Cabezón, José Ignacio, ed. Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. Print.

After reading Sallie King’s, “Awakening Stories of Zen Buddhist Women,” I became very interested in the role, and standing of women in Buddhism. I first visited the Lafayette College Library Catalog and used the keyword “Buddhism” in my initial search. I then was able to look through the list of books given and try to find one that incorporated the role of gender that plays in Buddhism. After looking through a few of the titles, I came across, “Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender”. This title really got my attention because it was the only book I found that discussed not just the role of gender, but also the role of sexuality.

The role of sexuality in Buddhism had never crossed my mind, but after reading the title of this book, it became a topic I was thoroughly interested in. I then decided that I would search for this book among the shelves at Skillman Library using the book’s call number, and skim through a few of the pages to see if this was still something that drew my attention.

After reading the table of contents, several topics that I wanted to read further were, “Gender and Contemporary Buddhist Culture”, and “Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts,”. I never thought that homosexuality would ever be mentioned in Buddhism texts, but after skimming through the chapter that focused on it, I realized that I was wrong. The role of sexuality, and thus homosexuality, in buddhism discussed in this book, made me realize that this was a book I would want to potentially use in the future to use in my paper.

After finding this book, my idea of wanting to write my paper about gender in Buddhism has been solidified, and has also expanded to the role of sexuality in Buddhism as well.