See http://santifm.org/santipada/2010/the-light-side-of-enlightenment/'>http://santifm.org/santipada/2010/the-light-side-of-enlightenment/

These jokes appear on a lovely blog maintained by Bhante Sujato from Santi Forest Monastery in New South Wales.

The blog address is http://santifm.org/santipada/

The website of Santi Forest Monastery is http://santifm.org/santi/

I was directed to Bhante Sujato's blog via a discussion on rebirth in a Zen forum. The particular article of interest, which I'm about to read, was at http://santifm.org/santipada/2010/rebirth-and-the-in-between-state-in-early-buddhism/ but I really enjoyed looking around both sites.

Incidentally, Santi FM actively encourages the ordination of bhikkhunis.

The website puts it this way:

Santi Forest Monastery is one of the few English-speaking monasteries in the world where women can be ordained and trained as a bhikkhuni. The community at Santi is a mixed one, where the male and female residents have separate facilities and dwelling areas, but come together for meals, teachings, and work.

The bhikkhuni revival has met with opposition from conservative forces within the Theravadin Sangha. In focussing on the ‘purity’ of lineage and the supposed legal problems with bhikkhuni ordination, such opposition shows a lack of compassion for women and little understanding of the harmful effects of discrimination.

It is time to move on. The eightfold path, the four noble truths, dependent origination, the way of wisdom and compassion: these are the true teachings of the Buddha. None of them have anything to do with gender.

This point was explicitly made, perhaps for the first time in human history, by a bhikkhuni in the Buddha’s time. In a remarkable dialogue preserved in the canonical Saṁyutta Nikāya, the fully Awakened bhikkhuni Somā was challenged by Māra, the Buddhist Satan or Trickster. Playing the archetypal male chauvinist, he challenged:

That dhamma that’s so hard to achieve

Which is to be attained by the seers

Can’t be attained by a woman

With her two-fingered wisdom!

But Somā recognized him, and replied undaunted:

What does ‘womanhood’ matter at all,

When the mind is concentrated well

When knowledge flows on steadily

As one sees correctly into Dhamma?

One to whom it might occur,

‘I’m a woman’, or ‘I’m a man’,

Or ‘I’m anything at all’ -

Is fit for Māra to address!

http://santifm.org/santi/about/

Very interesting links, Xangsammhua, thanks for posting them -- hours of thoughtful and amusing reading.

Very interesting links, Xangsammhua, thanks for posting them -- hours of thoughtful and amusing reading.