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Course Format, Requirements, and Grading Course Schedule: Discussion Issues, Readings, Papers Topics, and Due Dates |
Women and
Buddhism Instructor Ding-hwa E. Hsieh Institution Dept. of Religion, Reed College Course Level and Type undergraduate/graduate seminar Hours of Instruction 39 hours, 3hrs/week Enrolment and Last Year Taught 10 students; Fall 1997 |
This course will examine how women are perceived in various Buddhist traditions---Theravada (India and Sri Lanka) and Mahyna (Tibetan, China, and Japan)---as well as women's responses and contributions to Buddhism. We will examine the biographies of religious women, records of female deities, women's literary compositions, and issues about women and the feminine in Buddhist literature. We will also be seeking to understand the images, roles, and experiences of women in Buddhism, the Buddhist concepts of gender and sexuality, and the Buddhist views toward women's capacities for spiritual perfection. Readings will be taken from texts in translation and secondary studies.
Course Format, Requirements, and Grading
Meet one hour and 30 mins. every Tue. and Thur.
The meetings will proceed mainly based on seminar format. Each student will be asked to identify the main issues raised in the week's assigned reading and raise questions for class discussion. Therefore, class preparation, attendance, and participation for each meeting are both mandatory and important.
1. Class attendance and discussion. (20% of the grade). Note: Please bring the readings to the classroom.
2. Four short papers and one short assignment: double spaced, 3-5 pages. (80%) Altogether there are 8 paper topics (4 before the midterm and four before the end of semester). You need to choose two to write before the midterm and two after the midterm. Each paper will cover some readings that are not yet, but will be, discussed in our conference. In addition, each time one of your classmates will be the reader of your paper. During the conference, we will spend 20 minutes or so on these papers; the reader has to summarize and make comments on the paper for the rest of the class. Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that you have to finish your paper before our discussion of those readings and also let your reader have enough time to contemplate your paper. Note: To be fair to everybody, no late paper will be accepted.
1). Cabezon, Jose Ignacio, ed. Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.
2). Gross, M. Rita. Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.
3). King, Sallie B. Journey in Search of the Way: The Spiritual Autobiography of Satomi Myd. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.
4). Murcott, Susan. The First Buddhist Women: Translation and Commentaries on the Therigatha. California, Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991.
5). Paul, Diana Y. Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in Mahyna Tradition. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.
6). Shaw, Miranda. Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
7). Tsai, Kathryn Ann, trans. Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1972.
Suggested Readings
Atkinson, Clarissa W. et al, eds. Immaculate and Powerful: The Female in Sacred Image and Social Reality. Boston: Beacon Press, 1985.
Falk, Nancy Auer and Rita Gross, eds. Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1989.
Horner, I. B. Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen. Delhi: 1990.
Klein, Anne C. Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.
Mullins, Mark R. et al, eds. Religion & Society in Modern Japan. Cal. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1993.
Queen, Christopher and Sallie B. King, eds. Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.
Tsomo, Karma Lekshe, ed. Sakyadhita: Daughters of the Buddha. New York: Snow Lion Publications, Inc., 1988.
Young, Serinity. An Anthology of Sacred Texts by and about Women. New York: Crossroad, 1994.
Course Schedule: Discussion Issues, Readings, Papers Topics, and Due Dates
I."Early Buddhist Attitudes toward Women and the Feminine"
Week 1
9/2 (Tue.)
Course format, purposes, requirements, and readings.
9/4 (Thur.)
1). Young, Anthology, pp. 306-313.
2). Paul, Women in Buddhism, Introduction and Chapter 1.
Week 2
9/9 (Tue.)
1). Falk, Nancy Auer . "An Image of Women in Old Buddhist Literature---The Daughter of Mara," in Women and Religion, eds. Judith Plaskow and Joan Arnold Romero (Missoula, Montana: Scholars' Press for the American Academy of Religion, 1974), pp. 105-112.
2). Sponberg, Alan. "Attitudes toward Women and the Feminine in Early Buddhism" in Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, pp. 3-36.
9/11 (Thur.)
1). Paul, Women in Buddhism, pp. 77-94.
2). Murcott, The First Buddhist Women, pp. 3-56, pp. 196-199.
Week 3
9/16 (Tue.)
Murcott, The First Buddhist Women, pp. 57-138, 169-195.
9/18 (Thur.)
1). Falk, Nancy Auer. "The Case of the Vanishing Nuns: The Fruits of Ambivalence in Ancient Indian Buddhism," in Unspoken Worlds, pp. 207-224.
2). Richman, Paula. "Gender and Persuasion: The Portrayal and Beauty, Anguish, and Nurturance in an Account of a Tamil Nun," in Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, pp. 111-136.
Week 4
9/23 (Tue.)
1). Wilson, Elizabeth. "The Female Body as a Source of Horror and Insight in Post-Ashokan Indian Buddhism," Law, ed. Religious Reflections on the Human Body, pp. 76-99.
II. "Images and Roles in Mahyna Buddhist Literature"
9/25 (Thur.)
Paul, Women in Buddhism, Chapter 2 (pp. 95-105), 3, and 4.
Week 5
9/30 (Tue.)
1). Paul, Women in Buddhism, Chapt. 5.
2) Schuster, Nancy. "Changing the Female Body: Wise Women and the Bodhisattva Career in Some Maharatnakutasutras " in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 4 (1981): 24-69.
10/2 (Thur.)
1). Paul, Women in Buddhism, Chapt. 6.
2). Kajiyama Yuichi, "Women in Buddhism" Eastern Buddhists, New Series, 15, no. 2 (1982): 53-70.
Week 6
10/7 (Tue.)
1). Paul, Women in Buddhism, Chapters 7, 8 and Conclusion.
2). Gross, M. Rita. Buddhism After Patriarchy, Chapter 5 (pp. 55-77).
10/9 (Thur.)
1). Sangren, P. Steven. "Female Gender in Chinese Religious Symbols: Kuan-yin, Ma Tsu, and the 'Eternal Mother'" Signs 9 (Autumn 1983): 5-25.
2). Barbara E. Reed, "The Gender Symbolism of Kuan-yin Bodhisattva," in Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender. pp. 159-180.
Week 7
10/14 (Tue.)
1). Diana Paul, "Empress Wu and the Historians: A Tyrant and Saint of Classical China," in Unspoken Worlds, pp. 191-206.
Video Tape: Chun-fang Yu, "Kuan-yin Pilgrimage" (56 mins) "Filmed on location in the People's Republic of China, this documentary records the pilgrimages of Chinese Buddhists to celebrate the birthday of Kuan-yin, one of the most significant yearly events for this divinity's devotees. Two principal pilgrimage sites in China---the Upper Tien-chu Monastery and P'u-t'o Island---provide the setting for the devotional practices depicted. Especially featured are pre-dawn rituals, distinctively all-night vigils, and the singing of devotional songs to Kuan-yin on her birthday amid bustling scenes of hundreds of worshippers performing age-old acts of devotion. This film provides vivid evidence of the revival of Buddhism in post-Mao China."
10/16 (Thur.)
1). Levering, Miriam. "Lin-chi (Rinzai) Ch'an and Gender: The Rhetoric of Equality and the Rhetoric of Heroism," in Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, pp. 137-156.
(handout) 2). Hsieh, Ding-hwa, trans. "Image of Women in Sung Ch'an Literature."
3). Young, Anthology, pp. 323-326.
Suggested Reading: Farris, Catherine S. "Gender and Grammar in Chinese: With Implications for Language Universals," in Modern China, vol. 14.3 (July 1988): 277-308.
Week 8 Fall Break
Week 9
10/28 (Tue.)
1). Gross, M. Rita. Buddhism After Patriarchy, pp. 3-54, 125-151.
10/30 (Thur.)
1). Gross, M. Rita. Buddhism After Patriarchy, pp. 157-206.
2). Cabezon, Jose Ignacio. "Mother Wisdom, Father Love: Gender-based Imagery in Mahayana Buddhist Thought," in Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender. aapp. 181-199.
Week 10
11/4 (Tue.)
1). Gross, M. Rita. Buddhism After Patriarchy, pp. 79-121.
2). Shaw, Miranda. Passionate Enlightenment, Chapters 1-2 (pp. 1-34).
11/6 (Thur.)
Shaw, Passionate Enlightenment, Chapters 3-6 (pp. 35-178).
Week 11
11/11 (Tue.)
1). Shaw, Passionate Enlightenment, Chapters 7 and 8 (pp. 179-205).
2). Reginald A. Ray, "Accomplished Women in Tantric Buddhism of Medieval India and Tibet," in Unspoken Worlds, pp. 191-200.
III. "Nuns in Asian Countries"
11/13 (Thur.)
1). Klein, Anne C. "Primordial Purity and Everyday Life: Exalted Female Symbols and the Women of Tibet," in Clarissa W. Atkinson et al, eds. Immaculate and Powerful: The Female in Sacred Image and Social Reality, pp. 111-138.
2). Anne C. Klein, "Finding a Self: Buddhist and Feminist Perspectives." In Shaping New Vision: Gender and Values in American Culture, eds. Clarissa W. Atkinson, Constance H. Buchanan, and Margaret R. Miles, pp. 191-218. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987.
Week 12
11/18 (Tue.)
1). Schuster, Nancy. "Striking a Balance: Women and Images of Women in Early Chinese Buddhism," in Women, Religion, and Social Change, edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Ellison Banks Findly, pp. 87-112.
2). Tsai, trans. Lives of the Nuns, pp. 1-66.
11/20 (Thur.)
1). Tsai, trans. Lives of the Nuns, 67-112.
2). Y. Y. Tsu, "Diaries of Chinese Buddhist Nun: Tzu Kuang," in Journal of Religion 7. 5-6 (1927): 612-618.
Suggested Reading:
3). Tsomo, Karma Lekshe, ed. Sakyadhita: Daughters of the Buddha. pp. 103-123.
Week 13
11/25 (Tue.)
1. Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, "No Women's Liberation: The Heritage of A Woman Prophet in Modern Japan," in Unspoken Worlds, pp. 174-190.
2. King, Sallie B. Journey in Search of the Way, pp. 1-65.
11/27 (Thur.) Thanksgiving
Written Exercise: Rewrite Satomi Myodo's autobiography into third-person narrative (do not exceed three pages).
Week 14
12/2 (Tue.)
King, Sallie B. Journey in Search of the Way, pp. 66-111, 135-206.
12/4 (Thur.)
1). Arai, Paula K. R. "Soto Zen Nuns in Modern Japan," in Mark R. Mullins et al, eds. Religion & Society in Modern Japan, pp. 203-218.
2). Bartholomeusz, Tessa. "The Female Mendicant in Buddhist Sri Lanka," in Buddhism, Gender, and Sexuality. pp. 37-61.
Suggested Reading: Tsomo, Karma Lekshe, ed. Sakyadhita: Daughters of the Buddha. pp. 124-130.
Week 15
12/9 (Tue.)
Barnes, Nancy J. "Buddhist Women and the Nuns' Order in Asia," in Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, edited by Christopher Queen and Sallie B. King, pp. 259-294.
I'd like to thank Professor Chun-fang Yu of Rutgers University for sharing her course syllabus "Women in Eastern Religions" with me. The purpose in teaching this course is to provide students with an insightful perspective of women's roles and experiences in Buddhism from the past to the present. We start from traditional Buddhist sutras in order to understand how women are perceived in various Buddhist texts and traditions, then examine the records of women Buddhists, both lay and ordained, written either by women themselves or by male authors, and end with works concerning contemporary nuns' communities in various countries. We also read modern scholarly works on women and Buddhism so as to understand how scholars approach this subject. Indeed, it is interesting to see different scholars would give different interpretations to a certain doctrinal issue regarding women and the feminine.
The course has no prerequisite. Certainly, for students without any Buddhist background knowledge, they need guidance in gaining a general idea (or a short-cut way) about the history and doctrine of Buddhism. Every time when we start a new Buddhist tradition/school, I use lecture to help students understand the materials they are going to read and contemplate.
Both the reading and writing load is reasonable and students can finish them before coming into classroom. Class discussion goes well and many of the readings are considered interesting and insightful. Professor Chun-fang Yu's film "Kuan-yin Pilgrimage" helps students to understand the significance of this goddess in contemporary Chinese religious life. More films like this should be introduced to students.
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