Bhikkhu Sumanapal (Subhasis Barua)
In the Buddhist texts, called the Tripitaka or the three
baskets, namely Vinaya, Sutta, and Abhidhamma there are a few places in which
we can point and where we find more information on histories, namely:
Therigatha, Bhikkhuni Khandhaka, (Cullavagga), Mahaparinirvana sutra, Bhikkhuni
Vibhanga, Etadaggapali, Bhikkhuni Samyutta, Apadana etc.
It would provide a better understanding of what the Bhikkhuni
Sangha can do to uplift Buddhist tradition by taking a glimpse of how they led
their lives and what were their responsibilities during the Buddha’s time.
It is of significance to note that the Buddha accepted women
to the order on the basis of his recognitions for their spiritual potentiality
to be enlightened. It followed from this fundamental recognition that by
allowing women to join the order, they should have equal space for their
practice.
The teaching of the Buddha was being more and more accepted
simply because it is practicable and truly answers to the spiritual need of the
people. The Buddha was wading against the tide of traditional social values of
that time. He denied the supremacy of the Vedas, he denied the supremacy
of the birth right by caste, and when he allowed women to join the order of
female Sangha (order), he took Buddhism to yet another level of freedom through
which he removed the gender barriers and stated very clearly when he accepted
women to the order because women are capable of Enlightenment.
King Asoka the great (3rd C.B.C) of Maurya Kingdom helped
spread Buddhism by sending out nine routes of Buddhist missionaries. One of
them was led by his own son Ven. Mahinda. Ven. Mahinda successfully established
Buddhism in Srilanka and when there was a request for ordination of
women, his own sister, Ven Sanghamitta Theri was sent for. It was in that
century that the lineage of Bhikkhunies was established for the first time
outside its homeland in India.
Our information is mainly from the two Srilankan chronicles.
Dipavamsa has written in the 4th century A. D. and Mahavamsa written in the 5th
century A. D.
This proved to be a very important link to the rest of South
East Asian Countries including Indonesia. Bhikkhuni sangha in Srilanka was well
established and continuously being supported by the royal families. In 433 A.D.
Ven Bhikkhuni Devasara was invited to China, from Srilanka, she went with
a ship called Nandi with a group of Bhikkhuni Sangha. She gave ordination to
300 China women at the southern forest monastery in Nan king. (Edward conze,
Buddhist texts through the Ages).
In 1017 A.D. Srilanka was invaded by Chola king from South
India and lost its sovereignty for 50 years. This was the time when both the
Bhikkhu and Bhikkhuni Sangha disappeared from the Island.
In the whole island he was reported that there was only one
samanera left. He tried to revive the Sangha again but was successful only with
the Bhikkhu Sangha from Burma and Thailand, as the Bhikkhuni were not in
existence in those countries.
It was only in the recent 1988 that the first batch of the
(dasasilmatas) from Srilanka went to receive full ordination as Bhikkhunies
from Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, U.S.A. But they were not successful to
continue as a sangha. In 1996 there was another ordination organized by the
Korean Bhikkhu Sangha and ten women from Srilanka were fully ordained. But
the success came in 1998 when Fo-guang Shan set up an organised
international ordination for Bhikkhu and Bhikkhunies in Buddhagaya the place
where the Buddha became Enlightened in India. There were some 148 women from
different countries who received full ordination at that time. But for
Srilanka, this is a historical revival of Bhikkhuni sangha.
In Thailand, Myanmar, Combodia, Laos, in the same historical
situation, the Bhikkhuni Sangha never arrived. As late as 1920 there was the
first attempt by Thai women to be ordained. This was led by Narin Klueng, a
politician and social critique. He supported the Bhikkhuni Sangha and had his
two daughters Sara and Chongdi ordained together with at least six other women.
Myanmar has a strongest tradition of contemporary nuns. in
this country they are called Thilashins- the women wear pink with a brown robe
folded on their left shoulder. They have better education and meditation
training than in any other countries in south East Asia.
In Cambodia and Laos (Somdech Buakree of Dhammadut feet)? Supports
Bhikkhuni Sangha. He is experimenting with a group of Bhikkhunis from Taiwan
and this is called Mahayana Dhammadhut. In Laos the ordained lifestyle for
women is still to be appreciated, even in the white robe Maeji is also only
temporary.
In Indonesia Ven. Santini, the young Bhikkhuni who
spear-headed the movement is regarded as best to introduce the Bhikkhuni Sangha
according to the Dhamma Vinaya.
The strength of Buddhist women started to pick up and
expressed itself to the world with their better understanding of the teachings
of Buddhism and the depth of their commitment. Many of the committed Buddhist
women came from academic background.
We can say that when women have better access to the
Buddhist texts, they would be able to have a glimpse of that wonderful vision
provided for them in the pages of the texts. We should recognise with respect
the scholars of early period of this century.
Buddhist women came together for the first time in 1987 in
Buddhagaya. India is the place where the Buddha was Enlightened and from that
international conference on Buddhist nuns it has enlarged the base to convene
all Buddhist women and has worked as an International Buddhist women
Association.
The Vietnamese nuns' practice was primarily that of Mahayana
and was a very scattered one. It is clearly in Vietnamese Buddhists that up
until the early 20th century, the sangha of nuns had an organised structure.
Now, there are 9.985 Mahayana nuns out of the total of 11.185 nuns in the
Vietnamese Buddhist sangha. In Vietnam Theravada Bhikkhunies emerged in 2002
with the ordination of 4 nuns, the one who leads the group is Ven. Lieu Phap.
Korea received the lineage of ordination for women from
China, even though the population in Korea is not all Buddhists, the Buddhist
sangha prospers in that land.
There are only samaneries in Tibetan tradition after
1959 with the invention of Chinese in Tibet, many Tibetans including H.H.
the Dalai Lama came out and resided in India, Nepal and many other western
countries. Many western women have followed this tradition but when they wanted
higher ordination they had to go to Korea, Taiwan, or Hongkong. These
western women came into Buddhism through the Tibetan lineage, even after full
ordination from other countries; they still keep their connection with their
Tibetan teachers.
In the year of 2015 the chief Bhikkhuni of Sambodhi Sangha
Bhikkhunies, Ven. Bhikkhuni Tissara, took the lead in establishing original
Buddhist Bhikkhuni Sangha in Chinese Buddhist Society.
The International Congress on Buddhist Women's Role in the
Sangha: Bhikshuni Vinaya and Ordination Lineages took place in Germany, in July
18–20, 2007. The first Bhikkhuni ordination in Germany, the ordination of
German nun Samaneri Dhira, occurred on June 21, 2015 at Anenja Vihara.
In 2009 in Australia four women received Bhikkhuni
ordination as Theravada nuns, for the first time such ordination had occurred
in Australia. It was performed in Perth, Australia, on 22 October 2009 at
Bodhinyana Monastery. Abbess Vayama together with Venerables Nirodha, Seri, and
Hasapanna were ordained as Bhikkhunies by a dual Sangha act of Bhikkhus and
Bhikkhunies in full accordance with the Pali Vinaya.
In 2010 the first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in North America
was established in Vermont, called Vajra Dakini Nunnery, offering novice
ordination. The abbot of this nunnery is an American woman named Khenmo Drolma
who is the first "Bhikkhunni," a fully ordained Buddhist nun, in the
Drikung Kagyu tradition of Buddhism, having been ordained in Taiwan in 2002.
She is also the first westerner, male or female, to be installed as a Buddhist
abbot, having been installed as abbot of Vajra Dakini Nunnery in 2004.
Also in 2010, in Northern California, four novice nuns were
given the full Bhikkhuni ordination in the Thai Theravada tradition, which
included the double ordination ceremony. Bhante Gunaratana and other monks and
nuns were in attendance. It was the first such ordination ever in the Western
hemisphere. The following month, more bhikkhuni ordinations were completed in
Southern California, led by Walpola Piyananda and other monks and nuns. The
Bhikkhunies ordained in Southern California were Lakshapathiye Samadhi (born in
Sri Lanka), Cariyapanna, Susila, Sammasati (all three born in Vietnam), and
Uttamanyana (born in Myanmar).
The term yogini has been in use in medieval times to refer
to a woman who belongs to the Gorakshanath-founded Nath Yogi tradition. They
usually belong to Shaiva tradition, but some Natha belong to the Vaishnava
tradition. In both cases, states David Lorenzen, they practice Yoga and their
principal God tends to be Nirguna, that is a God that is without form and
semi-monistic, influenced in the medieval era by the Advaita Vedanta school of
Hinduism, Madhyamaka school of Buddhism, as well as Tantra and Yogic practices.
Female yoginis were a large part of this tradition, and many 2nd-millennium
paintings depict them and their Yoga practices. David Lorenzen states that the
Nath yogis have been very popular with the rural population in South Asia, with
medieval era tales and stories about Nath Yogis continuing to be remembered in
contemporary times, in the Deccan, western and northern states of India and in
Nepal.
In medieval mythology such as Kathasaritsagara, Yogini is
also the name of a class of females with magical powers, fairies who are
sorceresses sometimes enumerated as 8, 60, 64 or 65. The Hatha-Yoga-Pradipika
text mentions Yogini.
In real life, historical evidence on Yogini Kaulas suggests
that yogini tradition in Hinduism, who practiced Yoga philosophy and Tantra,
were well established by the 10th century. This development was not limited to
Hinduism, and included Yogini in Buddhist tantra traditions.
Although ḍakini figures appear in Hinduism and Bon, ḍakinis
occur most notably in Vajrayana Buddhism and especially Tibetan Buddhism. The
khandroma, generally of volatile or wrathful temperament, acts somewhat as
spiritual muse for spiritual practice. Dakinis are energetic beings in female
form, evocative of the movement of energy in space. In this context, the sky or
space indicates Sunyata, the insubstantiality of all phenomena, which is, at
the same time, the pure potentiality for all possible manifestations.
Judith Simmer-Brown, based on teachings she received from
Tibetan Lamas, identifies four main classes of ḍakini. These follow the
twilight language tradition of esoteric Buddhism in reference to secret, inner,
outer and outer-outer classes of ḍakinis.
Although the ḍakini imagery appears to have come to Japan
via Kukai's introduction of Tangmi in Shingon Buddhism in the early 9th
century; her form appears more like the ḍakinis of Hindu iconography than those
found in Tibetan Buddhism. During the decline of the Heian period, the ḍakini
image was mixed together with images of foxes and half-naked women, acquiring
the names Dakini-ten, (Dakini-deity), Shinkoo-bosatsu, (Star Fox
Queen-Bodhisattva), and Kiko-tenno, (Noble Fox-Heavenly Queen). In the middle
Ages, the Emperor of Japan would chant before an image of the fox Dakini-ten
during his Enthronement, and both the shōgun and the emperor would venerate
Dakini-ten whenever they saw it, as it was a common belief at the time that
ceasing to pay respects to Dakini-ten would cause the immediate ruin of the
regime.
Although Dakini-ten was said to be a powerful Buddhist
deity, the images and stories surrounding it in Japan in both medieval and
modern times are drawn from local kitsune mythology. The modern folk belief,
often printed in Japanese books about religion, is that the fox image was a
substitute for the Indian jackal, but the jackal is not associated with Dakini
anywhere. As another example of the connection between Dakini-ten and the
government of Japan can be found in the Genpei Josuiki where it is
claimed that Taira no Kiyomori met a kitsune on the road and that his
subsequent performance of Dakini-ten rites caused him to rise from an
unimportant clan leader to the ruler of the entire nation.
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