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August 15th
Simonthepilgrim
Veteran
Today (August 15th) is a very important date in the calendars of both Roman and Orthodox Christians. For the latter, it is the Feast of the Dormition, the passing of the Theotokos, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Hodigitria (she who shows the way). For Roman Christians, today is the Feast of the Assumption, when Mary was taken bodily up into heaven.
This idea of a bodily assumption into heaven is a very old one but only became an article of faith in 1950. Stephan A. Hoeller, in his excellent little book The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead (Quest. 1994) writes:
This idea of a bodily assumption into heaven is a very old one but only became an article of faith in 1950. Stephan A. Hoeller, in his excellent little book The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead (Quest. 1994) writes:
The feminine has been a striking omission in most of the great religions, including Buddhism, although it should be noted that the Tibetan form includes the Taras and the notion of daikinis such as our beloved brother Palzang's teacher. This has always seemed to me to be one of the strongest arguments for serious questioning of the fundamentalist position. Interesting, however, that the infallible declaration of 15th August 1950 should have been made at the height of contemporary dismissing of the feminine role.Toward the end of his life Jung perceived a sign of the times of great significance in the declaration of the assumption of the Virgin Mary made by Pope Pius XII....(He) hailed the Pope's apostolic consititution, Munificentissimus Deus, as an evidence of the long-delayed recognition on the part of Christendom of the celestiality, if not outright divinity, of the feminine.
(The full te4xt can be found here:http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XDSSXDezdBMC&lpg=PA171&ots=aX_QjmGdur&dq=jung%20assumption%20virgin%20mary&pg=PA171#v=onepage&q=jung%20assumption%20virgin%20mary&f=false
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A week next Thursday we also have a whole festival to celebrate the appearance of Srimati Radharani - the ''wife'' of Krishna ( actually we say they are one soul thats been split in two.. ).
I know what you mean about the feminine being ommited , or at the very least -pushed to one side in so many religions and i kind of like that Radhe gets a whole festival day to herself
Even in our movement though, where women are allowed full participation in all aspects of spiritual life, women are still slightly on the sidelines and not taken completely seriously... sometimes it feels almost like half our purpose is for show.. like when we dance on the streets on harinam... women are always at the front.. and part of me always wonders if thats for protection or because us women in our colorfull saries and with our dancing attract more attention then the men in white or orange dhoties...
I wonder though, in religions or movements like this - especially those with their origins in the east - how much of this is cultural ideals being superimposed onto religious ideas...
i think it happens a lot... like in Islam - where women are actually given a lot more rights in the Quran than many of them actually get... take hijab .. originally protective dress from hot desert sun, which was then intented to be used as a way of allowing women not to be objectified, has turned into a way of supressing women due mainly to arabian ideals about honor and the role of women in their particular society...
Interestingly though - if you look now at many neo pagan paths that have sprung up in the west , in relation to the feminine.. many of them seem to have gone the opposite way to the more well known religions.. with focus almost entirely on the goddess aspect, with the male relegated as a prop or a by word ... but then i think that also reflects the culture in the west, ..
As the philosophies behind the religion of paganism stresses not only the equality but the importance of the interaction of female and male, I am sure that this imbalance will sort itself out in a generation when we have people who have been brought up in the pagan tradition and have never known the spiritual oppression of women.
PS - August 15th is THE most important date in the year - it's my birthday!
Not that Buddhism is a religion anyway...
Palzang
Palzang
Many happy solar returns, dear sister.
As far as I remember, you share your birthday with the petit caporal, the Emperor Napoleon!
Fortunately, the feminine has never been completely lost in Jewish and Christian thought, despite the efforts of the patriarchy. And modern feminist theology has reclaimed the truth which is "hidden in plain sight" in the Gospels, particularly the Fourth Gospel: the first miracle (Cana) is at a woman's request; the Christ reveals himself for the first time to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well; and, of course, the post-crucifixion Christ appears first to a woman.
One of the important aspects of the Dormition/Assumption for me is that it points to the BVM as the classic tripartite Magna Mater: maid, mother and crone, Persephone, Demeter and Hecate.
There are always "reasons" for discrimination and oppression. Let me quote from Vicki Mackenzie's Cave in the Snow, her account of Diane Perry, the nun Tenzin Palmo: I suggest that, if you really want to understand how monastic practice has twisted and perverted the Buddha Shakyamuni's attitude to women, these and the following page are essential reading: Tenzin Palmo stresses that the Buddha did not teach a male-dominated Dharma but that it has developed, which only makes the point that the Buddha and Buddhism are two very different things.
We must hope that the encounter between Eastern and Western Buddhism means that the long centuries of women being deemed 'impure temptresses' will soon pass away as being the nonsense that it is.
Unfortunately, dear friend, as with other religions, the theory and the practice in Christianity never kept pace with each other - while theologists might have been able to spy out the reverence of the feminine, the "foot soldiers" were left only seeing how REAL women (not saints of the BVM) were excluded from running the show.
The only women able to participte were obliged to become nuns and shut away - I think I am right in saying that to this day women of child bearing age (ie those still menstruating regularly) are forbidden to enter the sanctum beyond the altar rail in a Catholic church. And yes, I know that both Islam and Judaism also have very strict rules about women during menstruation but the RC won't take chances ......... doesn't make one feel very welcome as a normal healthy female.
Is it any wonder that women rejoice in a religion that celebrates their fecundity and are flocking to it in record numbers?
As I originally said - balance will come but it will take time.
And thank you for the birthday wishes - much appreciated.
So, that's where I've been going wrong with the ladies!;)
It's a pity the Gnostics lost the argument so early in the day. The Gospel of Mary is an interesting read and the Jesus who emerges from those texts is a very different kind of person.
Namaste
You mean...it's not true?! :eek:
Yes, Tenzin Palmo is one of the leading advocates for the equality of women in Buddhism. Certainly there has been a lot of discrimination against women in Buddhism just like every other -ism (except, possibly, feminism, which discriminates against men instead). Certainly my teacher, a woman, as you point out, is also all for it and advocates strongly for it. But it was she who explained the reason that monks are given precedence to us. It really has nothing to do with the equality or inequality of the sexes.
You find the same discrimination against gays, blacks, and anyone else who has some noticeable characteristic that differentiates him/her from others. You even get it from those who should know better. Hopefully some day we can move past all that silliness.
Palzang
This is an ongoing discussion within a dialogue group to which I belong and I have been asked a question that you may be able to answer, Palzang-la: do Buddhist temples in the US benefit by the same tax advantages as Christian, Jewish, etc.?
I think its a complex matter, because often behind what at first seem like almost barbaric restrictions on women and their roles in religious life, is logic and consideration for the way women and our bodies function. Its only when things get taken too far, or are viewed as a means of control or supression of women that these restrictions become negative things..
Take for instance, Orthodox Judaism. With regards to women in religious life it has what many in the west would consider restrictions bordering on stone age. At ''unclean'' times of the month, a women is not only forbidden from sharing a bed with her husband, but is also completely forbidden from any kind of physical contact, that would render her husband in a state of ritual impurity. Even passing plates and dishes over the dinner table is not allowed. Sounds barbaric, but the whole reason behind it is not to render the women an object of disgust at certain times, but to ensure that she is not viewed only as a means of satisfying certain urges, and that the marriage is based on more than just a physical relationship..
A similar thing goes on in my temple, where women are forbidden from doing any pujari work in the temple and at home or even entering the pujari room ( in the temple ) at certain times of the month, and its generally the tradition for women to stay away from temple completly.. sounds terribly unfair and barbaric,and again - it can be used as a tool for supression - but i personally am glad to be free from duties in a hot pujari room at a time when i dont feel at my best.
its the same with women and what commandments / mitzvot they can and cant do... basically in orthodox judaism, women are free from fullfilling any time bound commandments, ie - those that require her to pray or do other things at fixed times. women dont wear prayer shawls or tefilling ( the black leather straps and boxes on mens arms for prayer ) etc ... they can take them on if they want, but they dont have to do them, and in many religious communities, there would probably be an outcry if a women suddenly started wearing a prayer shawl..
on the surface it seems like another way of keeping women to one side- and there are communties that take it too far but the whole point of it is to respect a womens role as a home maker and mother and to free her from the stigma that would otherwise be gained if she didnt turn up to shul for afternoon prayers because her baby needed feeding...
when you understand the reasons behind these restrictions in any religion or path , you can see that they are all really meant to respect the way a womens body works.. Its only the culture that was there befor that turns it into something negative..
I think that its very easy for individuals to take on new ideas and lifestyles, but changing an entire culture or society takes much much longer...
I personally think that in the west things have gone a bit too far with regards to womens role in society... of course its not good for women to be shut up in the home with no face or voice or rights, but at the same time i think we have to acknowledge that men and women have specific roles to play in society... differant strengths, weaknesses and capabilities...
we should try to be in harmony with the natural way that has so far seen us survive dinosaurs and ices ages and plagues and not force an unnatural equality on ourselves...
Well, just to show you that I have the makings of an excellent politician, I will just say that we receive the same tax advantages as any 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization does.
Palzang