Remembering the teachings of the Buddha
Paisarn Likhitpreechakul
Today, some Buddhists in the Northern provinces were scheduled to organize an ancient ceremony that would probably merit entry into the Unseen Thailand tourism campaign. Chili and salt were to be burned to incur the wrath of the gods upon Senator Rabiabrat Pongpanit for offending one of their age-old customs: a ban on women entering the inner sanctum of sacred temples.
To a non-Buddhist, this might come as a surprise. While a non-Buddhist can access these areas, the overwhelming majority of temple-goers, who are Buddhist women, can't. If that's not enough to shake his idea of Buddhism as a religion of wisdom and compassion, not of dogma and hatred, the contemptuous ceremony (and death threats) against the senator surely will.
It may be wrong for the senator to invoke equal rights for women against the ban. Minding religious diversity, the constitution guarantees religious freedom for all. Muslim and Christian Thais can proudly enjoy freedom of faith in a predominantly Buddhist country. Even hilltribe Thais cannot be forced to give up animistic beliefs, unless they infringe on the rights of others. There's no compelling reason why the Lanna ban shouldn't enjoy the same freedom without state interference.
But Northern Buddhists must be clear that what they are defending is a belief that gives a local flavor to Buddhism, not Buddhism itself.
Gender discrimination, in its gross or subtle forms, does not conform to the equality with which the Buddha treated male and female disciples in his lifetime. For a religion founder, this attitude is still as radical today as it was 25 centuries ago. To impose a gender-biased ban on access to his relics is to affront his integrity.
Thinking Buddhists can benefit from Kalama Sutta, where the Buddha spoke of paradigms that, however convincing, do not make sufficient basis for religious beliefs. The first three of these are authoritative tradition, unbroken succession of teaching and hearsay.
Then what forms a basis for religious beliefs? The Buddha said they must be meritorious, conducive to benefit and happiness when undertaken, blame-free and praised by the intelligent. This is the gold standard he challenged us to apply even to his own teachings. No local belief systems should escape the same scrutiny. Although the first two of these criteria can be claimed by both sides of the ban debate, a "thought experiment" around the latter two can be its touchstone.
Buddhist communities of diverse traditions live together at the four holiest Buddhist sites in the subcontinent where the Buddha was born, attained enlightenment, gave his first sermon and passed away. Imagine if a gender-biased ban were to be imposed there, where none exists, today. The outcry it would surely provoke would confirm that the bias is an outdated social construct of a local nature, rather than inherent in the religion.
Underlining this prejudice is the country-wide unspoken misogynistic view that women are born inferior - unable to be ordained as monks - because of their sins in past lives. Again, the ordination problem is due to unfortunate circumstances. Women's spiritual capacity to attain enlightenment was never doubted by the Buddha and has been well demonstrated by many bhikkunis (female monks).
Although opposed in Thailand, the fourth pillar of the bhikkuni order has been revitalized in many countries and become an important support for Buddhism. So if there exist sins that put women in inferior positions, they are not ones of their own, but those of others who treat them so and wish to perpetuate the injustice.
Religions have the right to exist without state intervention, but their social dimensions should also evolve with time lest they become irrelevant. To their own detriment, traditionalists may one day wake up to find the same religious freedom conferred upon them also gives women choices for places of worship elsewhere, be it another temple, another sect or another religion.
RESIDENTS OF NORTHERN THAILAND perform a rite intended to bring the wrath of the gods upon Senator Rabiabrat Pongpanit, who has threatened a local tradition that bars women from entering the inner sanctum of sacred temples.
The ban is a useful, if painful, reminder of the need to re-establish gender equality in Thai Buddhism. Ironically, the people who deny women equal access to the relics are likely to be the ones who protest the loudest against the revival of the bhikkuni order.
The reason that the relics are kept below ground should bar, if anyone, everyone from close proximity. After all, paying homage to the Buddha's relics should remind one that what's objectionable about our presence is not the menstrual blood of our mothers, sisters and daughters - often cited by traditionalists as the reason why women are "unclean" - but the whole "mass of corruption" of skin, flesh, sinew, internal organs, excrement, urine, hair and bones. It is subject to impermanence, weakness and selflessness, whether the body of a woman or a man - even that of the Buddha himself.
If we remember this, the holy relics will have served their intended ultimate purpose of echoing the Buddha's last words: All conditioned things are of a nature to decay - strive on untiringly.