1. There are many possible reasons people site as to why Buddha hesitated in allowing Mahapajapati to join the sangha. Can you think what any of them might be?
2. Does the Thai sangha benefit by keeping women out? Why or why not?
3. What do you think the Buddha would say today if he were here to give advice to monks and nuns?
Answers:
1. Partly I am sure that historical and local traditions played the greatest part in Sakyamuni Buddha's hesitation to allow Mahapajapati to become ordained. Then there would also be practical issues. As his following grew he may have felt some practical responsibilities for their welfare too, and this would be exacerbated by having both sexes because of needs of separation etc. Even today in India, most traditional Hindu groups do not agree to initiate females. Even in wider society in Indian tradition, men and women have different roles and happiness for both sexes is achieved when those roles are accepted with happiness and without argument. His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, for example, faced considerable criticism when he took Vaishnavism (the Hare Krishna Movement) to the west in 1966 and agreed to initiate females. Indeed, no main-stream religious group accepted females in the same way as men - of course nowadays there have been many changes to this way of thinking. So thinking back 2500 years it is hardly surprising that there was hesitation.
2. I do not wish to infer any criticism in answering this question. This is not my tradition and I therefore do not feel qualified to comment with any degree of knowledge. I think it is east to be emotional about such sensitive issues. I do know that some Thai women have been ordained but turning to traditions other than their own Theravadian ones in order to do so, and within the Chinese Mahayana schools, especially Pure Land (perhaps less in Chan/Zen), many temples are very successfully run by nuns, benefitting a great many people in wider society. From my personal experience I have felt that the atmosphere within temples run by nuns is quite different from those managed purely by monks, but I am not suggesting either is better than the other, simply that they are different. This statement, based on personal observation and experience, suggests that there are indeed fundamental differences between men and women, even though in today's society such concepts are unfashionable.
3. This is a very strange question - who am I to think what Lord Buddha may or may not say! I have the mind of a low-level seeker, with little knowledge, so how can I possibly dare to think what the enlightened Buddha may say! But, so as not to be seen to be avoiding a direct answer to two of this week's modules (!): in my humble opinion He may urge monks and nuns to ensure that their practice and teachings are clearly focussed on the basic principles which he taught. It has been my great fortune to have spent quite some years now living in Buddhist countries, and I have been a practicing Buddhist for about 23 years. I do sometimes feel that some within the Buddhist community have been too tempted by the seeking of fame and the over-commercialisation of Buddha's pure teaching. Of course big and lavish temples can attract people to visit, but at the same time they need vast sums of money to build and maintain, but what a contrast to Buddha's own example. Again from personal experience I have witnessed so many monks and nuns who are incredibly busy, building temples or travelling abroad, but how few of those same monks and nuns have found time to answer questions of doctrine that I might have had. Is this the correct order of things? Therefore, forcing myself to answer this question, my humble suggestion would be to remind monks and nuns not to lose sight of the basics first.
M D VICKERS
(Taiwan)