All beings have Buddha-nature. All beings have the ability to attain Buddha-hood. It would logically follow that all beings have the capacity to follow and teach the Buddha-Dharma if they feel called to do so. I do not understand why any being would be excluded from choosing to follow, teach, share, practice, etc. their chosen spirituality based on their gender. We as a group lose a great deal by not allowing those who feel called to become ordained simply based on outmoded beliefs that there is a difference in spiritual capacity based on gender. In my area, the majority of Buddhist practitioners are women. In fact the majority of spiritual people I've known in multiple traditions have been women. It could be argued that in this day and age women have a better chance than men for attaining their spiritual aims simply because they are 80% or more of the practitioners in the Midwest. It would seem that if Buddhism is to grow and flourish, in a world where equality of gender has become the standard instead of the exception, Buddhism must embrace the equality of gender. Buddhism must allow any being who has the motivation and capacity to be ordained... and to not segregate the genders or continue the fallacious belief that one gender is somehow better than another, or is entitled to different treatment, or has a different capacity, etc. Since Buddhism is a practice and a teaching based on logic, I hope that those who do the ordinations can recognize the logical need to ordain women. Women are not only equal in capacity to men, but in the Midwest they are the majority of the Buddhist practitioners, and thus the bulk of the adherents to the Buddhist practice. To limit their participation in the form of not allowing ordination is to alienate the majority of Buddhist practitioners in the Midwest. Fitchburg, USA - 30 Nov 2009 |