Women In Early Buddhism

In early Buddhism, women were provided the right to go forth into homeless life. In Buddhist tradition, one becomes a monk by going forth, which means abandoning household life and entering homelessness (Gethin, 87). This idea of renouncing household life is a way for monks to live the spiritual life that the Buddha experienced during his lifetime. Going forth was a significant ordination practiced only by men to show their devotion in Buddhism. Therefore, the Buddha rejected her stepmother’s, Maha-Pajapati, request to “renounced [her] home and enter the homeless state under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata” (Davis and Oldeberg, 320). In fact, the Buddha rejected her request three times. Fortunately, with the intervention of Ananda, the Buddha soon agreed to allow women to go

Lastly, there is a high chance that the Buddha’s rejection was because he was not sure how to organize a community of nuns. In the early days, there were no monastic buildings to sleep in and monks wore old robes, which might be a struggle for women (16). Therefore, these shows that the Buddha’s “hesitation” is not due the spiritual ability of women, but his desire to maintain Buddhism ideology and protect women once they enter the monastic life. In fact, he proclaimed that, “And be it women, be it men for whom such chariot doth wait, by that same car into Nibbana 's presence shall they come” (Barua, 61). This suggests that the Buddha actually value women because not only he did not doubt their capability to achieve Nirvana, which is the spiritual goal of Buddhism, but he wants to make sure that they are protected in the monastic community. Overall, the Buddha’s “hesitation” is not based on spiritual abilities nor status of women in the society, but rather due to institutional concerns, such as protection and security, and his goal to maintain the principles of