An interesting chinese blog on woman in buddhism
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Sponsored by The Buddhist Council of the Midwest and
The De Paul University Department of Philosophy, Religious Studies Department, University Ministry, Women's Center and Women's and Gender Studies Program March 11, 2006
The Buddhist Council of the Midwest promotes the spread of the Dharma by fostering the learning and practice of Buddhism in America, inclusive of all three Buddhist traditions. Its mission is to be a vehicle of mutual aid and fellowship for Buddhist organizations thought the Midwest, to celebrate the diversity of Buddhist philosophy and culture, and to represent and advocate for the Buddhist community in the public realm, confronting misunderstandings or misrepresentations of the Dharma and engaging in inter-religious dialogue
The Buddhist Council of the Midwest is sponsoring this conference to educate and improve the lives and practice of Buddhist women in the Midwest by providing the opportunity for women to dialogue with each other and share at a grassroots and immediate level woman's wisdom and scholarship as expressed within all three Buddhist traditions
Keynote Speaker
Rita Gross, PhD.
Professor Emeritus of Religion at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and one of the world's best known commentators on Buddhism and gender.
A warm and humorous teacher, she is the author of the influential book, Buddhism after Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis and Reconstruction of Buddhism and many other books. She is a senior teacher of Shambhala Buddhism as well as a senior teacher in the Nyingma school of the Venerable Khandro Rinpoche
Khenmo Khenpo Nyima Drolma, Abbess of Vajra Dakini Nunnery is the first western abbot and fully ordained nun of the Drikung Kagyu Lineage and a former Professor of Art. She has trained with the foremost spiritual teachers of our time including the Dalai Lama, HH Chetsang Rinpoche (the head of the Drikung Kagyu Lineage), Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo and Ven. Pema Chodron.
As a nun she has lived and studied in India, Taiwan and at Gampo Abbey in Canada, where she developed contemporary traing systems for both nuns and monks. Her presentations range from Buddhist philosophy to Tibetan Art. She supervised the artistic choices for an international library in India, contributing her own life-size bronze equestrian statue. While actively teaching Dharma she is building the Vajra Dakini Nunnery from the ground up.
As a sculptor and practitioner, her experience offers a unique perspective on the relationship of art to spirituality and healing, multiculturalism and the role of the artist.
Rev. Kyoki Roberts is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest and is a founding member of the Order of the Prairie Wind (OPW). She is the senior ordained student of Rev. Nonin Chowaney, Head Priest of Heartland Temple and OPW. She has trained at Hokyoji Monastery in Minnesota, San Francisco Zen Center and Green Gulch Farm in California, and Zuioji and Shogoji monasteries in Japan. Kyoki received Dharma Transmission from Rev. Nonin Chowaney, OPW in June 2001. She was appointed to serve as Deep Spring Temple's first Head Priest.
She serves on the Board of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, and the Program Committee of the American Zen Teachers Association.
There are only about 350 Theravada Bhikkhunis (women who have received higher ordination as nuns) in the world today. Most stay in Sri Lanka exclusively.
Only five Theravada Bhikkhunis have come to the USA. Two of them now reside at the Carolina Buddhist Vihara, as co-abbesses. Ven. Sudhamma Bhikkhuni, one of only two American-born women to gain Theravada Bhikkhuni ordination, joined the Vihara in July 2003.
Originally from Charlotte, NC, she became a novice nun in 1999 at the Bhavana Society under Bhante Gunaratana and was ordained in early 2003 in Sri Lanka. -
Amazing
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A monk's woman
By Candace Murphy, Inside Bay Area, May 7, 2006
In Fremont, a Buddhist monk creates California's first monastic residence and retreat for women
Fremont, CA (USA) -- IN the television show, the bald monk always seems to address his young scholar the same way.
Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni and Ayya Sucinta Bhikkhuni chant a blessing at The Turquoise Shop, a shop in the Niles District in Fremont, where the Dhammadharini Vihara, the first women's monastic retreat in the United States, is located. (Bea Ahbeck/The Argus)
He wordlessly enters the room. He adjusts his robe. He lowers himself soundlessly to a flat cushion not much plumper than a cool wooden floor. He shuts his eyelids. He purses his lips. He breathes audibly, a humming noise that calms. Then, he speaks — a bold, barefaced and cloudlike truth. Below it, the becauses fall like raindrops.
"There is a principle about peace, that the things most valuable and precious in human life cannot have a price tag," he might say, opening with a topic sentence first, like any well-tutored English student, then following with a supporting paragraph. "Preciousness, and peace, comes not from material objects."
But this is real life. The he is, notably, a she. And it's a scene in the home of Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni, an ordained Buddhist monk who recently converted a Fremont cul-de-sac rental into California's first monastic residence and retreat for women.
The bald head, shaved twice monthly, is her own. The rust-colored robe, her own. Those words about peace, too, are her own. Yet it all seems as if it's straight from a small screen script. And for good reason.
"The first time I remember aspiring to monastic life was watching the show, 'Kung Fu,' and watching Caine and his teacher when he was a young monk," says Ayya. "Then there was 'The Lord of the Rings.' 'Star Wars.' I read those books when I was a kid. The disciple and wise master archetype is very present in all those stories, the quest for enlightenment, the overcoming of greed... I just strongly connected with that."
It makes sense that 37-year-old Ayya — born Heather Buske — was inspired by a fictional male role model. Despite the strides the secular world has taken in leveling the playing fields for men and women, the Buddhist world still has gender issues. Though there are bhikkhunis — Buddhist female monastics — most women in orders in the United States have had to travel to Southeast Asia to study in anticipation of their ordination.
Ayya studied in South Korea, after traveling through India and North Asia. Although ordination for Buddhist women dates back more than 2,500 years, any sort of women's movement effectively died out 1,000 years ago. Ayya helped turn that tide in 1997 when she was ordained in Los Angeles in a multi-national Buddhist ordination that marked the beginning in a resurgence of female monastics.
Still, such a thing is the exception.
"It's something you think doesn't happen in Buddhism," she says. "It's almost as if women are impure, whereas the men can be ordained. It seems like those ideas get in there somehow. The teaching gets twisted around."
That's why Ayya founded what she calls Dhammadharini Vihara, one of only three known female monastic retreats in the nation, in a faceless two-story home in the residential area between the Niles Historic District and Old Canyon. Though dogs bark, bass beats thump and trains relentlessly roll past the neighborhood backyards, the vihara is meant to make it easier for other women to find peace, tranquility and, eventually, ordination.
"I think of it like soil. It may be parched, but through the cracks, the hearty seeds will come through," she says. "It's not that there aren't great ladies — there are. It's just that they're largely unseen and unknown."
Ayya is seeing the fruits of her labor. Dhammadharini -
International Conference on Buddhist women in Malaysia
By JADE CHAN, The Star, May 20, 2006
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- SOME people have the perception that women are somehow not as capable or worthy as men. This attitude is held only by some men, but also by women themselves.
Ven. Chang Heng ... ‘the conference is open to the public, both women and men, of every nationality and religious background.’
“I would like to help women understand their tremendous potential,” said Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo, University of San Diego Theology and Religious Studies assistant professor and Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women president.
“There have been many remarkable women in Buddhist countries who started from zero and achieved great things. One example is Ven. Shig Hiu Wan, who founded the first Buddhist university in Taiwan.”
The 9th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women is one of the platforms organised by Sakyadhita for leading Buddhist scholars, practitioners and social activists from around the world to share experiences on issues of mutual interest, promote projects that help improve conditions for Buddhist women and foster gender equity.
Sakyadhita, which means “Daughters of the Buddha”, is the world’s leading international organisation of Buddhist women.
Themed “Buddhist Women in a Global Multicultural Community”, the conference will be held from June 17 to 21 at Sau Seng Lum (Puchong) Exhibition Centre.
“It is open to the public, both women and men, of every nationality and religious background,” said Malaysian Conference Planning Committee (MCPC) chairperson Ven. Chang Heng, at the event’s press conference on Tuesday.
The event is held around the world once every two years. The Malaysian organisers for this conference are Buddhist Maha Vihara and Malay- sian Buddhist Association. The co-organisers are Buddhist Gem Fellowship, Buddhist Light Inter-national Association, Malaysia Chapter, Buddhist Missionary So- ciety Malaysia, Jetavana Monastery, Sau Seng Lum Buddhist Temple, Than Hsiang Temple, Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia and Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia. The venue sponsor is Sau Seng Lum (Puchong) Exhibition Centre.
There will be 45 international and local speakers at the conference, including Karma, Ven. Tenzin Palmo from England, Christie Yu-ling Chang from Taiwan, Tomomi Ito from Japan, Jampa Tsedroen from Germany and Dr Goh Pik Pin from Malaysia.
Most of the speakers will speak in English, and simultaneous translation in Mandarin and Korean will be provided.
Programmes include panel presentations, workshops, group discussions, cultural performances and meditation.
Registration fee to attend the full five-day conference is RM150 without accommodation or RM250 with accommodation. Participants can also choose to participate on selected days, priced at RM50 per day.
About 400 local and 200 foreign participants are expected to attend the conference, which is supported by the Tourism and Women, Family and Community Development Ministries.
For details, visit www.sakyadhita.org or call the MCPC Secretariat (c/o Buddhist Maha Vihara) at 03-2274 1142. -
Seeking a Buddhist Mother Teresa
BY NG SI HOOI, The Star, June 18, 2006
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia -- Someone like Mother Teresa could emerge among Buddhist women, to contribute to the peopleÂ’s wellbeing and to be a source of inspiration to men and women of all faiths, said Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting..jpg)
He said Buddhist women could draw up core teachings of their faith and belief to provide a better understanding of the religion as well as to promote local culture and religious values.
“Just like women from other faiths, Buddhist women have the intellectual and spiritual capabilities, leadership qualities and educational training to contribute towards making our community a better one,” Ong said when opening the Ninth Sakyadhita (Daughters of Buddha) International Conference on Buddhist Women near here yesterday.
More than 500 participants from 45 countries gathered at the Sau Seng Lum Exhibition Centre in Taman Putra Perdana, Puchong, for the conference, themed, Buddhist Women in a Global Multicultural Community.
Ong said the conference theme was both timely and appropriate, as it highlights the important role that women play in Buddhism.
The event, held every two years in different parts of the world, is jointly organised this year by the Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and the Buddhist Association of Malaysia. -
CAVE IN THE SNOW: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment
by Vicki Mackenzie
The daughter of a fishmonger from London's east end, Ani Tenzin Palmo became a spiritual leader and champion of the right of women to achieve spiritual enlightenment. In 1976, she secluded herself in a remote cave in the Himalayas where for 12 years she faced unimaginable cold, wild animals, floods and rockfalls. She emerged with a determination to build a convent in India to revive the Togdenma lineage, a long-forgotten female spiritual elite.
Latest :Ani Tenzin Palmo will soon to be the first Female tibetan Lineage Holder
the first in 2000 years of Tibetan Buddhism