Celebrating International Women's Day 3-8-2013!

  I woke up at wee hours of 4AM tonight following a self-suggestion to wake up at that time to do some reading from my unfinished reading pile. It included 'The System Stinks' study material from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Instead I felt drawn towards my desktop (the use of which I am trying to cut down) and find several invitation waiting in my uncheked mail box at Wiser Earth.

I felt a sense of joy and freedom for being a Woman and the responsibilty that comes with that is really not a burden, but a blessing of Life itself! I rejoice that the the Gender Agenda is gaining Momentum!

 Photo Courtesy: Wibowo of Wiserearth

'IN CONVERSATION WITH THE DALAI LAMA" Sylvia Wetzel introduces the subject of "Striving for Equality Between Women & Men in Buddhism"

Wish a Happy International Women's Day to all Women of past, present and future, reaffirming my gratitude and connection to my own brave Mother (who passed away on September 2, 2012) and Grand Mother and having the privilege of continuing the journey with all my activist, feminist, peacenik friends everywhere for not giving up on humanity and taking care of our own mind-body and the body-mind of our planet!

"I had a dream that life is joy. I woke up to see life is duty. I witnessed service is joy!". - Tagore

Every woman can mentor, teach, educate, empower and uplift another woman. Claim your free KIVA gift for women here.

Transforming Judgement of the Feminine

Having spent this past weekend at the two day-long retreat on the Buddhist idea of ''Self and not-Self (anatta)" and "Transforming Judgements" by author and engaged Buddhist teacher Donald Rothberg I am reflecting on the 'unconscious judgement of the feminine' and its import in the larger context of the evolution of whole human psyche, self, and society.

In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned quietly simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide” [see this 3 minute video of 'It's a Girl' Documentary]. Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members.



Incidentally, the book "Half the Sky" came to my hand as a professor from Florida was handing it to Bhikkhuni Dhammananda during an outdoor lunch for visitors in front of her monastery at Nakhompathom in Thailand. 

Inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s groundbreaking book, HALF THE SKY takes on the central moral challenge of the 21st century: the oppression of women and girls worldwide. It is a passionate call-to-arms, urging us not only to bear witness to the plight of the world’s women, but to help to transform their oppression into opportunity. The linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality — which needlessly claim one woman every 90 seconds — present to us the single most vital opportunity of our time: the opportunity to make a change. Featuring actress/activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union and Olivia Wilde. Based on country data available, between 15 to 76 per cent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime. It happens everywhere – at home and at work, on the streets and in schools, during peacetime and in conflict. (UN Women UNiTE initiative)

In a recent meeting in New Delhi, Dalai Lama speaks about the limitation of materialistic education to solve deep rooted social problems by encouraging brain intellect, excessive competition, mistrust and neglect of human experience and heart intelligence. He emphasised the need for Women to take leadership roles for the transformation of society and human civilization. However, girls and women continue to pay a heavy price for having their own 'Voice'. Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who dared to speak out against a ban on female education, was shot in the head by gunmen. Before the recent election week I was a little shocked to read that the most powerful Nation the U.S. ranks 79th in the world, behind 95 other countries, for percentage of women in office. This skewed pattern may be changing with the 2012 election (Emily's list)

Also came across this article What does Sex mean for World Peace? The evidence is clear. The best predictor of a state's stability is how its women are treated. This applies to all human organization, public or private. What kind of views and intentions are essential now to make our inner and outer world turn towards sanity and compassion, so we can transform Self, Society and Economy from a Culture of War to a Culture of Peace.

Woman's Worth and Global Sustainability

"If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire." - George Monibrot

Women's empowerment is central to global sustainability says New UN Report. The UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability released its report “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing,” on 30 January 2011 in Addis Ababa. The 22-member panel established by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2010 brought renowned global leaders together to “formulate a new blueprint for a sustainable future on a planet under increasing stress resulting from human activities. “Persistent gender inequality in particular has to be addressed as part of any serious shift towards sustainable development.” 

Only 17% of the U.S. Congress and 24% of state legislators in US are women. The 2012 Project is a nonpartisan campaign to inspire women to run for office. Get to know Dr. Jill Stein, Green party Independent Candidate for US 2012 Election.

Today, while women make up over half the world’s population and produce over half its food, they own less than 2% of its land. While development experts recommend agriculture as one of the fastest advancements out of poverty for Africa, women in many countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Zimbabwe rarely control the profits from their crops, though they make up 80% of the farmers. Women are the farmers of the world. Now their right to own land is being recognized as the key for ending global hunger. See story of Sushmita at High Stakes at Land. Also visit the Young African Women's Initiative.

Support projects by Buddhist Global Relief

Women as Agents of Peace

agents of Peace Action (click on peace)



Not all news is bad news from Africa. An unexpected bright news from Zambia puts African women above men in terms of commitment to do their best despite lack of skill and education.


Why so many African American Women are joining the US military?


On a different note ~
Wonder how was life like for the citizen and non-citizen women in Classical Greece. 
How did Aristotle view women? 
Something I am munching on for my upcoming NCIS - AHA Panel Presentation on Jan 6, 2012


In his idealised REPUBLIC, Plato foresees an upperclass of ‘guardians’ among whom the chattel status of women is abolished (i.e. she is no longer owned by her husband) and in which women were to receive equal education to men.


“It is only males who are created directly by the gods and are given souls. Those who live rightly return to the stars, but those who are ‘cowards or [lead unrighteous lives] may with reason be supposed to have changed into the nature of women in the second generation’. This downward progress may continue through successive reincarnations unless reversed. In this situation, obviously it is only men who are complete human beings and can hope for ultimate fulfilment; the best a woman can hope for is to become a man” (Plato, Timaeus 90e)."  - www.Womenpreists.Org


"Women can, of course, be educated, but their minds are not adapted to the higher sciences, philosophy, or certain of the arts. Women may have happy inspirations, taste, elegance, but they have not the ideal. The difference between man and woman is the same as between animal and plant." - G.W. F. Hegel


"On the theory of the soul’s mortality, the inferiority of women’s capacity is easily accounted for. Their domestic life requires no higher faculties either of mind or body. This circumstance vanishes and becomes absolutely insignificant on the religious theory: the one sex has an equal task to perform as the other; their powers of reason and resolution ought also to have been equal, and both of them infinitely greater than at present." - David Hume, On the immortality of soul


 “A real man wants two things: danger and play. Therefore he wants woman as the most dangerous plaything. Man shall be educated for war, and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all else is folly [ ... ] And women must obey and find a depth for her surface. Surface is the disposition of woman: a mobile, stormy film over shallow water. Man’s disposition, however, is deep; his river roars in subterranean caves: woman feels his strength but does not comprehend it" - Nietzsche, Zarathustra  [Philosophical Misadventures: source link]


Philosophy mixed with misogyny makes a bad cocktail but a good subject for amusing kitchen conversation. How does unconscious biases develop in our family, community and culture?
Why are we men (and women) still killing our precious Girl Cells. Listen to Eve Ensler : Ted Talks


Coming back to the topic of peace, Amnesty International Commends US and Obama for Action Plan to protect women and children in conflict. 


Only 1 in 13 participants in peace negotiations since 1992 have been women, and women have served as only 6 percent of negotiators in formalized peace talks. Women have never been appointed as chief mediators in U.N.-brokered talks. [Amnestyusa.org LINK ]

Redefining War, Peace, Women and Wikipedia

Women, War & Peace is a bold new five-part PBS series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain. Spotlighting the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Colombia to Liberia, it places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security, and reframes our understanding of modern warfare. Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard, Women, War & Peace is the most comprehensive global media initiative ever mounted on the roles of women in war and peace. Watch on your local PBS station Tuesday nights from Oct. 11 to Nov. 8.

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize went to three women champions of peace, justice and democracy: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen. This is the first time that the Nobel Committee’s citation included a direct reference to Security Council resolution 1325. Meet the 2011 Nobel Pecae Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee and her Story of Liberia's Women Movement to stop the Civil War.

Women and Girls Lead offers a collection of films by the world’s best independent filmmakers. These films focus on women who are working to transform their lives, their communities, and the world. Browse the list of films.

Where Are the Women in Wikipedia?

Why are there so many more men than women contributing to a "free encyclopedia that anyone can edit"? I have been an avid Wikipedia participant after 9-11 and cherised such an open platform. I had to quit many times because of the behind the wall watchdog editors erasing my edits, and I am yet to learn how to properly use the talk button. Also the 'Neutrality Policy' is likely to chuck out non-mainstream heterodox views (including womens') to maintain status quo and political correctness and perhaps even reification of Knowledge.

For example I just tried now to add the word learning with edit summary (at the bottom describing the change), along with experience and education in the first line of the definition of knowledge. And it was immediately erased without explanation. I also added the word 'unknown' (leaving edit summary blank) after the phrase 'getting familiar with someone or something' in the same definition. It is still up after 10 minutes. Who has time to check after every edit or learn all the tricks of the editing. Wikipedia seems averse to take live newsclips from youtube or references quoted in blogs or online articles. Yet I believe in open sourcing of knowledge and love to see Wikipedia grow! [Source: New York Times, Feb 2011]

Also view Latinos and Blacks for Internet Freedom.

US Silent on Convention Eliminating All Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

"Ratifying CEDAW remains among the unfinished business of the Civil Rights movement." - Dorothy I. Height, April 13, 2010

Almost all countries have ratified the CEDAW agreement – 186 out of 193 countries have ratified. Only seven have not ratified, including the United States, Sudan, Somalia, Iran, and three small Pacific Island nations (Nauru, Palau, and Tonga).
Ratification of CEDAW in US has no financial cost. It just requires 67 Senators to stand together for women and girls.

<> Domestic violence: the landmark Violence Against Women Act, has done much to prevent domestic violence, yet two million women a year report injuries from current or former partners in the United States.
<> Maternal health: the United States ranks 41st among a ranking of 184 countries on maternal deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, below all other industrialized nations and a number of developing countries.
<> Economic security: U.S. women continue to lag behind men in income, earning on average only 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes.
<> Paid Parental Leave: Only four countries have no national law mandating paid time off for new parents : Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and the United States [wikipedia]
<> State of US Children: One Third of America’s poor are children—16.4 million. - Children's Defense Fund
<> Human trafficking: the Trafficking Victims Protection Act has played a pivotal role in combating human trafficking. However, estimates suggest that there may be 20,000 women, men and children trafficked into the U.S. each year. - RatifyCEDAW.org

Hillary Clinton is gathering support for CEDAW since its signing by President Carter 30 years ago. Isn't that strange? -Huffington Post, 9/20/2011

In a recent Newsweek Survey of 165 countries on the best places for Women to live with equality, Iceland, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Finland and Norway made it to the top of the list.- Daily Beast World News, 9/20/2011

Women's equality is yet to be fully realized, says US Representative Carolyn Maloney
Find more on Status of women in the States and Middle East at the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

According to UN Women (formerly Unifem), 70% of the World's poor are women and girls. Poverty is a women's issue and there is no 'gender-neutral' budget or policy. Women perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food, but earn 10% of the income and own 1% of the property.[source]

Spiritual Work of the Feminine, Inner work & Return to Beloved

I came across this beautiful teaching series on Divine Feminine via my spiritual friend Jamie Walters, creator of Ivy Sea and Feminine Moho Mystery School.

Listen to  Sufi Teacher

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

speaking on the Dangerous Love, Inner Work and the Beloved 

More on the process of opening the mystical heart and journey from romantic, to altruistic
and perhaps enchanted love, after the personality/ego has gone through many deaths. The seed of disenchantment and dispassion and  mind's obsession with form finds ultimate release.
(Rumi poems)

Why smart women make poor relationship choices? - BraveheartWomen
An Apology to Divine Feminine, a blog from Jeff Brown, author of Soulshaping 

"There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth, beyond us all,
beyond the heaven, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. 
This is the light that shines in our heart."

-Chandogya Upanishad
  
Also see homage to feminine by divine masculine

“The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical [...] He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is good as dead.” – Albert Einstein

Humanity's Greatest Untapped Resource

Even among all the bad news and conditions of violence, prejudice, economic deprivations, religious sanctions stacked against equality of majority of Women in the World there are some great things happening or rather women making it happen!

“Women’s strength, women’s industry, women’s wisdom are humankind’s greatest untapped resource,” the Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, told the first regular session of the agency’s executive board. “The challenge then for UN Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all.”

UN Women – known formally as the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – was established by the General Assembly in July last year, with the merger of four former UN agencies and offices: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) [Source]

While surfing I came across the inspiring World Pulse site. It is a powerful global communication forum for connecting women across the World and giving them a global voice. I wrote a quick letter till late last night to the new UN Women Ex. Director Michelle Bachelet articulating my fledgling economic vision for the world.

Grandmother's are gathering locally and globally as Speakers: "We have come to empower women so that each one so empowered can begin to bring the great imbalance on earth into balance. The feminine principle of energy must be re-established to its rightful place. Each woman who receives the Grandmothers empowerment is helping infuse the much-needed energy of yin into the earth by embodying this consciousness herself. This infusion of energy gives a woman a feeling of peace and security. It increases the power of love in her, and as she goes about her daily life she becomes a blessing to others." [Source link]

13 Grandmothers from four directions gathered in 2004 to speak for seven generations. [Video Link]

Yes Madam Sir, Kiran Bedi and Doing Time, Doing Vipassana

More on Kiran Bedi
Doing Time Doing Vipassana is a very moving documentary produced by Israeli Filmakers. It captures the experience of prison inmates in Delhi's notorious Tihar Jail before, during and after Vipassana training. In 1993, as the newly appointed Inspector General, Kiran Bedi, undertook major reforms of the Indian prison system. She asked for advice and found her answer inside the Tihar prison through an ancient Indian system of meditation called Vipassana, which was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2,500 years ago. Bedi's strong belief was that without reform inside prison, ex-prisoners would continue to commit crimes outside of prison. She instituted 10-day Vipassana meditation courses, first for prison staff, then for inmates. Following the success of the program in India, Vipassana has been introduced in a few prisons within USA
Prison Dharma Network is founded in 1989 by Fleet Maull, a former federal prisoner turned Dharma Teacher. PDN's mission is to provide prisoners, and those who work with them, with the most effective contemplative tools for self-transformation and rehabilitation. The US prison population exceeds 2.4 million and is out of control and we spend nearly 70 billion dollars to keep the system going. wikipedia One percent of this huge sum can easily be spent on restorative mindfulness and yoga practices for long term rehab and recidivism reduction. Without citizen awareness and civic action this is not likely to happen. [Alabama prison Interview by Buddhist Geek]

Burning Times, Andocentrism in Sangha-Society, Dalai Lama and Karmapa's Forecast

There was mass incarceration of millions of women during the Nazi Holocaust era. Not only Jewish women, but Polish, Roma (gypsy) and disable institutionalized women. Read their story here.


All religions and cultures contain strains of misogyny (prejudice, fear and aversion of women that is culturally sanctioned and socially accepted). See youtube "Women in Buddhism" by Venerable Karma Lekshe,
and "Women in Tibetan Buddhism" by Sarah Riser.

HH Dalai Lama commented recently that Buddhism has no gender bias and next Dalai Lama could be a female, if that form is more suitable for propagating dharma, but it better be an attractive female. [Read more here] :). He also commented earlier in Vancouver that the world will be saved by Western women. [Source Link]. The Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa stunned an international audience in Bodhgaya last winter by making an unprecedented declaration of commitment to ordaining women as bhikshunis in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Asked when there would be bhikshuni ordination in the Tibetan tradition,he leaned forward and said, in English, “I will do it.” The traditional “eight heavy rules” institutionalize women’s second-class status in Buddhist monasteries―women must submit to male leadership, senior nuns must take their place behind junior monks―and in most Buddhist lineages women are denied full ordination. [The Time Has Come - Article, Buddhadharma, S.2010]

It is interesting to note that in the Sutta on Bondage, Buddha spoke about transcending gender identification as part of his teaching on anatta and enlightenment. Here is a thoughtful blog by Bhikkhu Sujato of Australia on the prevalence of sexism, andocentrism and misogyny in Buddhist Sanghas. He says "Sexism is irrelevant or disproportional discrimination against a person based on their gender. Sexism is by definition wrong, since it harms women by depriving them of their full humanity. In a more subtle sense, sexism harms men too, since men’s sense of security is maintained by harming the ones they love."
 
I was quite moved by reading the life stories of some leading Women in Buddha's time, especially of Mallika (my grandma's namesake). They must be read in the social, cultural, spiritual context and ethos of the time.
The feminine principle in Vajrayana tradition signifies knowledge or wisdom, as well as the experience of sunyata. "Sunyata which is emptiness and openness, is also described in terms of the feminine principle - as the consort of all the buddhas. Prajna, or discriminating awareness, is described in terms of feminine principle too as the mother of all the Buddhas, she who gives birth to the very idea of enlightenment. This very notion of enlightenment was started by her, by prajna. But she who made the Buddhas speak, communicate, is sunyata. With sunyata there is a lot of room, openness, groundlessness, no one is standing on any ground, so communication can take place freely." - Chyogyam Trungpa (Nalanda Translation Committee 2008-09 newsletter)

A new dawn is emerging here for American Engaged Buddhism with the first historic ordination of Theravada nuns in the US and the western hemisphere! (see images 8/29/2010).

Wondering...what could be the effect of some traumatic ancient cultural traditions like male-female circumcision on the development of individual and collective male-female psyche? Does the drug of the new millenium alter our brain and our mutual capacity to co-evolve and experience the sacred?
And how could Board Members and Sangha members stop enabling behaviors and compliance patterns that are harmful for the individual member and the Sangha? [NY Times reports Scandal in a NY Zen Sangha 8-20-2010]

The science of epigenetics (beyond genetics) show that DNA  is not the only controller of traits or habits. The expression of genes (switching mechanism) is largeley dependent on and influenced by the living environment including psycho-social, cultural and emotional environment.