ABSTRACT
It is frequently assumed that many of the so-called ‘Major Religions’ display a negative view of female menstruation and render this natural process as an impairment to spirituality, at least for the duration of the menstrual phase (Buckleyand and Gottlieb 1988; Douglas 1984). Academic research would confirm that this commonsense reasoning has at least some foundation. Moreover, scholarship indicates that taboo around menstruation is habitually related to gender power relationships – particularly connected to sexuality – not only intrinsic to religious forms, but in connecting with wider cultural patriarchal dominance (Delaney 1988; Steinberg 1997). In this chapter we will consider these core themes by exploring, through a number of core texts, Buddhist attitudes towards menstruation (utunī) and how they relate to sexuality and spirituality. The chapter commences with a brief overview of the outlook of some of the ‘World Religions’ – allowing the Buddhist perspective on menstruation, sexuality and spirituality to be compared in critical relief. We will then seek to discuss the radical departure that Buddhism appears to make in evaluating menstruation – one grounded on key aspects inherent to the faith itself and expressed contextually. We will argue that Buddhism regards menstruation as essentially a physical, ‘normal’ process which offers no impairment to spiritual development and no hindrance to gender equality. Moreover, where taboos around menstruation can be identified they must primarily be evaluated in terms of wider cultural influence and the impact of non-Buddhist forms of religiosity (William and Davids 1979, 130).
