Post: #1

I've been reading the Tipitaka, a collection of some of the oldest surviving Buddhist texts. I ran across some discourses on women that sound surprisingly modern considering they were expounded over 2 millennia ago.

“Women are prone to anger; women are envious; women are miserly; women are unwise. This is why women do not sit in council, engage in business, or go to Kamboja.”
— AN 4:80

“Here, Mallikā, some woman is prone to anger and easily exasperated. Even if she is criticized slightly she loses her temper and becomes irritated, hostile, and stubborn; she displays anger, hatred, and bitterness."
— AN 4:197

“There are these five dangers in a black snake. What five? It is wrathful, hostile, of virulent venom, double-tongued, and it betrays friends. These are the five dangers in a black snake. So too, there are these five dangers in women.”
— AN 5:230

"They are impure, foul-smelling, frightening, dangerous, and they betray friends. These are the five dangers in women.”
— AN 5:229

"Sujātā, a man might have seven kinds of wives. What seven? One like a killer, one like a thief, one like a tyrant, one like a mother, one like a sister, one like a friend, and one like a slave. A man might have these seven kinds of wives. Which one are you?”
— AN 7:63

"Women die unsatisfied and discontent in two things. What two? Sexual intercourse and giving birth. Women die unsatisfied and discontent in these two things.”
— AN 2:61

Post: #2

Awesome! I am a practicer of zen and interested in buddhism: I haven't read any of these lines before.

Thanks a lot, +rep

Post: #3

Haha, that was funny. I wonder what the hippy-new-agey-feminists that love everything with a slight smell of the exotic, just like Buddhism, Yoga and all that, and call themselves buddhists because they read about it on a book they picked up on aisle C next to the rice and beans in the supermarket, would make of this.

Post: #4

(04-13-2014 03:32 AM)strengthstudent Wrote:  Awesome! I am a practicer of zen and interested in buddhism: I haven't read any of these lines before.

Thanks a lot, +rep

Thanks! Buddhism is pretty nice. It doesn't beat around the bush, so to speak.

(04-13-2014 08:18 AM)Teutatis Wrote:  Haha, that was funny. I wonder what the hippy-new-agey-feminists that love everything with a slight smell of the exotic, just like Buddhism, Yoga and all that, and call themselves buddhists because they read about it on a book they picked up on aisle C next to the rice and beans in the supermarket, would make of this.

Right? I bet there are a lot of interesting verses about women in the Vedas and Yoga Sutras. The ancient scriptural sources for many of these modernized practices rarely spoke kindly of women. Take Christianity, for example. I wonder how many feminists who also claim to be Christian have actually read the bible.

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety."
— 1 Timothy 2:12-15

Post: #5

Pretty acurate, it's easy to dominate them or not take them seriously. What is hard is to make them depend on you when every institution in every country panders to them.