Buddhist Nuns and the Process of Change in Tibetan Monastic Communities > The nunneries and monasteries are trying to respond to these critiques and to this question of identity but, as often times with religious institutions, the changes are slower than the changes in the societies around them.

🗣️ Buddhist Nuns and the Process of Change in Tibetan Monastic Communities (A ✨NEW✨, free, 62-minute podcast)

Tags: #Modern #Gelug #MonasticTibetan #Nuns

Monkhood and Priesthood in Newar Buddhism > The position of the family-priest is legitimated by the application of a fundamental [Tantric] Buddhist idea: the hierarchy of Disciples' Way (śrāvakayāna), Great Way (mahāyāna) and Diamond Way (vajrayāna). > Thus the family-priesthood in Newar Buddhism, exercised by the Vajrācāryas alone, is justified in terms of the images of bodhisattva (altruistic saint) and siddha (accomplished one), the ideals of Great Way and Diamond Way respectively. > Vajrācāryas are monks, householders and priests all at once and the contradiction this seems to entail in modern eyes is avoided traditionally by viewing this sequence as a hierarchy.

📑 Monkhood and Priesthood in Newar Buddhism (A free, 28-page paper from 1989)

Tags: #MonasticTibetan #Nepalese