Sun, 18 Jun 2006
Da Vinci Code
I went to see The Da Vinci Code this weekend. It's mostly a puzzle movie, as the title suggests. It only half worked, in that I was interested in the puzzle but not enough that I tried to anticipate the solution. I thought there were two false notes in the film. The first was how they exaggerated the ascetic practices of the Opus Dei to make Silas look like more of a fanatic. (As if killing museum curators and nuns was not enough.) The second was how they misrepresented the Council of Nicea, which the movie said was about establishing the divinity of Jesus, when it was really about the Arian heresy, which it quite another matter.
One of the themes of the movie was that in denying Mary Magdelene's relation to Jesus, the Church diminished the feminine side of Christianity, turning it into a patriarchal religion. This is probably why Diana thought so highly of the book. I find this feminist critique rather shallow in that it misses the main point of what Christianity or any genuine religion is all about, which is ego transcendence. As Saint paul said in Galatians, "There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Gender roles are just part of the baggage that needs to be left behind. Historically women have gotten a raw deal in all the major religions and this needs to be fixed, but that's a different matter than feminizing religion.
Venerable Tenzin Palmo, who has been working at improving the status of nuns in Tibetan Buddhism, recently spoke about women's ordination in Tibetan Buddhism.
In the past, nuns were regarded as girls who couldn't get married. In the last 10 years this has changed. They have met nuns from Korea and Taiwan and seen how confident they are, how respected and empowered. And it inspires them.
Tibetans should introduce higher ordination for nuns. Nuns should have the opportunity to become more educated, same as the monks, but this has been denied women. The lamas themselves are most keen to help teach the nuns. Certainly the ones who have taught our nuns love teaching our girls. And have been apologetic that they have not thought about this in the past.
Historically, the trend among women to not appreciate their own gender has not served aspiring nuns well. Their needs were not expressed. It is changing now, with a gentle, quiet revolution. Hopefully they will progress to advanced degrees. Now our concern is for higher ordination for nuns.
We have discussed the introduction of higher ordination for nuns in the Tibetan tradition. Things are moving along. Now young scholars are also researching the bikkshunis (ordained nuns) and how ordination has come about."
