Khun Yay Thongsuk Sam-daeng-pan In Her Unprecedented Meditation Teaching Role Of The Boomer’s Time Which Has Changed Meditation Teaching Face For Generations To Come
Author: Nano-organic Elixir
Date: 1st February 2021
Keywords: #BabyBoomer, #NewGen, #GenXers, #GenYers, #millennial, #apps, #IT, #blogosphere, #SocialMedia, #gender, #meditation, #Dhammakaya, #women, #FanDoms, #FanPages, #GenGap
Length: 1402 words
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Khun Yay Thongsuk Sam-daeng-pan was one of Buddhist meditation’s leading woman teacher. She has taken Buddhist meditation teaching away from its patriarchal culture, participating confidently as practitioner, teacher, and leader. Taking up the role as a Thai female Buddhist meditation teacher is unprecedented. It has redefined woman practitioner’s role. Her pioneer of mobile meditation teaching model, delivering #Dhammakaya Meditation practice to people in far and wide areas in the country with the purpose to allow them to benefit the value of inner peace and happiness, has graced and changed the meditation teaching world for generations to come.
Before embarking on further discussion on this issue, it is necessary to understand some important features of Thai Theravada Buddhism. First, Thai Buddhism has historically been male-dominated. Traditionally, the meditations and canonical explorations that many consider the heart of Buddhism were practiced almost exclusively by men. And the meditative and philosophical disciplines associated with Buddhism have been practiced almost exclusively in the monasteries.
Second, for a son to renounce the world to become a monk brings great honor to the family, while a girl who renounces the world to become a nun brings little prestige to the family and can even be embarrassing. Moreover, women’s monastic institutions in which meditation and scriptures could be studied intensely were poorly supported, without prestige, and have died out in much of the Buddhist world.
In term of its teachings, Theravada Buddhism that women have encountered seemed paradoxical. On the one hand, the basic teachings are #gender-neutral, and many find the practice of meditation not only #gender-free but intensely liberating that they want to devote much of their life to its study and practice. On the other hand, the forms through which these teachings and practices were delivered were as male dominated as those of any other religion…
Khun Yay Thongsuk was a Theravada eight-precept-observer, a simple Buddhist nun who could step into the limelight as being a star mediation student of the Great Venerable Sodh Candasaro, was capable and authorized to teach meditation practice to the general public, which was a very rare occurrence, because it was not easy for women to become fully qualified Buddhist meditation teachers or Dhamma teachers, given the socio-religious difficulties mentioned above.
During her life time, she travelled across the country propagating #Dhammakaya meditation method. People from all walks of life came to practice with her and she was one among few Buddhist nuns who enabled to start her own meditation center. Her accomplishments were extraordinary not only in her days but are also now.
Khun Yay Thongsuk’s unprecedented teaching role took place at the early time when Thai meditation teachers began to reach out to non-monastic students and it was the chance which lay practitioners: male and female have become part of the Buddhist meditation practicing landscape particularly that has happened within #Dhammakaya Meditation Tradition. Leading to the revolution in the Theravada meditation practicing world that woman meditation teachers and lay practitioners have played a massive role in meditation practice development, making it more vibrant and easily accessible to all, especially when #Dhammakaya Tradition was later passed on to the present generations and actively taught at the World #Dhammakaya Center in #Dhammakaya Temple.
The way and the providing models of women studying and meditating within present #Dhammakaya Tradition is a striking departure in which it is equitable participation. #Dhammakaya woman devotees working full time in the Temple have taken up numbers of tasks, studied and practiced side by side with men. They are attracted to the Tradition but not about to play a secondary supportive role to enable men to study and practice while they provide domestic services. These women insist that if study and practice are good for men, they would also be good for women, and they take up these disciplines enthusiastically.
This is the most noticeable difference between #Dhammakaya Meditation Tradition and other Buddhist meditation lineages in the country regarding the visible and active presence of its woman members.
It demonstrates that how Buddhist women are treated, much of that depends on the initiative, courage, and imagination of woman practitioners, especially those who pioneer a #gender-neutral and #gender-free way of understanding and practicing Buddhism. It is fascinating to see these #Dhammakaya woman practitioners practice a middle path of neither ignoring obvious sexist practices in the religion nor being so alienated by that sexism that they abandoned the Tradition.
#Dhammakaya is a meditation-based community. Some Buddhist scholars call it Buddhist modernism, a new form that has emerged from traditional mediation temples where mostly woman practitioners were isolated or treated with no prestige.
#Dhammakaya Temple has established itself as a lively teaching base of #Dhammakaya Mediation technique in the modern days, with an effort to offer spaces of support and safety for lay practitioners particularly women to find comfort and well-being while practicing inside the Temple.
#Dhammakaya community has pioneered the teaching modal of meditation in groups inclusive for both men and women since the Tradition’s first generation who was #BabyBoomer. The present #Dhammakaya community see itself as representing a #NewGen of Buddhist practitioners who are creating Buddhist models distinct not only from traditional Buddhism but also from their #BabyBoomer predecessors.
The #NewGens of the Tradition have brought their Dhamma teachings and meditation practice transformed them more fully to the needs of their diverse world. These #NewGens understand that they are different from their #BabyBoomers in a number of ways; besides more #gender discrimination free, #NewGens think they are less individualistic and have a stronger desire for peer contact and accountability. Being more open to embrace new idea, #technology and enthused with exploring new territories to find new recruits and peers.
Within the #Dhammakaya community, though with less #gender divide issue, there are considerable reflections on how #Dhammakaya #NewGenGeeks themselves produce the #GenGaps. One aspect of that gaps is that their #GenXers, #GenYers and #millennial are much more comfortable and fluent with #digital culture than #Boomers are.
They, therefore, in their modern meditation teaching paradigm, designed meditation #apps to feed the need of their #millennial peers who are interested in practicing meditation but felt alienated from the association with monastic individuals. They have invested effort into making their meditation and Dhamma teachings available online via #webs, #apps, #blogs, etc., encouraging present #FanDoms and #FanPages to take the initiative to let other people who are likely to be interested to know about their Dhamma teachings and meditation courses, either directly or through other email lists they subscribe to.
Thanks to #SocialMedia and their lively #Dhammakaya member’s #blogosphere, the dialogues about the Temple’s religious ‘zoom’ events, Buddhist seminars/webinars and meditation packages are finding large new audience. With the help of #technology and #SocialMedia, studying Buddhism and practicing meditation are transcendent #gender bias. The other challenges for them are of adapting the Dhamma to new contexts without losing depth, while passing the teaching torch from #Boomers to the #NewGens.
There are other difficulties modern woman practitioners facing. By and large, they have neither the time nor the inclination to pursue meditation and study scriptures to any great extent. Lay practitioners are also involved in family life and therefore have unique concerns relating to that part of their lives. Traditionally, this question did not arise because the women who practiced seriously were almost always nuns, childless by definition.
In dealing with this aspect, #Dhammakaya Temple was compelled to provide child care during meditation periods for adults so that parents can participate more fully. The attempt to combine child-rearing with the demands of intensive practice and study is a new major Buddhist experiment. And it gradually persist from #GenXers to the #millennial. This also made #Dhammakaya community look quite different from other contemporary meditation tradition in the country.
Due to the Temple’ global vision to spread the Teachings of Dhammakaya Meditation, #Dhammakaya women practitioners have more spaces to perform and stand within their Tradition. #Dhammakaya woman meditation mentors and Dhamma teachers are becoming more common in their educational system and teaching programs. It indicates that today’s Thai Buddhism may indeed at some extent pass its long-standing patriarchal past and be fulfilling its potential to concentrate more on the meditation and Dhamma teaching agendas.
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