American Academy of Religion

Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements by Karma LeksheTsomoReview by: Rita M. GrossJournal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 74, No. 2, Religion and Secrecy (Jun.,2006), pp. 512-514Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4094049 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 21:59

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Oxford University Press and American Academy of Religion are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserveand extend access to Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:59:08 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

512 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Varela and Depraz's essay not only reminds us poignantly of how much we have lost with Varela's death; it also suggests where the real progress in this .dialogue is most likely-among scholars such as Varela who are as deeply grounded in western science as in Buddhist practice. At this level, the question of the relationship between science and Buddhism as distinct domains falls away in the face of a quest for emancipatory knowledge in which insights into both pro- vide vital clues, though neither can be treated as holy writ. In the meantime this collection provides a valuable survey of progress in the field.

doi:10.1093/jaarel/1fj064 Geoffrey Samuel Advance Access publication April 12, 2006 Cardiff University

Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements. Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo. State University of New York Press, 2004. 280 pages. $24.95.

Beginning in 1987 Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women, an organization founded and led by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, has held international conferences in Asia on Buddhist women about every two years. Frequently the papers presented at these conferences are published, and this book is another in the series.

Karma Lekshe Tsomo is in an ideal position to do this work. An American who is a Buddhist nun, she has lived and trained in Asia for many years and is very familiar with many forms of Asian Buddhism. She also holds an American PhD in religious studies and teaches at an American university. Unlike many who receive traditional religious training in Asia, Tsomo has retained keen inter- est in the problems and needs of women, especially monastic women, who work and live in Asian settings that have not always been so receptive to women and nuns. Her work and these conferences have done a great deal to acquaint Buddhist women from around the world to each other and to each other's work. In many cases a young Asian nun working on a PhD at an Asian university expe- riences her first opportunity to give a paper at an international conference in this setting.

As one would expect for such a volume, it consists of an overview introduc- tory chapter and several sections in which papers with somewhat similar agendas and methodologies are grouped together. In general the papers take a concilia- tory rather than a confrontational approach. Authors acknowledge problems with Buddhism historically and difficulties in working with Buddhist institu- tions, but they are confident that things can change and that a great deal has already been accomplished. None of the authors simply notes and condemns past patriarchal practices, including the editor in her chapter on rules of monas- tic discipline for women, one of the easiest targets for someone who wants to highlight aspects of Buddhism that can seem antiwomen. As with all such books, some papers are stronger than others, and the groupings are sometimes a bit

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:59:08 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Book Reviews 513

artificial. Nevertheless for anyone who wants to remain current with what is going on in the world of Buddhist women's commentary on their religion, this book is vital. As with all of Tsomo's books that have grown of the Sakyadhita conferences, in this book one can learn about Buddhist women's activities in a wide variety of times and places. Most of this information will be new to most readers.

Tsomo's introduction is one of the more interesting chapters of the book. Drawing on her long experience of living in Asia, she discusses subtle aspects of attitudes common in Asian countries, usually the result of family patterns and early socialization that are difficult for outsiders to understand. She points out that respect and deference toward elders are taught from a very early age and reinforced by consistent praise of people who are humble and polite. Part of those patterns of respect and deference, which are largely unconscious or second nature to most people, include expressing greater respect to men than to women. Even when people become aware of these patterns and their inadequa- cies, it is difficult to find effective counter measures. Direct confrontation is often the least effective technique for promoting conscious raising and social change. Polite but challenging questions are more effective. For example, people often ask nuns why they would want full ordination, asking them, "aren't ten precepts enough?" Women then repeat these arguments to each other, main- taining the respect they receive for being humble and deferential. Yet the same question, "Why aren't ten precepts enough?", applies equally to monks who seek higher ordination. Why not ask them the same question? Education may be the most effective tool of all. However, Tsomo claims, finding qualified teachers willing to teach nuns is very difficult.

The first group of articles explores more theoretical and philosophical foun- dations for women's empowerment. These articles explore both traditional Bud- dhist texts and practices and contemporary feminist thought as resources for finding more equitable gender practices within Buddhism. Carolyn Ann Klein's sophisticated article on embodied knowing is especially recommended. Because women's rights are often grounded in claims for human rights, it is important to discuss whether Buddhism includes the concept of human rights. Lin Chew's chapter discussing this question is interesting. Karma Lekshe Tsomo revisits the topic of Buddhist monastic rules for women to make them more workable for modern, empowered women. Paula Green discusses her work with Karuna Cen- ter for Peacebuilding, which promotes dialogue, reconciliation, cooperative problem-solving, and nonviolent solutions to conflicts in trouble places, using Buddhist tools and techniques. Other Buddhist tools and techniques are called up in Meenakshi Cchabri's chapter that is also on peace building. Finally Kathryn Norsworthy explains how she combines feminist theory and engaged Buddhism to counsel survivors of gender-based violence.

The final set of articles is titled "Women Transforming Buddhist Societies," which aptly describes the contents of these chapters. We learn how, in one of the most exciting developments in recent Buddhist history, Sri Lankan Buddhist women regained bhikkuni ordination, which had been lost for nearly 1000 years and which many more conservative critics had said could not be regained until

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:59:08 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

514 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

the time of the next Buddha. Even more heartwarming is de Silva's account of how, within a short period, monks and laypeople have begun to support and appreciate the bhikkunis. This detailed account of these events is very valu- able. Two articles give different portrayals of Buddhism in Nepal. We hear about the efforts to educate women in the Nepali Theravadin community that is a new Buddhist community in Nepal. We also hear about the ritual roles of the Vajracharya's wife in Newari Buddhism, which is more traditional in Nepal. A less appealing aspect of Nepali Buddhist life is discussed in Khandu Lama's chapter on preventing trafficking of girls through preventative measures such as punishing those who actually engage in trafficking and providing more educa- tion and economic aid to extremely poor rural Nepalis. Tsomo's portrait of a Thai advocate for women, Khunying Kanitha, who is not well known outside Thailand, is highly informative. Similar reports about education and empower- ment in a region of the Buddhist world that is remote and where the status of women has been low come from Margaret Coberly's descriptions of nuns and social change in the Spiti Valley. Diane Wright shows us how the nuns of Mantokuji Temple in Tokugawa Japan survived and filled an important role in serving at one of the temples that helped women obtain divorces in a time and place where initiating divorce was largely a male prerogative. Contemporary Taiwan is often considered one of the Buddhist women's success stories of recent times because the numbers, status, and education levels of nuns increased so dramatically in the later half of the twentieth century. Elise Ann deVideo shows how the older nuns attained these successes, not so much by espousing feminist views of women but by exploiting Chinese stereotypical ideas about femininity to their advantage. Finally Caren Ohlson explores how Buddhist women are building coalitions across borders and around the world.

The book ends with a useful and extensive bibliography on women and Buddhism.

doi:10.1093/jaarel/1•065 Rita M. Gross Advance Access publication April 7, 2006 University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion. By Dan Arnold. Columbia University Press, 2005. 328 pages. $49.50.

The debates on the limit of knowledge and the nature of logic between the Brahmanical and the Buddhist schools of Indian philosophy and religion have been the subject of investigation by scholars writing in European languages for the past 100 years. Most of those studies have focused on debates between the NyZya school of Brahmanism and the Buddhist school of metaphysics, epi- stemology, and logic associated with Digndga (sixth century) and Dharmakirti (seventh century). Only a few studies have been devoted to the lively debates among Buddhists, especially between the Mddhyamika school and the followers of Digndga, over the possibility of grounding belief. Fewer studies have explored

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:59:08 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions