RELB 3150 SEMINAR ON GENDER AND BUDDHISM

Karen Lang

436 Gibson Hall, kcl@virginia.edu Office hours M and T (2:30-3:30) and by appointment 

Tuesday 3:30-6
 Nau 341

 Description: This seminar takes as its point of departure Carolyn Bynum's statements: "No scholar studying religion, no participant in ritual, is ever neuter. Religious experience is the experience of men and women, and in no known society is this experience the same."  The unifying theme of this seminar is gender and Buddhism.  We will explore historical, textual and social questions relevant to the status of men and women in the Buddhist world from the time of Buddhism's origins to the present day. Materials will be interdisciplinary, drawing from history of religion, anthropology, and gender studies, and the seminar will endeavor to draw out the connections between these often-divergent discourses.



Course Requirements and Grading:
 1.  Regular attendance. Unexcused absences from class will lower your final course grade.
 2.  Active participation in class discussions.  This class is designed as a seminar in which we all can collectively engage in critical thinking about the reading materials.  You should come to every class prepared to discuss the readings of the week.  Active participation includes posing discussion questions pertaining to each reading, as well as having one critique and one strong/interesting point per article ready to bring up in class discussion.
3.  Class presentations: Students will lead discussions and/or give presentations on either on topics  related to the week's readings or on related topics of interest. The purpose of the presentation is not to summarize the reading, since everyone should have read it, but to set the stage for the class discussion by providing ideas and questions, and highlighting problems or issues you think deserve further discussion. Your task is somehow to stimulate the class into thinking critically and creatively about the material. These presentations might also include invited guest speakers, discussions of ideas and issues not covered in the assigned readings.

4. Written Assignments, TWO SHORT PAPERS (ca. 7-10 pages each) For the first paper (due March 10^th) choose 3 (or more) short selections from The Hidden Lamp and analyze/reflect on the stories and contemporary comments on them.  For the second paper (due by May 7^th) choose any topic (or format, e.g. research paper, essay, cycle of poems, etc.) that interests you. 


Required Books

 

Caplow, Florence and  Susan Moon, eds. The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women

Findly, Ellison, ed. Women’s Buddhism, Buddhism’s Women

Powers, John, A Bull of a Man: Images of Masculinity, Sex, and the Body in Indian Buddhism

Shaw, Miranda, Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism


* Readings available on class Collab site (marked with an *)


CLASS SCHEDULE AND READINGS

 

Jan 14: Introduction: Buddhism and Gender

Reading *Wilson, “Buddhist Views on Gender and Desire.”

Jan 21: Gender and the Image of the Buddha

Readings: Powers, chaps 1 and 2, and “Yasodhara’s Path” in Caplow and Moon, pp. 147-149.

Jan 28: Gender and the Monastic Community

Readings:  Barnes, “The Nuns at the Stupa” Findly pp. 17-36; Powers, chap. 3; and *Gyatso, “Buddhist Sex.”

Feb 4: The Company of Men and Women

Readings: Findly, “Women Teachers of Women” in Findly, pp. 133-55; Powers, chapter 5;  “Punnika and the Brahman’s Purification” ,”Patacara’s Presence of Mind” pp.  93-95, 197-200 in Caplow and Moon; and *Zwilling, "Homosexuality Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts." 

Feb 11: Sexual Deception and the Transformative Power of the Meditative Gaze.

Readings: Powers, chap. 4; “Soma Rebukes Mara” in Caplow andMoon, pp. 210-212; * Snelling, Songs of the Sons and Daughters of Buddha;  *Wilson, Charming Cadavers, pp. 77-110 and *Young, “Female Mutability and Male Anxiety in an Early Buddhist Legend.”

Feb 18: Sexual Transformations

Readings: Powers, chap. 6; “Vasumitra Teaches Freedom from Passion” , “The Goddess’s Transformations”  “The Naga Princess’s Enlightenment” , “The Goddess and the Flowers” pp. 121-124, 207-209, 237-240, 325-328 in Caplow and Moon; and *Paul, ” “Bodhisattvas Without Sexual Transformation.”  

 Feb 25: Sex, Gender, and Power in Ch’an/Zen Discourses

Readings: *Faure, “Ideology of Transgression"; *Levering, “Linchi (Rinzai) Ch’an and the Rhetoric of Equality and the Rhetoric of Heroism”; “Eshun’s Deep Thing” and “The Old Woman Steals Zhaozhou’s Bamboo Shoots” in Caplow and Moon, pp. 114-116, 170-72, and *Stevens, Wild Ways (selected translations of Ikkyu’s poems) ; optional:* Childs,  "Monogatari. Love Stories or Buddhist Sermons?" 

Mar 4  Zen Dharma teachers and Heirs

Readings: Arai, "An Empowerment Ritual for Nuns in Contemporary Japan" in Findly, pp. 119-130, “Ohasi Awakens in a Brothel”, “The Old Woman’s Enlightenment “ “Satsujo Overthrows Hakuin”, ”Asan Claps Both Hands” , Satsujo Sits on the Lotus Sutra” in Caplow and Moon, pp. 41-43, 51-53; 167-169, 247-249, 253-255,  and  *Foster, “Hakuin”.

FIRST PAPERS DUE (via email) by 11:59pm March 10th

Mar 11 No class (Spring break)

Mar 18 Tantra: Gender and Tantric Ideology

Readings: Powers, chap. 7; Shaw, pp. 1-73, “Tara’s Vow” in Caplow and Moon, pp. 216-219, and *"Saraha" and *"Laksminkara".

Mar 25: Gender in Tantric Practice

Reading: Shaw, pp. 74-205; “The Old Woman and Naropa” in Caplow and Moon, pp. 267-270; optional *"Hopkins, The Compatibility of Reason and Orgasm in Tibetan Buddhism." 

Apr 1 Gender Politics: Ordination and Monastic Life

Readings: Falk, "Women in Between"; Chodron, "Western Buddhist Nuns"; Gutshow, "Novice Ordination for Nuns";  Kawanami, " Patterns of Renunciation" in’  Findly pp. 37-61, 81-96, 103-118; 159-71, “Mahaprajapati Opens the Door” , “Bhikkuni Kabilsingh Keeps the Precepts” and Uppalavanna and he precepts”  in Caplow and Moon, pp. 224-227, 315-317;318-321 and *Dreyfus, “Becoming a Monk.

Apr 8 Gender and Socio-Political Change

Readings: Young "Women Changing Tibet, Activism Changing Women" and  Lynch, "Sujata's Army" in Findly pp. 229-42, 247-57 and *Makley, “Gossip and the Silenced Body: Nunhood and Gender in Labrang” (chap. 4) and *Makley, “Monks are Men Two” (chapter 5). 

Apr 15 Issues in American Buddhism: Gender, Power and Change

Readings: Goodman, “An American Zen Teacher”; Whitehill," My Dharma Teacher Died Too Soon" and Willis, "Diversity and Race; in Findly pp. 172-73; 217-225, 303-316; 373-389; “Joko Beck and the Thought of Enlightenment” and Jiyu-Kennett’s Not bigger, Not Smaller” in Caplow and Moon, pp. 23-25, 86-89, and *Gross, "Helping the Iron Bird Fly: Western Women and Issues of Authority in the Late 1990s." 

Apr 22 Student Presentations

Apr 29 Conclusions

May 7^th (or earlier) final paper due