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Lama rod owens portland oregon12/30/2023 ![]() ![]() The female body becomes a symbol of any body that is designated as weak, including queer bodies, transgender and gender expansive bodies, disabled bodies, bodies holding different beliefs, and even young bodies. In the absence of accountability or shared power, the most at-risk bodies are female bodies, or those of anyone deemed weak.Īt the heart of patriarchy is a duality between power and weakness. These are often men, conditioned by this system of perceived gender superiority. In Western sanghas, systematic patriarchy has resulted in a hierarchy where power is concentrated around authorities, including staff, coordinators, and teachers. My work to undo this patriarchal conditioning has been to work to feel deeply into my emotional body and to openly express that feeling. Such conditioning has depleted my own access to live a fuller, more expressive life that is in more alignment with the feminine. Patriarchy censors men’s emotional expression, labeling such expression as weak or feminine. Patriarchy conditions male-identified people, especially cisgendered men, to be in opposition to women and the female body, as well as the very idea of the feminine, as a strategy to accumulate and maintain power. Patriarchy is an expression of misogyny or hate of the feminine and female body. Patriarchy is gender-based systematic oppression, where bias and power collude to create systems that exclude women. I have moved through the world becoming slowly conscious of how my gender identity, as well as my performance of masculinity, earns me significant privileges: I am taken more seriously, expected to dominate situations, given more space to practice aggressive behavior, and, most importantly, often given the benefit of doubt. To begin with, we must understand that patriarchy is a political, social, and mental system that perpetuates the myth that men should be dominant. ![]() To start, we need to understand what patriarchy is. Male-identified teachers, monks, staff, authorities, and lay practitioners in Western, mixed-gendered sanghas must speak out, taking responsibility for our role in a system that perpetuates violence in subtle and insidious ways. And while I have seen and experienced boundaries being crossed by students, I still understand that the power balance in the situation means that I am the one ultimately responsible for maintaining boundaries. Sometimes the line between appropriate and inappropriate is blurred. I understand how my own emotional reality enters into this interaction, often informed by my unmet needs. I have never been a victim of sexual misconduct - but there is potential for me to a become a perpetrator if I am not skilled and mature enough.Īs a teacher, I understand the challenges of maintaining boundaries in the middle of intense interactions as students reveal intricate and emotional realities. There are so many stories of violence I sometimes experience emotional fatigue attempting to hold them all. We must work to undo this violence, which is rooted in patriarchy.Īs a male-identified member of the western Buddhist clergy class, I am questioning what my place in all this is right now. Lately, many of us have to come to realize how unsafe sanghas can be for the most vulnerable among us. “They must undo it.” Photo by Liza Matthews.īuddhist communities are not unlike other organized religious communities: where there is hierarchy, patriarchy, and a clergy class with weak accountability structures, abuse will thrive. “Sanghas must not thrive off of patriarchy,” writes Lama Rod Owens. ![]()
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