Bhikkhunī
A famous work of the early Buddhist schools is the Therigatha, a collection of poems by elder nuns about enlightenment that was preserved in the Pāli Canon.
In the Vajrayana of Tibetan Buddhism, Guru Padmasambhava stated that being a woman was actually better than being a man:[4][5] "The basis for realizing enlightenment is a human body.
Buddhism is unique among Indian religions in that the Buddha as founder of a spiritual tradition explicitly states in canonical literature that a woman is as capable of nirvana as men and can fully attain all four stages of enlightenment.
Their origin is unclear; the Buddha is quoted by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu as saying, "Ananda, if Mahaprajapati Gotami accepts eight vows of respect, that will be her full ordination (upasampada).
"[22] According to Bhante Sujato, modern scholars such as Hellmuth Hecker [de] and Bhikkhu Bodhi "have shown that this story abounds in textual problems, and cannot possibly be a factual account."
According to the one scriptural account of the introduction of the Garudammas (the Gotamī Sutta, Aṅguttara Nikāya 8.51, repeated in the later Cullavagga at X.1), the reason the Buddha gave for his actions was that admission of women to the sangha would weaken it and shorten its lifetime to 500 years.
Whilst it is one thing to abhor, as any civilized person must do, the attitudes and behavior towards women which underlie the necessity for such protection, it is surely misplaced to criticize the Buddha and his community for adopting this particular policy.
Because the nuns tended to receive fewer invitations to lay-people's homes, the Buddha had all offerings brought to the monastery and equally divided between the two sanghas.
The Fourteen Precepts (also known as Mindfulness Trainings) of the Order of Interbeing act as bodhisattva vows for bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs of the Plum Village community.
[33]A gelongma (Wylie: dge slong ma) is the Standard Tibetan term for a bhikṣuṇī, a monastic who observes the full set of vows outlined in the vinaya.
A key exception to this is in the countries where women are not allowed to wear robes that signify full ordination, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and (Theravadin in) Vietnam.
[47][48] In 1996, through the efforts of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women, the Theravada bhikkhunī order was revived when 11 Sri Lankan women received full ordination in Sarnath, India, in a procedure held by Dodangoda Revata Mahāthera and the late Mapalagama Vipulasāra Mahāthera of the Maha Bodhi Society in India with assistance from monks and nuns of the Jogye Order of Korean Seon.
The ordination process has several stages, which can begin with Anagarika (non-ordained) precepts and wearing white robes, but is as far as many women are allowed to take their practice.
However, the Mahayana tradition in China, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong has retained the practice, where female monastics are full bhikṣuṇīs.
[35] To help establish the Bhikshuni Sangha (community of fully ordained nuns) where it does not currently exist has also been declared one of the objectives of Sakyadhita,[55] as expressed at its founding meeting in 1987 in Bodhgaya, India.
A 55-year-old Thai Buddhist 8-precept white-robed maechee nun, Varanggana Vanavichayen, became the first woman to receive the going-forth ceremony of a Theravada novice (and the gold robe) in Thailand, in 2002.
However Thailand's two main Theravada Buddhist orders, the Mahanikaya and Dhammayutika Nikaya, have yet to officially accept fully ordained women into their ranks.
In 2010, Ayya Tathaaloka and Bhante Henepola Gunaratana oversaw a dual ordination ceremony at Aranya Bodhi forest refuge in Sonoma County, California where four women became fully ordained nuns in the Theravada tradition.
"[65] In Part Four of Alexander Berzin's Summary Report: Day Three and Final Comments by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama it is said: "But Buddha gave the basic rights equally to both sangha groups.
[69][70] However, the German monk Bhikkhu Anālayo, who was a presenter at the International Congress on Buddhist Women's Role in the Sangha,[71] has argued in a number of papers that it is possible for bhikkhus alone to ordain bhikkhunīs if necessary.
Sravasti Abbey, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery for Western nuns and monks in the U.S., was established in Washington State by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron in 2003.
Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron had suggested the name, as Sravasti was the place in India where comes from the fact that, the Buddha spent 25 Rains Retreats (varsa in Sanskrit and yarne in Tibetan), and communities of both nuns and monks had resided there.
[78] Sravasti Abbey is notable because it is home to a growing group of fully ordained bhikshuni (Buddhist nuns) practising in the Tibetan tradition.
Venerable Thubten Chodron, while faithfully following the teachings of her Tibetan teachers, has arranged for her students to seek full ordination as bhikshunis in Taiwan.
Sobhana Bhikkhuni as Prioress, which opened officially in July 2010, where several bhikkhunīs reside together along with trainees and lay supporters; and Sati Saraniya[83] in Ontario, founded by Ven.
[58] Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, previously a professor of Buddhist philosophy known as Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, was controversially ordained as first a novice and then a bhikkhunī in Sri Lanka in 2003 upon the revival of the full ordination of women there.
However Thailand's two main Theravada Buddhist orders, the Mahanikaya and Dhammayutika Nikaya, have yet to officially accept fully ordained women into their ranks.
There are singular accounts of fully ordained Tibetan women, such as the Samding Dorje Phagmo (1422–1455), who was once ranked the highest female master in Tibet, but very little is known about the exact circumstances of their ordination.
After 20 years in India, as a Bikkhu, Sangharakshita returned to England and in 1967 began his own Buddhist Order, giving equal ordination to both men and women.
[103]: 155 American Tibetan Buddhist monk Thubten Pende gave his views: When I translated the texts concerning the ordination ceremony I got such a shock.
