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Why (Engaged) Buddhists Should Care about Gender Issues It seems to me that if Buddhists really followed their central claims about gender, engaged Buddhists would not need to be concerned about gender issues. But we live in a situation that is far from the Buddhist ideal or norm regarding gender; therefore engaged Buddhists do need to care about gender issues among their many other concerns. In this brief chapter honoring Sulak Sivaraksha, I will try to explain why I continue to focus on gender in my work as an engaged Buddhist, even though it would be far more pleasant and easier to give up that work, and giving up that work would probably also result in less hostility toward me from many in the Buddhist world. I cannot count the number of times some supposed authority or elder in the Buddhist world has tried to explain to me that the work I have done as a Buddhist deeply concerned about gender equity in the world in general, and especially in Buddhism, is unnecessary and beside the point because Buddhists say that ultimately gender is irrelevant and enlightened mind is neither male nor female. Therefore, my bringing up the topic of reforms concerning gender practices in the Buddhist world is divisive and perhaps heretical. “You should be beyond gender,” I am told. “Gender is irrelevant, so you should stop focusing on gender.” There is a twisted logic in the above summary of hundreds of discussions that both amuses and pains me. Basically, the question is, who’s focusing on gender, and who wants to ignore it? Traditionalists may say that they are ignoring gender and I am focusing on it, but I think that 245 chapter 15 Gross_Ch15 10/17/08 15:22 Page 245 assessment is actually the reverse of what is really going on. If traditionalists had no interest in maintaining or defending Buddhist institutions that, in fact, do focus on gender, usually to women’s disadvantage, they could more reasonably claim that they are beyond gender. Then, for example, there would be no opposition to restoring the bhikshuni ordination, nor would it be expected that men, but not women, would be Buddhist teachers. But traditionalists do defend and maintain such gender-based institutions. Nevertheless, they accuse me and other socalled feminists of incorrectly focusing on gender when we call for the dissolution of gender-based practices. It seems to me that we are the ones who want to ignore gender and go beyond gender, but that we are forced to continue to bring up gender issues because traditionalists continue to assume that gender is a meaningful basis upon which to organize Buddhist social and religious institutions. I’d love to ignore gender, to go beyond gender, but by that, I mean truly ignoring gender, not continuing traditional gender-based practices, which often exclude women from the most meaningful and highly valued aspects of Buddhist life, while claiming that not talking about such gender-based practices is the same as transcending gender. Therefore, I argue that, though Buddhists really shouldn’t need to care about gender, engaged Buddhists must care about gender. In this short chapter, I will focus on two main reasons why engaged Buddhists must care about gender issues: first, among all the social concerns upon which engaged Buddhists generally focus, internally, Buddhism’s record on gender is far worse that its record on racism, colonialism, economic injustice, or militarism; second, of all the issues that engaged Buddhists care about, gender alone is within the control of Buddhists, at least within our own Buddhist world. We, as Buddhists, may not be able to avert warfare, global capitalism, or environmental devastation. But, at least within our own Buddhist world, our social and religious institutions , only we Buddhists maintain the gender practices that have been so disadvantageous for Buddhist women. No outside force is making us set up our world the way we do. Let us look at each of these claims in turn. Happily, when I survey Buddhism in general, it seems to me that overall our record as perpetrators of militarism, racism, or economic exploitation is relatively positive . Buddhists who have any control over the world usually do not call for or enact socially oppressive or aggressive measures. Throughout history , many Buddhists with power are famous for having improved social conditions, the best-known being, of course, Emperor Ashoka in 246 Why Buddhists Should Care about Gender Gross_Ch15 10/17/08 15:22 Page 246 [18.222...

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