Dogen and women

750 years ago, Dogen repudiated religious discimination between the sexes, saying, “The desire to hear Dharma and the search for enlightenment do not necessarily rely on the difference in sex.”

I wish more of our current religious “leaders” had figured this out.

Dogen also had trenchant comments to make on sexual objectification:

Some people, foolish to the extreme, think of a woman as nothing but an object of sensual pleasure…A Buddhist should not do so. Both man and woman become objects, and thus become equally involved in defilement.

Dogen made these comments in the Raihai Tokuzui fascicle of Shobo Genzo. Translations are by Hee-jin Kim, from Dogen, Mystical Realist.

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