Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

Lotus Sutra (c. 100 C.E.) for example. This text stands in crass opposition to the traditional
androcentric views which were far more widespread, and are summarized in a concise and
unambiguous statement from the great scholar Asangha (4th century C.E.): “Completely perfected
Buddhas are not women. And why? Precisely because a Bodhisattva .... has completely abandoned the
state of womanhood. Ascending to the most excellent throne of enlightenment, he is never again
reborn as a woman. All women are by nature full of defilement and of weak intelligence. And not by
one who is by nature full of defilement and of weak intelligence, is completely perfected Buddhahood
attained.” (Shaw, 1994, p. 27)
In Mahayana Buddhism, gender became a karmic category, whereby incarnation as a woman was
equated with lower karma. The rebirth of a woman as a man implied that she had successfully worked
off her bad karma. Correspondingly, men who had led a sinful life were reincarnated as “little
women”.
As so many women nevertheless wished to follow the Way of the Buddha, a possible acceleration of
the gender transformation was considered in several texts. In the Sutra of the Pure Land female
Buddhists had to wait for their rebirth as men before they achieved enlightenment; in other sutras they
“merely” needed to change their sex in their current lives and thus achieve liberation. Such sexual
transmutations are of course miracles, but a female being who reached for the fruits of the highest
Buddhahood must be capable of performing supernatural acts. “If women awaken to the thought of
enlightenment,” says the Sutra on changing the Female Sex, “then they will have the great and good
person’s state of mind, a man’s state of mind, a sage’s state of mind. […] If women awaken to the
thought of enlightenment, then they will not be bound to the limitation of a woman’s state of mind.
Because they will not be limited, they will forever separate from the females sex and become sons.” I.
e. a male follower of Buddha. (quoted by D. Paul, 1985, p. 175/176).
Many radical theses of Mahayana Buddhism (for example, the dogma of the “emptiness of all being”)
lead to unsolvable contradictions in the gender question. In principle, the Dharma (the teachings) say
that a perfect being is free from every desire and therefore needs to be asexual. This requirement, with
which the insignificance of gender at higher spiritual levels is meant to be emphasized, however,
contradicts the other orthodox rule that only men have earned enlightenment. Such dissonant elements
are then taken advantage of by women . There are several extremely clever dialogs in which female
Buddhists conclusively annul their female inferiority with arguments which are included within the
Buddhist doctrine itself. For example, in the presence of Buddha Shakyamuni the girl Candrottara
explains that a sex change from female to male makes no sense from the standpoint of the “emptiness
of all appearances” taught in the Mahayana and is therefore superfluous. Whether man or woman is
also irrelevant for the path to enlightenment as it is described in the Diamond Sutra.
The asexuality of Mahayana Buddhism has further led to a religious glorification of the image of the
mother. This is indeed a most astonishing development, and is not compatible with earlier
fundamentals of the doctrine, since the mother is despised as the cause of rebirth just as much as the
young woman as the cause of sexual seduction. An apotheosis of the motherly was therefore possible
only after the monks had “liberated” the mother archetype from its “natural” attributes such as
conception and birth. The “Great Mothers” of Mahayana Buddhism, like Prajnaparamita for
instance, are transcendental beings who have never soiled themselves through contact with base
nature (sexuality and childbearing).