Gender
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 🙏🙏🙏
Gender (liṅga) is the fact of being either male or female (S.V,204). The Buddha described gender as being distinguished by either male (purisindriya) or female (itthindriya) thoughts, occupation, attire, interests, impulses, voice, appearance, scent, etc (A.I,1; IV,57). It is clear from this that he saw gender as a combination of material and psychological, inborn and acquired, factors. This means that while both genders are conditioned to a very high degree by their bodies, they do have the ability to transcend the psychological and social aspects of gender. Thus, as far as the potential to attain enlightenment is concerned, men and women are equal. The Buddha said that women are as capable of becoming enlightened as men (Vin.V,254): ‘Whether it be a woman or whether it be a man, whoever travels in the Chariot of Dhamma will draw close to Nirvāṇa.’ (S.I,33).
Despite this, women in traditional Buddhist cultures, as in most other cultures, have long been treated as inferior to men. This discrimination has also extended to the religious life generally and the monastic vocation in particular. In doing this, traditional Buddhist cultures have ignored the Buddha’s high ideal that the spiritual quest should be open to all despite status, race or gender. On the other hand, Buddhist cultures have never subjected women to purdah, genital mutilation, enforced widowhood, widow burning, etc. Occasionally the Buddhist scriptures mention hermaphrodites (paṇḍaka), people who are born with both male and female genitals (A.III,128). Hermaphroditism does not constitute a separate gender because it is a rare endocrine deformity, not a naturally occurring state. Hermaphroditism should not be confused with homosexuality, which is dispositional rather than biological.
‘Origins of Gender Differentiation and Sexuality as Represented in the Buddhist and Christian Genesis Myths,’ P. D. Premasiri, in Buddhist Studies,2001.