比丘尼=Buddhist Nun=Bhiksuni=Bhikkhuni; 佛教女性=Buddhist Woman; 佛教與性別=Buddhism and Gender; 道場生活=寺院生活=Monasticism=Monastic Life=Community Life; 僧團=叢林=Monastic Community=Buddhist Community
摘要
In recent years Buddhist nuns from Asia and the West have met together to become more active in improving their status in the female sangha. At "Life As a Western Buddhist Nun," the 1996 conference in Dharamsala, H.H. the Dalai Lama supported this effort of Buddhist nuns to clarify their purpose in taking vows, widening their context, broadening community beyond their own abbeys, and supporting one another on their quest to achieve greater equality with men in liturgical matters, especially ordination. They received concentrated teachings on the bhikshuni precepts, discussed their lives and Dharma practice, and compared traditions and precepts in different lineages.. "The book gathers some of the presentations and teachings of this conference. Coming from many different countries and backgrounds, these women show ways they have found to embrace group practice in an era when most societies extoll individualism. In the first book to reflect the voices of Buddhist nuns from every major tradition, 14 contributors describe their experiences, explain their order's history, and discuss their lives.
