Gender Roles In Buddhism

The worship of divinity under sexual emblems is very ancient in India. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantras have numerous references to male and female deities. Both the gods and the humans in the Rig Veda have male or female identity and are further designated as husbands and wives, sons or daughters. In Genesis, the first book of the Torah, God is said to have created humans: "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them" [1]. From that point on the text treats all humans as either male or female and establishes legal and moral status based on gender. This is true both of the traditional scripture and the later commentaries. We should know that these works and the associated practices

Division of humans into two sexes is assumed, and as a number of texts make clear, in the organization of the Buddhist community, the sangha, this division became important, though it certainly has no ultimate importance in Buddhism [1].

At first glance, one can immediately mistake Buddhism to boycott sexual activity but it is not so. Buddhists do not see sexual intimacy as the ultimate source of meaning in human existence. No form of sexual expression is seen of having any spiritual significance [2]. The goal of Buddhist practice is to conquer impermanent desires through the process of self- transformation and mindfulness and to attain enlightment as a result. This pathway naturally leads to celibacy famously known as “brahmacarya”. Buddhist practices tend to focus more on spirituality and celebration of the soul rather than idol worship like in

According to Buddhism, sexual cravings can be obsessive, blocking the path to enlightment. Issue of heterosexual or homosexual marriage is indifferent to Buddhism as marriage is seen as a purely secular matter having no spiritual significance [3]. The procreative purpose of sex, premarital sex, masturbation, oral sex, contraception are of no concern in Buddhist doctrine. Nowhere in the Alan Sponberg reading on Buddhism, do we come across women being branded with the traditional roles of childbearing, nursing, housekeeping, pleasing her husband etc. In fact, women are encouraged to purse monastic life. As Dr. Christine E. Gudorf in “The Erosion of Sexual Dimorphism states that not only does the erosion of sexual dimorphism challenge traditional religious teachings, but it also challenges the “moral authority of religions, most directly the moral authority of their teaching on sexual behavior”