Dhammamātā: Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu's notion of motherhood in Buddhist women practitioners

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 38, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 409-432

  Ito, Tomomi ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL TRADITION; RELIGION; SOCIAL IMPACT; SOCIAL STATUS; TEACHING; WOMENS STATUS;

ASIA; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; THAILAND;

EID: 36049033157     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: 14740680     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463407000276     Document Type: Article

References (107)

1. See Tomomi Ito, 'Buddhist women in dhamma practice in contemporary Thailand: Movements regarding their status as world renunciates', Journal of Sophia Asian Studies, 17 (1999): 147-81;
2. and Monica Lindberg Falk, Making fields of merit: Buddhist nuns challenge gendered orders in Thailand (Göteborg: Göteborg University, Department of Social Anthropology, 2002).
3. See, for example, Buddhadasa's three wishes (panithān) for future generations in Phutthathāt Phikkhu [Buddhadasa Bhikkhu], Mōradok thī khō fk̄ wai [Legacies to be bequeathed] (Nonthaburī : Kōng Thun Wuthi Tham, n.d.), pp. 1-2.
4. See Śakyadhia: Daughters of the Buddha, ed. Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1988);
5. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, Thai women in Buddhism (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991);
6. Tessa J. Bartholomeusz, Women under the bo tree: Buddhist nuns in Sri Lanka (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994);
7. Buddhist women across cultures: Realizations, ed. Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1999);
8. Innovative Buddhist women: Swimming against the stream, ed. Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000);
9. and Charles S. Prebish, 'Varying the Vinaya: Creative responses to modernity', in Buddhism in the modern world: Adaptations of an ancient tradition, ed. Steven Heine and Charles S. Prebish (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 45-74.
10. Santikaro Bhikkhu, 'Buddhadasa Bhikkhu: Life and society through the natural eyes of voidness', in Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist liberation movements in Asia, ed. Christopher S. Queen and Sallie B. King (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), p. 185.
11. Buddhadasa's thought has been extensively studied and is widely known in western languages through the publications of three scholars: Bhikkhu Buddhadasa, Me and mine: Selected essays of Bhikkhu Buddhadasa, tr. and ed. Donald K. Swearer (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989);
12. Peter A. Jackson, Buddhadasa: A Buddhist thinker for the modern world (Bangkok: Siam Society, 1988);
13. and Louis Gabaude, Une herméneutique bouddhique contemporaine de Thaïlande: Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1988).
14. With a new preface and epilogue, Jackson's book was reprinted in 2003 as Buddhadasa: Theravāda Buddhism and modernist reform in Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books).
15. However, it does not include Buddhadasa's thoughts on women practitioners. Nor did I deal with this topic in Tomomi Ito, 'Discussions in the Buddhist public sphere in twentieth-century Thailand: Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and his world' (Ph.D. diss., Australian National University, 2001).
16. For instance, the following studies refer to Buddhadasa as a significant Buddhist thinker pertaining to rural development work and engaged Buddhism: Sērī Phongphit, Religion in a changing society: Buddhism, reform and the role of monks in community development in Thailand (Hong Kong: Arena Press, 1988), pp. 8-11, 28;
17. Engaged Buddhism in the West, ed. Christopher Queen (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000), pp. 4-5.
18. On Narin, see Sakdina Chatrakun na Ayutthaya, Chīwit, nāew khit lae kān-tō-sū khōng 'Narinklung' rū Narin Phāsit. Khan khwāng lōk [The life, thought, and struggle of 'Narinklung' or Narin Phāsit: A man blocks the world] (Bangkok: Matichon, 1993).
19. Ito, 'Buddhist women in dhamma practice', pp. 152-3.
20. Dhammadāsa Phānit, interview, Chaiyā, 4 Mar. 1999.
21. Pracha Pasannathammo Bhikku, Lao wai mua wai sonthayā: Atchīmaprawat khōng Thān Phutthathāt [Stories told in the twilight years: Autobiography of the Venerable Buddhadāsa] (Bangkok: Mūlanithi Kōmonkhīmthōng, 1992), pp. 121-2; all translations from Thai are the author's.
22. 'Lūk lae lān' [Offspring] (probably written by Buddhadāsa on behalf of his siblings), 'Mātubūchānuson' [Commemoration of Mother], Phutthasāsanā [Buddhism], 16, 3 (1948): 82.
23. Pracha, Lao wai mua wai sonthayā, p. 121.
24. Dhammadasa, interview, 4 Mar. 1999.
25. On Ki's background, see Ito, 'Buddhist women in dhamma practice', pp. 166-7.
26. In the Suan Mokkh archives, I had access to 14 letters between Buddhadasa and Ki Nanayon dated 16 Jan. 1939 through 3 Dec. 1940. In Pāli the term 'upāsikā' literally means 'lay woman'. In the contemporary Thai context, it is used to refer to pious lay women dedicated to Buddhist practices, often indicating renunciant female practitioners, including māe chi and those who subscribe to other styles. In Thai this Pāli word is pronounced 'ubāsikā. In this article, I use the Pāli transcription in order to be consistent with transcriptions of other words of Pāli-Sanskrit origin, such as 'bhikkhu/bhiksu' (Thai phikkhu/phiksu) and 'bhikkunī/bhiksunī (phikkhunī/phiksunī).
27. Ki Nanayon, letter to Buddhadasa, dated 12 Aug. 1939.
28. In the area surrounding Rātchabur ̄Province, where Ki was based, people usually call renunciant female practitioners ubāsikā. They call both māe chī who don white robes and those who take other costumes ubāsikā, so it was a convenient concept which could comprehensively cover various types of female practitioners. 1n fact, Ki observed the eight precepts and had her head shaved, just as māe chī do, but she did not take the white robes of a mē chī, instead wearing a white blouse and a black skirt. In Thai, those who wear an outfit such as Ki's are commonly called ubāsikā, not māe chī.
29. An evidence of the high credit given to Buddhadasa was the then Acting Supreme Patriarch's visit to his forest temple in southern Thailand in 1937. Buddhadasa was only 31 years old and had no ecclesiastical title, but his intellectual prowess was widely recognised by both monastic and lay Buddhist intellectuals who read his tri-monthly Buddhist journal Phutthasāsanā, launched in 1933. See details in 1to, 'Discussions in the Buddhist public sphere', ch. 1.
30. Ki Nanayon, letters to Buddhadasa, dated 23 Jan. 1940, 19 May 1940 and 17 July 1941.
31. Buddhadasa, letter to Ki Nanayon, dated 3 Dec. 1940.
32. Ito, 'Buddhist women in dhamma practice', p. 175 note 48.
33. Buddhadasa expressed appreciation for Ki's religious pursuit and practice in an interview with his disciple monk (Prachā, Lao wai mua wai sonthayā, pp. 398-9).
34. Ranchuan Inthrakamhēng, Sitthi satrī, witht Phut: Ranchuan Inthrakamhāeng pātthakātha [Women's rights, Buddhist methods: Lecture by Ranchuan lnthrakamhāeng], ed. Sompong Phrompiam (Nonthaburi: Gender Press, 1994), p. 65. Although in the comment by Dutsadi Methangkuro Bhikkhu in this book, the names of the monk and the woman are not specified, the same story was told as a dialogue between Bhikkhu Pannananda and Sara by one of Sara's daughters (Utsā Rongkhasuan, interview, Bangkok, Jan. 1999).
35. Ibid., p. 65.
36. Pracha, Lao wai mua wai sonthayā, pp. 279-80.
37. Ibid., pp. 279-80, 367-8.
38. Ranchuan said that when she lived in Suan Mokkh, Buddhadasa made her forget her gender, because he gave her the same opportunities as monks for studying, practising and asking him questions about dhamma. He recognised her ability to teach, so he let her take on the task of teaching other practitioners without considering her gender. She said that such wise teachers as Buddhadasa hardly made women feel inferior (Ranchuan, Sitthi satrī, pp. 16-17). Regarding her background, see Ito, 'Buddhist women in dhamma practice', p. 167;
39. and Chīwit lōk, chīwit tham: Prawat chīwit thammadā khōng Ranchuan Inthrakamhāeng [Secular life and dhamma life: Biography of Ranchuan lnthrakamhāeng] (Bangkok: Kōng-thun Thamma Sawatdī, 2004).
40. Watthu-anuson 100 wan mōrana: Nāng Kimsōi Hēmakūn [Commemoration of the 100th day after passing: Mrs Kimsōi Hēmakūn] (Chaiy:̄ Suan Mōkkhabalārāma, 14 Oct. 1989).
41. Metta Phanit, interviews, Suan Mokkh, 5 Mar. 1999 and 9 May 2005. According to Metta, Kimsoi had had six children, but one of them died very young.
42. Metta, interview, 5 Mar. 1999.
43. Ibid. 1n his book of 'legacies to be bequeathed', Buddhadasa's eighth legacy was as follows: 'Suan Mokkh International is particularly for friends of different nations and different languages to be illuminated in their spirituality. I came to this idea when they were struggling to search for their true self (Mōradok, p. 3).
44. 1n the Thai standard measurement of area, the three plots of land are respectively 60 rai, 100 rai and 40 rai. One rai is equivalent to 1,600 square metres.
45. Upāsikā Dr Sōemsap Damrongrat (a teacher at the Dhammamātā Hermitage), interview, Suan Mōkkh, 8 May 2005.
46. Santikaro was a monk when he stayed at the Dhamma Missionary Training Community. He later moved to the United States. Although presently no longer a monk, Santikaro still uses his ordained name and teaches Buddhism (Santikaro, email correspondence, 15 Dec. 2005).
47. Thammāsom Thammamātā [Dhammamātā Hermitage] (Chaiyā: Dhammadāna Foundation, 2001).
48. Ibid., p. 11.
49. I am grateful to Dr Mark Allon at the University of Sydney for suggesting this English translation.
50. Quotations from Buddhadāsa, 'Thammāsom Thammamātā' (first note) and 'Thammamt̄ā' (third note) in ibid.
51. 'Thammamt̄ā' (third note) in ibid.
52. Buddhadāsa, 'Āsom thammamt̄ā' (fourth note) in ibid.
53. Buddhadāsa, 'Āsom thammamātā' (second note) in ibid.
54. Buddhadāsa, 'Āsom thammamātā' (fourth note) in ibid.
55. Buddhadāsa, 'Āsom thammamātā' (second note) in ibid. Although in his note Buddhadāsa did not mention Muslim prayers, Upāsikā Sōemsap Damrongrat said (interview, 8 May 2005) that he was inspired by Muslim prayers.
56. Buddhads̄a wrote in one of his dhammamātā notes, 'It is better, more appropriate and more convenient for women to teach women with each other, so we should have dhammamātā' ('Thammamātā' [the third note], in ibid.).
57. Buddhadasa, 'Āsom thammamātā' (third note), in ibid.
58. Phra Thammakaosachan (Phutthathat Phikkhu) [Buddhadasa Bhikkhu], 'Māe thī than yang mai rūchak: Lōk ca mī santhiphāp, thā rū-chak māe thī thāe ching' [Motherhood that you have not yet known: The world will have peace, if it knows the true mother], in Phutthathat Phikkhu and Panyanantha Phikku [Paññananda Bhikku], Māe phra nai bān: Phra thamma-thētsanā phisēt [Mother is a monk at home: Special dhamma sermons] (Bangkok: Thammasaphā, n.d.), p. 49.
59. Phutthathat Phikkhu [Buddhaddsa Bhikkhu], Phra-khun khōng māe khū santhiphāp khōng lōk [Mothers' virtues are world peace] (Bangkok: Atammayō, n.d.), p. 4;
60. the original sermon was delivered on 12 Aug. 1989. The analogy of mother's milk as her blood seems to be common in Thailand. Jane Hanks, based on her research in Central Thailand, quoted a saying that'[mother's] blood was purified to a white colour to become the milk of the breast'; Hanks, Maternity and its rituals in Bāng Chan (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Data Paper, 1963), p. 72.
61. Phutthathat, Phra khun khōng māe, p. 14. According to a friend, if we use too much strength in shredding coconut meat, the meat will crumble into big pieces which cannot be properly shredded and are unsuitable for squeezing out milk.
62. Māe sōn wai: Ruap-ruam kham-sōn khōng māe Phutthathat Phikkhu [Mother taught: A collection of teachings by the mother of Buddhaddsa Bhikkhu], ed. Phot Yangphonkhan (Bangkok: Sukkhaphp̄ Chai, 2002), pp. 19-20, 37.
63. Phutthathat, Phra khun khōng māe, p. 18.
64. Metta, interview, 9 May 2005. The quotation is from ibid., pp. 18-19.
65. A similar story appears in Buddhaddsa's sermon 'Mē thī than yang mai rū-chak', p. 45.
66. Phutthathat Phikkhu [Buddhaddsa Bhikkhu], 'Thammamata' Dhammamāt aa], in Anuson ngān phrarātchathān phlōeng sop Nāng Phitsamai Kamalamē (Imudom) (Cremation volume for Mrs Phitsamai Kamalamen [Im'udom]), 1994, p. 44. On the other hand, in his notes on the Dhammamata Hermitage, Buddhadasa metaphorically described women practitioners as mothers who have dhamma.
67. Ibid., p. 37.
68. See Phra Thepwethi [Prayut Payuttō Bhikku, now known as Phra Phrōmkhunp̄hōn], Dictionary of Buddhism (Bangkok: Mahā-chull̄ongkōn Rt̄cha-witthayl̄ai, 1992), p. 125.
69. Buddhadasa explained each of the three by means of nine attributes. Concerning textual study, he quoted navanga-satthusāsana (the Teacher's nine-factored dispensation), including sutta (discourses), geyya (discourses mixed with verses), veyyākarana (prose expositions), and others (Phutthathat, 'Thammamata', pp. 37-9;
70. Phra Thepwethi, Dictionary of Buddhism, pp. 261-2).
71. These nine seem to be composite styles of teaching. Regarding the realisable or attainable aspect, or realisation aspect, he said that it corresponds with the nine lokuttara dhamma, consisting of four magga (paths), four phala (results), and one nibbāna. However, in this sermon he did not give precise details about the realisable aspect (Phutthathat, 'Thammamata', pp. 41-2).
72. The cycle of causes and effects is called sȧ msāravatta. in Pali. Buddhadasa explained that because of the transcendence from the cycle, an arahȧ m is the one who should be paid respect and who has no secrets to hide; Phra Thepwethi, Dictionary of Buddhism translates 'arahȧ m' as 'holy, worthy; accomplished' (p. 262).
73. In the Thai translation of the morning chant, Buddhadasa translated it as 'the prospered one who is away from defilements'; Tham wat chāo yen lae suat man phisēt bāng bot plāe Thai khōng Samnak Suan Mōkphalārām Chaiyā [Morning and evening chants and some special chants, Thai translation, by Suan Mokkhabalarama, Chaiy]̄, p. 2.
74. Phra Thepwethi, Dictionary of Buddhism translates the last three terms respectively as 'teacher of gods and men', 'awakened' and 'blessed; analyst' (p. 262).
75. In Buddhadasa's Thai translation of the morning chants, 'bhagavā is rendered as 'the prosperous one who distributes dhamma to teach living beings' (Tham wat chāo yen, p. 3).
76. Ibid.
77. Phutthathat, 'Thammamata', p. 47.
78. I have written about Buddhist women's opinions on movements to raise their status in Ito, 'Buddhist women in dhamma practice' and Tomomi Ito, 'Ordained women in yellow robes: An unfamiliar "tradition" in contemporary Thailand', in Out of the shadows: Socially engaged Buddhist women, ed. Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publication, 2006), pp. 168-71.
79. Marjorie A. Muecke, 'Make money not babies: Changing status makers of Northern Thai women', Asian Survey, 24, 4 (1984): 461-2.
80. Marjorie A. Muecke, 'Thai conjugal family relationships and the Hsu hypothesis', Journal of the Siam Society, 71, 1-2 (1983): 25-41;
81. A. Thomas Kirsch, 'Development and mobility among the Phu Thai of Northeast Thailand', Asian Survey, 6, 7 (1966): 370-8;
82. Hanks, Maternity and its rituals, pp. 72-3;
83. Charles F. Keyes, 'Mother or mistress but never a monk: Buddhist notions of female gender in rural Thailand', American Ethnologist, 11, 2 (1984): 229;
84. and Penny Van Esterik, 'Nurturance and reciprocity in Thai studies', in State power and culture in Thailand, ed. E. Paul Durrenberger (New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies Monograph, 1996), pp. 24-5.
85. On the schoolchildren's and women's views, see Muecke, 'Thai conjugal family relationships', p. 32
86. and Hanks, Maternity and its rituals, pp. 76-7.
87. Van Esterik, 'Nurturance and reciprocity', p. 27.
88. Jane Hanks cited mothers' virtues sung in tonsurechants (Maternity and its rituals, p. 32). Ms Chintana Sandiland, a Thai lecturer at the Australian National University, mentioned that the bride price paid by the groom to the bride's mother is called khā nam nom ('milk price') (personal communication, 3 Feb. 2006).
89. Chintana, personal communication, 3 Feb. 2006. On the tham khwan nāk ceremony, see Stanley J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the spirit cults in North-East Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. 105; the term 'nāga' (nāk) in this context designates the candidate for ordination. Tambiah's discussion uses the term 'sū khwan', which replaces 'tham khwan' in northeastern Thailand and Laos.
90. Than Wat Thanontaeng (probably an abbot of Wat Thanontaeng), 'Tham khwan nāk choei sak' [Ceremony for strengthening the spirit essence for an ordination candidate], in Kasem Bunsi, Praphēnī tham bun nai Phutthasāsanā [Merit-making customs in Buddhism] (Bangkok: Khurusaphā, 1961), pp. 137-8.
91. In Thai this image appears as the title 'Mother' in the names of goddesses, such as the Earth (Māe Thōranī) and Rice (Māe Phōsop) Goddesses. See Jane Hanks, 'Reflections onthe ontology of rice', in Culture in history. Essays in honor of Paul Radin, ed. Stanley Diamond (New York. Octagon Press, 1981), pp. 298-301;
92. and John P. Ferguson, 'The Great Goddess today in Burma and Thailand: An exploration of her symbolic relevance to monastic and female roles', in Mother worship: Theme and variations, ed. James J. Preston (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982), pp. 283-303.
93. Lucien and Jane Hanks quoted a ceremonial dialogue between two monks about the Rice Goddess, in which one monk asked the other why we do not call her 'Father'. The response was, 'Mother means one who is our benefactor, but father means a person who has power. Things having power, influence and hardness are supposed to be masculine. Rice has no power or influence. On the contrary, it feeds all creatures in the world and lengthens their lives; so it is placed on the side of female.'See Lucien M. Hanks and Jane Richardson Hanks,'Thailand: Equality between the sexes', in Women in the new Asia: The changing social roles of men and women in South and South-East Asia, ed. Barbara E. Ward (Paris: UNESCO, 1963), pp. 439-40.
94. Keyes, 'Mother or mistress', p. 233;
95. Barbara Andaya, 'Localising the universal: Women, motherhood and the appeal of early Theravāda Buddhism', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 33, 1 (2002): 1-30;
96. and Penny Van Esterik, 'Feeding their faith: Recipe knowledge among Thai Buddhist women', Food and foodways, 1 (1986): 197-215.
97. Andaya writes, 'Despite inherent contradictions between the alleged "high status" of women in Southeast Asia and their ambiguous position in Theravāda traditions, "female agency" has never been an issue in the region's religious historiography.... Moving into Southeast Asia at a time when its basic receptivity to lay involvement had been enhanced, Theravāda Buddhism offered continuing opportunities for all women to acquire merit through gift-giving and thereby counter their relegation to an inferior position' ('Localising the universal', p. 29).
98. For discussions of women's status in Southeast Asia, see, for instance: Hanks and Hanks, 'Thailand: Equality between the sexes'; Ferguson, 'Great Goddess today', p. 295;
99. Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the age of commerce 1450-1680, vol. 1: The lands below the winds (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 146;
100. Penny Van Esterik, 'Introduction', in Women of Southeast Asia, ed. Penny Van Esterik (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University, Center for Southeast Asian Studies Occasional Paper, 1982), pp. 1-15;
101. Van Esterik, Materializing Thailand (Oxford: Berg, 2000); and Women's studies in Thailand: Power, knowledge and justice, ed. Suwanna Satha-Anand (Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, 2004).
102. Evelyn Nakano Glenn, 'Social constructions of mothering: A thematic overview', in Mothering. Ideology, experience, and agency, ed. Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Grace Chang and Linda Rennie Forcey (New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 1-29.
103. Phutthathat phikkhu [Buddhaddsa Bhikkhu], 'Mōradok thī 158' [Legacy number 158], in Mōradok thī khō fāk wai, p. 42.
104. For another statement on women's rights and duties, see Phutthathat, 'Māe thī than yang mai rū-chak', pp. 48-9.
105. Buddhadasa often referred to the ten principles of the Kālāma Sutta; Phutthathat, 'Mōradok thī 35' [Legacy number 35], in Mōradok thī khō fāk wai, p. 10.
106. Social responses toward those recently ordained as either bhikkunī or samanerī (female Buddhist novices) are discussed in 1to, 'Ordained women in yellow robes'.
107. In the Kālāma, the Buddha taught: 'Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, "The monk is our teacher". Kalamas, when you yourselves know [that] "These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness", enter on and abide in them.' Kālāma Sutta: The Buddha's charter of free inquiry, tr. Soma Thera (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1981).