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Ajahn Brahm Offers Full Nun Ordination
Its about time somebody did this.
Ajahn Brahm is awesome.
http://gobeyondwords.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/history-in-the-making/
Ajahn Brahm is awesome.
http://gobeyondwords.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/history-in-the-making/
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Comments
i think "western" interest and conversion has certainly helped.
they even slandered him by calling him a........Mahayanist!!!!
how rude!
The Thai Forest Tradition is a meditation tradition primilarly focused on higher dharma. Generally, when one visited/visits a Forest Tradition Monastery, one heard/hears Dhamma about impermanence & not-self.
For a number of years now Ajahn Brahm has diverged & distanced himself from this tradition, by preaching heavily about rebirth, jhanas, seeing past lives, psychic powers, etc. By doing this he has attracted a very large audience & following.
So the cheeky monks in Thai style accurately labelled Ajahn Brahm a Mahayanist. I personally do not regard it as slander. The Thai Forest Tradition is more focused on protecting the integrity of the Dhamma teachings & a pure way of practise than accumulating faith followers.
i sometimes forget that sarcasm doesnt translate on message boards.
Regarding the Mahayana-Theravada...... I honestly see no difference between "staying" and "going" in the end. That isnt just a mushy sentiment.
.......ofcourse others may see things differently.
Chandako's comments were the accurate appraisal of the events, especially his appraisal of Sujato.
Brahm & Sujato merely needed to be open about the ordinations & advise they are breaking from the group.
All that was required was acceptence.
I guess I just don't see why a few minor technicalities should prevent women from having the exact same opportunity as men to commit themselves fully to the practice. I'm sure it's easy for men who don't have that problem to wonder what all the fuss is about, but if a lower ordination wasn't enough for them, why should it be for an entire gender?
From what I've read about it (which is mostly research and presentations done by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ajahn Sujato and Ayya Tathaaloka from the 2007 conference in Hamburg), the question rests on whether bhikkhus and bhikkhunis from the Dharmagupta lineage — which, Ajahn Brahm and others argue, follows Theravada Vinaya — can ordain bhikkhunis.
There have been some good arguments against this, of course, one being the claim by Dhammanando Bhikkhu that the Dharmagupta lineage began in 357 CE with ordinations by bhikkhus only, thus invalidating it by Theravadin standards. But even if that's true, as Bhikkhu Gavesako points out, "The problem with the transmissions of ordination lineage is that, even in the Theravada tradition, nobody knows for sure whether the lineage was once broken or not."
In the end, I know that nothing I say will change the minds of those who are decidedly against this; however, I think it comes down to following the spirit rather than the letter of the Vinaya.
I can't imagine the Buddha wanted his monastic community to be dominated solely by men, nor can I imagine that he would be so uptight about ordination procedures (you know, the whole "clinging to rite and rituals" thing) if it meant reviving the other half of the Sangha at a time when women are breaking free from centuries of discrimination (like being considered the property of their husband/family) and now have more freedom to engage in both worldly and spiritual pursuits. But then, I'm just a dumb lay-follower, so what do I know?