Dual ordination
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is now 14 years old
Our Encyclopedia recently received a wonderful opportunity for a major renewal on its 14th birthday . After many years of growing our Encyclopedia had become bit slow and sometimes even decided not to answer when people knocked on the door.
A very big thank you and blessings to Dmytro Rudiy (rudiy.nl) for his great work in upgrading the server, website and all of the infrastructure and helping make TBE fast and reliable again for everyone!
We kindly ask our readers to help us cover the cost of this important upgrade and also help with the ongoing costs of keeping the Encyclopedia alive and freely available.
or card
Every little donation helps and every one is deeply appreciated. 🙏🙏🙏
OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM 🙏🙏🙏
May blessings shower down on all of yous 🙏🙏🙏
dual ordination; ordination by a bhikshuni and a bhikshu sangha—is optimum and prescribed by the Buddha himself.
In fact, sramanerika and siksamana ordination are to be given by bhikshunis, and nuns should do their confession and restoration of precepts (sojong) before the bhikshuni sangha.
How are these to be accomplished if there are no bhikshunis ordained in the Tibetan Mulasarvastivada tradition at present?
Chinese texts establishing the unbroken lineage of Dharmagupta bkikshus going back to the Buddha and of bhikshunis going back to the first bhikshuni in China in 357 C.E.
We have clarified the ordination procedures followed in East Asian countries and found them sound.
We have also found vinaya passages indicating that a monks’ sangha alone can give the bhikshuni ordination.
Therefore, we are proposing some options for Tibetan vinaya masters to consider.
Without going into the intricacies of vinaya,
(1) nuns could receive dual ordination by a Dharmaguptka bhikshuni sangha and a Mulasarvastivadin monks’ sangha, with the new bhikshunis receiving the Mulasarvastivadin precepts, or
(2) nuns could be ordained as bhikshunis by a sangha consisting of Tibetan monks of the Mulsravastivadin tradition alone.
In either case, after the new bhikshunis have been ordained twelve years, they will be qualified to serve as the bhikshuni sangha in a dual ordination procedure.