Women in Buddhism

Running Head : Women and Buddhism

Name

Tutor

Course

University

Date Buddhism is a religion which does not extol a particular personality and a specific sex . This is a fact even though Buddha was a man Several elements of Buddhism are related to feminism among these are egolessness , centrality of compassion , Tathagatarbha and worship of the feminine principle in the Vajrayan form of Buddhism . According to Buddhists ego is the major cause of poor mental health (Gross , 1993 Egolessness is a sort of diagnosis of the condition of human

beings This means that all human beings find themselves in similar situations where anxiety , and a situation of impermanence is constantly present Hence , change is a constant feature in the existence of all human beings . As such the ego , self-identity is also in a situation of constant change meaning that basically human beings ought to be egoless . This is in contrast with the common perception that one needs to have a strong ego to be happy and successful in life . An egoless person is open , calm cheerful and humorous and not in a state of indifference or psychological victimization as the proponents of the importance of a strong ego would have one believe (Gross , 1993 . For a long time most feminists have seen egolessness as something that needs to be preached to men . It is however necessary for both men and women so that both genders can strive to achieve egolessness which is not defined by what others have to say

Compassion is defined as a desire for other people not to endure suffering . Buddhist teachings propose that for one to have compassion the realization that they are suffering is necessary . This coupled with the knowledge that suffering can come to an end and that all beings , do not want to undergo suffering (Buddhism Kalachakranet .org , 2007 Compassion has often been associated with femininity and since it women are more likely to express it more easily , empowering them with the means to perform acts of compassion in accordance with Buddhism teachings is important

Tathagatribha theory asserts that all sentient beings have the potential of Budhahood . The implication of this theory is that all beings , both female and male have equal potential for achieving enlightenment . The theory can therefore , be said to be blind to gender or at least neutral . This then means that an enlightened gene is a characteristic of both men and women and the gene is not stronger of more dominant in males than in females (Gross , 1993 . This therefore points to the fact that the sexism that is common in Buddhism has little to do with the religion itself . Rather the cultural situation in which the women find themselves has limited their full participation in Buddhism

The Vajrayana form of Buddhism has a doctrine which is so far the most favorable to women compared to other forms of Buddhism . It has many feminine symbols and images , and women practitioners (laypeople and monastics ) who have earned the respect of male...