On Bhikkhunī Ordination by Bhikkhu Analayo: An Interview with Bhante Kusala

By Harsha Menon | | Buddhistdoor Global

The Agama Research Group at the Department of Buddhist Studies at the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts in Taiwan recently published the book Bhikkhunī Ordination, From Ancient India to Contemporary Sri Lanka, by Venerable Bhikkhu Analayo. The book aims "to facilitate a better understanding of what underpins the twentieth century revival of bhikkhunī ordination in Sri Lanka, and elsewhere in South Asia." The book provides the reader with original passages in Pali with English and Sinhala translations for a coherent reading of the Vinaya, with special reference to the narrative background of the Vinaya rules. Towards the end of the book, the present situation of bhikkhunis in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand is discussed. In the conclusion, Bhikkhu Analayo relates the significance of the revival of bhikkhuni ordination to the revival of lay meditation in Theravada societies, in the past century. The book was translated into Sinhala by Bhante Kusala, a Theravada monk from Sri Lanka. Bhante Kusala was born in Sri Lanka in 1987. He entered monastic life at the age of 16 at Gangagiri Vihara in south Sri Lanka, where, in 2007, he received his higher ordination (upasampada). He continued to pursue his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, later moving to Italy, to study cognitive science and engage in mindfulness-based research at the University of Trento, and to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to pursue a Master's degree from Harvard University as a Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation scholar. Bhante Kusala has served as a translator for Bhante Vimalaramsi, Venerable Sister Khema, Ajahn Brahm, and Ajahn Brahmali. He has lectured and taught internationally and served as a resident chaplain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, from 2017 to 2018. In 2018, he was invited to the Great Lakes Buddhist Vihara outside Detroit, Michigan to continue his Dhamma service. I spoke with Bhante Kusala about his involvement in the translation and purpose of the book. Buddhistdoor Global: How did you get involved in the translation project? Bhante Kusala: I was invited to join the project by Venerable Analayo through one of my professors. Venerable Analayo was looking for a translator for one of his previous publications. Before this book, he wrote a couple of articles on bhikkhuni ordination. About three years ago, he contacted Professor Somaratne, who is now teaching at the University of Hong Kong. Professor Somaratne referred me to Venerable Analayo for the translation. I accepted the invitation. BDG: What is the book about? BK: The book is about women’s ordination. There are ordained nuns who have not received the bhikkhuni status in most countries, except for Sri Lanka. Mainly in the Theravada world. Some nuns, who are not yet bhikkhunis, don’t have the privilege to become fully ordained nuns. So, when Venerable Analayo decided to fulfill his duty by really digging through the canon, the Theravada canon, and especially the Vinaya Pitaka, he wanted to check the narrative background of the Vinaya material and build up a coherent story that tells what the exact motivation of the Buddha was when he laid out these rules, and how the Buddha intended monks to collaborate with the nuns so that there is interaction between monks and nuns. Bhikkhu Analayo also points out that, according to the Vinaya narrative, it is the responsibility of the monks to revive bhikkhuni ordination, when there are no bhikkhunis to take action. Bhikkhu Analayo also notes that when the Buddha amends one of his rules to establish a new rule, due to something that happened between the two establishments, the first ruling is not completely rescinded by the later. He says that both rules are valid and should be applied by monks in different situations accordingly.



Cover of Bhikkhunī Ordination. From buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de