Good feelings and the Buddha: Healing in a Thai bhikkhuni monastery

Daphne Weber

doi:10.7273/000004016

While there are many analyses of the Thai Bhikkhuni movement, there seem to be two dominant interpretations; What I call the transnational feminist discourse argues the movement is correlated with the struggle for Thai women to attain equality to their male counterparts in Buddhism. Thus, the movement allows women to have a similar religious position, resulting in more opportunities and empowerment. What I call the culturally relativistic discourse argues that the movement is a return to what is perceived to be the Buddha's original intentions. Thus, the movement strengthens Buddhism as it reincorporates the female sect of monks. I argue that these explanations have been talking past one another, thereby limiting our understanding of the phenomenon. Based on my fieldwork, I bring these two perspectives together by the notion of suffering. The desire to end one's suffering was commonly cited as the reason to receive ordination, suggesting alignment with my understanding of culturally relativistic interpretations. However, the desire to help end other women's suffering suggests alignment with my understanding of transnational feminist interpretations. In this thesis, I argue that the communal aspect the bhikkhuni have created not only encourages ordination but is one of the reasons they continue to be ordained. This continuity of ordained experience helps us understand the bhikkhuni movement in Thailand. Making use of Durkheim's collective conscious and Ahmed's collective feelings, I show that the movement has fostered a community emphasizing healing for Thai women. This allows bhikkhuni to cultivate Buddhist teachings in relation to their own hardships and suffering in ways that they previously did not see as available in their lay lives, or the other, more socially-available trajectories for women pursuing religious occupations in Thailand as mae chi. Through an analysis of women's lives at a monastery in Central Thailand, and three particular case studies from women who received ordination, I offer a new perspective on the Thai bhikkhuni movement by demonstrating how they feel their role is different than what has previously been available in Thailand and how their life experiences have prepared them to welcome others into the communal space.

Good feelings and the Buddha: Healing in a Thai bhikkhuni monastery

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