Cherish the Nuns

I've just received our copy of the Insight Journal from the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. This is the Summer 2010 edition and, at the time of writing, is not yet available online. The "Editor's Essay" by Andrew Olendzki is entitled "Cherish the Nuns" and examines the whole question of "Seniority" with a fascinating proposal at the end.

"After his awakening the Buddha made a return visit to his home town of Kapilavastu. An influential Sakyan chief (and cousin to Siddhartha) named Mahanama had the thought that, since many young men of good families had gone forth to join his growing monastic community, it would be good if some youths from the Buddha's own family joined also. So before long a contingent of six Sakyan princes, including the well-known cousins Baddhiya, Anuruddha, Ananda and Devadatta, snuck away from town and met up with the Buddha at a place called Anupiya. They were accompanied by their barber Upali, who was initially sent home with all their valuables, but who then decided that he too wanted to go forth into the life of the wandering mendicant. At this point the princes made a remarkable and generous gesture.

They knew that the Sangha of monks was organized entirely on a system of seniority, wherein people of all castes and all socio-economic backgrounds would defer to one another solely on the basis of the order in which they joined the community. They addressed the Buddha, saying, "We, Lord, are Sakyans, we are proud. This barber has been our attendant for a long time. May the Lord let him go forth first. We will greet him, rise up before him, salute him with joined palms, and do the proper duties. Thus will the Sakyan pride be humbled in us Sakyans."

It was done as they wished, and Upali went on to become one of the most important members of the community, the one who memorized all the monastic laws and led the recitation of the Vinaya at the first council. It was a tribute to the Sakyan princes' integrity and commitment to the ideals of the movement that they were willing to humble themselves in this simple but highly symbolic way.
Sometime later Pajapati, the Buddha's aunt and adoptive mother (taking over all maternal duties after the death in childbirth of her sister Maya), also asked to join the monastic community, which up to that time had monks but no nuns. The Buddha at first hesitated,