Neither Buddhism, a practice of transforming oneself with love, compassion, and wisdom, nor the Buddha, an ideal description of man enjoying life without harming oneself or others, helped me appeal to those monks who had the author- ity to imprison me. I came to know deeply that these monks did not truly understand that Buddhism is about the practice of love, compassion, and wisdom, even though they all said that they understood.

In this article, the author describes her experiences as a mendicant nun (both as thilashin and bhikkhuni), facing discrimination against women in thr Burmese Buddhist community. While giving an insight into the everyday life of a monastic, she highlights the deeply entrenched gender biases and the struggle for equal rights within the monastic system.