This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community

Acknowledgments

To all “helpful friends” who have shown me, with their actions, the endless and multidirectional reverberations of positive kamma Contents Ackowledgments ix 1 Introduction 1 Foundational Texts and Basic Teachings: Nikåya-s in the Påli Canon 8 Dhammic Exegesis: Interdependent Co-Arising and the Cessation of Dukkha 17 Constructing Non-Adversarial Engaged FeministBuddhist Social Ethics 24 2 Socio-Ethical Dimensions of Early Buddhism 31 The Liberative Is Ethical: This-Worldly Wholesomeness 32 Good Friends: The Entire Holy Life 42 Four Assemblies of the Sangha: De-Essentializing Social Hierarchies 47 Renunciates and Laity 48 Class and Gender 55 3 A Feminist Exegesis of Non-Self: Constitution of Personhood and Identity 63 Five Aggregates: The Constitution of Individual “Self” 64 Seeing “Non-Self” in the Making of Gender Identity 72 Subject Formation and Cultural Delimitation 82 4 Person-in-Kammic-Network: Moral Agency and Social Responsibility 91 Kamma as Taught by the Buddha: Volitional Actions Here and Now 93 Global Co-Arising of Dukkha 110 viii Contents 5 Buddhist Self-Reconditioning and Community-Building 127 The Three Learnings: Socially Conscionable Self-Reconditioning 129 Person-in-Community: Buddhist Community-Building Ideals 144 6 Conclusion: This-Worldly Nibbåna and Participatory Peacemaking 159 Boundary-Crossing Interconnections 162 Peace at Every Step 170 Notes 179 Bibliography 215 Index 233 ...