenced by the values of the European Enlightenment, which places a  
high value on equality of opportunity for all people in all things and  
does not hesitate to jettison traditional procedures when they become  
obstacles to some people enjoying access to opportunities to which  
other people have more easy access. Other Buddhists treasure the  
Buddha's Enlightenment and see it as complete and in no need of  
revision, and such people place a high value on traditional procedures  
established by the Buddha and regard change of those procedures as  
degeneration. I have not yet encountered any tradition anywhere that  
has not manifested some form of "progressive" versus "conservative"  
tension. Why would Buddhism be any exception?

In my own case, I guess I have a tendency to value European  
Enlightenment principles more highly than anything else, because I am  
a product of those values and have never felt let down by them to such  
an extent that I feel a need to abandon them for something less  
familiar to me. This past weekend I was at a day-long VWBO (FWBO)  
event in Amsterdam at which Buddhists of that tradition from all over  
the Netherlands and Belgium were present, and I was struck by the  
strength and energy of the people there. Women outnumbered men by a  
fair amount, and as I looked around at all the initiated (Jayarava  
would want me to say "ordained") women order members (dharmacharinis)  
and realized all they have accomplished in this part of the world, I  
felt a deep sense of joy to be part of such an organization. The FWBO  
solution to the hand-wringing issue of bhikkhuni ordination has been  
to abandon bhikkhu ordination, so everyone is equally non-ordained.

Now if only the Netherlanders and the Belgians could sort out whether  
VWBO stands for Vrienden van de Westerse Boeddhisten Orde or Vrienden  
van de Westerse Boeddhistische Orde (i.e., Friends of the Order of  
Western Buddhists or Friends of the Order which is Western and  
Buddhist), I could sleep in peace.

Your disorderly friend,
Dayāmati van Nieuwe Mexico