Thailand’s top female monk hacked the system to bring women into the fold

[LuckyTheDog]

Dhammananda is a self-described “rare species.” She’s a monk. She’s also a mom. And in the eyes of her homeland’s Buddhist establishment, she’s a feminist insurgent.

Each day, she and her female disciples wear the same clothing: flowing robes the color of ripe mangoes. Their heads are shorn down to stubble. Their possessions are limited to flip flops and little else.

In other words, their day-to-day lives are largely indistinguishable from that of any upstanding Buddhist monk in their native Thailand.

But because they are women, Dhammananda and her flock of 15 female monks are shunned by the state-backed Buddhist hierarchy. This powerful all-male order, known as the “sangha,” regards them as imposters.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/thailands-top-female-monk-hacked-system-bring-women-fold/

[Blue_Tires]

1. Kick

[Hekate]

2. There's some good research on women in Buddhism. As with Christianity, women were there ...

...in the beginning, and not just as handmaidens.

If you read ancient Japanese literature for the cultural tropes, you find Buddhist nuns, and that was centuries after the Buddha lived.

But in patriarchal societies -- patriarchy reinforces itself, and women's roles diminish, then are forgotten.

One thing that happened when Buddhism came to America was that it took on an American coloration, as it had to translate itself out of strictly Asian societies. It's a work in progress. Today, one of our foremost Buddhist writers and teachers is Pema Chodron, director of Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia -- and a mother.

Congratulations and good luck to Dhammananda. Everything old is new again.

[Odin2005]

4. Pema Chodron's books are what convinced me to become a Buddhist!

[Odin2005]

3. The Buddha ordinated nuns, the reactionaries have no theological leg to stand on.