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Buddhism: Relationships and Families

Buddhist teaching on equality, caste and gender discrimination

  • 3 things to know
  • Component Group 2

Overview

The Buddha on caste in Sutta Nipata 3.9, equality in the sangha, karuna, B. R. Ambedkar, Queen Mallika's daughter, culture and embedded inequality, the Lotus Sutra, and Buddhist women organising for equality.

What you need to know

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Key term

What did the Buddha teach about caste in Sutta Nipata 3.9?

Key term

How did the Buddha put equality into practice in the sangha?

Key term

What justifications do Buddhists give for equality?

Questions from this subtopic

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  1. 1

    What did the Buddha teach about caste in Sutta Nipata 3.9?

    Model answer

    The Buddha taught that no one is a brahmin by birth. A person becomes a brahmin, or not, by their actions (kamma).

  2. 2

    How did the Buddha put equality into practice in the sangha?

    Model answer

    The Buddha admitted people of every caste into the sangha. Upali, a barber of low status, became the leading expert on the monastic rules.

  3. 3

    What justifications do Buddhists give for equality?

    Model answer

    All beings suffer and all wish to be happy. Mahayana Buddhists add that every being has buddha-nature, so all have equal worth.

  4. 4

    How does karuna in the Mahayana perfections support equality?

    Model answer

    Compassion extends to every being without favouritism. Bodhisattvas vow to free all beings, whatever their sex, class or race.

  5. 5

    Who was B. R. Ambedkar?

    Model answer

    B. R. Ambedkar was an Indian lawyer, born into an untouchable caste, who chaired the committee that drafted India's constitution. Ambedkar led a mass conversion of Dalits to Buddhism in 1956 to escape caste.

  6. 6

    What does Samyutta Nikaya 3.16 show about Queen Mallika's daughter?

    Model answer

    King Pasenadi was upset when Mallika gave birth to a daughter. The Buddha told him a daughter may prove better than a son, being wise and virtuous.

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