I am having trouble understanding exactly why women are not allowed to become Buddhist monks. Why are the nuns treated inferior to the monks?
It is not an easy question to answer – but I will try:- I think that any concept of inferiority of women within Buddhism is cultural rather than religious in nature. When the Buddha lived over 2500 years ago women were treated in a less politically correct way than they are today. The Buddha did ordain nuns, but they were given more rules than monks. The Buddha was seen as rebelling against the orthodox religion of the time, and ignored some Social norms such as Caste – but perhaps womens’ liberation was too big a jump! Also – within most monastic communities (even today) sex and sexual attraction is seen as a distraction from the meditative life – so generally there are very strict rules for monastics about contact between the sexes to avoid this problem and any sexual abuse or accusations of abuse. (For example when a male Zen monk visits our meditation group he cannot spend the night in the same house as women unless there are other men present – a bit like the new rules for teacher
