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The first Buddhist women · Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

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Today I'm going to talk about the earliest Buddhist women,
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these early heroines who gained enlightenment.
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We know about them through an early Buddhist text called the
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Terrigalters. And these are the verses, the
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poems of the wise of the elders. And in the text there are 73
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poems and 73 songs of awakening, and they are different women of
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all ages and social backgrounds. There are Queens and servants
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and prostitutes and courtesans and housewives and mothers and
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wives and truth seekers from all kinds of backgrounds.
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They were all disciples of the Buddha, and the Buddha's view
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towards women was quite remarkable for its time.
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So at the time there was this brahminical view and was around
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that women should do nothing independent independently, even
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in their own house. Yeah.
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So in childhood they were subject to their father, in
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youth they were subject to their husband, and when the husband
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was dead, they were subject to their sons.
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They should never enjoy independence.
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Women were expected to be wives and mothers.
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And I was just thinking about the, the situation in
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Afghanistan at the moment. I mean, I think in India,
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actually, it was better, you know, it was even better at the
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time there to what happened is happening there in Afghanistan
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right at the moment. But that's sort of like maybe
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even in in Europe, you know, a few, 100 years ago, that was not
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so unusual the role of women in society.
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But if there was nobody to be dependent on, that became
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outsiders of society. It was a very dangerous and
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unsafe life of often they were seen like prostitutes, you know,
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if there was nobody to be dependent on.
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And at the time there were already a few women who became
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female Wanderers. So there was a whole tradition.
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Actually the time in India, they there was quite a bit of
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prosperity. So a lot of men were seeking the
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truth. They were going out and trying
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out in different ways how to sort of like free themselves
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from suffering. So there was a whole tradition
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which shows that there was quite a sort of like certain level of
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prosperity in the region. But there were also a few female
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Wanderers before the Order of the Nun was started.
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They were true seekers, but it was quite unusual.
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There was another tradition starting right at the same time
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as Buddhism started, the Giants, the Giants, which was nearly a
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little bit similar to Buddhism. The founder was Mahavira, but
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they had a few women. But they are in that tradition.
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They actually were two different groups.
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And one thought that women could gain enlightenment.
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And there was another group which thought they can't.
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Yeah. So.
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So the first people who followed the Buddha into homelessness
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were actually men, but through the help of a woman called
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Mahatma Chakti, who was the aunt of the Buddha, but also his
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foster mother and under the Buddha's cousin.
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After some time also women were allowed to go forth from home
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into homeless life. Viswapani is 1 order member here
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in our Buddhist movement and he wrote a book called The Life of
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the Buddha. And there he says, Gautama, the
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Buddha was certain that women could gain realization, so could
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gain enlightenment. And he, he may have been the
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first teacher ever to regard women as spiritual equals in
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this respect. So the nansanga was a radical
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experiment for its time. So very early on, at the
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beginning of this nansanga, the women became shamanese female
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Wanderers. They would live in the forests
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under a tree, which is a very dangerous thing to do.
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I mean, even today I don't know if I would live in the forest
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under a tree. Not only because of wild
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animals. And definitely India had Wilder
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animals than we have here in Germany.
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They were outsiders of society outside of the protection of
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men. And there was always the danger
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of being raped. They were sometimes called the
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shaved headed horse, treated as sexually available.
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And one of these is Shupa, which means bright.
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So that's her name, Shupa, the bright one.
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She's shining or beautiful. And instead of marrying, she
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became a charmony. So this is very early on in the
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tradition of the, the the nuns order.
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And she liked to go walking alone in the woods, dwelling at
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the foot of a tree, meditating and reflecting.
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So one day while she was walking in the lovely Jeeva Camba woods,
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there was a Rouge villain. It says, sort of like a man
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approaching her. And he stopped here.
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And she said, what wrong have I done?
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Why are you standing in my way? It is not right to touch a woman
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who has gone forth so has gone forth into homelessness.
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I live without blemish impurity. So why do you block me?
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Your mind is out of control, full of passion, but I'm serene,
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my passion is gone, I'm clear and my mind is free in
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everywhere way. Why do you block me?
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And the man says you are young and innocent.
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What will leaving home do for you?
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Throw away your saffron robe. Come enjoy the flowering woods.
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Sweetness falls from all trees. Flower pollen boils all around.
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The beginning of spring is a time of joy.
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Come and enjoy the flowering woods.
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What pleasures will you have if you go alone in the woods?
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If you want to go without a companion into the lonely, huge,
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frightening forest where savage animals live, Come live in a
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house with me in the calm of a palace.
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Let woman serve you. I will dress you in gold, pearls
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and precious stones. Climb onto a bed of fragrance,
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say sandalwood. So he's quite.
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Good. Isn't he sort of like into
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coming with him? Maybe he's not as rude as it
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sort of like looks. But she just says this fragile
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body is full of death and headed for the grave.
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What you see on value here that makes you stare at me, me, you
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are out of your mind. And he just says, your eyes like
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those of a doe, they excite me. They are like the butt of a blue
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Lotus, pure shining, your long eyelashes, your pure gaze, no
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eyes are dearer to me than yours.
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And he just goes on and on and she just says you're heading
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down the wrong path. You want the moon as your toy.
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You are chasing the Buddha's child.
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There is nothing in heaven and earth that I want.
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I don't even know about desire. What is it?
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It is like a bowl of poison to me.
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Try to seduce someone who hasn't seen this and hasn't said by a
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teacher. But if you try this one, you
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will end up frustrated. My attention is unshaken by joy
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or pain or praise or blame. I know there is no happiness in
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anything born from the cause, and I cling to nothing.
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Blind man, you are chasing an empty thing and illusion.
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A tree of gold at the end of a dream.
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A puppet show in a crowd, An eye is just a little ball in a
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socket with a bubble in the middle.
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Tears, secretions. Then Shuba plucked out her eye
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and said here, take the eye. And his passion died there and
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then. And he said, make yourself whole
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again, religious woman, this won't happen again.
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Coming up against you is like embracing fire or dreading a
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poisonous snake. Make yourself whole again.
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Forgive me. And then he let her go.
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And she went to the Buddha, and seeing him, her eyes, her eye
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was restored. So this is mythical, isn't it?
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But I mean, gosh, what a woman, you know, what a woman, her
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determination, her things, how she saw it, you know, how she
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could stand there and what a convincing thing.
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I don't think she took out her eye, but maybe she, I don't
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know, I don't know what she did. So this is a bit of a mystery
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so. So there is a reading from the
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Terry Garters and the quote number one, I've got Amy here as
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my lovely assistant so that you hear another voice as well.
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And she's a very good reader, so I thought I'd just take her.
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So this is, I think, the first one reading.
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I know, reading #2 I know, sorry, I've got confused.
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I know. OK, that was already on.
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So this was the reading. Sorry.
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So Shuba encountered something hostile.
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She did not run away or she didn't fight.
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She wrecked a totally different He met calmness and
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fearlessness. His hostility, his hostility,
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his greed got nothing to feed on.
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What a shock for him when she plucked out her eye.
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Coming up against you like embracing fire, one can feel a
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bit sorry for him and that he met this state of mind, which is
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unshakable. Nothing can stand in her way and
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she totally destroyed all his false illusions.
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But some other women, they actually they, they, they
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encountered more violence living alone.
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So the rules would change after a while and they were only
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allowed to go out and choose. Actually, the man exchanged as
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well. They were also only allowed to
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go out and choose. It could also be there was an
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accident or something on the road, you know, where you, I
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don't know, you fell or something.
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And it was good to have a companion with you.
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And so they were still quite early on going from village to
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village, like the monks and collecting arms, accepting
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whatever they got given as food. And later on they lived in kind
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of monasteries. But it was very, very simple,
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you know, just a few huts and made out of bamboo or out of, I
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don't know, twigs and something. So they had no belongings except
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their robe, their begging bowl, a water filter, a needle and
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thread. And the women had a hip string
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for the menstruation. But so many talked about the
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freedom they experienced. You hear that cries of victory.
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There is not a lot of teaching in the texts I have to say.
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But all have the spirit of I've done it.
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I've plucked out craving roots and all.
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I have removed fear from my heart.
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The massive darkness is torn aside.
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And they all had their reasons to go in forth into the homeless
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life. For some of them, there was a
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lot of duka pain. Some of you might know the
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stories of kisigotomy or what's her name, Patachara.
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Patachara. Yeah.
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And sometimes the pain was so big that there was no other way
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forward. They were at the brink of
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madness. They were disillusioned with
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life. For others, it was a longing.
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Yeah, after they had maybe heard the words of the Buddha or met
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him and others were already on the search for truth.
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And that's probably a bit similar to all of us.
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You know, some of you might be here because there's quite a lot
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of pain in your life and you're just reflecting on so what's
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what's this life about? And for others, you've seen
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maybe somebody who came in contact with somebody and
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there's a longing for something they've got.
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So. And maybe just sort of like
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searching for truth in a more general way.
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Anyway, so now I come to Amy. Yeah.
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So Wish for Party quotes Catherine Blackstone, who
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studied the verses of the nuns. Vivid insights into their lives
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come from the post realization verses of the Terrigata, which
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Catherine Blackstone calls the only canonical text in the
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world's religions that is attributed to female authorship
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and focuses exclusively on women's experiences.
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Both the Terrigata and the Discourses testify that many
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nuns gained realization, enlightenment and felt confident
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in their capacities. Blackstone's study of the
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Terrigata concludes that the nuns.
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Have a distinctive. Approach to Dharma Practice
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While the monks verses value peacefulness and quietude, the
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woman's path to enlightenment was fraught with difficulties
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that must be faced. And while the monks stress
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detachment, the woman's lives after awakening show a
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transformation of their emotional response to others.
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For one thing, they no longer needed men.
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When Mara appeared before 1 nun, she declared that men are in the
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past. For me, I do not grieve, I do
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not weep, and Sir, I am not afraid of you.
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So Mara is sort of like a mythical figure, like the
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personification of everything which stands in your way towards
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getting enlightenment. So I'm not afraid of you
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anymore. We can say that each one of us,
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men and women, you know, when doubt comes in or temptation
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comes in, just say I'm not afraid of you, Mara.
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But it's quite interesting, isn't it, that the woman's path
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is full of difficulties that must be faced.
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So there is this sort of like slightly different approach, how
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probably men and women, most men and women go about the spiritual
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life and there's a transformation of their
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emotional response to others. So it's sort of like it's much
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more collectively. So how did this order of
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commands come into being? So it all starts with
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projectity. So at her birth, an astrologer
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for told her that she would be a leader of a large following.
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So she was the daughter of a king or of a leader at the time
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and she was called the leader of a great assembly, which is quite
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unusual for a woman. And later because she became
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Maha project petite, Maha means great.
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So a great leader of a great assembly.
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So she was not from the shocking clan, she was from a different
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clan sort of life which lived close by.
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And she became the foster mother of the Buddha.
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Siddhartha's own mum died. She was called Maya and she was
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the sister of Prajapati and she died just a few days after the
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Buddha was born. So the sister Prajapati, his
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aunt, she stepped in and she became the second wife of King
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Suddhana. So she breastfed Siddhartha and
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she brought him up like her own son.
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And after Siddhartha had left the palace, it was not easy.
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Yeah. The king was so disappointed and
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hurt and annoyed that the future king, all his hope, had just
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left. Yeah.
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So he was just gone out in search of truth, and there was
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no sort of like person to follow up.
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And for several years no one heard anything about Siddhartha.
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But then rumours reached the palace and miraculous stories,
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and they said that Siddhartha had become a Buddha, an awakened
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1. And for Jabati, she took the
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first opportunity there was to see her beloved son again.
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Secretly she left the palace to see Zidata, and at least from
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the back of the crowd, she was there to listen to him.
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And what she saw and heard really changed her life.
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She realized she had heard the truth and she reflected on what
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she heard and she started meditating.
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And after a while, actually the border came back and he had
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contact with the whole of his family.
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And most of them actually also followed him.
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His father became a lay follower, but also his son
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became a monk. And Prajapati also had a son
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called Nanda. And they just talked about what
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they heard. You know, they sort of like had
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these conversation about the, the son of the Dharma, the
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teachings of the Buddha. But one day Nanda was gone, her
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own son. He had also followed the Buddha.
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He became a renunciant, A monk. He had gone forth into
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homelessness. And Prajapati could understand
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that he did it. But she was left again, you
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know, she was just left home again.
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But over the next months or the next years, this was not the
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only case. More women appeared at court
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saying that their husband and son had actually gone forth into
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homelessness. So it's quite interesting.
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A lot of people just responded when they heard the Buddha.
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You know, they sort of like went forth, a lot of young men, quite
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a lot of people from actually the Shuckling clan, they were
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cousins of the Buddha. They just went forth into
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homelessness. They wanted to sort of like
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realize the same what the Buddha had sort of like realized.
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And that caused a little bit of trouble at some stage.
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You at the beginning, you could just, you could just leave.
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You could just leave your family.
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But then people were saying they can't just go.
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They need the permission of either, you know, their fathers
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or sort of like people who were looking after them.
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So that changed. They need the permission of
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their parents to actually leave into homelessness.
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But there were a lot of them who left, and they were gathering,
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you know, at that palace of Sudhana, the king and Prajapati.
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And then the king died. And then really the place became
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a place of refuge for the women. First just the relatives, but
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then also all the courtesans. From these two harems, from
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Siddhartha and from his father, they also stayed there.
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And then there were peasants, wives of merchants, and they all
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had lost their husbands to the Buddha.
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And at the same time there was a war going on.
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It was about some rights for water.
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And quite a lot of the people also went to war and and were
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killed until the Buddha actually sort of like stepped in and
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pacified them all again. So.
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So the palace was filled with women and kids, 500 of them.
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It's a number they use a lot. 500 meters means a lot.
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And it had become a refuge for them.
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They were looking for protection, for advice and
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support from Mahaprabhati. They were looking for answers.
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How shall our lives continue without the identity and
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security of a man? This is also from Susan Melcott,
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which I think it's a really lovely book called First which
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is Women Poems and Stories of Awakening.
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I can post that in the community later.
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Others came to resolve ultimate questions of birth, suffering,
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and death. Yet others sought a new family
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with women they trusted and with whom they shared common
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experiences. The longing of these women,
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whatever form it took, became their spiritual aspiration.
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All had personal stories, most of which are now lost, and a
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particular experience of what the Buddha called the First
23:30
Noble Truth. This is what motivated them to
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join with with Padjapati in the new and radical way she was
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about to suggest. Padjapati recognized the
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powerful conjunction of events and people.
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An old and influential woman without further worldly
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obligations, she was surrounded by displaced wives, widows,
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consorts, dancers and musicians. Lacking other kin, these women
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were turning to her and to one another.
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Having fully grasped the situation, Pachapati decided to
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take the following course recounted in The Cooler Burger.
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So, Amy, you keep it because you're just going to read us the
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What's going to Happen there, which is a version of the Pali
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Canon. The occasion was this.
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The Buddha, the Blessed One, was living among the Shakyams in
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Negrotus Park at Kapila. Vastu Maha Pajapati go to me,
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went to him. She paid homage and stood at one
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side. Then she said, Lord, it would be
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good if women could obtain the going forth from the house life
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into homelessness in the Dharma and discipline declared by the
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perfect one. Enough go to me.
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Do not ask for the going forth from the house life into
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homelessness for women in the Dharma and discipline declared
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by the perfect one. She asked a second and a third
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time and was refused. Then she thought the Blessed 1
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does not allow it and she was sad and unhappy.
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She paid homage to the Blessed 1 and departed, keeping him on her
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right now, when the Blessed One had stayed at Kapilavatu as long
25:50
as he chose, he set out to wander by stages to Vesali.
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When he eventually arrived there, he went to live in the
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hall with the pointed roof in the great wood.
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Meanwhile, Maha Pajapati go to me, had her hair cut off and put
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on the yellow robe with a number of shak young women.
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She set out for Vesali. On arrival there she went to the
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hall with the pointed roof in the great wood, and she stood
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there outside the porch. Her feet were swollen, her limbs
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covered with dust, and she was sad and unhappy, with tears on
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her face and sobbing. As she stood thus the venerable
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Armanda saw her. He asked her, Go to me.
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Why are you standing outside the porch like this, Lord Armanda?
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It is because the Blessed 1 does not allow the going forth for
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women in the Dharma and discipline declared by the
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Perfect One. Then go to me.
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Wait here till I asked the Blessed One about this.
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The Venerable Ananda went to the Blessed One and told him what
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had happened, And he said, Lord, it would be good if women might
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obtain the going forth from the house life into homelessness in
27:36
the Dharma and discipline declared by the perfect One.
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Enough Ananda, do not ask for the going forth from the house
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life into homelessness for women in the Dharma and discipline
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declared by the perfect 1. He asked a second and a third
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time and was refused. Then he thought the Blessed 1
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does not allow it. But suppose I ask the Blessed
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One in another way. Then he said Lord are women
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capable after going forth from the house life into homelessness
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in the Dharma and discipline declared by the perfect one of
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realising the fruit of stream entry or once return or non
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return or are a hunt ship. They are Armanda capable.
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If that is so, Lord, then since Mahapa jeopardy go to me has
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been exceedingly helpful to the Blessed One, when as his
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mother's sister, she was his nurse, his foster mother, his
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giver of milk, She suckled the Blessed One when he when his own
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mother died. Since that is so Lord, it would
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be good if women could obtain the going forth.
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Ananda, if Mahapajapati go to me accepts 8 capital points, that
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will count as her full admission.
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Thank you very much. So this is the story which is
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mainly told how the order of the numbers came into being.
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And it's very interesting. Over the last years there have
29:49
been more and more books coming out.
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And this is a sort of like a book called Daughters of the
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Buddha by Biku Analaya, which he is a scholar and really goes
29:58
into research. And he found out that actually
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there were two versions of the Pali Canon coming through China.
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So at some stage the sort of like that that the texts when
30:12
they were written down were also brought to China and in India
30:17
some of it got lost, but somehow in China they remained.
30:21
So he saw that actually the first request of Mahaprabhati
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when she asked the Buddha to become a nun was not totally
30:29
refused. And he said you could shave your
30:33
heads and wear your robes, but you can't go forth.
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So they could have lived as nuns in their own vicinity.
30:41
Yeah. So they could shave their head
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and sort of, like, lift that life but not go forth, not go
30:47
into homelessness, which I thought was quite interesting.
30:50
And also, when you read this text and Ananda first sees sees
30:57
the nuns coming, he doesn't give any comment that they're wearing
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robes or have shaved their heads.
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Just imagine 500 women appearing here in golden robes and sort of
31:08
like shaved head. Wouldn't you comment on it?
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So he's not commenting on it. And Buddha also doesn't comment
31:15
on it. So there is it looks like he
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didn't refuse them totally, but sort of like gave them a sort of
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like a possibility of how they could practice.
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But the going forth itself was just too dangerous.
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As I said before, just these women are living under these
31:32
conditions. And also the the older was still
31:37
quite young. Yeah.
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So there was already quite a lot of resistance towards the men
31:42
who were had gone forth and left their their families.
31:45
And now all these women going forth.
31:47
I mean, what would that mean to a society?
31:51
So these eight extra rules, you could see them sort of like the,
31:57
the main rule is actually that the oldest nun they might have
32:04
been practising for 20-30 years is under the authority of a
32:09
young monk who may have just been, it's his first day, he
32:14
knows of being a monk. So that was the rules.
32:17
And you could see this is sort of like a way of sort of like
32:20
being under the, yeah, the authority, the women still being
32:23
under the authority of men. But you could also see that
32:27
because they stepped out into this homelessness and wondrous,
32:31
they needed some protection. You know that they were under
32:34
the protection of the whole order of the months, which gave
32:38
them a little bit more security. So thank you, Analia, for
32:44
bringing things out like this. There's more and more books
32:46
appearing, so we will see. But in this sort of like in this
32:52
version of the Pali Canon, Ananda really brought out the
32:57
principle. So women can attain the fruit of
33:02
stream entry once returner, non returner and full enlightenment.
33:06
Yes, they can. And this always is quite funny,
33:09
isn't it, that we still, I've, I've mentioned there's quite a
33:12
lot in this talk that women can do that that in itself is quite
33:16
interesting. I had never heard a talk where
33:19
the guys had to prove that they can gain enlightenment.
33:23
But yeah. And Armanda, he's sort of like
33:30
used sort of like. He pressed a bit further that
33:34
Mahabharata was the Buddha's foster mother giving him milk.
33:39
And that's also interesting. We are indebted to our parents
33:43
even with, we don't really like them, but we are indebted to our
33:46
parents for giving us life and bringing us up.
33:49
And that's in some ways still a very strong point at sort of
33:54
like without, with all the things which might have happened
33:58
to us. You know that is an indebtedness
34:01
to our parents. So that's how the Pecuni order,
34:11
the order of the nuns, came into being.
34:13
And Jeopardy was the first Pecuni, the nun.
34:16
And she just sort of like then brought their order of the nuns
34:22
together and they practiced wholeheartedly the Dharma.
34:27
And later, she also gained enlightenment as many of her
34:30
sisters, and she looked after the others.
34:33
She taught them the Dharma. And it is said that she died at
34:37
the age of 120. I don't know if this is myth or
34:41
whatever, but she had that determination, the courage to
34:46
stand up for for her convictions, for her longing and
34:49
for her values against all odds, against all convention.
34:54
And I'm really indebted to Mahaprabhati.
34:58
Thank you, Mahaprabhati. I wanted to look a tiny little
35:04
bit into her verse. So in the Teri Ghatas there are
35:13
all these verses, you could say they're sort of like after they
35:15
gained enlightenment. They are the Buddha had fight a
35:19
lot of udanas where sort of like just a verse flows out of him.
35:24
And sometimes when we're on retreat, you know, suddenly we
35:28
have to write a poem which sort of like, maybe describes much
35:31
better what happens to us than sort of like writing it all sort
35:35
of like a bit systematically done.
35:37
You know, it's sort of like an expression of something which
35:39
happens. And her verse is homage to you,
35:45
Buddha, best of all creatures who said me and many others free
35:50
from pain. So this is gratitude, you know,
35:54
and that's the quality of enlightenment, this deep
35:57
gratitude. And then come 3 verses which are
36:00
much more about her realization. All pain is understood.
36:06
The cause, the graving, the craving is dried up.
36:11
The Noble Eightfold Path unfolds.
36:14
I have reached the state where everything stops.
36:19
I have been mother, son, father, brother, grandmother.
36:24
Knowing nothing of truth, I journeyed on, but I have seen
36:29
the Blessed One. This is my last body and I will
36:33
not go from birth to birth again.
36:38
Look at the disciples altogether, their energy, their
36:41
sincere effort. This is homage to the Buddhas.
36:46
Maya, her sister, gave birth to Gautama.
36:49
For the sake of us all, she has driven back the pain of the sick
36:54
and the dying. So that's her verse.
37:01
And I think I'm going to do something which hasn't really
37:06
been done here before. Maybe you could just pass on
37:08
this little verse this. And if you want, on the retreat
37:17
we had recently, I did a chart sort of like a friend of mine
37:21
said, why don't you make a mantra for Mahapri Jeopardy?
37:25
But I felt like, oh, that's a bit too much.
37:28
Yeah. But what about using part of her
37:31
verse? All pain is understood, of
37:34
course. The grading is dried up.
37:36
The noble eightfold part unfolds.
37:39
I have reached the state where everything stops.
37:41
So in the next verse, she goes a little bit into it, like she's
37:45
been cycling through samsara. If you come into the door here,
37:50
there is this big wheel of life and we are driven by greed,
37:55
hatred and delusion. And it's a bit like being in a
37:57
hamster wheel. You know, we're just repetitive
38:00
going around there. And the Buddhist or the
38:02
spiritual path is about getting out of the wheel, you know, out
38:06
of that turning so that we reach state, which is, it's not that
38:12
everything stops, but it's sort of like that greed, hatred and
38:16
delusion is stopping. And there's a different quality
38:19
coming in which is spontaneous, which is free, which is full of
38:23
compassion and love, full of wisdom, where we have seen how
38:28
things really are. So I'm just going to sing the
38:34
verse and if you want, you could join in.
38:38
And then I think after 7 times I just let it stop and totally.
38:53
And the chant just came to me, which I've never done before.
39:06
All, all pain is understood, the cause, the craving is dried up.
39:16
The noble April fath unfolds. I have reached the state where
39:23
everything stops all pain. Misunderstood the cause the.
39:30
Craving is. Tried up the Nobel 8 full path
39:35
unfolds. I have reached the state where
39:39
everything. Stops all.
39:41
Pain is understood the cause, the craving is tried up.
39:49
The. Noble Lake full path unfolds.
39:53
I have reached. The state where everything.
39:56
Stops all pain misunderstood the cause.
40:02
The craving is tried up the noble lake.
40:07
Full path unfolds. I have reached the state where
40:12
everything Stops. All pain Misunderstood.
40:17
The cause, the craving is dried up, turn over the little path
40:23
and folds. I have reached the state where
40:28
everything stops. All pain misunderstood.
40:33
The cause, the craving is dried up.
40:37
Turn over the little path and folds.
40:41
I have reached a state where everything stops.
40:45
All pain misunderstood. The cause of creaming is dried
40:53
up. The no way for path unfolds.
40:58
I have reached a state where everything stops.