Dear Ven. Sujato, Thank you for informing me of this event, a report of which I had already stumbled upon quite by accident on the internet last week, just before I left the monastery to visit my father. Please convey my congratulations to Ajahn Brahm for his courageous decision, and also accept for yourself my appreciation for spearheading this development. Also, if you can do so, please convey my congratulations to the new bhikkhunis, especially Ajahn Vayama, an old Dhamma friend from my Sri Lankan days. Perhaps Ajahn Brahm will henceforth be treated as something of a pariah by the monks of the Wat Poh Pong community. This, however, should not discourage him, or you, from continuing along the path you have blazed by making this momentous decision. We all know that you are in the vanguard. I find it sad that the senior monks from the Western WPP monasteries have not stepped forward to defend you, especially when several of them attended the Hamburg Conference and seemed to support our position. Perhaps they are afraid of creating internal dissension and being ostracized by the "Mother House" in Thailand. Though the conservatives in the Sangha will balk and attempt to create obstructions, the movement towards the full emergence of a Theravada Bhikkhuni Sangha is now, I believe, inevitable in all the countries with major Theravadin constituencies. I remember in the early 1980s, and even the 1990s, how we were all convinced the rejuvenation of a Bhikkhuni Sangha was a legal impossibility. Yet, as Bob Dylan used to sing, "the times they are a-changin." Sri Lanka already has a strong Bhikkhuni Sangha, which, however, has not yet been officially acknowledged by the Government or the chief authorities in the Bhikkhu Sangha. The buds of a Bhikkhuni Sangha have been quietly germinating in Thailand, right beneath the noses of the Chao Khuns and Phra Khrus, though they try not to--or pretend not to--notice it. It is likely that women in the other SE Asian countries will soon be taking full ordination; perhaps some have already done so. Indian and Nepali Buddhist women have become bhikkhunis, and in the U.S. a few Burmese women have taken this step, considered strictly illegal within Myanmar itself, where it is even punishable by imprisonment. If the leaders of the Asian Buddhist monastic communities won't give the green light to bhikkhuni ordination, they will find themselves falling behind the times, congenial companions of the Vatican prelates who refuse to allow women to become priests. Hopefully, however, the next generations of Asian Theravadin monastics, having gained the benefit of a university education and thereby access to contemporary modes of thought, will strike out in the new direction started by such monks as Ajahn Brahm and yourself (as well as by the progressive theras in Sri Lanka). When that development takes place, Ajahn Brahm and yourself will be regarded as pioneers. So, though at present you might feel lonely, isolated, and even persecuted, bear in mind that virtually all those in every field--from philosophy and religion to the arts, politics and economics--who defy the dead weight of oppressive traditions share a similar destiny. Though I am not in a position to confer ordinations, if I were I would have no hesitation to give the bhikkhuni ordination to properly qualified women. In my situation, I feel glad that each year I am able to arrange funding to provide a scholarship to a Thai bhikkhuni to attend university (a different one each year). I believe that, in Asia, university education will win for bhikkhunis respect among the laity and forward-thinking bhikkhus, and this will give greater weight to their aspirations for full recognition by their elder male peers. With metta and all Dhamma blessings, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi P.S. I am copying Ajahn Brahmali on this with the hope that he will pass it on to Ajahn Brahm, who (I believe) doesn't use computers: not a progressive in that respect. New Jersey, USA - 3 Nov 2009 |