Page 43 - EH68

FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 41

chapter for her to leave home. The layered nature of Buddhist texts What did you find personally most
ongoing negotiation and occasional and, therefore, Buddhist teachings, inspiring from your research of
conflict between Yeshe Tsogyal and that Buddhism is a dynamic and Yeshe Tsogyal?
and the various agents trying to living tradition.
persuade her to remain take up over For me, the inspiration I draw from
a quarter of the entire life story. The I would like to defer to a Tibetan my research of Yeshe Tsogyal is that
same struggle applies to many other Buddhist nun from Larung Buddhist of perseverance and dedication. I
Tibetan Buddhist women. Academy that I have interviewed to have discussed this in response to
answer this question. She is among question #6. However, I do have an
While many of us modern women the first generation of Tibetan additional lesson that I have learned
might have relatively more freedom Buddhist nuns to receive advanced in my research; this one is about
in choosing (or not choosing) to degrees in Buddhist scholasticism shifting our lenses.
live the domestic life, we could still and has served in teaching and
resonate with the unreasonable leadership roles at Larung for many For the longest time, the common
restraints or stereotypical years. I asked her the same question: (mis)conception is that women do
expectations placed on us. The how do we make sense of the Eight not play a central role in Tibetan
struggle for Yeshe Tsogyal to leave Garudhammas and, by extension, the Buddhism (or in many other forms
home serves as a metaphor for our misogynistic or sexist sentiments we of Buddhism). There are few female
ongoing pursuit to break free of find in Buddhist teachings? Her reply masters, little written by or about
all the bondages that limit us from was, perhaps surprising to some Tibetan Buddhist women, not to
flourishing and liberation. She was people, a historical and contextual mention the extremely limited
able to gain autonomy and leave one. For her, the historical Buddha, representations. To find traces of
home eventually, thanks to her Shakyamuni, lived in a society where Yeshe Tsogyal, I have to go to the
determination, perseverance, and women were afforded very limited peripheries: marginalia, colophons,
devotion. We should follow her opportunities and largely confined notes, inscriptions, and less-studied
example. at home. To have the Buddha making genres. I have also traveled to
claims such as “men and women many regions in the Himalayas
What would be your response are born equal and should share to find her footprint, and to see
if your students were to ask if equal responsibilities and resources” how she was worshipped and
the Eight Garudhammas – the would be extremely jarring and commemorated on the ground.
additional precepts required unsettling for most people of his This allows me to move away from
of nuns above and beyond the time. Therefore, he has to cater to the text-centric and canon-centric
monastic rule for monks – were his audience, just like the teaching of approach that historically defined
actually from the Buddha? upaya. The Buddha had to add extra many Buddhist Studies scholarship,
rules for female monastics. However, and to recenter women in the ways
This is the perfect example of how we now live in a different society they do Buddhism. Women may
diverse Buddhism can be, and where women enjoy unprecedented not make the biggest contribution
why it has spread so far and wide. access to educational, financial, and to the Buddhist textual tradition or
One of the issues I like to explore social resources. When it comes to scholasticism in the past, but their
with students in the classroom is the Eight Garudhammas, we are voices can be heard elsewhere,
how each iteration of Buddhism allowed to reevaluate whether it is or found on a different frequency.
– Theravada, Mahayana, Tantric, still appropriate and applicable for Taking the study of women in
Zen, and so on – treats the words us. She stopped short of saying that Buddhism seriously also allowed
of the Buddha differently, and how we should no longer abide by the me to find new ways of studying
wide-ranging their standard for Eight Garudhammas; however, in Buddhism. I hope this will also be an
“true” Buddhism can be. In these action, she certainly is not bound by inspiration for others. EH
explorations, students are always such restrictions!
reminded of the composite and