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Buddhist Scholars' Response to the Validity of Bhikkhuni Ordination

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Buddhist Scholars' Response to the Validity of Bhikkhuni Ordination Buddhist Scholars' Response to the Validity of Bhikkhuni Ordination for delivery to the Abbots at the World Abbots Meeting 7–9 December 2009 Thailand Table of Contents Scholarly Responses to Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s Letter Background............................................................................................................................Page 3 Formalities of the Law, Qualities of the Heart.......................................................................Page 4 Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi The Vinaya Rules and the Perth Bhikkhuni Ordination.........................................................Page 7 Ven. Ajahn Brahm A Response to Ajahn Thanissaro’s Letter on the...................................................................Page 8 Simultaneous Ordination of 2 or 3 Bhikkhunīs Ven. Ajahn Brahmali Ajahn Thanissaro's Letter on Bhikkhunis..............................................................................Page 13 Ven. Ajahn Sujato Bhikkhuni Preceptor's Response............................................................................................Page 16 Ven. Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni A Bhikkhuni's Response to Ven. Thanissaro's Theory..........................................................Page 20 Ven. Sudhamma Bhikkhuni Supplemental Scholarly Responses Beyond Gender: Going Beyond Gender Ambiguity in Theravada Forest Tradition.............Page 29 Ven. Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni Gender Discrimination in the Pali Canon..............................................................................Page 35 Ven. Bhikkhu Analayo Personal Reflections on Receiving Ordination as a Bhikkhuni.............................................Page 38 Ven. Vayama Bhikkhuni, Ven. Seri Bhikkhuni, Ven. Nirodha Bhikkhuni, Ven. Hasapanna Bhikkhuni 2 | Page Background Four women from Dhammasara Nuns' Monastery in Perth Australia were fully ordained as bhikkhunis in the Theravada tradition at Bodhinyana Monastery on October 22, 2009 by the dual ordination proceedure (bhikkhuni upasampada kammavaca) of the Pali texts. They were ordained first by eight members of the Theravada Bhikkhuni Sangha and then directly afterwards their ordination was confirmed by ten members of the Theravada Bhikkhu Sangha, thus fulfilling the qualifications for a dual ordination. The ordination proceedings were prepared and reviewed beforehand for orthodoxy and accuracy by a team of Vinaya scholars, and were audited during the ordination by Ven Ayya Santini Theri. Afterwards, on request, the ordination proceedings were shared with Wat Pah Pong Monastery in Thailand for their review. On request of the Administrative Council of Wat Nong Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah's monastery in Thailand, well-known Vinaya scholar and author Thanissaro Bhikkhu reviewed the ordination proceedings and then wrote a letter in which he proposed a potential and tentative inferential theory on Vinaya for consideration of the World Abbots Meeting (WAM) at Wat Pah Pong in December 2009. This letter was concerned with whether the recent full bhikkhuni ordination of four women in Australia could be determined invalid according to the Buddhist Monastic Discipline of the Pali-text Vinaya, the rendition of the Vinaya learned and practiced by Theravadan Buddhist traditions around the world. It is important to undersand that the contents of this letter were requested for the sake of discussion and consideration of the WAM and where not meant to be an absolute proclamation, verdict or declaration or any sort. Ajahn Thanissaro was called upon as a consultant. Despite the great respect in which Ven Thanissaro is held for his scholarship, he is not in a position of authority regarding Vinaya within the Wat Pah Pong community and its affiliates, nor within the many Orders and Communities of Theravada Buddhism other than his own. Each of these Communities (Sanghas) and Orders (Nikayas) have their own responsibility and authority to decide internally upon issues of Vinaya. Whether Wat Pah Pong determines the ordinations to be considered valid for their own community or not does not legally effect the ordinations validity within the greater International Buddhist Sangha. Ajahn Thanissaro's Letter Ven Thanissaro Bhikkhu's letter, originally sent to former abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat (International Forest Monastery) Ajahn Nyanadhammo, has been posted on the Dhammalight website for review. Buddhist Scholars' Response In response to this internet publication, a number of Theravadan Buddhist scholars and Vinaya scholars have reviewed Ajahn Thanissaro's work and, notably, have NOT found his argument valid, nor come to the conclusion he proposed. Rather, the conclusion of each of these scholars has been contrary to Ven Thanissaro's in this case, that is, finding no reasonable precedent in Dhamma or Vinaya to consider the new bhikkhunis' ordinations invalid. 3 | Page Bhikkhu Bodhi Formalities of the Law, Qualities of the Heart: A Response to Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s Letter of Nov. 13, 2009 In his letter of November 13th Thanissaro Bhikkhu objects on grounds of formal procedure to the validity of the bhikkhuni ordination held in Western Australia on October 22nd. I do not think his objections can withstand examination. The crux of his argument concerns the bearings that Bhikkhuni Pacittiya 83 has on the legitimacy of the proclamations proposing the candidates for admission to the Sangha. Pacittiya 83 assigns a pacittiya offense to a bhikkhuni who ordains more than one pupil a year. According to Ven. Thanissaro, since proclamations that propose two candidates under a single sponsor (pavattini) would necessarily violate this rule, the proclamations are illegitimate and therefore the ordination is invalid. In evaluating this critique, we should first note that nothing in the formulation of Bhikkhuni Pacittiya 83 or its analysis declares that a second pupil ordained by the sponsor (pavattini) in the same year is anupasampanna, “not ordained.” This contrasts significantly with the case of Bhikkhu Pacittiya 65, which ascribes a pacittiya offense to a bhikkhu who ordains a man under the age of twenty and then adds, of the man who went through the forms of ordination, “and that person is not ordained” (so ca puggala anupasampanno). Thus the verdict that the candidates are not validly ordained is inferential. It is an inference that extends beyond what is stated in the text of the Vinaya itself. It is not supported by a fitting analogy with an established precedent in the text and it is therefore questionable that we need affirm it. We should note that an act of ordination does not have to be perfect in all respects in order to be valid. There are in fact several cases mentioned in the Bhikkhuni Vinaya in which a defect in the ordination procedure does not invalidate the ordination itself. For example, Bhikkhuni Pacittiyas 63 and 64 require that a candidate for ordination should have trained “for two years in six special rules” and received authorization from her Sangha to take ordination. However, the "variant cases" sections attached to these rules establish that ordination given to a candidate who has not fulfilled these requirements can still be valid (dhammakamma). According to these rules, the preceptor receives a pacittiya for conducting the ordination while the other bhikkhunis who participate incur dukkaṭas (a very minor type of offense), but, other things being equal, the ordination remains valid and the candidate emerges a bhikkhuni. If, under Bhikkhuni Pacittiya 83, the Buddha intended to annul the ordination of the women who were ordained subsequent to the first, in the same year under the same sponsor, it seems almost certain that this would have been stated in the rule itself, as is done in Bhikkhu Pacittiya 65. If this is not stated in the rule, we would expect that the Sutta Vibhanga would have made this point in its analysis of the rule. The fact that nothing of this sort is said in either rule or analysis suggests that, despite the procedural fault, the ordination conferred on the second pupil, and on subsequent pupils in the same year, remains valid. The sponsor incurs a pacittiya, of course, and the other bhikkhunis who constitute the quorum incur dukkatas. But the ordination itself is not invalidated. 4 | Page Ven. Thanissaro contends that the invalidity of the ordination stems from the fact that the proclamations used to conduct the ordination violate a rule. In his view, this flaws the proclamations themselves, and since the proclamations are faulty, he holds that the ordination they are intended to execute must be invalid. In support of this hypothesis, he points out that the Parivāra, the last book of the Pali Vinaya Pitaka, mentions several cases in which an ordination is said to “fail” (vipajjati) because of faults in the proclamations. But there is a significant difference between the faults pointed out by the Parivāra and the faults in the case under consideration. The faults that the Parivāra says annul an ordination are those in which the names of the candidate and/or his preceptor are omitted, or in which a reference to the Sangha is omitted. In such cases, if we confine our attention to the words of the proclamation themselves, we would see that, while the intentions of the participants might be understood, the words fail to fulfill the act of ordination. They fail to propose a candidate for ordination, or they fail to mention the preceptor under whom the candidate desires ordination, or they fail to state that he seeks ordination from the Sangha of bhikkhus. In these cases, judging from the wording
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