Quote from The First Buddhist Women
The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentaries on the Therigatha
by Susan Murcott
Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, 1991 199 pages
First, in this age where there is a headlong rush worldwide towards getting and spending, where the shopping mall has replaced the foot of the tree or the temple or church as the place of meditation and prayer, we are struck by the nuns of the Theragatha who took a different path.
Second, they turned towards a spiritual principle. . . Through direct personal experience, each realized the truth in the phrase: “Look within, thou art the Buddha” and their poems are the recorded expression of this.
Third is the legacy of their simple way of life. . . The model offered by the first Buddhist countries to this day, is a model of”sustainability.”
The fourth legacy is women’s spiritual authority—the authority to lead, to teach, to publish, to hold any and all positions within institutions, and to control one’s own body, mind, and spirit, and all that we create.
Get rid of the tendency
To judge yourself
Above, below, or
Equal to others.
The poem suggests that what we must first set right is our attitude towards ourselves, not ranking in relation to others.
A fifth legacy . . . is the record itself as an invaluable source of non-Western material on ancient women . . . provides support for the thesis that a cultural shift occurred not only in old Europe but in ancient India as well, a shift from women’s empowerment and spiritual authority to their disenfranchisement . . . the nuns of the Therigatha are teaching us still. (pp. 207-210)
-- quotes submitted by Barbara G.
To visit the blog and see more reviews and quotes from books in the collection of Center for Sacred Sciences' Library, click here https://centerforsacredscienceslibrary.blogspot.com
Above, below, or
Equal to others.
The poem suggests that what we must first set right is our attitude towards ourselves, not ranking in relation to others.
A fifth legacy . . . is the record itself as an invaluable source of non-Western material on ancient women . . . provides support for the thesis that a cultural shift occurred not only in old Europe but in ancient India as well, a shift from women’s empowerment and spiritual authority to their disenfranchisement . . . the nuns of the Therigatha are teaching us still. (pp. 207-210)
-- quotes submitted by Barbara G.
To visit the blog and see more reviews and quotes from books in the collection of Center for Sacred Sciences' Library, click here https://centerforsacredscienceslibrary.blogspot.com