Say, she, you, show. Clear, resolve, courageous life. Thank you. Well, I wanted to share with you something I stumbled upon and had thought about many years ago,

[01:19]

I had the idea that if I could find the most ancient teachings, they would know. They would be able to answer my questions very clearly. And then I forgot about it until very recently, I was wandering around the library here at BCC and came upon a book that is a story of the Terigata women who lived during the Buddha's time and how they formed into communities. So, I started reading it and then I really got fascinated with it and started picking up other books because they were talking about the Buddha in a very different way than what I've read in, not the Diamond Sutra so much, the Diamond Sutra always

[02:48]

The Buddha acknowledges women, but in the Theravadan teachings, the reference is always to the monks and not the nuns. And it seems like there was a revolution of a sort that reminds me very much of the women's struggle today. During the time of Mahapajapati, she was the first nun, the founding nun of the order of the Terrigada women.

[03:50]

So that was 2,500 years ago, and that was a long time. There was very little, if anything, that I could find before that. So I started reading the poems that were written by these nuns and I started to resonate with it. It was a kind of an eye-opener because Mahapajapati who had a following of 500 nuns, was taking her teachings directly from the Buddha.

[05:01]

She sat at his side along with some of the other nuns, and he spoke with her directly, and he never skipped over her gender, So I put myself, when I read these poems and stories of their lives, they're poems and stories that I put myself in their place and tried to imagine what it was like and it's not that hard to imagine. So, I'm going to read something.

[06:04]

Terry means women elders. or women who have grown old in knowledge. Gata is a song or a stanza. The Teri Gata was passed on orally through 600 years. So 600 years is a long time to pass on words. So they had ways of doing this. Then on the first century, the poems were written down in Pali and they were then put into the Tripitaka, the three baskets of the Buddhist teaching.

[07:12]

There are 73 poems, and who they could be attributed to, they say on the poem, this is Upalavana speaking, but it may not be because They did not have a tradition of ownership of words like copyrights back then. Their point was to just get the message out. So Mahapajapati, I'm going to call her Pajapati. Pajapati means leader of a great assembly.

[08:20]

Her sister was Maya and she is the one that gave birth to Siddhartha. So Pajapati and Maya married Yusodhana who was the chief of the Shakya clan and Maya was the first to get pregnant and a week later she died and there is no record of why she died, how she died. It's just assumed she died due to complications of childbirth. So Pajapati took over the raising of Siddhartha and became his stepmother.

[09:44]

It's interesting to me that I wondered where the 500 nuns came from that were part of Pashapati's first order. And a number of them came from a war that broke out between the two clans, the Shakya clan and the Koliya clan over water rights. And that struck me because water rights is a major issue here in the United States. The Native American Indians who I was going to work with at one time when I was working in law could not understand

[10:58]

how people could buy the right to their water and leave them with nothing. And this is what was happening in Northern India 2,500 years ago. So, The death of many men created a complication in the lives of the women that were left. They did not have a male leader, so to speak, which was required pretty much during that time

[12:05]

Women were not, I wouldn't say they weren't free, because they were free, but they weren't free. They were under the leadership of the males in their house. So these women came to Pajapati and asked her to help them. So she said, would you like to join the order and come with me and meet the Buddha? Which they did. Many of them did. Along with them, when Buddha's father died, he had

[13:07]

Not only did he leave his wife, Siddhartha, he left his harem. He had a harem. And that left quite a few women, when his father died, kind of bereft. So she took the women that came to her into the order according to the rules of the day and took them all to meet Shakyamuni. The longing of these women, whatever form it took, became their spiritual aspiration.

[14:24]

So when you wonder about practice, it all comes down to yourself, your own spiritual aspiration. Whether you're a man or a woman, it does not matter. And I think Shakyamuni believed that because it's expressed through the Diamond Sutra and others that women were equal to men, equal in a in a true sense, not in tasks or things that they can do. All of these women had personal stories that were lost.

[15:50]

And they had a particular experience of what the Buddha called the first noble truth, which is stepping into the Buddhist path to experience the first noble truth. and then to look into yourself, because that is where the path leads. Pashapati recognized the powerful conjunction of events and people. An old and influential woman, and without further worldly obligations, she was surrounded by displaced wives, widows, consorts, dancers, and musicians.

[17:05]

Lacking other kin, these women were turning to her and to one another Having fully grasped this situation, Pajapati decided to take the following course, recounted in this. So I'm going to read this little piece here. Now at one time, the Buddha was staying among the Sakyans and Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Monastery. Mahapajapati Gautami went to the place where the Buddha was approached and greeted him. And standing at a respectful distance, spoke to him. It would be good, Lord, if women could be allowed to renounce their home and enter into the homeless state under the dharma and discipline of the Tathagata.

[18:08]

Enough, Gautami, don't set your heart on women being allowed to do this." A second and third time, Pashupati made the same request in the same words and received the same reply. And thinking that the Blessed One would not allow women to enter into homelessness, she bowed to him. And keeping her right side towards him, departed in tears. Then the Blessed One set out for Vasali. Pajapati cut off her hair, put on saffron-colored robes, and headed for Vasali. with a number of Shakyan women. She arrived at Kutagawa Hall in the great grove with swollen feet and covered with dust, weeping.

[19:12]

She stood there outside the hall." This is an interesting argument that is presented here, so I'm going to read it. Seeing her standing there, the Venerable Ananda asked, why are you crying? because Ananda, the blessed one, does not permit women to renounce their homes and enter into the homeless state under the dharma and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata. Then the venerable Ananda went to the Buddha, bowed before him, and took his seat to the one side. He said, Pajapati is standing outside under the entrance porch with swollen feet covered with dust and crying because you do not permit women to renounce their homes and enter into the homeless state.

[20:14]

It would be good, Lord, if women were to have permission to do this, Enough, Ananda. Don't set your heart on women being allowed to do this." A second and a third time, Ananda made the same request and the same word and received the same reply. Then Ananda thought, the blessed one does not give his permission. Let me try asking on other grounds. Are women able, Lord, when they have entered into homelessness to realize the fruits of stream entry, once returning, non-returning, and arhatship? Yes, Ananda, they are able. If women then are able to realize perfection, And since Pajapati was of great service to you, she was your aunt, your nurse, foster mother.

[21:25]

When your mother died, she even suckled you at her own breast. It would be good if women could be allowed to enter into homelessness. If then, Ananda, Pajapati accepts the eight special rules Let that be reckoned as her ordination. It must have been evident to the Buddha that Pajapati and the group of women with her, who had walked 150 miles barefoot with head shaved, saffron colored robes of the already ordained, would not accept no for an answer. The sight of these women in their unshakable sincerity must have made a vivid impression, not only on the sympathetic Ananda, their resolve was audacious in a culture where humility and obedience were desirable traits in women.

[22:32]

Perhaps the eight special rules, the acceptance of which a requisite to women's ordination were a bulwark against any possible future boldness. Though the eight special rules clearly relegated women to a secondary status, Pashupati accepted them in order to achieve her primary goal of establishing an order of nuns. So Pajapati makes a request. I would ask one thing of the Blessed One, Ananda. It would be good if the Blessed One would allow making salutations, standing up in the presence of another, paying reverence and the proper performance of duties to take place equally between both bhikshus and bhikshunis, according to seniority.

[23:43]

Previously, or up until this point, the Buddha does not allow for any change in the eight rules. The eight rules are, one of the eight rules, the one that I think reflects all of them, is the first one, which... Well, let me read this here. I would ask one thing of the Blessed One, Ananda. It would be good if the Blessed One would allow making salutations, standing up in the presence of another. Previously, an old or a high-ranked nun would have to bow before the lowest monk, one who just arrived, say.

[24:57]

And that is something she's fighting against. And the venerable Ananda went to the Blessed One and repeated her words to him. This is impossible, Ananda, and I cannot allow it. Even those teachers of false dharma don't permit such conduct in relation to women. How much less can a Tathagata allow it? In Pachapati's attempt to change the first and most blatantly sexist rule, we can understand that she was not in sympathy with the discrimination the rules reflected. Her request also indicates a radical democratic orientation. It comes at a time when even the ancient Greeks who have been credited with founding democratic rule

[26:07]

only allowed free non-slave, people who were not designated as slaves, males the privilege of citizenship. So in their time they still had slavery, but it was, it was more like if you were a slave in a beautiful home, it was nice. If you were a field worker, it was not. Living in the palace of material well-being was what caught my eye because we all here are living in a palace of well-being pretty much, but we have things that bother us.

[27:32]

We are bothered a lot by our circumstances, no matter how good they are. So... So the first noble truth is just to realize that you are suffering. or not happy for some reason, and that for some reason is the unknown of that. It's only something you can find out on your own. Looking deeply into suffering is the second noble truth. It's where you would discover

[28:38]

What's the cause? If there was a way to overcome pain, healing would be possible. And the Therigata nuns discovered that the way was the Eightfold Path. And they co-created with the Buddha the Eightfold Path, which, for the sake of it, I'm going to run it by you. Right understanding, right mindfulness, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right attention, and right concentration. And these are the practices that we do here without naming them that.

[29:48]

And they can all, all eight of them, they are all related to each other. So I did a lot of research You can tell by these yellow tags. So the poems... I just want to read one poem or two. Kisa Gotami... I think she was one of Patachara's disciples. She says, I have finished with the death of my child.

[30:56]

The men belong to that past. I don't grieve. I don't cry. I'm not afraid of you, friend. Everywhere the love of pleasure is destroyed. The great dark is torn apart and death, you too, are destroyed. This is an enlightenment poem. What time is it?

[31:58]

Am I running late? You should have told me. I should have asked. Are there any questions? No, not exactly. They were a contributor to what the Buddha was preaching at the time. And a lot of these people were family members. The people that followed him were family members. And Allen, Yes.

[33:05]

Right. Yes. Right. That's how they pass them down. They pass them down the enlightenment poems. And there are not very many. 73 is not a lot compared to the... But then, you know, when they were finally written down in the Pali, that is around the time the Mahayana started to come into being. And then after that, the Majamaka, like the second century, the teachings of Nagarjuna, and then there was a shift and the Terrigata died out so the loss of that is not really recognized which I just touched on it this is just

[34:32]

a little bit of what is the Therigata. And there are Theravadan nuns these days that are teaching, and I want to go and talk to them, which I'm planning to do, to see what they think of the future, to see what they think of what has happened to them and the world, because this has been like one thing moving forward. Any other questions? Wendy, hi. Huh.

[35:55]

Yeah. He could have been if they did that. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, it would be right. Yeah. Oh, you can't hear her. She thought, well, can you say it louder? Okay.

[38:02]

Can we wait for one more question? Huh? Yeah? Ross? Well, I feel like for years, All the stuff that I've studied has been from the male point of view, pretty much. Occasionally I read Darlene Cohen.

[39:32]

And I never paid any attention to that. I just did what everyone else did, assumed that it was implied that the woman was included. But when I started reading this, I noticed that there were only women talking. And she was recognized and held up as a valuable asset, a valuable being. And that was so long ago. And I wondered why it died out. So the curiosity got to me. So that's why I thought I'd bring it to you too, just in case anyone here takes an interest in it.

[40:35]

Okay.

[40:39]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ