> Women have had to struggle for basic rights and access to the public
> sphere
> within all strands of Buddhism (historically speaking), just as they
> have in
> nearly every single other religious tradition.
This is somewhat true of historical Asian Buddhism (with exceptions, such as in Tibet), but much less so of contemporary Western Buddhism -- there are many women teachers and students, and after some struggle with the misogynist attitudes of some (not all) teachers from Asian countries, they have as many rights and as much access as men these days.
> Who believes this? Where do they live? What do they do on the weekends?
I've been practicing this stuff for over 20 years, and I know a lot of people who believe it. They live all over the place (check around for your local Buddhist center -- I'm sure there are more than a couple in Toronto). They do pretty much the same things on weekends that any one else does, except go to church :-). Sometimes they go on weekend retreats.
> The 10 points summary of belief is common to Introductory texts to
> the study of
> religion and, for the most part, is little more than a reification: no
> one
> actually believes the systematic outlay that the phenomenological
> approach
> is so fond of.
I don't quite understand your meaning here, but if you mean that brief summaries don't completely capture all the subtleties of the subject, of course. That's also true of Marxism, quantum mechanics, and, I dare say, pomo literary criticism. So...?
> In this sense, "Buddhism as such" does not exist. But there
> are Buddhists, in specific communities. Historiography, not
> phenomenology.
> I'm interested in the history of religion, not the philosophy of
> religion.
Well, pardon me, Your Highness, but some people (namely philosophers of religion) *are* interested in it. But in any case, there are specific Buddhists all around you, as I said above. Check some out.
> It strikes me as obvious that there are anti-sexist and feminist
> Buddhists all over the place, some of them might have even lived a
> couple
> decades ago. I haven't encountered anything in the tradition(s) of
> Buddhism
> that escape the snare of wider cultural and religious sexism. Sure,
> there
> are traces of a liberative ethic that could be consciously torn from
> their
> historical context for modern political purposes... but that's not my
> concern.
I'm sorry, but you keep talking about Buddhism as if it is dead and buried, while I (and Brian) are talking about it as a contemporary way of life. Buddhism in Western countries such as North America is quite liberated from sexism -- you just haven't "encountered" it in real life, apparently.
> As for the sex life of common medieval folks... supply the
> reference and I'll look it up. I'd like to read about sexually
> satisfied
> women and men from the time period.
I'm not an expert on medieval everyday life, so I can't give you the references off-hand (except for Chaucer -- I suspect he represents the attitudes of a good many folks of his time). Talk to your medieval historian colleagues in Toronto; I'm sure they can give you all the references you need.
> Naturally you will have noticed that I've
> backpeddled here a bit and qualified any claim I might have
> inadvertently
> made about the attitudes of ordinary Christians (I haven't double
> checked my
> irresponsible responses, but I'll accept your point here).
I notice that you back-peddle a lot from your generalizations when they are challenged.
> ** Provide me with an ethnographic report (prior to the 20th century)
> and
> I'll drink to that (20th c. reports are probably easy to come by).
I don't have any ethnographic reports handy, sorry. But I am thinking especially of Chinese and Japanese history, where as is well known there were plenty of Buddhists who also enjoyed sex heartily. The Christian sort of gloominess about sex leading to eternal Hell was just not there until the missionaries showed up.
If you want a scholarly treatment of the subject, you might look at Bernard Faure's _The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality_ (Princeton U. Press). A more popular book is John Stevens: _Lust for Enlightenment: Buddhism and Sex_ (Shambala Publications).
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)