Religion: Gender Inequality

In world religion, gender inequality has always been a great concern. This inequality did not exist based on the concepts of original religion but through cultural influence and social manipulation. The essence of Buddhism originated from a human being (known as Buddha). And Buddha is the one who achieved the highest enlightenment. Often in Buddhism concept, there was confusion about how much devotion is required to achieve the great “Enlightenment” for monk or nun. Women in the Buddhism face much more challenges to become enlightened. Throughout the essay, I will be focusing on how in Buddhist woman needs to be reborn as a man to be fully enlightened. This means this essay will examine the difficulties women face as a nun and how they are never reached “bodhisattva”. My views will be justified through Buddha’s opinion about women, women in Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism and challenges Buddhist women faced due to culture and social context.

In Buddhism enlightenment allows the mind to be free from any attachment, struggle and desire to reach purity and peace of mind. According to Buddha teachings, men and women have equal right and freedom to achieve nirvana (Rahula 37). But during Buddha’s time, women were treated as bad faith, and their whole life were devoted to their husbands and household choirs (Gutschow 199). And this was a situation due to the typical Indian values. Since, Buddha’s childhood went through similar environment that made him display some hesitation towards women being enlightened (Fisher 101). This hesitant was due to the fact that, to become enlightened (according to the definition of enlightenment) the person has to choose an ascetic life (101). For instance, when Buddha’s foster mother, Mahapajapati a...

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... to reach fully enlightenment and become “The Buddha” the person needs to be born as a male gender (Fisher 106). All these support that in Buddhism women need to be reborn as men to reach enlightenment.

Bibliography

1. Anderson, Gordon. "Buddhism Lecture 1." HUMA 2800 Lecture on Buddhism. York University, North York. 29 Jan. 2014. Lecture.

2. Falk, Nancy Auer., and Rita M. Gross. Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1989. Print.

3. Fisher, Mary Pat. Women in Religion. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.

4. Gutschow, Kim. Being a Buddhist Nun: The Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2004. Print.

5. Rāhula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove, 1974. Web. 12 Mar. 2014..