"A bhikshuni should not..." -en undersökning av buddhistiskt nunneideal på 2000-talet

Sammanfattning: The common monastic life for a Buddhist nun follows an almost 2500-year-old legal tradition which has it´s foundation in Buddhist monastic law codes, vinaya. The rules to live by is specified in the core text pratimoksha. With the spread of the Buddhist samgha to new cultural settings and facing modernity, the monastic code has been challenged. The Vietnamese Buddhist munk and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, published a new revised version of pratimoksha in 2004. This revised monastic code is in use in Buddhist centra in Europe today. This essay sees the monastic law codes as an expression of a monastic ideal formed by cultural context. Textual analysis together with comparative content analysis is used to examine the precepts for Buddhist nuns and describe the role model for monastic life today. The new formulation of the precepts shows the challenge of the samgha in modern times. Hanh’s revised pratimoksha is understood in comparison with the canonical dharmaguptakavinaya. Monastic code is corresponding to its environment and this essay shows how change has been done as a response to new cultural and contextual settings. The conclusion reached paints a picture of an ideal Buddhistic nun in the twenty-first century.