Abstract
Early Buddhist nuns receive no credit for contributing to either feminist or Buddhist discourse on anger because scholars have focused on examinations on sex and sexuality. Yet their poems resonate with postcolonial feminists such as Maria Lugones, who has provided compelling analyses of anger that break from notions of purity and singular identity. I, furthermore, suggest that Asian Buddhist women can serve as a model for balancing the expression of anger with mindfulness. If Asian Buddhist women are missing from the discussion on Buddhism feminism, I suggest it is partly due to the aversion of thinking deeply about anger and the lack of examples of women who can skillfully address anger. Transforming our approach to anger can show, conversely, how Asian Buddhist women can contribute to the richness of Buddhist and feminist philosophy. Paying attention to their example and being on the lookout for others like them can help build resources for understanding transformative anger and using it as a foundation for Buddhist feminism.
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In explaining how her own relationship with religion worked to alienate her from academics, bell hooks noted that all the “cool” people seemed to be anti-religion. bell hooks. Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life. (New York: Holt Paperbacks, 1999): 152.
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Originally cited in Penny Enslin and Mary Tjiattas, “Liberal Feminism, Cultural Diversity, and Comparative Education” Comparative Education vol. 40 (4) 2004: 510.
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Heonik Kwon (2013), in Ghost of War in Vietnam, also describes ways Vietnamese culture ascribes a material existence to ghosts. In other words, we must recognize that belief in spirits cannot be reduced to psychological trauma—as it often is in the West.
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Yeng, S. (2020). The Legacy of Elder Buddhist Nuns. In: Buddhist Feminism. Palgrave Studies in Comparative East-West Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51162-3_7
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