The Religious Affairs Office

Montse Castellà i Olivé has been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since the late 1970s. She is a translator and editor of Buddhist texts, including Women of Wisdom (Snow Lion, 1990), by Tsultrim Allione and Dakini’s Warm Breath (Shambhala, 2002), by Judith Simmer-Brown. She is the author of numerous articles on women and spiritual traditions. She has been a member of Trafil, a UAB research group dedicated to the translation and cultural transfer of Tibetan Buddhism. She is a meditation instructor and co-founder and current vice-president of the Catalan Coordinator of Buddhist Entities. She is also president of Sakyadhita Spain, an international association of Buddhist women, as well as the UNESCO Association for Interreligious Dialogue (AUDIR) and a member of the Generalitat de Catalunya Advisory Council for Religious Diversity.

You are the curator of the first edition of the conference “Fe(r) i dones. Textos/rituals/transmissió” (#FeRiDones), organised by the Office for Religious Affairs and the Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes.

You are Buddhist, and you are one of the founders of Sakyadhita Spain. Can you explain to us how this project came about?

For a religious or spiritual tradition to stay alive and continue to be a source of inspiration, it has to be flexible and capable of adapting itself to the times. One of the most important aspects to bear in mind in the reconstruction of religious and spiritual beliefs is the fact that most of them originated under the influence of a highly patriarchal sociocultural context: men at the centre and women, as well as nature, at the periphery. As a result, the interpretation of religions and most of the existing historiographical documentation, both Eastern and Western, is based on an androcentric vision. The texts and liturgies were written by men and for men; any reference to women is usually as objects rather than subjects. Therefore, their vision and experiences have always been largely excluded and silenced.

In this context, the need to apply a gender perspective in the religious and spiritual world is clear. In order to confront this challenge, Sakyadhita Spain was founded in early 2015. At this time it was part of the international network of Buddhist women, established in 1987. This is a unique non-sectarian Buddhist organisation, in the sense that it is made up of women from all Buddhist traditions. Its structure is horizontal and flexible, instead of hierarchical and pyramidal, which helps to promote equality, cooperation and co-creation. Its mission is to overcome the androcentric vision with which Buddhism is entwined.

You are also closely linked to activities relating to interfaith dialogue. What do you think this dialogue can provide?

In this globalised world we live in, it is clear that we are all interconnected. Today we are challenged to live alongside people with beliefs different from our own, who live according to different world views to ours. We urgently need to stop seeing the other as different. We must get closer to them and get to know them and we must recognise what is equal among us: the human quality, our spiritual dimension. Then religious or cultural diversity is no longer a threat, but becomes a richness.

In relation to spiritual women, the fact that in most religious and belief traditions they have been relegated to the fringes of power and they have been discriminated against or excluded has led to the emergence of a cross-cutting interfaith women’s movement. Because they have nothing to lose, they are now leading the charge in the creation of new ways of connecting and organising, and challenging obsolete patriarchal hierarchical structures.

What has your path been in highlighting the role of women in religious and spiritual traditions?

We have internalised patriarchal conditioning so much that we are often unaware of it. For me, it was when I translated Women of Wisdom by Tsultrim Allione in 1990 that I became aware that women’s vision and experiences were not collected in Buddhism, that the lines of transmission were essentially male, that when women were mentioned in the texts they usually appeared as objects and not as subjects. This awareness was essential and my first step on this long, fascinating journey to try to create meeting spaces, enable synergies, and give women a voice, with the confidence that their contribution is essential and valuable for all of humanity and the entire planet.

You are the curator of the first edition of the conference “Fe(r) i dones”. Why do you believe this conference is important? What impact do you hope it will have?

It is a response to the aim and the wish to explore the relationships between women and spirituality, to foster dialogue and to recognise the female reality, so often rendered invisible within the religious traditions concerned. With this conference we hope to create the context and conditions to encourage dialogue and interrelation between women of different traditions, to generate an ideal atmosphere to facilitate the encounter with the other, that leads to sharing experiences, etc. We are putting in all the effort and enthusiasm, while at the same time being aware that we can’t force anything, that the results and possible impact of this conference depend not only on us, but on what is given and created between all the participants.

How did you choose the theme for this first edition? Why these three concepts?

We could consider these three concepts “Textos/rituals/transmissió” [Texts/rituals/transmission] as the three pillars present in every religious or spiritual tradition. In all of them we find the written word, different ways of connecting with the transcendent dimension, and people who transmit their experience of the sacred to us. As women, do we feel comfortable, included? Shall we propose other ways of doing and being? This first edition of the conference is about evaluating, reflecting, speaking and holding dialogues around these three areas.

Women from very diverse spiritual and religious communities are taking part in the conference. How did you select the participants?

We have tried to maintain an attitude of “the more inclusive the better” at all times, in order to guarantee that this conference is representative of the religious plurality that exists in our city.

There are activities with very different formats at the conference. Why these formats?

The different formats of the activities are designed to encourage dialogue and interconnection as much as possible. They are participatory and co-creative dynamics. We find some roundtables with the objective of dialogue and rethinking, together, about the three themes of this year’s edition: texts, rituals and transmission. These are followed by practical workshops in which, under the guidance of experts, who will be sharing their knowledge and experience, those attending will be able to get first-hand experience, with specific examples, of interpreting sacred texts, ritual practices and music as a means of transmitting faith. On the last day there will be there some reflections and a dialogue with internationally recognised thinkers, experts in the study of their traditions and also on the reflection of the role and value of women, such as Lama Guelongma Tsondru, Teresa Forcades and Asma Lamrabet. These three women, linked to different traditions, will discuss this year’s conference themes based on the contributions made the day before.

This conference is organised by the OAR and the Monestir de Pedralbes. Why this pairing?

The conference is the result of various collaborations between the Reial Monestir de Pedralbes and the Office for Religious Affairs (OAR) and responds to the shared goal of exploring the relationship between women and spirituality, fostering dialogue and providing recognition for feminine reality, often rendered invisible within the religious traditions concerned. In this regard, the OAR works towards raising awareness about the plurality of beliefs and spiritualities that are present in Barcelona. For its part, the Monestir de Pedralbes is a place where women have historically experienced spirituality as the central core of their existence and, in a natural way, it became a meeting place for women who live their everyday lives in a spiritual way; it has also been developing activities concerning this subject for some time. In 2019, the OAR and the Monestir de Pedralbes joined forces and began various working collaborations concerning the core themes of women and religion/spirituality. The “Fe(r) i dones” conference is the culmination of those two years of collaboration.