The Bodhisattva Path of Meditation Practice and Gender in India

Akemi Iwamoto

There are some Mahayana Buddhist sutras that say a woman must become a man before she can be reborn in the Pure Land or become a Buddha. Is it possible for female monastics who are engaged in meditation practice to gain the highest stage (the Buddha stage) of the bodhisattva path shown in the Mahayana treatises? Is there evidence in the Mahayana meditation practice system to support the premise that a woman is required to turn into a male prior to becoming a Buddha?

My analysis of these questions based on the Mahayanasutralamkara (ca. 4th c. CE), one of the most important texts of the early Yogacara school. The Mahayanasutralamkara is considered to be the first treatise that contains a long argument against conservative Buddhists who think that the Mahayana tradition is not the authentic word of the Buddha. The Mahayanasutralamkara presents an innovative meditation practice system that adapts the Sarvastivada system from a Mahayana standpoint. The biggest difference between these systems lies in their final goals. The goal of the Mahayana system is to become a Buddha, while the Sarvastivada’s goal is to become an arhat.

We know from Buddhist texts that there were many female arhats in ancient India and so we could expect that the innovative Mahayana path made it possible for a female practitioner to become a Buddha. My paper will investigate the arguments concerning whether it is possible for a female to reach the Buddha stage in the bodhisattva path shown in the Mahayanasutralamkara. It compares the path of practice expounded in the Abhidharmakosabhasya of Vasubandhu, which is the most influential Sarvastivada text in Buddhist history, with the Mahayanasutralamkara. This examination will be based on the Sanskrit originals of both texts, with reference to their Tibetan and Chinese translations and relevant texts and commentaries.