Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies 27 August 2013 Seminar Presentation Sensing Disability in Buddhism: A Reading Against the Grain

Niluka Gunawardena, PhD Candidate Griffith Law School, Griffith University

5.30pm 7pm Room N208, Woolley Building, University of Sydney.

Popular Buddhist narratives and iconography abounds with images of bad physicians who become blind or disfigured monks, lepers who put the Buddha in trouble, menstruating nuns who shame the Sangha and a perfect Thathagatha who embodies the 32 marks of moral perfection. Dwarf Arahants, overworked doctors, Vedic notions of pollution and Buddhas chronic illnesses are often left out of the picture. This presentation will explore themes surrounding constitutional, legal and normative paradigms of inclusion and exclusion embodied in and enforced by Buddhist hermeneutics of the body, karmic multi-life commentaries and hegemonic readings of the Vinaya (Buddhist Monastic Code). In the first section of my presentation, I will discuss the ideal of moral or virtuous bodies in Buddhism, including the Buddhas body. It will present contradictions and disruptions in selected Karmic multi-life narratives in the Dhammapada Attakatha and Thera Apadana. These inter-textual inconsistencies will be contrasted with Buddhist concepts of inter-subjectivity and multi-conditional embodiment in Suttas like Sukkamala Sutta, Upajjhatthana Sutta, Sivaka Sutta and Girimananda Sutta. This section also explores how resorting to explanatory frameworks of multi-life karmic causality to understand exceptional bodies and events can lead to karmic social hierarchies and marginality, with significant implications for Buddhist ethics in contemporary society. In the second half of my presentation, I will examine codes relating to bodies out of order in the Vinaya; particularly Mahavagga 1.39 Mahavagga 1.71 and its attendant commentaries and sub-commentaries. I will shed light on how textual modalities of differentiation, notification, prioratisation and ranking are adopted to create an elusive monastic ideal of embodied virtue in relation to exterior embodiments (deformed, criminal, female, intersex etc.) which are negated or granted provisional subjectivity. Drawing on narratives of a dwarf Arahant, serial killer and celebrity monks on youtube, this presentation will highlight how such provisional subjectivity both affirms and disrupts karmic and monastic normative ideals.

Biography
Niuka Gunawardena is a Doctoral candidate at the Law School at Griffith University. She has a long standing commitment to Disability rights and Dhamma practice. She has been working on a campaign to make all major Buddhist religious sites of worship in Sri Lanka accessible for all. The recent pledge to provide ramp access to Ruvanveliseya in Anuradhapura was a major collective achievement in this regard. She is also a passionate educator and has worked in secondary schools in USA and Sri Lanka. She is dedicated to helping children understand disability, diversity and marginality in a framework of compassionate, inter-subjective Buddhist Ethics.