Guanyin and the Buddhist Scholar Nuns : Changing Meaning of the Nun-hood
▻http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/museum/TAIWAN/md/md11-04.htm
Des fois que vous auriez envie de changer votre vie, voici une belle histoire.
The end of summer usually means the end of fun for Taiwan’s college students when they return to their crowded classrooms and dormitories, either from their families’ homes or directly from summer camp. In 1996, however, 129 female students did not return to school. As hundreds of worried parents and relatives gradually learned that the whereabouts of these young women were unknown, a frantic search began. They soon realized that all of the missing students had disappeared after participating in a summer camp held by the Zhongtai Chansi (中台禪寺). Although the confronted monastic authorities claimed to be in the dark, all of the clues pointed to the monastery as the last place the women had been seen. Driven to desperation, the searchers refused to leave and even occupied the monastery compound by force. When police officers and journalists arrived they learned that the monks and nuns of Zhongtai Chansi had already inducted all of the girls into the order, shaved their heads and had concealed them for days in the monastery garden. [1]
When they were interviewed, all of the young women claimed that they had joined the monastic order entirely of their own free will, and they refused to return home with their parents. Some parents became so angry that they tied their daughters’ hands and feet as one might truss up a pig and dragged their daughter home. Other heartbroken parents kneeled down in front of their tonsured daughters, begging them to return home. Images of weeping parents and screaming, kicking daughters were quickly broadcast through the public media and attracted national attention and concern.
Not only did the dramatic the event of Zhongtai Chansi shock the families of these young women, but it also subverted the traditional stereotype of Buddhist nuns as marginalized pathetic member in the Chinese and Taiwanese society. The Chinese patriarchal society has enforced certain stereotypes of Buddhist nuns by referring to them as “aberrant and unusual” women. In Religious Trends in Modern China, published in 1953, Wing-tsit Chan (陳榮捷) presented the image of Chinese nuns as discarded women abandoned by the patriarchal family system. [2] He explained that most nuns were pressured to enter the Buddhist order either because of their parents’ poverty, or because of marriage problems. However, these descriptions of nuns as discarded women, poverty-stricken or widowed, fail to explain the contemporary devotion of well-educated young women to the Buddhist order.
In 1996, the devotion of these young women to celibate monastic life demonstrates female agency and autonomy in pursuing their own religious career by abandoning patriarchal social order and values. No longer are functional explanations, which consider becoming a Buddhist nun as a career to solve the social problem of poverty, enough to account for such collective action.
In this paper, I will probe this issue from the perspective of symbolism. I will discuss how a traditional symbol of women’s devotion to religious life, Guanyin (觀音, Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisatava of Compassion), has come to life in order to justify these actions of devotions, and how Guanyin’s story can serve as an avenue to understand the family conflicts of these women.
J’ai l’impression que la religion bouddhiste change autant et s’adapte aussi bien aux besoins de ses adhérent(e)s que les autres cultes importants. Lhomme (m&f) éprouve des besoins qui sont le résultat de sa situation sociale et prend en mains la modification des cultes et idéologies qui sont à sa disposition. C’est ainsi que le monde bouddhiste se commercialise et crée des structures internationales alors que reignait dans le passé une grande indépendance de ses couvents et branches. L’exercice quotidien des rites bouddhistes en Chine ayant été plutôt un domaine féminin ce sont les femmes qui passent à l’action.
Les grands idéologues sont pourtant toujours de sexe mâle. C’est un peu comme dans la gastronomie où les chefs masculins sont les figures de proue alors qu’on trouve les femmes plutôt dans les cuisines familiales et dans des fonctions subalternes. Mais heureusement ceci est est en train de changer aussi.
Yin Shun
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_Shun
(Master) Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìnshùn Dǎoshī) (12 March 1906 – 4 June 2005) was a well-known Buddhist monk and scholar in the tradition of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism. Though he was particularly trained in the Three Treatise school, he was an advocate of the One Vehicle (or Ekayana) as the ultimate and universal perspective of Buddhahood for all, and as such included all schools of Buddha Dharma, including the Five Vehicles and the Three Vehicles, within the meaning of the Mahayana as the One Vehicle.[1] Yin Shun’s research helped bring forth the ideal of “Humanistic” (human-realm) Buddhism, a leading mainstream Buddhist philosophy studied and upheld by many practitioners.[2] His work also regenerated the interests in the long-ignored Agamas (Nikayas) among Chinese Buddhists society and his ideas are echoed by Theravadin teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi. As a contemporary master, he was most popularly known as the mentor of Cheng Yen (Pinyin: Zhengyan), the founder of Tzu-Chi Buddhist Foundation, as well as the teacher to several other prominent monastics.
Although Master Yin Shun is closely associated with the Tzu-Chi Foundation, he has had a decisive influence on others of the new generation of Buddhist monks such as Sheng-yen of Dharma Drum Mountain and Hsing Yun of Fo Guang Shan, who are active in humanitarian aid, social work, environmentalism and academic research as well. He was known affectionately by many Buddhists as their mentor.
What Travels ? Notes on a Globalizing Buddhist Movement from Taiwan
▻http://www.iwm.at/wp-content/uploads/jc-12-04.pdf
Ce sinologue allemand spécialiste du bouddhisme taiwanais offre des textes sur le développement de cette religion.
Marcus Bingenheimer
▻http://mbingenheimer.net/publications/publications.html
The Scholar Monk Yinshun 印順 – His Relevance for the Development of Chinese and Taiwanese Buddhism.
▻http://bookzz.org/book/2814884/d3ebd1
▻http://bookzz.org/dl/2814884/6d5df8
Si vous avez envie de faire comme les jeunes femmes de Zhongtai Chansi vous pouvez vous rendre au monastère.
中台禪寺 / Chung Tai Chan Monastery
▻http://tour-map.net/company.php?item=1790
No. 2, Zhongtai Road, Puli Township, Nantou County, 545
#Chine #Taiwan #bouddhisme #femmes