Chris,
I think that the historical Buddha we refer to had Compassion so well-flowered
that he did not ask women of his time to step out of roles or behaviors that
were so conditioned into them by their society, to roles where they might have
felt uncomfortable and encumbered, and hence disabled to practice. Nor did he
ask men of his time to do that.
Even in America, women have only very lately been sanctioned to serve in combat
duty on battlefields. As culture changes, it becomes time perhaps to modify
roles; usually not before. We could discuss which drives which, but to save
time I'll say I think it's actually mutual, but cultural change does a larger
share.
I think too that an awakened person does not break Precepts: Their maintenance
goes with the territory. To act otherwise is to go deliberately against our
nature. When we're awake, there is just our nature, and nothing and no one to
go against; and, one cannot be deliberate.
We continue to practice in order to remain awake, and thus to keep "studying"
the Precepts, as is said well.
--Joe
> Chris Austin-Lane <chris@...> wrote:
>
> Didn't Siddartha Gautama the World Honored one himself have some actions
> that could be described as sexist? He may have pushed the needle of his
> society towards being less sexist but I think to believe that an experience
> of awakening will remove all traces, structural, cultural and
> psychological, of our environment's negative characteristics is to be
> reborn a fox.
>
> To be sure living fully in each moment, seeing each person clearly will
> make for less racist or sexist behavior, but racism and sexism are not just
> operating at the individual level, they are large pervasive systems.
>
> Even to the point of slowing our responses on certain clever neurologic
> tests. I think Buddha would say, if you are racist, deal with it in the
> best possible way in the current situation.
------------------------------------
Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are
reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
