Table of Contents

Introduction: Jose Ignacio Cabezon I. Gender and Buddhist History 1. Attitudes toward Women and the Feminine in Early Buddhism Alan Sponberg 2. The Female Mendicant in Buddhist Sri Lanka Tessa Bartholomeusz II. Gender and Contemporary Buddhist Culture 3. Buddhism and Abortion in Contemporary Japan: Mizuko Kuyo and the Confrontation with Death Bardwell Smith 4. Buddhist Women of the Contemporary Maharashtrian Conversion Movement Eleanor Zelliot III. The Rhetoric of Gender in Buddhist Texts 5. Gender and Persuasion: The Portrayal of Beauty, Anguish, and Nurturance in an Account of a Tamil Nun Paula Richman 6. Lin-chi (Rinzai) Ch'an and Gender: The Rhetoric of Equality and the Rhetoric of Heroism Miriam L. Levering IV. Gender and Buddhist Symbols 7. The Gender Symbolism of Kuan-yin Bodhisattva Barbara E. Reed 8. Mother Wisdom, Father Love: Gender-Based Imagery in Mahayana Buddhist Thought Jose Ignacio Cabezon V. Buddhism and Homosexuality 9. Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts Leonard Zwilling 10. Kukai and the Tradition of Male Love in Japanese Buddhism Paul Gordan Schalow Contributors Index

About the Author

Jose Ignacio Cabezon is Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He is the author of A Dose of Emptiness: An Annotated Translation of the sTong thun chen mo of mKhas grub dGe legs dpal bzang, also published by SUNY Press.

Reviews

"It fills an important gap in the field-a serious, textually close reading of gender's influence on Buddhist thought and vice versa." - Anne Klein