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6 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

The Dharma has no Gender

By Āyasmā Aggacitta

The following interview with Āyasmā Aggacitta Or would you agree that the 8 Garudhammas are
was originally published in the January 2023 not really the teachings of the Buddha, as asserted
issue of Eastern Horizon under the Forum column. by some modern scholars, but inserted into the
However, there were some mistakes by the editorial teachings by monks in later years?
team in the earlier interview; hence, we have
reproduced the actual version as it should be in the No, I don’t.
following pages. We apologize to Āyasmā Aggacitta
for the previous errors. Can you provide some scriptural references from
your tradition that show both men and women have
equal opportunities to attain liberation?
During the Buddha’s time, men had the authorities
and were given wider choices, and thus the inferior
status of women was merely reflecting the social The only reference that I can recall is the account of
and political reality of the time. As a female sangha Āyasmā Ānanda asking the Buddha whether women
was a radical experiment by the Buddha, were the gone forth according to his teachings would be able
8 Garudhammas (SKt. Guru-dharma) a compromise to attain all the stages of awakening. The Buddha
for females to become nuns? answered in the affirmative.
We hardly know much about Yashodhara other than
The founding of the Bhikkhunī Saṅgha was by no means
that she became a nun. Are there scriptural sources
novel because there were already female renunciants
that explain some of her contributions during her
then. A bhikkhunī commits an offence of expiation
life time?
(pācittiya) if she gives a robe to a householder, or a male
or female renunciate (paribbājikā). A bhikkhu commits
I’m not aware of any in the Pāli Canon except for a
a similar offence if he personally hands food to a male
Yasodhara-therīyāpadāna, attributed to her in the
or female renunciate. I believe that the Buddha fully
Khuddaka Nikāya, which is obviously a very late work
understood the nature of women’s behavioural patterns
in which she describes her past kamma and aspirations
in general, particularly when relating to monks. For
related to her relationship with Sumedho the Buddha-
this reason he laid down the 8 garudhammas as a
to-be, and the desirable results of her past dāna.
precaution against their possible misbehaviour towards
However nothing is mentioned about her contributions
monks. In fact, shortly after Mahāpajāpatī readily
to society.
accepted the 8 garudhammas, she changed her mind
and appealed to the Buddha to allow bhikkhus and
Sometimes we hear comments by certain Buddhist
bhikkhunis to pay respects to each other according to
teachers that one is born a female because of
seniority. This was contrary to one of the garudhammas
bad karma being done in past lives. How do we
which required a bhikkhunī to pay respects to a newly
understand such negative comments about women?
ordained bhikkhu even if she had 100 years of seniority.
Not only was her appeal flatly refused by the Buddha
Two cases of gender change after full ordination were
but he also consequently decreed that bhikkhus are not
recorded in the Vinaya canon, one each among the
allowed to pay respects to any woman at all.
bhikkhus and bhikkhunis respectively. When they were