Book excerpt: Kathryn Blackstone coaxes the reader into a detailed exploration of the quest for liberation on the part of the early bhikkhunis. She considers this issue not only on the basic of previous historical studies, informed by the complicated symbolism of the text but also in order to unearth the attitudes and assumptions inherent in the text and to examine the terms, images, events, and situations insofar as they reveal the feminine perspective of the bhikkhunisangha.