Posted on 08/14/2016 7:39:27 PM PDT by Rebelbase
For centuries, Buddhist nuns have been banned from practicing the deadly martial art of kung fu, but a few years ago the Druk Amitabha Mountain nunnery in Nepal became the home of the world’s first first order of kung fu nuns.
Traditionally, the inherently patriarchal Buddhist monastic system has nuns performing only the most meanial of domestic tasks, while the monks can lead prayers and occupy powerful positions. Nuns are perceived as inferior to monks and usually spend their time working in the kitchens and gardens of Buddhist monasteries. Learning ancient martial arts is definitely off limits for them, so how did the nuns of Druk Amitabha Mountain nunnery come to practice kung fu up to two hours every day?
Roughly 26 years ago, members of the of the 800-year-old Drukpa order rebelled and formed the Druk Amitabha Mountain nunnery, a place where women are treated with the same respect as men. “When I was very small, I was already thinking that it was not right to suppress women in our society,” His Holiness The Gyalwang Drukpa, leader of the Buddhist sect, says. “But then when I grew up, I started to think what can I do for them? Then I thought what I can do is to build a nunnery and then give them an opportunity to study and practice spiritually.”
(Excerpt) Read more at odditycentral.com ...
Kung Fu Nunnery meets Hong Kong Phooey.
Results are Hong Kong Phunny.
In fact it was a little bit frightening.
Here comes the big Boss! C’mon let’s get it on.
we had kung fu nuns in the Bronx when I was in Catholic school. they would beat the hell out of you for spits and giggles. their specialty was tossing kids down staircases. if you made that trip you were never to be seen again.
But it was with expert timing.
Kung Fu Fighting
“Meaningless” is not a word.
TC
The head lama is very brave, Buddhism is traditionally extremely sexist monastically.
And no one messes with those girls.
He's a big hitter too, the Lama.
“Meanial” is what I was trying to quote. Even FR spell check wouldn’t quote it.
TC
How so?
Clarify, please. I haven’t a clue here...
And can they walk on rice paper without leaving a mark?
Can they unstick a garbage disposal with a simple broom handle?
Kwai Chang Caine got tired of walking the Earth, righting wrongs in his inimitable way.
He wanted to wear shoes. So he joined the Army for the uniform.
An officer saw Caine humiliate a passle of armed cowboys who were bullying a crippled school ma’rm, and he used only his left foot. So the colonel was impressed.
They promised him he wouldn’t have to kill anyone. All he had to do was teach the cavalry how to kung fu fight.
Unfortunately, the first time Caine practised a salute he killed himself.
What a great crowd! Try the octopus. It’s fairly fresh.
lol!
Ok, you are officially suffering from Freeper madness.
I have heard that kind of thing before but I know one lama who is several years older than I am and his mother was a revered lama. There are also numerous stories of famous highly realized female lamas throughout several centuries.
Sexism is not a part of Buddhist teachings. But it is a huge part of the cultural traditions of the countries where Buddhism is heavily practiced. And a lot of what passes for Buddhism in the west is merely cultural tradition from the host country of the teacher, cleaned up to sell books and retreats here. So like anything else, buyer beware. A strong and intelligent woman in a culturally backward country can indeed use Buddhist teachings to make the idiots back off. Likewise, western soccer moms in yoga pants have no idea how much Lama Buymybook would like to jump their bones if he could sneak away between meditations.
In a nonsexual example, early Tibetan Buddhist retreats in the west in the 70s were driving many westerns to despair and incredible anguish. It took years before the Dali Lama asked why westerners were suffering so much, and found out that the chants and specific meditations were triggering massive grief and abandonment issues in westerners, driving them away from the teachings.
He studied the matter and changed the overall approach to teaching westerners. He said it wasn't supposed to be that hard or traumatic, and he was shocked over what was going on. He said that family and village life in Tibet was absolutely stifling - it was almost impossible to ever be alone because the cold always drove everyone together into each other's personal space. So Tibetan Buddhist teachers created methods of personal isolation and contemplations of solitude that Tibetan monks found enormously freeing and refreshing, like taking a vacation.
But applied to the west, the techniques were so intense they drove already personally isolated westerners to madness levels of despair. No one really understood this situation even existed until this clash of cultures happened. After it was understood, Lamas started to emphasize the emotional balancing aspects of the teachings before retreats, and limiting their length and intensity for westerners. But the point is that none of these crucial issues had anything to do with the teachings of Buddhism - they were all cultural issues. Same with sexism.
I sure haven’t heard that from the teachers I know. Most are old school Tibetans who escaped Tibet in the ‘50s. My teacher has been involved in Buddhism here in the U.S. for over 36 years and he’s never told me anything like you’re talking about visa vie Buddhism in the west. And he loves to talk.
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