[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Mahāyāna sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra) › [Doctrinal sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma) › [Dharmaskandha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha) › [འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo) › [The Sections of Dharma](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo~en-84000) › intro.4 # འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཀྱ་ཕང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.4 The Sections of Dharma intro.4 - **Language:** English ### [intro.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo~en-84000.intro.4) This second-turning introduction to the problem of desire, however, leads to an extensive discussion of a topic that, due to its emphasis on the elimination of desire as such, would generally be considered a first-turning teaching⁴—namely, the repulsiveness of the human body, and the female body in particular. In its presentation of the female constitution, the sūtra in fact disparages women in a way that most modern readers would find offensive—José Cabezón has aptly described the sūtra as “one of the most misogynistic texts in the Buddhist canon.”⁵ Nonetheless, recent research has shown that the repulsive nature of the female body was in fact a common theme in early Mahāyāna texts. In their studies of texts dating to the beginning of the common era, Ulrich Pagel (1995), Jan Nattier (2003), and Daniel Boucher (2008) have argued that one major strand of early Mahāyāna involved male monastics eager to engage in demanding ascetic practices. The deprecatory descriptions of the repulsiveness of women’s bodies that form the main argument of The Sections of Dharma might have served to support such efforts of male monastics to attain the ideal of renunciation. In this respect, Boucher and Nattier have noted how women were often deprecated and represented as an obstacle to men’s practice in some early Mahāyāna texts, and this very much accords with the tone of the present sūtra.⁶ In fact, according to these scholars, the early Mahāyāna might even have seen a decrease in the participation of women in Buddhist institutions, contrary to a popular modern understanding of the Mahāyāna as a more egalitarian movement than the “mainstream” tradition.⁷ Nevertheless, although this sūtra does in many ways seem to support this analysis, toward the end of the sūtra the Buddha twice describes the intended audience as the fourfold assembly of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. The sūtra itself, therefore, professes to benefit not only male monastics with its message of the repulsiveness of the human—and, more particularly, the female—body, but really anyone, whether male or female, ordained or lay. - [Previous: intro.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo~en-84000.intro.3) - [Next: intro.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo~en-84000.intro.5) - [Up: intro](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo~en-84000.intro) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo~en-84000.intro.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dharma.dharmaskandha*bo~en-84000.intro.4) · Pramāṇa