The Forum is held at the beginning and end of the annual Buddhist Summer School (Melbourne) and it raises contemporary issues for discussion by teachers participating in the program.

Women in Buddhism
Opening Forum - Buddhist Summer School , Melbourne 1994

Ven. Ayya Khema: To my mind, the role of women in Buddhism is a non-topic in the west. In the east, it is a big topic and if we follow eastern patterns it will become a problem for us too. But why adopt problems that we have not got? So, I do not know anything about the role of women in Buddhism, perhaps my male colleagues might be better informed.

Geoff Dawson: In brief, the role of women in Buddhism is no different from the role of men in Buddhism. If all beings have Buddha-nature, there is no superiority or inferiority between men and women. Unfortunately, that recognition has not always been carried through in western or eastern cultures. I think the patriarchy has been an influence in all cultures throughout the world. As Buddhism has come to Western countries - perhaps I speak specifically from the Zen tradition - men and women are practicing together. In Zen centres in western countries, there is about a fifty-fifty balance of men and women.

This is because it is mainly a lay tradition, rather than practitioners being segregated into monasteries along gender lines. Buddhism is also coming to the west at a time when feminism has become a strong influence in western culture. Women are, in effect, demanding equality with men across all different fields. This is something that I am very aware of through my work in relationship counselling, as well as in the sphere of Buddhism. Gender issues are very, very contemporary topical issues in all areas of our society. I think it is important that women are given the same opportunities to practise, to be in leadership positions and to be in teaching positions in Buddhism. They have the same right to that as men.

Whether through birth or through conditioning or through a mixture of both, men generally tend to develop certain characteristics and women others as they are growing up. I think women have the ability to nurture, which perhaps comes from bearing and raising children. Compassion is not something that is the birthright of either sex - compassion is our Buddha-nature, which everyone has. However -whether through conditioning or otherwise - women often tend to be more in touch with that nurturing kind of spirit. That is something that can be brought into Buddhism more and something that men can learn from - that compassionate side of Buddhism. Men often seem to be attracted to Buddhism because of a desire for self-mastery.

While it is important not to fall into the mistake of treating men as superior to women, it is also important not to fall into the second mistake of treating women as superior to men and thinking that women go around with pure intentions and wide-eyed innocence all the time. None of us do that. Unfortunately, all human beings, regardless of gender, suffer from greed, hatred and ignorance. I think that is the basis that we all start from in our humanity.

David Templeman: I think I will come at this from a different perspective. My field of expertise and interest is textual. In the texts that I read, women come out as having very special characters, which are quite distinct and unique from male characters.

I would like to start with a tantric song, from the second century AD, by the Buddhist saint Saraha. In it he said, 'If the path of practice I choose is not being at home with my wife, I want no part of Buddhism.' I thought that was a fairly interesting statement, because he is referring to a path that requires little effort and that requires no distinction - not only between male and female - but between practitioner and non-practitioner. A path where what you practise is life - life is practice, it is a home practice. That was his view.

In the texts that I read, women are presented very often as agent provocateurs. They trip men up into realising their inner nature. Now this is the nature of the text. This is not necessarily a reflection of the realities of the case. However, in the texts women hold mirrors up to men and show men a wisdom aspect and often a compassion aspect and an aspect of non-discrimination that men find very hard to grasp themselves. Women will provoke men into actions - hasty, power-crazed, selfish actions - that then rebound upon the men. The women very often manifest themselves in their true divine form then saying, 'See, you were silly. I told you so.' In this way, women appear as rather superior to men in the tantric texts, particularly those that stem from India. Women trip us up and fool us into realising our inner nature.

Women in themselves, however, are generally mentioned less frequently than men and are not quite so specifically referred to. Their biographies are fewer and that, I think, reflects some patriarchal attitude in Buddhism, which has been prevalent fairly continually throughout its history. But, nevertheless, when they are mentioned they are very, very special beings. An example of this is that one of the tantric vows is never to disparage any woman whatsoever, for anything. Women are said to embody the very special nature that we all aspire to.

Dharmacari Guhyavajra: I need to say a couple of words about what Buddhism is before we can have a look at the role of women within it. Buddhism does not exist apart from human beings. Where you have Buddhism, you have people attaining enlightenment. Essentially, outside of people there is no such thing as Buddhism. We can say that, principally, Buddhism is not a collection of buildings, or of institutions, or spiritual authorities or canonical texts gathering dust. 'Buddhism' is the name given to individual human beings practicing and living in such a way as to grow and develop spiritually. From our reading of the Pali canon, the Buddha himself, by all accounts, directed his teaching to the mind of the individual human being. It is important to understand that the Buddha's teaching is directed to the individual human being, so differences of race, colour, gender, class, caste, are entirely secondary issues. First and foremost, as human beings, we stand in the same common predicament.

From the very beginning, women gained enlightenment in Buddhism and continue to do so. As far as I am aware, the Buddha had something like about eighty fully enlightened women disciples when he was around. There has never been a time in Buddhist history where women could not get enlightened - this is a point that needs to be made - providing they make the necessary effort. The path of Dharma is open to all; it is open to young and old, strong and weak, healthy and infirm, intelligent and foolish, rich and the poor. It is open to people of all political persuasions.

Those people with the most developed compassion and wisdom, are generally the people who emerge as the most influential. We can say that the common denominator amongst the outstanding figures of Buddhist history is that they have all made, in their own way, extraordinary and heroic efforts to gain enlightenment. So, the question of influence within the Buddhist sangha is a question of effort and commitment. It is not a gender issue.

Here, in the west, women currently have access to reliable contraception and can plan their families or can become celibate without having a family, so their role in Buddhism has limitless potential. To the extent that women can develop loving-kindness, clarity of communication, can abandon covetousness for tranquillity, change hatred into love, transform ignorance into wisdom - they have an important role to play in Buddhism.

To sum up, you can take a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. You cannot do someone's meditation practice or study or reflection for them. The vitality of Buddhism boils down to effort and practice. Provided a given individual makes the necessary effort, the teaching will bear fruit. People participate in the Buddhist community commensurate with their inclinations, gifts and capabilities. It is fair to say that these days, women have as much access to the teaching as men do in the west. So I think the future for women in Buddhism is very bright.

Question: I find it rather astonishing that you say women have easy access to Buddhism. How often is childcare provided, for instance? How can women come along when there is no childcare provided? It can be very difficult for women to go to meditation if they have children. There are countless stories where women have to interrupt their meditation practice because they choose to have children and they do not get any support. It is also very difficult for women, even in the west, to be nuns, because they get very little support from the community. How many nunneries are there in the West? There is only really one international nunnery in Sri Lanka, founded by the Venerable Ayya Khema. There are still enormous problems for women. I think, it is up to the monks and the sangha as a whole to change things.

Ven. Ayya Khema: In my centre in Germany we have the following unofficial rule: if a couple has children, they take turns in coming. The Dad can just as well stay home with the kids as the Mum can. If someone is a single mother, it becomes more difficult, but when there are two parents they take turns. That is a problem addressed, although not solved.

You must also distinguish between the role of women in Buddhism and the role of nuns in Buddhism. The distinction is immense. The role of nuns in Buddhism is just as difficult as the role of nuns in Catholicism - period, end of statement. As long as we adopt the patterns that have been set in Asia for nuns and monks, we are going to have problems. Being a Buddhist laywoman is a totally different kettle of fish. A Buddhist laywoman is a laywoman who, apparently, wants to practise the Buddha's path. There are no limitations, none whatsoever, except that if she is a single mother with small kids, she has to provide her own childcare.

For nuns, there are any number of problems, particularly in Asia. Nor are there any nunneries or sufficient supports for nuns in the west. For young nuns, it is very difficult to find a place where they will be taught in their mother tongue, whatever that may be. In the east, western nuns are trying to help Asian nuns get an education. They are not educated enough to make an impact on the lay population, and do not have the respect and the support as a result. Many of them live in squalor, including Tibetan nuns, Sri Lankan nuns and Thai nuns. So that is a real problem.

But that is not the role of women in Buddhism. That is not exactly what you are personally interested in. There is one thing I can say from personal experience: I have been teaching for almost twenty years now, giving meditation courses all the time and the usual percentage is seven men to thirty women.

Dharmacari Guhyavajra: I would also like to make a point here. There are two issues here: one is the issue of children; the other is the issue of ordination. From the Order that I come from we do not have a difficulty with monks and nuns. We simply have one ordination for all: you get ordained into the Western Buddhist Order. Within the Western Buddhist Order we have men and women who are meditating eight to ten hours a day, full-time meditation retreat centres with people who are studying full-time, with people who are looking after families, people who are single and solo mothers. The central point is commitment to practice.

The issue of children and childcare is acknowledged within our Order as a problem. In our larger centres we do actually have crèche facilities, particularly in Europe. In our smaller centres we have the problem of resources. It is not a problem of intent. Within the context of the Order, it is very common for men to look after children while women go on retreat. In situations where you have a married couple with children, it is the norm for people to take it turn about going to classes. I would say that, although the system is not perfect, we have made a pretty good start.

Question: If we look at the traditional texts that are available, there are none that were composed by any women - perhaps someone else may be able to find one, but I do not think that there are any in the Tengyur. Nowadays, we are seeing some very good texts written by women. I am thinking of Anne Klein and Elizabeth Napper and people like that. I think that the role of women would be to follow their example and try and break away from some of the traditional things that are not important.

David Templeman: In the Tengyur there are texts by women - Indrabhuti's consort, Luchminkara wrote many, many Guhyasamaja commentaries. Admittedly, that is one example out of many, many hundreds of male writers. But therein does not lie the strength. Composing texts was not considered the strong point of human beings in the Vajrayana tradition. Composing texts was, in fact, reviled by many Vajrayanists. They said, 'Why bother? There are enough. We don't need thirty thousand texts to practise. We need one teacher.' Therein lies the great role of women in Vajrayana. From the third, fourth, fifth and sixth centuries onwards - with the advent of the mahasiddhas - women emerged as teachers; right up to the twentieth century in Tibet. These were great teachers; revered teachers. The book Women and Wisdom is a case in point, which includes the biographies of six or seven great women teachers, from early to later centuries.

If you ask current Tibetan refugees who the great teachers were, they will admittedly mention the lamas and some of the hermits, but they will also mention a lot of women as exemplars in their life. These are not all nuns. In fact, very few of them are nuns - most of them are non-celibate women who lived in isolated circumstances, some with children, some without. Their children might have already grown up if they were already older women when they started to practise.

That is why my interest is particularly in spiritual biography. I think therein lies the strength of Vajrayana Buddhism. It is not in the number of texts that have been written or whether they were written by nuns or not. It is in the way that the lives of these people shine. There are sufficient references to women teachers as well. If you read A Daughter of Tibet, which is a very old book now, her greatest teacher was a woman who lived to be 103 years old. She was a very, very highly revered person. Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche also refers to many, many great women teachers. It is in their lives that they exemplify the greatness of the teachings, not in what they composed or whether there is an order of nuns or whatever.

You only need one candle to illuminate a dark room. You do not need thousands and thousands and thousands. In that respect, perhaps the numbers of men and the strident voice of men can be considered secondary to some very exemplary and very perfect and gemlike female lives. There are thousands of Tibetan monks, but that does not mean that there are thousands of enlightened monks. There are fewer nuns and there are fewer women practitioners, but the ones that you hear about are considered to be of the greatest importance.

Question: I consider myself more of a novice nun. I do not consider myself a fully ordained nun like Ayya Khema - just a novice nun trying my best. I was ordained in Nepal and from there I came back to Australia and have been to various monasteries. My experience has been very much one of getting lost in the cultural divide, if you like, between east and west. I find that a lot of the cultural aspects tend to permeate the monastic life so that the role of women tends to be carried over from that of eastern countries. I found it very difficult to practise a lay life when there are children, a husband, work responsibilities, paying off mortgages and all the other problems of lay life. So I tried to leave that behind to have more time to devote myself to Dharma, but I found it very difficult.

Ayya Khemma: If you are a western nun, you have got to make it on your own. The east has got its problems but in the west, you have got to make your way on your own. The only thing that can be helpful is to find a teacher who will actually show you the way. When you become a western nun, you've got to have a lot of inner stamina, a lot of independent thinking and the courage to stand on your own two feet. If you do that, the results will be amazing.

It is all very well to say that nuns have problems - monks also have problems. Humanity has a problem - it is called duhkha. It is difficult to be a human being; it is even more difficult to be a good human being. I have said this for twenty years, it is always the same thing: nuns have problems, monks have problems, everybody has problems. If we do not have an ordained sangha we lose the Dhamma. Why is that? Not because the ordained sangha is cleverer, but for the simple reason that we use it full-time, we have got nothing else to do, luckily.

Dharmacari Guhyavajra: I can particularly relate to what Ayya Khemma was saying about being a nun, you have to stand on your own. As a member of the Western Buddhist Order, I do not enjoy the material advantages of the Theravadin tradition. Not only are we trying to establish Buddhism in the West, teach Buddhism, but we also have to earn a living. I think most people would know there is not a huge profit to be made in being a Buddhist teacher.

We are in the very early stages of translating Buddhism into our own culture, into our own ideology, into our own artistic, poetic, musical and literary forms. We have Buddhism but we also have all the ethnic trappings of the cultures that Buddhism is from. Buddhism is an organic process and, as such, it is difficult to what the role of women is going to be in Buddhism in the west. We just have to see how it evolves. This process will probably take at least another two hundred years. Buddhism works on a very large time-scale. But one thing that we can be sure about, is that if Buddhism does take hold in the west, we will transform the society in which we live and we will transform it for the better.

Ven. Ayya Khema: I think the topic that you raised is far more important than the role of women in Buddhism. You made a prediction of two hundred years. It seems pretty short, I think we probably need more. To my way of thinking that is rather optimistic.

Wherever Buddhism went, it took on all the cultural trappings. It took on the Tibetan trappings, it took on the Chinese trappings, it took on the Sri Lankan trappings, the Burmese and the Thai. If you go to a Thai temple you get Buddhism with Thai trappings, if you go to Tibetan teachers you get Buddhism with Tibetan cultural encumbrances. That is all you can get at the moment, because Buddhism has not become Westernised yet. But when you get westernised Buddhism, I am absolutely sure that there will not be any problem with women, because there are going to be just as many women as men around. Are we having a problem with women going to university? That problem has long gone, hasn't it?

According to what I know about the Buddhist teachings, we do not need to learn a foreign language in order to understand the Dhamma. We need no other culture except our own because, when we take the Dhamma into our hearts, it has to be home for us, our own inner home, and a foreign culture can never be our own inner home. It can be extremely interesting, it can be very exotic, it can look and smell and sound very different and therefore, be of the greatest of interest, but it will not be your own spiritual home. Your own spiritual home will have to be already established within, and then all you need do is let go of all the other things that obscure it.

It is very important to make that distinction. What did the Buddha teach and what did they bring with them from Japan, from Tibet, from Sri Lanka? The Buddha taught very much without any ritual. He taught one thing only: 'Know your own mind, recognise it, don't blame, change.' It is up to each Dhamma practitioner to make that distinction in their own mind.