Birth in Buddhism: the suffering fetus and female freedom
Recent decades have seen a groundswell in the Buddhist world, a transnational agitation for better opportunities for Buddhist women. Many of the main players in the transnational nuns movement self-identify as feminists but other participants in this movement may not know or use the language of femi...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subito Delivery Service: | Order now. |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business
2017
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| In: | Year: 2017 |
| Series/Journal: | Routledge critical studies in Buddhism
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Buddhism
/ Birth
/ Feminist philosophy
B Mahayana / Fertilization / Pregnancy / Birth B Buddhism / Birth / Suffering B Garbhāvakrāntisūtra |
| Further subjects: | B
Suffering
Religious aspects
Buddhism
B Birth Religious aspects Buddhism |
| Summary: | Recent decades have seen a groundswell in the Buddhist world, a transnational agitation for better opportunities for Buddhist women. Many of the main players in the transnational nuns movement self-identify as feminists but other participants in this movement may not know or use the language of feminism. In fact, many ordained Buddhist women say they seek higher ordination so that they might be better Buddhist practitioners, not for the sake of gender equality. Eschewing the backward projection of secular liberal feminist categories, this book describes the basic features of the Buddhist discourse of the female body, held more or less in common across sectarian lines, and still pertinent to ordained Buddhist women today. The textual focus of the study is an early-first-millennium Sanskrit Buddhist work, "Descent into the Womb scripture" or Garbhavakranti-sutra. Drawing out the implications of this text, the author offers innovative arguments about the significance of childbirth and fertility in Buddhism, namely that birth is a master metaphor in Indian Buddhism; that Buddhist gender constructions are centrally shaped by Buddhist birth discourse; and that, by undermining the religious importance of female fertility, the Buddhist construction of an inauspicious, chronically impure, and disgusting femininity constituted a portal to a new, liberated, feminine life for Buddhist monastic women |
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| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 1138201235 |