Home > Opinions > Dalai Lama on women in Buddhism

Dalai Lama on women in Buddhism

By Terry Reis Kennedy

Terry Reis Kennedy is a poet, journalist, and Tibetologist. Photographer unknown

Being female, I don’t like that women are barred from the inner sanctums of religions, or that spiritual texts consistently refer to “man” kind and “men.” There are even days I think the doors to Nirvana might say, “Gents only.”

But according to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, men and women are spiritually equal. For instance, he says, ”... regarding the exact Buddhist stand on the issues of gender, discrimination, women’s rights and the position of women in Buddhism …, as far as the presence of Buddha Natures is concerned, there is no difference. Nor is there any difference in terms of the potential that an individual has for generating the highest altruistic aspiration to attain Buddhahood or insight into the ultimate nature of reality… “

Nevertheless, some men continue to thwart women’s spiritual practices. Recently BBC announced that the spot where Buddha’s relics are being kept—a new holy site near Mumbai—has been declared, “out of bounds for women.”

This large stone pagoda, still under construction, contains Buddha’s ashes and bones found at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, by the British during an archeological survey in the 1900s. These remains were stored in a Buddhist society museum for years and then handed over to the Global Vipassana Foundation which began construction of the Mumbai Buddha pagoda in 1997.

The BBC report gave no explanation for why women are banned from the reliquary.

Am I to ignore the feelings of anger and resentment and rejection that flood my being when I think about women pilgrims being regarded as inferior to men? What does the Embodiment of Compassion suggest?

“I think it’s very important for women to try to appropriate all their rights. Among the Tibetan refugee community in India, I have for many years been advocating for the female side, the nuns’ side. They must have the interest or courage to study as the monks do.”

It is important to note that Dalai Lama uses the word courage here, a word denoting bravery that arises from the heart!

“While at times in Tibet, almost none of the nunneries were places of serious study, there are legends of a different past in which there were nunneries which were important centres of philosophical learning and debate, so much so that there were several cases of debates between monks and nuns and the monks lost! So you see, for more than 20 years in India I have been continually making an effort for the female side, and they also must take the full initiative—that’s important.”

In my case, taking the full initiative means remembering the Dalai Lama’s words, “One must admit that in the past, the position of women may have been neglected or not given much thought. Part of the reason for this negligence of the rights and position of women within Tibetan Buddhism is because in the past people simply did not give much thought to it. We more or less took the status quo for granted.”

Copyright © 2009 Terry Reis Kennedy

Published in Tibet Sun