Monks and Anagarikas

Those who are ordained, in the technical Vinaya sense, are objects of extreme veneration to the Theravadin laity. Those who are not ordained, are not. The truth of these statements is borne out by the plight of the maejes (also spelt maechiis) of Thailand and their counterparts in the other Theravadin countries of south-east Asia. Maejes are sometimes spoken of, in English, as `nuns', but they are not nuns in the sense of being bhikkhunis, the approximate female equivalent of bhikkhus. They are women who permanently observe the Eight (or it may be the Nine) Precepts, who wear white (they are not allowed to wear yellow), and who devote themselves, to the extent that circumstances permit, to meditation and study and to the uplift of their lay sisters. Some maejes lead exemplary spiritual lives, practising the Dharma with a single-mindedness not equalled by all Thai bhikkhus. Yet many maejes - and there are tens of thousands of them - have to endure a good deal of hardship. Not being ordained, they are not venerated or supported by the laity in the way bhikkhus are (technically speaking, the maejes are laywomen), the reason for this being that supporting the unordained is less productive of merit than supporting the ordained. Maejes represent, if not money actually wasted, then a very poor investment. Usually they have to fend for themselves and find their own support, on occasion doing this by means of ordinary begging, as distinct from the bhikkhu's ceremonious `going for alms'. Not only are the maejes not supported by the laity in the way bhikkhus are. They receive little or no encouragement from the Thai Monastic Order, some of whose members regard them as a threat to their own livelihood.

The tradition of bhikkhuni ordination having died out in Thailand, as it has in the other Theravadin countries of south-east Asia, the maejes are unable to improve their lot by becoming bhikkhunis. Unable, that is, to improve it by becoming bhikkhunis within the Theravada. In theory they could become `Mahayana' bhiksunis, the Sarvastivadin (Dharmagupta) lineage of bhiksuni ordination having survived in China and Korea as part and parcel of Mahayana Buddhism, but in practice this is not really an option. For Western women who become Buddhists and want to lead a monastic life there are no such difficulties. Not only do they not suffer the social and educational disadvantages of the maejes. It is open to them to take ordination as `Mahayana' bhiksunis, as a handful of them have in fact done in recent years. Some Western Buddhist women, adherents of the Theravada, would prefer to take ordination as Theravadin bhikkhunis, and are trying to revive the tradition of bhikkhuni ordination. In my view the attempt is misguided, representing as it does the same unhealthy emphasis on ordination, in the technical Vinaya sense, that we find in the case of bhikkhu ordination. It moreover betrays a preoccupation with socio-religious status rather than showing a concern for monastic life as such. After all, there is nothing to prevent a woman from observing the appropriate sikkhapadas or rules of training, even without being a bhikkhuni. That the attempt to revive the tradition of bhikkhuni ordination betrays a preoccupation with socio-religious status is evidenced by the fact that no Western Buddhist woman who wants to lead a monastic life ever seriously contemplates observing all the bhikkhuni sikkhapadas. In particular, she does not contemplate observing those sikkhapadas which subordinate the bhikkhuni-sangha to the bhikkhu-sangha and make the seniormost nun junior to the juniormost monk, with all that this entails in the way of making prostrations and giving precedence. Thus the Western Buddhist woman's wish for bhikkhuni ordination is a desire, at least to an extent, for socio-religious status, especially for parity of status with the bhikkhu, and as such has its origins not in the idea of `going forth' from home into the life of homelessness but rather in egalitarian notions that have nothing to do with Buddhism.

Western Buddhist women who want to lead a genuinely monastic life should stop thinking in terms of bhikkhuni (or bhiksuni) ordination. Instead, they should emulate the maejes of Thailand, taking no Precepts that they do not intend to observe, wearing simple clothing appropriate to their culture, and devoting themselves to meditation and study and other activities compatible with their vocation. It is unlikely that they will endure the kind of hardship the maejes have to endure (not that monastic life can ever be easy). Ideally, they will think of themselves not as nuns but as individuals who go for Refuge to the Three Jewels, and will see the monastic life as an expression of that Going for Refuge in terms of a particular life-style.