Controversy Over Ordination of Buddhist Nuns

The early sangha or Buddhist church was clearly divided into four groups laymen, laywomen, monks and nuns. However, the issue of ordination of nuns into Buddhist monastic life has been a controversial one since its foundation. Gender biased rules and regulations may have led to disinterest from female practitioners to enter the monastic life. Monasteries of nuns in many Asian countries and in many different schools of Buddhism have been unable to sustain themselves and merely disappeared. However, in recent years interest seems to be burgeoning from the female population and attempts have been made in many countries to reinstate ordained nuns. While this has been successfully accomplished in nations such as Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, controversy continues to arise as to the legitimacy and protocol appropriate in these ordinations. The controversy over the legitimacy of a nun's ordination is part of an ongoing debate, which can be traced to the first establishment of women as Buddhist monastics.

According to legend, Siddhartha Guatama originally established three branches to his sangha. Nuns were only later recognized after he was persuaded by his foster mother, Mahaprajapati Guatami, and his disciple Ananda. When approached by his foster mother and some other women Siddhartha told them that they should not wish to be admitted as nuns. This however did not deter the women, who found it a worthy cause to follow the Buddha despite his willingness to ordain them. They continued to follow the Buddha and to listen to his teachings until the disciple Ananda agreed to plead with the Buddha on behalf of the women.

Ananda approached the Buddha twice on their behalf. The Buddha repeated that the women should not wish to be admitted as nuns including that this would bring about great destruction. This continued rejection did not satiate the women's desire to join the order and they requested that Ananda return to 'the Blessed One a third time. Upon Ananda's third return and request for the women to be ordained, the Buddha is said to have agreed after reflecting and determining that rejecting the women again would cause mental anguish for Ananda. This would confuse the teachings that the Buddha had passed on to his disciple. The Buddha is said to have concluded the allowing women to be ordained would shorten the influence of his teachings by one half, but that this was better than allowing the teachings to become muddled by confusing Ananda. It is not clarified why the Buddha believed these things to be true of allowing women to practice the monastic life but in the end he gives permission to have them admitted as nuns. The women however were required to accept eight additional rules beyond those taken by monks. Most of these rules pertain to their interaction with monks and clearly set up nuns as hierarchically below monks.

Many scholars believe that these additional rules, which create a division between the genders, are to blame for the dying out of female monastic communities in many parts of the East. Nonetheless recent trends show a resurgence of female interest in the monastic community. Unfortunately the issue is far more complex than merely recreating lineages of nuns. Ordination of nuns must traditionally take place under the authority of both monks and nuns from a given lineage. The fact that many lines of nuns have died out completely makes them impossible to reestablish. In many countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Tibet nuns have been brought from other areas of the world to take place in the ordination ceremonies. However, the authority of such ordinations has been the source of much controversy because they are said to threaten the purity of a particular school of Buddhism.

The question of establishing female monastic communities throughout the Buddhist world has never been simple. Important questions must be pondered regarding the reasoning behind the Buddha's hesitation toward establishing a female monastic community or his imposition of stricter rules for nuns compared to monks. If it is in fact true, as many scholars believe, that his hesitation was in relation to the anticipated reaction from a conservative Indian society, then these issues should be reevaluated in light of a constantly changing world. Regardless of one's stance on these issues, it does not seem likely that the issues surrounding Buddhism and women will quickly disappear. However, in the greater scheme of Buddhist philosophy one must ask whether such controversy only leads to distraction from greater Buddhist teaching. Perhaps this was the Buddha's fear in the first place when he claimed that admitting women as nuns would shorten the life of his teachings.