Hear Our Voices
Women in Buddhism have a complicated history. It is a history of great heroines such as Mahaprajapati Gotami, who led the first women’s march in recorded history to campaign for women’s ordination. It is the history of a profound philosophy that posits the innate equality of all people based on teachings such as emptiness of self, the five skandhas, and buddhanature. Yet it is also a history that bears the weight of misogynistic literature describing women as demonic, hypersexual temptresses whose female birth makes them ineligible for enlightenment. A mere fraction of the Buddhist histories that have been written down include stories of women, who even then remain largely unnamed. Still, voices both for and against gender equality in Buddhism have been present throughout its history.
No one bears the weight of this history more directly than those Buddhist women who serve as teachers, lineage holders, abbots, tulkus, and leaders of Buddhist congregations. We may feel the responsibility to express and interpret tradition faithfully even as we are thrust (whether we choose it or not) into constructing an experimental new world in which women have more authority, education, and leadership in Buddhism than ever before. Much progress has been made—though not as much as necessary.
I believe we stand at the threshold between eras. In the new era, it is possible to envision gender equality—but that possibility relies, in large part, on the female leaders who live and teach today and upon those who support them. We all have a part to play in this new era—male, female, nonbinary, transgender. We all must collaborate in articulating—through our practices and through our lives—Buddhism expressed as its highest potential, as a system that affirms the dignity of all beings.
My journeys as a Buddhist and as a feminist were intertwined as I made sense of my place in the world as a woman of color. I had been introduced to Buddhism as a child, and during my teens, I avidly explored world religions. However, in that exploration, I was continuously disturbed by racism and sexism. In the end, only Buddhist philosophy helped me make sense of the cruelties and beauties of the world, feeding all the drives that steered me toward a Buddhist vision of liberation from suffering for all beings.
I first proposed the notion of an all-women’s issue last fall to editor Tynette Deveaux, through whom this issue was brought to life. At that time I already had in mind a panel discussion among women teachers. That wish was deeply personal—I bear the brunt of certain gendered realities on a regular basis, but I rarely have occasion to speak about them with other female teachers. This silence is present even in my life, as a teacher who travels the world speaking about gender equality in Buddhism! There is just so much that needs to be said aloud but has previously only been spoken in whispers.
One of my favorite sutra passages reads, “The Buddhas neither wash ill deeds away with water nor remove beings’ sufferings with their hands, nor transfer their realizations to others. Beings are released through the teachings of the truth, the final reality.” I have treasured this as an affirmation of the power of education. Whether we are buddhas or buddhanature-beings, we all have the same instrument of education to make use of: words of truth, which can educate and can liberate.
I invite you to join me now in reading this intimate conversation, which went far beyond my expectations. These voices present to us the greatest untold story of dharma—the story of women in Buddhism.
PANELISTS
MYOAN GRACE SCHIRESON
REBECCA LI
MYOKEI CAINE-BARRETT
NARAYAN HELEN LIEBENSON
MODERATED BY
PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE
One question I’ve been excited to ask is this: what was the moment when you knew it was going to be your life’s work
