Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Portrayal women as obstacles in Buddhism
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Portrayal women as obstacles in Buddhism
The second segment of the chapter discussed the divine law, gender roles, daily living, the paths to enlightenment, the religious life, and death. What I found interesting was the discussion on how women were portrayed in Buddhist scriptures. Like most sacred texts, there are contradictory statements about the nature of women and their role in society within the Buddhist scriptures. The ancient texts often depict women as " seductresses who, because of their carnal sensual nature, are a threat to the spiritual welfare of men" (Bilhartz, 2006, p. 238). For example, in the parable found in Itivuttaka, it is evident that women are viewed as obstacles in the spiritual welfare of men. The parable is about a man who is being carried away by a river to whirlpools with monsters and demons. According to the …show more content…
In the Sutra Nipata, Gautama and Punnaka have a discussion about preparing sacrificial gifts for the gods. According to Gautama, people prepared sacrifices to gods to satisfy their own desires, and therefore are unable to reach enlightenment because they are "infatuated by their passion for existence" (Bilhartz, 2006, p.251). He continues to explain that one must be without desires and free from the cares of the world to cross beyond the cycle of birth and decay. Gautama does not put any importance in sacrifices to reach enlightenment. The story of Gautama's past life also discourages preparing sacrifices. The story is about a brahmin who was killed and reborn 500 times as a sacrificial goat as a penalty for sacrificing a goat for the Feast for the Dead. Gautama admonished the people not to perform animal sacrifices for the penalty is a miserable rebirth (Bilhartz, 2006, p. 253). I found it interesting how this differ from the Hindus who pay respect to their deities with some form of offering in order to achieve infinite
The excerpt being reviewed in this paper is the story of An Lingshou whose “secular surname was Xu” (Shi 307). She is an upper class woman who “was intelligent and fond of studies” and “took no pleasure in worldly affairs” (Shi 307). She is devoutly Buddhist and doesn’t want to be married, but her father Xu Chong disagrees, accusing her of being “unfilial” (Shi 307). She responds that her “mind is concentrated on the work of religion” and questions why she must “submit three times before [she is] considered a woman of propriety” (Shi 307). Her father thinks this is selfish and goes to see a “Buddhist magician monk” who tells him to “keep a vegetarian fast and after three days . . . come back” (Shi 307). Xu Chong does so and the monk “spread Xu Chong’s palm with the oil of sesame seed ground together with safflower” and has him read what’s there (Shi 307). He sees “a person who resembled his daughter” as Buddhist preaching to a large group. The monk tells him that it “is a former incarnation of” his daughter who left her house to help the world at large and that “she indeed shall raise her family to glory” and help them find Nirvana (Shi 307). Lingshou is allowed to become a nun and “cut off her hair, discarded secular ornaments, and received the rules of monastic life from” the monk who spoke to her father and another famous nun (Shi 308). Lingshou goes on to be a famously great nun who “built five or six monastic retreats” and her family goes on to be honored and promoted (Shi
In the patriarchal, Confucian influenced, Han dynasty, a woman’s role and social status was far from equal to that of a man. In Ban Zhao’s work Lessons for a woman she depicted the role of a woman, as a lower-class member of society. Hidden beneath the stereotypes of what a woman was supposed to be, Ban Zhao was a rarity of her time as she excelled as a historian and teacher.
Yu, Han. “Memorial on Buddhism”. Making of the Modern World 12: Classical & Medieval Tradition. Trans. Richard F. Burton. Ed. Janet Smarr. La Jolla: University Readers, 2012. 111-112. Print.
Buddhism is considered as one of the leading religions throughout the world today. In order for a Buddhist to follow the religion, there are certain set of guidelines that one has to follow to gain a better life, but most people have other factors that they have to face along this path. The story, “The Journey of One Buddhist Nun” by Sid Brown, is an account of a Thai woman, Maechi Wabi, who entered a spiritual life along with life struggles and outside influences. According to Brown, Wabi faced many challenges along the way to liberation and two challenges she faced most are the gender and socioeconomic issues which she overcame during her spiritual journey.
The role of women in The Heart of Darkness is at first seen as one that is very much a backseat role to that of a man’s in the empirical
The belief systems of Confucianism and Buddhism share compelling commonalities such as the very factors upon which they were founded, as well as many of the obligations and requirements for followers of the philosophy of Confucianism and the Buddhist religion. Nonetheless, Confucianism and Buddhism diverge greatly when it comes to women’s rights and gender roles.
In the novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, (Viramontes) I have focused on the female gender role that Estrella and both Cleofilas face in different situations of their life in relation to labor. Estrella, is one of the main characters that I’m writing about. She learns quickly what hard labor really is. She learns at an early age of thirteen what female and male gender roles consist of. She works inside of her family’s homes by washing the dishes, looking after the children and then working out in the hot fields picking grapes for her and family to survive.
There, in almost all the stories in this chapter, is a strong focus on what the woman has done for a male ruler, husband, or relative. Following traditional Confuciean ideas “women’s roles were primarily kinship roles: daughter, sister, wife, daughter-in-law, mother, and mother-in-law,” (Ebrey, Women in Traditional China) you can see this reflected in the fact that each of the stories starts out by saying who the woman was related or married
In Parable of the Sower, many issues are addressed and discussed in a new and creative way. One issue addressed is how women are treated in society. Although Parable of the Sower is considered a dystopian world and is an exaggerated sense of reality, the concepts remain true. The shortfalls of the society and larger systemic ideas throughout the book in some sense are an exaggerated sense of the truth. These concepts are lessons to the readers and can often lead to morals or conclusions that can be taken away from the book. This is true of most books, and thus it is important to read the lessons and make connections to find the deeper moral of the
John Milton’s Paradise Lost illustrates clear gender roles between men and women focusing primarily on the first man and woman: Adam and Eve. Throughout the epic poem the roles that women play are clearly subordinate to that of men. The theme that women are inferior to men is most easily recognized when observing that Eve is made from Adam, Eve is under Adam’s rule and authority, and Eve is the one who is punished and viewed as the first “sinner.”
the daily lives of women, and the media. Looking at 1 Timothy 2:11-12, we see
misunderstood. The position of women is not nearly as lowly as many people see it; the position
...his effect can ruin the respect of a woman from men. A big role in gender inequality is that woman are manipulated to believe men are gods, which they are not. The impact that men are considered as gods only devalues the life of a woman. Even as death approaches, the obedience that the woman have is extraordinary. They show their true loyalty to men. Although some men torment women mentally, the woman is obligated to be loyal. This only makes women suffer even though it is the fault of men. The contents of this book show the reality that was in the past. As humans develop their intelligence, the equality, identity and loyalty to a woman should be equal to men. The woman has great power in society since behind every great man is an even greater woman.
Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.
Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, survives even to this day and lies at the basis of Japanese society. Shinto played and continues to play not only an enormous role in general Japanese society, but also regarding the roles of women both in general society and the society within traditional Shintoism.