A Problem in the Re-establishment of the Bhikkhunī Saṅgha in Modern Theravāda Buddhism

of

the

Bhikkhuni

Sangha

in

Modem

Theravada

Buddhism

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of thesramana religions whichconsider human effort tobe of supremeimpor­

tance, asopposed to Brahmanism. The main practices ofBuddhism are med­

itation,and memorizing and reciting the Buddhist scriptures. Buddhismstates

that spiritual enlightenment cannot be realized without thorough performance

ofthesepractices. One must abandonalleveryday productive activities and use all one’s time for practice. Therefore, in this religion, abandonment of

self-support servesas a basicprinciple in one’s practice.

However, ifone discontinuesproductive activity, one cannot eat. Thus, in

Buddhism, beggingwas adopted as a way of life for practitioners who had left such activity inwhichleftover food is received from householders. Ac­ cording to thevinaya, Buddhist mendicants (bhikklru andbhikkhum) may eat

only the foodwhichotherpeople put into their begging bowl, while they them­

selves can freely put water and toothbrushes into their mouths. Therefore, it is an absolute rule that they live on only what is given by the outside com­

munity. This regulationby which they have to live, depending on the gen­ erosity of the general public, is the most important rule in Buddhism. The

fundamental principle ofBuddhism behindthis ruleis to makethe best con­ ditions for practice.

SASAKI: BHIKKHUNI SANGHA

Many religions besides Buddhism, such as the sramana religions and tra­

ditional Brahmanism, were vying with one another in India in those days which made itverydifficult for Buddhist mendicants to obtainfood from the

general public, bywandering around towns or villages. Sincethe household­ ers inthose days inIndia naturallywanted togive offerings to the most wor­ thy, thesemendicants had to berecognized as virtuous in order to befed, and

hence, the fundamental relationship between Buddhist practitioners and soci­

ety materialized here. That is,the general public considers Buddhistmendi­

cants to be upright people who deserve offerings. By givingsuch items as food or other things, householders expect futurereturns. Offeringis not mere charity but an act to profit oneselfin the end. And those whoreceive such

offerings can maintain theirpractice. Monks andnuns are requiredto lead a righteous life that meets the expectations ofthe general public. If Buddhist mendicants do not act asupright human beings, respect for themwill be lost and they will becomeunableto continue their offering-dependent life.

In principle, Buddhistmendicants need to live in a group, because it is more convenient for practice than living alone. Such a community is called a

sangha. Although a sangha must consistof more than four monks or nuns according to the vinaya, in order to actually fulfilits function, at least twen­

ty or more members are required. Buddhism is a typical group religion.

Further, because all ofits members have to live by depending on offerings

from the general public, the sangha needs to be near atown or a village in

whichmanypeople live. Therefore, Buddhism isessentially village-based.

The point that Buddhism isboth a group and village-based religion must

be considered when we tryto understandit.Its mendicants, who live on offer­ ings, have to liveas upright peoplewho deserve them. Ifone is living alone,

the resultofhisactions will return to onlyhimself. Thatis, if hebehaves as a worthy practitioner, thegeneral public will respect him, and many offerings

will begiven to him. If hebehaves badly, on the other hand,hewill be despised

and will receive noofferings. Therefore, whether he can continue his prac­

tice asa monk or notdepends on his own behavior. However, whenmendi­

cants live in a sangha, the situation is very different. If only one out of a

hundred monks does a baddeed, the whole sangha will be blamed, even if the otherninety-nine are living honest lives. As aresult, offerings fromthe outside community will not begiven, and, in theend, their practice willfail. Therefore, in the Buddhist sangha, it is anecessarycondition for all mem­

bers to behaveas worthy practitioners, who are freeof blame.

people of various backgrounds andpersonalitiesmake up asangha,the sense of values of thoseinit will differ. In order to unify themendicants who have

such a variety of standards, a certain system of rules inside the sangha is needed. This is the vinaya.

Buddhists are subject totwo kinds of regulations: sila and vinaya. Origi­ nally, these two terms denoted separate concepts. The law used inside a

sangha is referred to as the vinaya.Its purpose isto regulatethesangha asa whole, ratherthanthe spiritualprogress of each individual member.In order to be respected and receive offerings, all ofits membershave to live based

on accepted norms, which are provided by the vinaya. It is the same as the lawof a country, whichis neverenacted for the purpose of the improvement

ofthe individual, butonlytomaintainthe country as a community and allow

it to develop. The state itself carries out punishment of those who do not uphold the law and obstruct the smooth management of the country. The

Buddhist vinaya is also used in this way. Its rules are accompanied by penal

regulations which the community organization, the sangha,enforces. Thus, itis as natural for the members of a sangha to observe these rules, asit isfor

people to observe thelaws oftheircountry.

Onthe other hand, silais based on a completelydifferent concept. Itis a

code of conductfor each mendicant inhis/her progress toward enlightenment.

This is equivalent to morals in society. Like a moral code, whichhelps the

individual to improve as a person,sila in Buddhism isused to develop each mendicant’s humanity. Because it does not have a direct relation to the

sangha, those who break silaarenot punished. Punishment for not observing

sila is entirely anindividualproblem, because those who break sila willnot be able to attainenlightenment. Thisfundamentaldifference between vinaya

andsila came to be disregardedin the later stages of IndianBuddhism, and

was completelyconfused whenthesinglewordjie lil Aft was created inChina as atranslation ofthe two words sila and vinaya. Therefore,in order forus to understand the concept of thevinayacorrectly, wemustgrasp its original meaning,as the Buddhadefinedit.

Wehaveseen that thevinaya is equivalent to communitylaws and silato

morals. Although therearevarious differences betweenthe two, themost im­ portant isthatszZu is religioustruth andthevinaya is social regulation.

Thevinaya is, asstatedabove, a set oflaws enacted tobuildsmooth rela­

tions between thesangha andsociety and to maintain theformer as a social­

ly-respected group. It simply needsto beobservedbythe mendicants as if it isthelaw.Those who do not observe a particularlawareheld tobe offenders.

However, laws mustundergochanges according to the social situation. Since

SASAKI: BHIKKHUNI SANGHA

laws are used tomanage acommunity, when society changes,naturally laws mustalso change.If theydo not, the community will be unable tochangeand willsooncollapse. In the same way, in Buddhism, amending thevinaya is not

contradictory to observingit. Onthe other hand, sincesila is religious truth in Buddhism, it must always be observed by all Buddhists, unrelated to

changes insociety and is considered to be a necessary condition for enlight­

enment.

Evidently, the Buddha recognizedthevinctya as the lawof a sangha. He is saidto have stated before passingaway: “If the order, Ananda,after mydeath is willing, the lesser and minor rules oftraining may be abolished” (I. B. Homer, Bookof theDiscipline, volume5,p. 398). If the vinaya wastaken to be absolute truth, the Buddha (or,more strictly, the author of this sentence) could not possibly be thought to have made such a statement. Most likely, the Buddha said thisbecauseherecognized correctly that the vinaya, as the law of the monastic community, would have to be changedin accordance withthe social situation. Unfortunately, he passed away without defining the actual

procedure forsuch a change, and so, his disciples decidedto maintain the vinaya without any alteration. However, as the above quote suggests, the Buddha did not consider that thevinaya wasabsolute and, therefore, to treat

it as though it were absolute truth, likethe sutra, is amistake. The true pur­ pose of the vinaya is to create the best possible environmentfor practice.

A clear example of the problem oftreating thevinaya asabsolute truthcan beseen inSri Lanka. According to thevinaya, for a woman to be ordainedas

a bhikkhum, both a bhikkhunl and abhikkhu sanghaof more than ten mem­

bers eachare required. In Sri Lanka in the tenth century,thebhikkhum sangha

disappeared due to war, and thus, it became impossible to perform upasam­

padd,the ordination ceremony for women. This has resulted in the absence

ofbhikkhunl in Southern TheravadaBuddhism for almost a thousand years. As longasthisruleis observed, thereis no possibility for a bhikkhunlsangha

tobe established again in Theravada Buddhism.

Even thoughthis femalesangha has disappeared, the number ofwomen

who continue topursueenlightenment has not decreased. Since that time, al­

though there have been womenwhowish to be ordained,theyhave had to be content with alower position as “apprentices,” becausethis rule prevents their full ordinationas bhikkhunls. Faced with this situation, a new movement has

been taken place since the 1980s, whose main purposeis to obtainthe coop­

erationofthe bhikkhunls in the Buddhist world, and thereby re-establishthe bhikkhum sangha in Southern Theravada Buddhist countries. Twenty Sri

In Sri Lanka, many bhikkhus and Buddhist scholars hadbeen aiding the

women whowereinvolvedin thismovement and hopedto become bhikkhuni.

TheFo Guang Shan {ZUftLi group inTaiwan responded positively when these people consulted them about re-establishing the bhikkluim sangha in Sri

Lanka. In February 1998 atBuddhagaya inIndia,twenty Sri Lankan women

who had been chosen as novices and trained for several years received upasampada ordination fromTaiwanese bhikkhums and were then ordained by Sri Lankanbhikkhus.Because there are nowmore thantenbhikkhums in

Sri Lanka,it has become possible to carryoutfull ordination without depend­ ing on foreign bhikkhums. Since then, the numberof bhikkhums there has continued toincrease.

This ceremony was an important event in the history of Buddhism in Sri

Lanka. Women, who for manycenturies had noway tobecome abhikkhum,

have anewly re-establishedsangha. An environment in which women can practice formally has been revived,andmany of the pressures of amale-dom­ inated society have beenovercome. The original intentionof theBuddha,who

recognized the equal possibility of enlightenment in men and women, has

been revived inpresent-day Sri Lanka. We should praise the efforts ofthe many Buddhists whosupported andparticipated inthis movement.

However, I hold some reservations aboutthis situation. When one of my

friends visited abhikkhum temple in Sri Lanka, she receivedthe following

account:

Fo Guang Shan

International FullOrdination Ceremony Commemorating 2000 Years ofBuddhism in China CERTIFICATEOF TRIPLE PLATFORM ORDINATION

Fo GuangFile No. xxx.

This is to certify that xxx (name of thewomanwho accepts the ordina­

tion), a native of Ingiriya, Kalutana bom on xxx (the date of birth), has successfully completed all the required training of Sramanerika

Ordination on April 2nd, Upasampada Ordination on April 15th and

Bodhisattva Vows onMay 7th and has vowedto upholdthe precepts for

life. TheTen Most Venerable Masters have examined the ordination pro­ cedures and certified the issuance of this certificate by the ordination monastery.

SASAKI: BHIKKHUNI SANGHA

Maythe TripleGembear testimony to this auspicious ordination and

with blessings from all the devas!

(Here, the names of bhikkhums who attended the ceremony are listed.)

Thiscertificate is issued by:

Fo Guang Shan Monaseryto theabove-namedpreceptrecipient.

Dated this 16th day. May, Buddha Era 2545 Common Era2002, andFo Guang Era 33.

(I have heardthatthewomen ofSri Lanka didnot participate in the ceremo­ ny of the Bodhisattva Vows. However, there is no change in the fact that

MahayanaBuddhism, which requiresthe takingof such vowsfor ordination,

is thebasis of thenewly-established bhikkhum sangha in Sri Lanka.)

As we can see fromthisaccount, the SriLankan bhikkhums were initiated into Mahayana Buddhism by receiving the upasampadd ceremony heldby

the Taiwanese bhikkhums. According to my friend, a certain female lay believerwho heard abhikkhum’s reciting the invocation,“namo-amita-bo S

said with a frown, “that bhikkhum is not a true Theravada

bhikkhum.” Here lies a serious problemfor Theravada Buddhism.

The attitude ofsomemen who usethevznava tojustify male predominance in theBuddhist sangha isdeplorableandgoes against the real intention of the

Buddha. While opposing such attitudes, we must continue trying to build

absolute gender equalityin thesangha.However,the fact thatthe Sri Lankan

bhikkhums, who received upasampadd ordination from the Mahayana

bhikkhums, are now following Mahayanic doctrines, shows that there are

serious problemsin themovement toward re-establishingabhikkhum sangha

in Theravada Buddhism. The position of those concerned about such Mahayanization is fundamentally different from thatof those who are op­

posed to the re-establishment of the bhikkhum sangha based on simple sexism.Because opposition to such are-establishment arises fromtwo com­ pletely different positions which need tobe clearlydistinguished, weshould

The identity of Theravada Buddhism is, in a sense, found in its purity. Whether this purity actually exists or notis another question. The exclusive stance that the Theravadadoctrine is theonly legitimate one ischaracteristic

of TheravadaBuddhism. Ifwe comparethisposition toa color, we could say

white. Onthe other hand, MahayanaBuddhism is an ideological synthesisof

various theories and doctrines, and awillingness to embrace any doctrine is distinctive ofMahayana, and hence its color would be gray, which has in­ finite shades. When this snow-white Theravada Buddhism and the gray

Mahayana Buddhism contact eachother andmix together, itthen turnsgray.

That is, Theravada Buddhism loses its identity and is Mahayanized, while Mahayana remains as itis. Alongwiththere-establishment of the Sri Lankan bhikkhumsangha, abhikkhumsanghahas also beenrecentlyformed in Tibet forthe first time. Here, theproblem seen inSri Lankahasnot occurred. Even

whenthe Mahayana Buddhism ofTaiwan enters that of Tibet, the identityof

Tibetan Buddhism remainsunaffected. It is a uniqueandriskysituation when Theravada Buddhism takes in Mahayana Buddhism, because once this is done, itcan neverreturnto its original color of white.

Thus, if the purity of TheravadaBuddhismis goingto bemaintained, the

bhikkhum sangha can never be revived. Also, ifits revival is enforced, Thera­

vada Buddhism could face annihilation. There is unfortunately no perfect solution to this problem. However, we shouldstrive tosolve this impasse in the best possible way. What is the most appropriateway to dothis without destroyingthe tradition of Theravada Buddhism?

Prejudiceexistsboth amongthose who promote the re-establishment of the

bhikkhum sanghaand those who oppose it, namely thatthe vinayaisabsolute

truth—rules which cannot be changed. I have alreadymentioned that this view

is incorrect. The vinayaismerely a set of laws whichcan be changed, as the Buddha himself recognized.The problem isthathe didnot define theproce­ dure for such changes. If this had been defined, many problems in thepresent Buddhistworld, including theoneinvolvingthebhikkhum sangha, could have easily been solved long ago. However, it is meaningless to lamentover this past misfortune now. The only way tosolve theproblem is todiscover a way

tochange the vinaya, butthis procedure hasyet tobeclarified. Specifically, we need to know how to revisetheregulation that states a new bhikkhumcan

only be ordained if tenormore bhikkhunis are present. If the vinaya is con­

sidereda kind of legalsystem, the revision procedureofvarious laws usedin societycan be consulted (for moreconcretedetails, refer tothefollowingarti­

cle : Sasaki Shizuka TfcPfl,“Bukkyo ni okeruritsuzono yakuwari” 1AS1T

SASAKI: BHIKKHUNI SANGHA

Kairitsu Bunka 2002, vol. 1, pp. 3-17). To sum­

marize,theonly legitimate way of solving thisproblem is to alterthevinaya, and in orderto do this,we first need to recognizethat the vinaya is a set of

laws or ruleswhichcan be changed.

The doctrine of Theravada Buddhism maintained over 2500 years is a real treasurefor humankind.Throwingit away over a relatively trivial rule in the

vinaya, namely, that anewbhikkhnni cannotbe ordained unless ten or more

bhikkhumsare present, is very foolish. Therefore, I lookforward to the day

when this problem willbe adequately dealt with sothat men andwomen can, in complete equality, live a life of practice in accordance withthe doctrine of Theravada Buddhism.