II

The Buddha acted upon his conviction that women and men could pursue liberation in the same way. He established both an order of bhikkhus (monks) and an order of bhikkhunis (nuns). The two orders practiced in the same way and most of the rules governing them were identical. The Buddha also preached to both men and women. He was willing to teach anyone who was willing to learn. He put himself out of his way to bring both women and men to a deeper understanding. His belief that women could become arhats in the same way men could was validated by the enlightenment of many of his female followers.

However, the portrait of the Buddha painted by the Pali canon does not always validate the efforts of women to practice a life of renunciation. In an oft quoted passage, the Buddha is entreated by his step-mother to ordain an order of nuns. He warns her to be wary of the idea. She and a large group of women who want to be nuns dress as nuns, shave their heads, and walk barefoot to Vesali, where the Buddha had gone. They arrive at the Buddha's door crying, with swollen feet. Ananda is moved by their determination and sincerity, and pleads their case with the Buddha. The Buddha at first refuses to ordain the women, although he admits that women who live the monastic life can attain arhatship. Eventually, Ananda changes the Buddha's mind, and the women are ordained as nuns. However, the Buddha insists that they take upon themselves eight rules which place the nuns in a position decidedly subordinate to the monks. He also warns that his teachings, which would have lasted a thousand years, will only last five hundred years because of the ordination of the nuns.

Why does the Buddha, who is usually willing to bend over backwards to promote the growth and enlightenment of every person, suddenly so hesitant and gloomy when confronted with the opportunity to institutionalize a path towards enlightenment for women? Some recent commentators have argued that this incident never really happened, but was invented later in order to justify changes to the status of the bhikkhunis which were made to bring the practice of institutional Buddhism more in line with societally accepted norms. In other words, the Buddha thought of men and women as equal, and made the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis equal. After his death, the society could not deal with the existence of a group of women which were acknowledged to be equal with or superior to most men. Monastic Buddhism had to be acceptable to lay society, because the monastics were completely supported by the lay people. Therefore, various rules were made to lower the status of the bhikkhunis, and this story was invented to justify the change. This explanation of the story of the Buddha's reluctance is possibly correct. The scriptures were not written down until four hundred years after the Buddha's death, which gave plenty of time for small changes to creep into the stories.

Other modern commentators feel that the story is an accurate representation of what actually happened. These people feel that the Buddha himself must have been aware of the problems society would have in accepting an independent order of nuns. He made the rules about the bhikkhunis' subordinance to the bhikkhus especially to mitigate action against the bhikkhunis. These rules call for gestures of submission on the part of the bhikkhunis, but in no way diminish the bhikkhunis' ability to meditate and follow the path towards enlightenment. The Buddha may have seen this as the best way to preserve women's ability to work towards enlightenment within the confines of their society. These commentators generally explain the Buddha's statement about the amount of time his teaching would survive by saying that the Buddha felt that it was as valuable to reach twice as many people (both men and women) for half the length of time (five hundred rather than one thousand). It is possible that the Buddha thought his teaching would end sooner if women were ordained because he thought that society simply wouldn't accept a teaching which allowed that much freedom for women.

All commentators agree that what was new and important about Buddha's teachings about women was that women could attain arhatship and that women could do so by following basically the same path as men. Certain limitations were made on the social equality of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, and these limitations were probably made in order to increase societal acceptance of the monastic orders.

In any case, Buddha opened the doors for women's entrance to monastic life. Women flocked by the thousand to join the order of bhikkhunis. Women joined for all sorts of reasons. Many women joined simply because the Buddha's teachings made sense to them, and aroused in them a desire for liberation. Other women, though this first reason was true for them, had other reasons as well. Some become bhikkhunis because their husbands or other relatives were becoming bhikkhus. Others became bhikkhunis when they were widowed, or when their other relatives died. Some very poor women joined because the order would provide them with some measure of security. Courtesans who were disgusted with their lives of sex left to become bhikkhunis. Some young women chose the renunciate's life as preferable to marriage.

Women had more freedom and independence within the order of bhikkhunis than anywhere else in society. Bhikkhunis were not anyone's slave or servant. For the most part, they ran their own community and made their own decisions. They seldom had to take orders from any one and did not have look after anyone's physical needs. They were specifically forbidden to do household chores. They had only to work for liberation from samsara. Once they, themselves, were liberated, then they often taught other women.

And many women became liberated, becoming arhats. There are dozens of instances of female arhats in the Pali canon. There must have been many more who were not recorded. These women were often accomplished speakers who led many other women to liberation. Some of their words are recorded in the Pali canon. These snippets show the female arhats' delight and self-confidence in their freedom from traditional women's positions. Soma, a bhikkhuni and contemporary of the Buddha, was taunted thus:
 

"That vantage point the sages may attain Is hard to win. With her two-fingered consciousness, That place no woman is competent to gain."3

" Soma replied:What should the women's nature signify When consciousness is taut and firmly set, When knowledge rolleth ever on, when she by insight rightly comprehends the Dharma?" 4

Soma clearly felt that her femininity was no obstacle to her enlightenment. She acted with self-confidence and poise. Her position was completely in accord with the Buddha's teaching of anatman, or no-self. This teaching states that people have no fixed or permanent nature. All human attributes are in a constant state of change, and are not inherently real. If we see something that looks real, like "women's nature," we simply need to transcend this illusory attribute.

The greatest source of women's voices in the Pali canon is in the Therigatha -- the enlightenment songs of the early bhikkhunis. Although the Therigatha was probably edited by monks, it still allows us a glimpse of the early bhikkhunis' delight at their freedom. For example, a nun named Mutta wrote:
 

"Free I am free I am free from the three crooked things: mortar, pestle, and my crooked husband.  I am free from birth and death and all that dragged me back".⁵

Bhikkhunis were not the only women who were important in the early years of Buddhism. Lay women were also important in the early vitality of the sect. Many women who were converted to Buddhism did not join the order of bhikkhunis. Quite a number of these women gained some level of enlightenment, and a few even became arhats. Perhaps more important to the young movement, however, was the financial support of wealthy lay women. Wealthy women gave the monastic orders mansions, money with which to construct monasteries, material for robes, bowls, food, medicine, and so forth. Historical studies have found that during the first seven or eight centuries of Buddhism in India, Buddhism was patronized by wealthy queens. These women provided a large portion of the material wealth of the monasteries, as well as probably helping the political position of the Buddhists. Although we cannot definitively say that Buddhism would not have survived that period without the help of the queens, it is certain that Buddhism would not have prospered nearly as much as it did.

On a more mundane level, most of the daily giving of food to the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis was done by lay women, as they were the ones who traditionally prepared and served food. Thus, the daily life of the renunciates required interaction with the lay women. As the bhikkhus were supposed to be celibate, this constant interaction with lay women could cause quite a problem. The lay women provided a temptation and a target for lust. In defense against their own lustful tendencies, the bhikkhus developed a misogynistic philosophy. For example, in the Anguttara-Nikaya (vi, 5, III, 56), monks are warned:
 

"Monks, a woman, even when going along, will stop to ensnare the heart of a man; whether standing, sitting or lying down, laughing, talking or singing, weeping, stricken, or dying, a woman will stop to ensnare the heart of a man. Monks, if ever one would rightly say: "It is wholly a snare of Mara," verily, speaking rightly, one may say of womanhood: "It is wholly a snare of Mara."6

This point of view was given credence by the circumstances surrounding many monks' entrance to the order. Often, husbands abandoned their wives and children in order to become monks. As the women were left with little financial support and a greatly reduced status in society, they often tried to woo their husbands back. Although this tendency to present women as temptresses did have the positive effect of helping the monks resist the temptation to renounce the monastic life, it also had the negative effect of vilifying women. It placed the blame for monks' feelings of lust on the women instead of on the monks. These misogynistic ideas also provided support for reducing the freedoms allowed to bhikkhunis.

So what happened to the order of bhikkhunis in the centuries after the Buddha's death? The order flourished for several centuries. It is claimed that in the third century B.C.E., 96,000 bhikkhunis once gathered in Jambudipa. This is probably an exaggeration, but the order was clearly thriving.⁷

In the same century, Mahinda and some other monks travelled from India to Sri Lanka to convert the inhabitants to Buddhism. He preached to many people, converting many. He started an order of bhikkhus there. Queen Anula and her maidens heard him and were impressed by his wisdom. They wanted to become bhikkhunis, but he told them that he could not ordain them. Traditionally, it takes ten bhikkhus to ordain a bhikkhu, and both ten bhikkhus and ten bhikkhunis to ordain a bhikkhuni. Mahinda sent for his sister, Sanghamitta, who was a bhikkhuni in India. She came, with eleven other bhikkhunis, and started the nuns' order in Sri Lanka. This happened in approximately 250 B.C.E.