FWBO Discussion

The FWBO, feminism, and gender issues 

The FWBO and Feminism - Richard Hayes (Dharmachari Dayamati) This is a link to a well-argued and thought-provoking discussion of the differences between the FWBO and American feminist approaches to Buddhism and Buddhist practice in the West. The author is Dharmachari Dayamati, aka Professor Richard Hayes of the University of New Mexico. He begins by stating his position that “the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order appear to provide an alternative theoretical framework to that articulated by Rita Gross in Buddhism After Patriarchy”. 

Feminism & Buddhism - Maitreyi.  An alternative (and less scholarly) treatment of the same subject can be found in an article by Maitreyi on Akasavana, the website of the FWBO’s women’s ordination retreat centre. 

 Quietly Radical is an article from the FWBO’s Dharma Life magazine exploring the vexed question of women and ordination in Buddhism, and the FWBO’s answer -  a single ordination for men and women. 

A series of three videos are available from ClearVision:  Women and the Spiritual Life, Buddhist Women Speak on Ordination, and Buddhist Women speak on Motherhood.  They can be ordered for 11 pounds each. 

 Sexual Evolution  First published in Dharma Life in 1998, this is a frank account by Dhammadinna recalling experiments in the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order around sex, celibacy and lifestyle, also discussing how its collective experience has matured.

Tearing open the Dark is a new piece by Suvarnaprabha. She says “One friend told me that she had found the article very useful and suggested that if I were to make it generally available, it might be helpful to other people becoming involved with the FWBO. I have updated it to correspond to my current thinking, which comes 10 or so years after the original writing. By the way Sangharakshita read an earlier version of it some years ago and said he enjoyed it! May it be of use…”