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THE POWER OF DENIAL
BUDDHISMS: A PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS SERIES
E D I T E D B Y S T E P H E N F. T E I S E R

A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book

THE POWER OF DENIAL
B U D D H I S M , P U R I T Y, A N D G E N D E R

BERNARD FAURE

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright © 2003 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY
All Rights Reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Faure, Bernard.
The power of denial : Buddhism, purity,
and gender / Bernard Faure.
p. cm. — (Buddhisms)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-691-09170-6 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-691-09171-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Women—Religious aspects—Buddhism. 2. Sex—Religious aspects—Buddhism.
3. Buddhism—Doctrines. I. Title. II. Series.
BQ4570.W6 F38 2003
294.3′082—dc21 2002066257

This book has been composed in Sabon

Printed on acid-free paper. ∞

www.pupress.princeton.edu

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Adèle, Gaëlle, and Anaı̈s
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi

Introduction
“Soaring and Settling”—Too Soon? 2
The Cultural Approach 6
Gender Revisited 8
Gendering Buddhism 15

PART ONE: BUDDHISM AND WOMEN 21

CHAPTER ONE
The Second Order 23
The Evolution of the Female Saṅgha 24
The Female Order in Japan 28
The Issue of Ordination 36
Sociological Context(s) 38
Sorely Missed 47
Nunhood and Feminism 51
CHAPTER TWO
The Rhetoric of Subordination 55
A Theodicy of Disprivilege 57
The Five Obstacles and the Three Dependences 62
A Case of Blood Poisoning 66
Drinking from the Blood Bowl 73
The “Facts” of Life 79
The Red and the White 81
CHAPTER THREE
The Rhetoric of Salvation 91
The Legend of the Nāga-Girl 91
Becoming Male 99
Interpretative Divergences 103
Amida’s Vow and Its Implications 106
A Feminine Topos 116
CHAPTER FOUR
The Rhetoric of Equality 119
Gender Equality in Mahāyāna 120
viii CONTENTS

Gender Equality in Vajrayāna 122

Chan/Zen Egalitarianism 127

PART TWO: IMAGINING BUDDHIST WOMEN 143

CHAPTER FIVE
Monks, Mothers, and Motherhood 145
Bad Mothers 146
The Ambivalent Mother 148
Mater Dolorosa 148
The Forsaken Mother 152
The Changing Image of Motherhood 160
Varieties of Motherly Experience 163
Mad Mothers 167
The Law of Alliance 168
CHAPTER SIX
Conflicting Images 181
Women in the Life of the Buddha 182
Queens, Empresses, and Other Impressive Ladies 188
Eminent Nuns 198
Femmes Fatales 204
Of Women and Jewels 205

PART THREE: WOMEN AGAINST BUDDHISM 217

CHAPTER SEVEN
Crossing the Line 219
The Utopian Topos 222
Stopped in Their Tracks 224
Kūkai’s Mother 228
The Kekkai Stone 233
Conflicting Interpretations 235
The Symbolic Reading of Transgression 238
The Kekkai and the Logic of Muen 243
CHAPTER EIGHT
Women on the Move 250
The “Nuns of Kumano” 250
What’s in a Name 254
Down by the River 261
The Monk and the Bayadère 262
The Discourteous Courtesan 267
Paradigms 269
 CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER NINE
The Power of Women 287
The Myth of Tamayorihime 290
The Miko and the Monk 304
Women on the Edge 310
Women, Dragons, and Snakes 316
AFTERTHOUGHTS 325

NOTES 341
BIBLIOGRAPHY 401
INDEX 459
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I WISH to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who have, in one

way or another, helped me to bring this book to completion. There
is no way of acknowledging each and every individual who has par-
ticipated in this dialogical process. A short list of the usual suspects would
include: Wendi Adamek, Alice Bach, Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, Wendy
Doniger, Jennifer Dumpert, Hubert Durt, Hank Glassman, Allan Gra-
pard, Janet Gyatso, Linda Hess, Kuo Li-ying, Kawahashi Noriko, Susan
Klein, Miriam Levering, Irene Lin, Ellen Neskar, Fabio Rambelli, and
Mimi Yengpruksawan.
Undergraduate and graduate students, over the years, have stimulated
me through their questions and discussions. The first draft of the book
was written during a year well spent at the Kyoto Center for Japanese
Studies in 1994–95, and I am grateful for the institutional support I re-
ceived from the Director, Terry MacDougall, and from his staff. Likewise,
the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford, and its successive chairs,
Arnie Eisen and Carl Bielefeldt, have been most supportive. I am finally
grateful to my editor at Princeton University Press, Brigitta van Rhein-
berg, for her kindness and patience.
This page intentionally left blank
INTRODUCTION

T HIS BOOK is the second part of a project on the place of sexuality

and gender in Buddhism. The first part, published under the title
The Red Thread, dealt with the question of monastic discipline,
especially the rule against illicit sex and its transgression. It also addressed
the question of the so-called degeneration of the monastic order in Japan,
in particular with the widespread practice of monks marrying or having
concubines, and the equally prevalent monastic homosexuality (or rather
pedophilia). Sexuality, denied in principle, became crucial, and Buddhism
attempted to coopt or transform local cults (in which women played a
large role), being in turn transformed by them. In the case of Japan, for
instance, Buddhism tried to specialize in imperial rituals dealing with the
prolificity of the imperial body and the prosperity of the imperial lineage.
Whereas The Red Thread focused on male monastic sexuality, this
work centers on Buddhist conceptions of women and constructions of
gender. Although this artificial dichotomy between sexuality and gender
is somewhat unfortunate, and potentially misleading, it is used heuristi-
cally, as a tool for sorting out the staggering complexity of the issues.
The present volume deals more specifically with the status and agency
of women in a typically androcentric tradition like Japanese Buddhism.
My general argument is that Buddhism is paradoxically neither as sexist
nor as egalitarian as is usually thought. Women played an important role
in Buddhism, not only as nuns and female mystics, but also as mothers
(and wives) of the monks; in addition, in such capacity, they were the
representatives of local cults, actively resisting what was at times per-
ceived as a Buddhist take-over. Among these women, we also find courte-
sans and prostitutes, who often were the privileged interlocutors of the
monks.
Women were divided, not only due to their own separate agenda, but
also as a result of male domination, and some were clearly more op-
pressed than others. Preaching nuns, for instance, seemed to side with the
male institution in threatening other women with eternal exclusion from
deliverance. Thus, we are faced with a broad spectrum of situations: from
exclusion to inclusion (or the other way around, depending on one’s view-
point, with discrimination as a case of “inclusive exclusion”); from
agency or passivity within the patriarchal system to “life on the border-
line”; to passivity or agency in the “ténèbres extérieures,” rejection or
voluntary departure from the patriarchal Eden or Pure Land.
Until now, the story or history of women in Buddhism has been repre-
sented in a relatively linear fashion: as a shift from oppression to freedom,
2 INTRODUCTION

a teleological narrative of progress and liberation (from so-called Hı̄na-

yāna to Mahāyāna, or again, from an elitist ideology to a more open and
democratic one). While some scholars see Buddhism as part of a move-
ment of emancipation, others see it as a source of oppression. Perhaps
this is only a distinction between optimists and pessimists, if not between
idealists and realists. In both cases, the identity of Buddhism (and of
women) is seen as rather unproblematic. Things, however, are unfortu-
nately (or fortunately) more complicated. As we begin to realize, the term
“Buddhism” does not designate a monolithic entity, but covers a number
of doctrines, ideologies, and practices—some of which seem to invite,
tolerate, and even cultivate “otherness” on their margins; it also refers
to various levels of discourse (ideological, institutional) that, although
globally related at a given period, have relative autonomy and distinct
dynamics. Thus, even the most reactionary ideology, while operating ac-
cording to its own repressive dynamic, can be put to very different uses
(some of them ironic, subversive) when it is articulated to specific cultural
and institutional contexts, and manipulated by antagonistic historical
agents. These tactics and strategies of inclusion, exclusion, and/or dis-
crimination were permitted (yet constrained) by a certain number of mod-
els, whose combinations are, if not endless, at least more numerous than
usually recognized by partisans on both sides of the gender divide. Among
them, we can mention:
1. male power (androcentrism, misogyny, patriarchy)
2. female power (biological, religious, political)
3. equality through conjunction of sexes (yin/yang)
4. complementarity through conjunction of sexes (Tantric or Daoist ritual)
5. rhetorical equality through denial of sex/gender (Mahāyāna doctrine)

“SOARING AND SETTLING”—TOO SOON?

Many studies have been produced over the past twenty years about practi-
cally every aspect of women’s lives in Western societies. Reacting against
what she perceived as a certain female parochialism in gender studies,
Nathalie Zemon Davis insisted that the focus should be on the relations
between sexes rather than on women only. In the case of Buddhism, how-
ever, there is no need yet to worry about having too many studies focusing
only on women. We are still at the first stage, where we may need to
listen carefully in order to hear the voices of women, in the interstices, or
through the “italics” (the specific slant) of men’s discourse.
Studies on Buddhism and gender have begun to appear, but they are
usually limited to one tradition (in general Tantric or Tibetan Buddhism),
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