A Female Dalai Lama?

[Tenzin Malgyur]

Came across this interesting article. What do you all think?


When I became a Buddhist almost 20 years ago, I was initially enthusiastic to learn that the Buddha was the first religious founder after the Jains who allowed women into the ranks of his order -- a revolutionary decision at the time, more than 2.500 years ago. The historical Buddha clearly encouraged nuns and lay women along with men to be the pillars of his community. But practically speaking, over the centuries, women were not allowed to participate equally there either. For instance, throughout Asia, women rarely had equal access to education. After studying Buddhism for a decade in India and Nepal I couldn't fail to notice that all my teachers were men. Where were all the women? If Buddhism is based on the equality of all beings and gender didn't matter, why then was there such a huge imbalance? I started to seek out female Buddhist teachers and found myself in the middle of a sea change.


Read the article at :

www.huffingtonpost.com/michaela-haas/female-dalai-lama-why-it-mat...

[Jessie Fong]

His Holiness does not deny the possibility of a female Dalai Lama to succeed Him when he passes into clear light. He mentioned that biologically female have more potental to develop affection and love.

The next leader will be chosen after the death of the current Dalai Lama and it is not stated anywhere that the reincarnation must be male.  With the evolvement of Buddhism, women are playing more equal role and rising in the ranks.

Be it a male or female, it is just a body.

[diablo1974]

This sounded interesting as it never happen before in the history of Dalai Lama throne holders. I am ok with DL comments on the possibility of a female Dalai Lama to succeed him. I believe many of the women buddhist will applause that.

[bambi]

I agree with Jessie. A body is just a body. We have Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo who is also a female Tulku http://www.tara.org/jetsunma-ahkon-lhamo/biography/ and many high profile female nuns who are recognised.
If the time comes where a female Dalai Lama is needed, I am sure there will be one. There is no point giving or having someone at a high rank that does not serve the purpose.

[kris]

A body is just a body, and why there are so many male monks than female monks, I think is because we are living in this era where it is mostly male dominant, and it will be easier to spread Buddha's teaching in a male body.

I heard that after the current 14th Dalai Lama pass into clear light, there will be no more Dalai Lama reincarnation. Is that true? I have not heard of a female Dalai Lama so far...

[brian]

I think it is even so hard to find a female Rinpoche let alone High Lamas. I think it is because of that women are considered as a lower form of rebirth in the human realm, High Lama or tulkus reincarnate takes a good rebirth to be back into human realm to continue to teach Dharmma. This might be the reason why there are more male tulkus compared to female ones. Correct me if I am wrong.

[samayakeeper]

Male or female is a perception that humans put a label on since the age of the cavemen and brought forward to present time. But leaders of the female gender like prime ministers, businesswomen, millionaires have made headlines all over the world in modern times.

I subscribe to the teaching that the mind has a continuum, the body is just a vehicle. Because of this, a monk or nun, male or female had been recognized as tulkus, why not the next Dalai Lama?

[WisdomBeing]

Chenrezig, as the Buddha of Compassion, has no gender. Chenrezig appears as female to the Chinese Mahayanists and male to the Tibetans. I believe that Chenrezig has many emanations to suit the particular time and the people. If it would be more beneficial to appear as female, then the next Dalai Lama will be female. If not, then male. What is a label anyway. I do wonder if the Dalai Lama's line will end with the 14th Dalai Lama - simply because of political reasons - because the next incarnation may be contentious. If China wishes to recognise the next incarnation and the Tibetans do not accept that incarnation, there could be more disharmony as seen in the Panchen lama controversy. However, perhaps the Dalai Lama in his infinite wisdom would incarnate as the candidate the Chinese authorities choose! Isn't life interesting when you have full control over your rebirth!

[Rihanna]

Female or male - it's a label made by human's mind. Somehow historically, female are viewed as weak and less-human than their male counterparts. Sadly, today in many parts of of the world, ladies are still suffering injustice imposed by men! I would LOVE to see a female Dalai Lama in the near future. This would show the world that we, Buddhists, really practice Buddha's teaching i.e. treat each and every living being equal and that EVERYONE has the potential to be a Buddha.

I guess reason why, so far, all Dalai Lamas are male is that most social structures made it easy for a male leader to spread Budhdha's teaching, hence all reincarnations of Dalai Lamas are male. Or... Have they ever looked at little girls as possible candidates for recarnations of holy beings like Dalai Lama? If so, how many female reincarnations have we missed out ??

[RedLantern]

H.H.the Dalai Lama can control his rebirth,time,place and parents.So if he says that his successor could be a woman,why should the unlightened question him?He knows what he is talking about.
Women are not able to be teachers or be enlightened as there are lack of support in Asia for nuns makes it difficult(if not possible) for most of them to reach a prominent position.Time have  changed and we need more enlightened female representation....hence H.H."s words about the subject.

[Benny]

This is really exciting , a female Dalai Lama ? Can't wait , but wait ...maybe i would be dead by then , maybe i would see her in the next life . His Holiness did mentioned before,  i heard in one of his videos that if he does reincarnate as a woman , she be very attractive indeed. Maybe the would would have a living goddess of mercy , Kwan Yin in the flesh ! Billions would flock to Her give Dharma talks ...that would be incredible.

[dsiluvu]

It would really be interesting to see a FEMALE Dalai Lama... that would really be a new CHANGE! After all the female energies such as the tantric practices especially Vajrayogini is supposed to get stronger and stronger as the time degenerates in our society here. So it would probably be apt for female leadership to arise in both secular and spiritual.

I agree with Jessie. A body is just a body. We have Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo who is also a female Tulku http://www.tara.org/jetsunma-ahkon-lhamo/biography/ and many high profile female nuns who are recognised.
If the time comes where a female Dalai Lama is needed, I am sure there will be one. There is no point giving or having someone at a high rank that does not serve the purpose.

What Jessie said about a body just being a shell or vessel to use to continue its work; turning the Dharma, and to be skillfully use depending on the time and situation to suit the minds of the time is agreeable. However, I am not sure I would not use or consider Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo a good role model example of female iconic figure in Vajrayana Buddhism due to the many controversies. I'm not saying she is a fake or not.... but looking at some of Her issues, I am quite skeptical.

Take a read:

Here is some more background, courtesy of Google Search: before she became a "Buddhist," Alyce Zeoli was an ordinary spiritual cult leader and psychic who channeled the prophet Jeremiah and alien voices such as "Andor, Head of the Intergalactic Council." At various times, according to the books and articles on her, she's claimed to clearly remember earlier incarnations in which she ruled an entire galaxy, ruled an ancient civilization on earth, &c. &c. Zeoli was recognized as the Tulku -- an enlightened reincarnated mindstream -- of an obscure sixteenth century cave-meditating Tibetan yogini named Ahkon Lhamo by no lesser lama than H. H. Penor Rinpoche, who later caused much head-shaking disbelief by also recognizing actor Steven Seagal as a Tulku. (Shortly before he died, the disillusioned Penor Rinpoche confided to a journalist he would not be recognizing any more American tulkus -- since Americans have a problem with "pride.") At her spectacular widely televised "enthronement," for which she apparently tried to appear dignified but managed only to look scared, mean and self-centered, Alyce Zeoli's students gave her the honorific title "Jetsunma." Still later, another controversial Tibetan lama identified her as a current emanation of Princess Mandarava, one of Padmasambhava's tantric consorts. ("And what did the Easter Bunny say?" - Sam Kinison.) http://diamondsutrazen.blogspot.com/2011/07/deadly-viper-assassination-buddhists.html

[yontenjamyang]

From the Dharmic point of view, it should not be any different if the DL is a male or female or if the teacher is a male or female. The Buddhas in the Samboghakaya form, for example the most common depiction of Buddha Shakyamuni and Amitabha looks like they are in a male form. In the case of Amitabha, his most common trinity in the Mahayana school with Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta is often represented in the female form and in the case of the Shakyamuni trinity, Manjushri is in the male form and Samantabhadra is usually in the female form.
My point is that from actually there is no male or female from the Buddha's side but because of our karma, we have differentiate them and ourselves as male or female. It is also because of our karma and the period that we are in that most teachers and also the Dalai Lama are males. It is because it is more convenient for a male to teach but there are exceptions in situations of course, hence there are some female teachers.

From our side, if we practice equanimity, we should not be attached to the gender of the teachers or literally in anything. Being equanimous means everyone is equal. However, we can observe that the world itself is not equanimous and the Buddhas/Gurus manifest themselves that way to suit the mindset of beings.

[Tenzin Malgyur]

Yes, it is indeed possible. Buddhist does not disciminate gender. The latest news is that Tibetan Buddhist nuns have just been granted their right to sit for the Geshema exam. This is equivalent to the Geshe title awarded to monks who passed the examination after 21 years of study. In other words, it carries a title of Ph.D in Buddhist. This decision to allow the nuns to sit for this prestigious exam was given by the CTA  after much deliberations. So, in this very near future, we are going to see the first batch of female Geshes who will also teach and spread the dharma far and wide. Nice job CTA. Wonder when they gonna lift the ban on Dorje Shugden??

[hope rainbow]

The only reason why there is minority of female teachers in Buddhism is that it reflects the society in which we live. This has nothing to do with Buddhism at all.
If we had spiritual teachers in the society of the amazons in the hellenic world, these teachers would be female and the discrimination would work the other way around.
So in a world dominated by the male gender, teachers emanate as male.