Feminism from the Perspective of Buddhist Practice

Abstract

This is neither a theoretical nor a scholarly paper, but is based entirely on my experiences as a feminist and a Buddhist. Sometimes I find it hard to explain, even to myself, how I end up acknowledging both these identities. First, of course, I was a feminist, and somewhat well established as a feminist scholar and theologian. Then I began meditating, partly to complete what I saw as an essential element in my training in comparative religions, and partly to explore whether meditation offered something vital that was not elsewhere available. After a considerable period of meditation practice, I began to want to take refuge, which is in fact to join the Buddhadharma sangha formally and somewhat irrevocably. At this point, I remember that I had several major questions, one of which concerned women's access to the dharma. Having already suffered the pains of exclusion from the most spiritual dimensions of two religious traditions solely on the grounds of my female anatomy without consideration of either spiritual discipline or attainment, I had no inclinations whatsoever to repeat the pain of those experiences. I looked around and saw no overt sexism and lot of women teachers. Women's access to dharma seemed as complete and thorough-going as men's. Besides, my teachers assured me there was no problem here. So I took refuge,1 expecting to continue working separately on my Buddhist concerns and on my feminist concerns-an assumption which proved somewhat naive.

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