Should women seek for Ordination as Bhikkhuni?
At the time of Buddha, Buddha accepted both men and women to his Sangha order.
Sangha order was established for those who gone forth from household lives to Homeless lives; nothing more, to work for liberation in the Supramundane field.
Following the Noble Eightfold Path they seek out for Nibbana.
Men and women of Sangha order are not to work against each other in the mundane field; women seek out for ordination to gain Nibbana in this life, the same as those Bhikkhu in the Sangha order.
At the time of Buddha, even a courtesan Vimala was able to attain the arahatship.
She was first ordained as Bhikkhuni
She works hard on the path of the dhamma,
she gains her arahatship – Nibbana.
Shouldn’t women be allowed to receive ordination in Theravada tradition, if they truly wanted to gain arahatship like Bhikkhu’s.? Bhikkhu’s have nothing to lose by having Bhikkhuni fulfilling the four factors stated in MahaPariNibbana sutta?
See the excerpt :
Vimala the former Courtesan
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Intoxicated with my complexionfigure, beauty, and fame;haughty with youth, I despised other women.Adorning this bodyembellished to delude foolish men,I stood at the door to the brothel: a hunter with snare laid out.
I showed off my ornaments,and revealed many a private part.I worked my manifold magic,laughing out loud at the crowd.
Today, wrapped in a double cloak, my head shaven, having wandered for alms,I sit at the foot of a treeand attain the state of no-thought.All ties -- human and divine -- have been cut.Having cast off all effluents,cooled am I, unbound. Therigatha.
