VINAYA
Ordination of Women
Ajahn
Brahmavamso
Sister Rocana left Bodhinyana Monastery
recently to take a 'higher' ordination in England. As I mentioned in the 'Sangha News'
article, she visited Thailand en-route and was rather disappointed at what she saw of the
opportunities for nuns there. The place of women in Theravada monasticism is a problem no
less prickly than some of the native bushes here in the monastery! But it cannot be
avoided. It can only be understood in relation to the VINAYA, the body of monastic rules
and regulations established by the Buddha which are binding on every Buddhist monk and
nun. Thus in this fifth article in the series I will discuss the ORDINATION OF WOMEN.
'Bhikkhu' is the name which denotes a
fully ordained Buddhist monk. The term literally means one who depends on alms.
Correspondingly, a 'Bhikkhuni' is a fully ordained Buddhist nun. During his lifetime, the
Buddha established thriving communities of both bhikkhus and bhikkhunis. However, not only
did the Buddha lay down more rules of discipline for the bhikkhunis, 311 as against the
bhikkhus' 227, but he also made it more difficult for them to be ordained.
To become a bhikkhuni a woman had to begin
by asking for 'ordination' as a sikkhamana (meaning a woman in training) before an
assembly of at least 5 bhikkhunis. Her training consisted of 6 rules: the Five Precepts,
the third of which being extended to complete celibacy, plus abstaining from eating
outside of the morning time. Only when she had kept these six rules UNBROKEN FOR TWO YEARS
could she, with the permission of her parents and husband, take higher ordination as a
bhikkhuni. Should she break a precept then she would begin her period of training anew.
Having completed her training, she should then seek an experienced bhikkhuni of at least
12 years standing to be her preceptor. A preceptor has to be agreed upon as such by the
local community of bhikkhunis before she may ordain another and even then, she may only
ordain one candidate every other year. the candidate is first ordained in a formal meeting
of at least five bhikkhunis and afterwards this 'ordination on one side' is confirmed
before a formal meeting of at least five bhikkhus. Only then is she a fully ordained nun
according to Therevada tradition.
The Bhikkhuni Sangha flourished for many
centuries and spread throughout South and East Asia. It seems to have died out in Sri
Lanka in the 11 th century C.E. (according to Professor Malalasekera) mainly due to the
civil turmoil coming from invasion and war. The fact that the Bhikkhuni Sangha was not
re-established in the last decades of the 11 th century when Sri Lanka was again peaceful
strongly suggests that there were few if any bhikkhunis in neighbouring lands, such as
India or Burma, who could be invited to Sri Lanka to re-establish the tradition. For, as
explained above, to ordain another bhikkhuni one requires a minimum of five existing
bhikkhunis; once their number drops to below five then the Institution is doomed.
For many centuries the Buddhists in Sri
Lanka, Thailand and Burma have assumed that the Order of Bhikkhunis died out ages ago and
that it is impossible to revive. To compensate for this, other female monastic traditions
have been established by the monks to help give the opportunity to women to live a simple
meditative life. Such an Order is that of the white robed nuns of Thailand keeping the 8
Precepts and such a nun was Sister Rocana. But being a later addition, this ordination
lacks the status of having been established by the Buddha and lacks the authority of an
ancient tradition and thus social and cultural prejudices have been able to take root and
prevail. For this reason many senior monks, such as Ajahn Sumedho in England for example,
have attempted to revive and build upon the female novice ordination. Though still less
than a bhikkhuni, a female novice wears brown and essentially keeps 10 precepts, the last
of which is abstaining from the use or possession of money. Thus a female novice is more
of a renunciant than the white robed Thai nun, and, wearing robes similar in appearance to
those of a monk, she may get more of the respect she deserves.
There has even been much discussion
recently, that is in the last decade or so, that it may be possible to revive the full
bhikkhuni ordination. There are bhikksunis of the Mahayana tradition in Taiwan and Hong
Kong. 'Bhikksuni' is merely the Sanskrit (the language of Mahayana) equivalent to our
'Bhikkhuni'. If it turns out that the ordination procedure used by the Mahayana bhikksunis
contains the vital ingredient of a formal resolution, put three times to a gathering of at
least 5 bhikkhunis, informing those gathered that the candidate wishes for ordination as a
bhikkhuni and asking their approval, then the ordination is probably valid by Therevada
standards. Should this be so, and I have no information on this at present, then we may
see the full female counterpart of the monks restored to the Theravada tradition.
Whatever the technicalities, one should
always keep in mind the old English proverb: "Where there is a will, there is a
way". I am often amazed to see how far rules can be bent under the weight of
compassion. All it needs is the motive for doing the bending, and that motive will
increase as do the numbers of women who show by their example a willingness to surrender
to a renunciant's life.
Ajahn Brahmavamso
(BSWA Newsletter, January-March 1990)
Buddhist Society of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Update: 01-12-2000