Physical Impurity?

Q: Please advise me about a doubt that I always wanted to clarify, as I am very interested to attend the workshop, but, being a female there is always some inconvinience.
My question is, what if before/during the duration of the workshop, we have menstruation can we still attend/complete the workshop. Whenever we pay respect at the temple, my mother-in-law used to ask me whether am I clean. Till today I always bear these words in mind.

A: There is no Buddhist precept or regulation that discourages participation in Buddhist activities or visiting Buddhist temples before or during menstruation. The origin of this thinking probably originated from the traditional Chinese mindset that menstruation implies impurity; it is not related to Buddhism.

In Buddhism, the Buddha emphasizes on the importance of purity of the mind, not body, since the mind is the source of our happiness and unhappiness. In fact, He taught us that the body is already naturally impure by itself due to its internal substances and processes. This is not to say that we should not treasure our body, but that we should not be attached to it. It is realising purity of the mind that will set us free and win us Enlightenment, which is none other than True Happiness. Do feel at ease and join the workshop :-] JoinMailingList4LatestUpdates/Reply