The Maha-prajapati Bhiksuni Sutra

ISBN-13: 9783639667905 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 56 str.

Yang Che Ming

Opis

Rightly named for Maha-prajapati, the first bhiksuni (Buddhist nun), this sutra depicts the story of how the Buddhas foster-mother, in her sixties at Kapilavatthu (the Buddhas birthplace), begged the Buddha earnestly and continually to admit her and five hundred other lay women of the Sakya tribe into the monastic order. Viewed from the "Buddha-Only Vehicle" perspective of The Lotus Sutra, The Maha-prajapati Bhiksuni Sutra reveals the Buddhas compassionate will and vow to help the female practitioners consummate their quest for the ultimate nirvana-becoming a Buddha. In addition, He thus fulfilled His filial piety for His foster-mother. Though founded on The Eight Commands That Demand Respect for the Bhiksus (the eight rules prescribed by the Buddha as the precondition for admitting women into the monastic order), this sutra is not based on a secular patriarchic/male-chauvinist discriminatory view of the Sangha regarding women. What distinguishes this sutra from other sutras is that in it the Buddha explicated in great detail the womens delusive 84 sentiments and postures and explained the reasons to reach Arhaship by getting rid of the 84 feminine sentiments and postures.

O autorze

Cheming Yang, associate professor of English at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. His major research interests are Cultural Studies, Comparative Study of Western Philosophy and Buddhism, and Post-colonial Literary Theories.