bhikkhunī

A bhikkhunī (, ) is a fully ordained Buddhist nun. Bhikkhunīs live by the Vinaya, a set of either 311 Theravada, 348 Dharmaguptaka, or 364 Mulasarvastivada school rules. Until recently, the lineages of female monastics only remained in Mahayana Buddhism and thus were prevalent in countries such as China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam, while a few women have taken the full monastic vows in the Theravada and Vajrayana schools. The official lineage of Tibetan Buddhist bhikkhunīs recommenced on 23 June 2022 in Bhutan when 144 nuns, most of them Bhutanese, were fully ordained.DAMCHÖ DIANA FINNEGAN and CAROLA ROLOFF (BHIKṢUṆĪ JAMPA TSEDROEN). "Women Receive Full Ordination in Bhutan For First Time in Modern History", ''Lion's Roar'', JUNE 27, 2022.

According to the Buddhist Canon, women are as capable of reaching enlightenment as men. The Canon describes that the order of bhikkhunīs was first created by the Buddha at the specific request of his aunt and foster-mother Mahapajapati Gotami, who became the first ordained bhikkhunī. A famous work of the early Buddhist schools is the '' Therigatha'', a collection of poems by elder nuns about enlightenment that was preserved in the Pāli Canon. The canon also describes extra vows required for women to be ordained as bhikkhunīs.

In the Vajrayana of Tibetan Buddhism, Guru Padmasambhava stated that being a woman was actually better than being a man:
The first Tibetan Buddhist nun was Queen Droza Gyalmo Tsen ordained by Santaraksita in c.780 CE, while 30 other ladies of Trisong Detsen's court also ordained.

The historical authorship of the controversial Eight Garudhammas cannot be traced to the Buddha. Written by others at a later date, it mandated the bhikkhunī order to be subordinate to and reliant upon the bhikkhu (monk) order. There are 253 Vinaya precepts for bhikkus. In places where the bhikkhunī lineage was historically absent or has died out due to hardship, alternative forms of renunciation have developed.

In Tibetan Buddhism, women first officially take refuge vows as a layperson. Then, the renunciate vows of ''rabtu jungwa'' (rab-jung) are given before the ''getsulma'' (Tibetan novice) ordination vows are given. After these, full ''bhikkhunī'' ordination may be given.

Theravadan women may choose to take an informal and limited set of vows similar to the historical vows of the ''getsulma'' (Sanskrit ), like the ''maechi'' of Thailand and ''thilashin'' of Myanmar.

History

The tradition of the ordained monastic community (sangha) began with the Buddha, who established an order of bhikkhus (monks). According to the scriptures, later, after an initial reluctance, he also established an order of Bhikkhunis (nuns or women monks). However, according to the scriptural account, not only did the Buddha lay down more rules of discipline for the bhikkhunīs (311 compared to the bhikkhu's 227 in the Theravada version), he also made it more difficult for them to be ordained, and made them subordinate to monks.Anguttara Nikaya 8.51 The bhikkhunī order was established five years after the bhikkhu order at the request of a group of women whose spokesperson was Mahapajapati Gotami, the aunt who raised Gautama Buddha after his mother died.

The historicity of this account has been questioned, sometimes to the extent of regarding nuns as a later invention. The stories, sayings and deeds of a substantial number of the preeminent bhikkhunī disciples of the Buddha as well as numerous distinguished bhikkhunīs of early Buddhism are recorded in many places in the Pali Canon, most notably in the '' Therigatha'' and Theri Apadana as well as the Anguttara Nikaya and Bhikkhuni Samyutta. Additionally the ancient bhikkhunīs feature in the Sanskrit Avadana texts and the first Sri Lankan Buddhist historical chronicle, the Dipavamsa, itself speculated to be authored by the Sri Lankan bhikkhunī Sangha. Not only normal women, many Queens and princesses left their luxurious life to become bhikkhunīs to have spiritual attainment.
According to legend, the former wife of Buddha— Yasodharā, mother of his son Rāhula—also became a bhikkhunī and an arahant.
Queen Khema one of the consorts of king Bimbisara became a bhikkhunī and to hold the title of first foremost disciple of Gautam Buddha.
Mahapajapati Gotami's daughter princess Sundari Nanda became a bhikkhunī and an attained arhat.

According to Peter Harvey, "The Buddha's apparent hesitation on this matter is reminiscent of his hesitation on whether to teach at all", something he only does after persuasion from various devas. Since the special rules for female monastics were given by the founder of Buddhism they have been upheld to this day. Buddhists nowadays are still concerned with that fact, as shows at an International Congress on Buddhist Women's Role in the Sangha held at the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 2007.

In Buddhism, women can openly aspire to and practice for the highest level of spiritual attainment. Buddhism is unique among Indian religions in that the Buddha as founder of a spiritual tradition explicitly states in canonical literature that a woman is as capable of nirvana as men and can fully attain all four stages of enlightenment. There is no equivalent in other traditions to the accounts found in the '' Therigatha'' or the Apadanas that speak of high levels of spiritual attainment by women.

In a similar vein, major canonical Mahayana sutras such as the ''Lotus Sutra'', chapter 12, records 6,000 bhikkhunī arhants receiving predictions of bodhisattvahood and future buddhahood by Gautama Buddha.

The Eightfold Paths

According to the Buddhist Canon, female monastics are required to follow special rules that male monastics do not, the Eight Garudhammas. Their origin is unclear; the Buddha is quoted by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu as saying, "Ananda, if Mahaprajapati Gotami accepts eight vows of respect, that will be her full ordination (upasampada)." According to Bhante Sujato, modern scholars such as and Bhikkhu Bodhi "have shown that this story abounds in textual problems, and cannot possibly be a factual account."

According to the one scriptural account of the introduction of the Garudammas (the ''Gotamī Sutta,'' Aṅguttara Nikāya 8.51, repeated in the later Cullavagga at X.1), the reason the Buddha gave for his actions was that admission of women to the sangha would weaken it and shorten its lifetime to 500 years. This prophecy occurs only once in the Canon and is the only prophecy involving time in the Canon.

Bodhi notes that, "The fact that the background stories to these rules show them originating at different points in the early history of the Bhikkhuni Sangha casts doubt on the historicity of the present account n AN 8.51 which shows the eight garudhammas being laid down at the very beginning of the Bhikkhuni Sangha." Bhikkhu Anālayo and Thanissaro Bhikkhu state that garudhammas were initially simply "set out as principles" and did not have the status of a formal training rule until violations occurred.

In Young Chung cites Akira Hirakawa in support of the contention "that these rules were appended later," and concludes,

In the same paper, however, In Young Chung also noted that cases of Brahmin men and women recorded in the Vinaya treated the bhikkhunīs more harshly using "shaven-headed strumpets or whores", whereas "shaven-headed" was not applied to the bhikkhus in a derogatory manner.

Ian Astley argues that under the conditions of society where there is great discrimination and threat to women living the homeless life, Buddha could not be blamed for the steps he took in trying to secure the Bhikkhuni Sangha from negative attitudes among laity:

Bhikkhu Anālayo goes further, noting that "the situation in ancient India for women who were not protected by a husband would have been rather insecure and rape seems to have been far from uncommon." According to him the reference to a reduced duration has been misunderstood:

The Vinaya does not allow for any power-based relationship between the monks and nuns. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni wrote:

Becoming a bhikkhunī

The progression to ordination as a bhikkhunī is taken in four steps. A layperson initially takes the Ten Precepts, becoming a ''śrāmaṇerī