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Prajñatara: Bodhidharma's Master

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Prajñatara: Bodhidharma's Master Summer 2008 Volume 16, Number 2 Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women TABLE OF CONTENTS Women Acquiring the Essence Buddhist Women Ancestors: Hymn to the Perfection of Wisdom Female Founders of Tibetan Buddhist Practices Invocation to the Great Wise Women The Wonderful Benefits of a H. H. the 14th Dalai Lama and Speakers at the First International Congress on Buddhist Women’s Role in the Sangha Female Lineage Invocation WOMEN ACQUIRING THE ESSENCE An Ordinary and Sincere Amitbha Reciter: Ms. Jin-Mei Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao Chen-Lai On July 10, 1998, I invited the women of our Sangha to gather to explore the practice and lineage of women. Prajñatara: Bodhidharma’s Here are a few thoughts that helped get us started. Master Several years ago while I was visiting ZCLA [Zen Center of Los Angeles], Nyogen Sensei asked In Memory of Bhiksuni Tian Yi (1924-1980) of Taiwan me to give a talk about my experiences as a woman in practice. I had never talked about this before. During the talk, a young woman in the zendo began to cry. Every now and then I would glance her One Worldwide Nettwork: way and wonder what was happening: Had she lost a child? Ended a relationship? She cried and A Report cried. I wondered what was triggering these unstoppable tears? The following day Nyogen Sensei mentioned to me that she was still crying, and he had gently Newsline asked her if she could tell him why. “It just had not occurred to me,” she said, “that a woman could be a Buddha.” A few years later when I met her again, the emotions of that moment suddenly surfaced. H.H. Dalai Lama Announces Full Support for the Bhiksuni “I felt a powerful rush of energy, and I could not stop it,” she said when I asked her if she remembered Sangha that moment. “It was so organic, so natural. Something just opened up.” So those tears were not of sorrow, as I had assumed, but tears of discovery, of joy, and of How I Became a Bhikkhuni empowerment. Still today I feel a stirring deep within myself when I remember that moment. I have come to recognize this stirring as the energy of the feminine, dormant for so long, reclaiming itself Visualizing a Global and flowing fiercely forth. Sakyadhita Network So when I reflect upon the practice of women, I begin by affirming the obvious. The obvious is that for an immeasurable hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions, trillions of kalpas, women have practiced, manifested, realized, and accomplished the Buddha Way. Who are all these women whose names have been forgotten or left unsaid? In growing up in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition, I have chanted daily the lineage of patriarchs. During my Dharma transmission retreat, I bowed to the patriarchs at least three times each day, all 81 of them. By the second day, when my teacher Roshi Glassman came to hold dokusan for me, I asked, “Where are the women?” The next day, I asked with more urgency, “Where are the women?!” And by the fourth day, it was “WHERE ARE THE WOMEN!” As I began to explore my female Buddha ancestors, I sensed the lineage of women as a spiral, moving in wide, all-encompassing circles. I sensed, too, that in swallowing and promoting the male- dominated forms and milieu of my inherited tradition, I had concealed myself as a woman to myself and to other women. Here I was a woman stepping into the shoes of the patriarchs, so-to-speak. So where were the matriarchs? Where were the women to mentor me? SakyadhitaNewsletter.indd 1 5/21/08 4:01:19 PM Sakyadhita Women too often seem to find it necessary to whisper this Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao ordained with Bhikkhu Taungpulu concern (if they do so at all), almost as though to speak this Sayadaw in Bodhgaya, India, in 1982. In 1983, she ordained as a Zen issue outloud is to reveal a lack of understanding about the true priest with Taizan Maezumi Roshi, training with him until his death Dharma, among other things. In awakening to the wisdom of in 1995. She subsequently trained with Bernie Glassman Roshi and non-duality, do we not awaken to our fullness as human beings? received the Preceptor and Dharma Transmission (Shiho) in the White The implications of this awakening have yet to manifest in the Plum Lineage (1996) and the Seal of Approval (Inka) in 2004 from him. societies and environments in which Buddhism lives. Can we Roshi has served as the abbot and head teacher of the Zen Center of women trust ourselves to reveal the means that will illuminate Los Angeles since 1999. She is the co-editor (with Sensei Eve Myonen this wisdom? Marko) of Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi and co-editor One day while flying across the country in the womb of a (with John Daishin Buksbazen) of On Zen Practice: Body, Breath, and United jet, words about my female ancestors flowed forth. I offer Mind (2002) and The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment (2007). a draft (without the footnotes) for your consideration, and I look Reprinted with permission from Women Acquiring the Essence, forward to this exploration with the women of the sangha. Zen Center of Los Angeles, 1998. The Lineage of Women (A Working Draft) From ancient times, living female Buddhas have accomplished the Way. The spiritual attainment and practice of females have flowed in a continuous yet hidden stream to the present time. All Buddhas pass through Prajñpramita, the Mother of the Buddhas. From the blackness of her womb, Buddhas appear and disappear, sometimes as male, sometimes as female. The proclamation of the World-Honored One, Shakyamuni, comfirms women as Buddhas. BUDDHIST WOMEN ANCESTORS: In the Lotus Sutra, the World-Honored One proclaimed HYMN TO THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM the prophecy of the attainment of Buddhahood for the nun Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao Mahprajpati, the nun Yashodhara, and the 6,000 female disciples present. Upon hearing these prophecies, they said in the presence At Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA), we have chanted the of the Buddha: “World-Honored One, we have heard these names of our women ancestors since 1997, alternating every other prophecies and our minds are peaceful and satisfied. “ day with the patriarchal lineage. When we began this practice, Among the early nuns, we can also sing the names of Mitta, Tissa, people found it deeply moving and emotional; both women Sumana, Upasama, Visakha, Khema, Uppalavanna, Sundari- and men would cry. The sangha at ZCLA readily embraced this Nanda, Vaddhesi, Patacara, Uttama, Bhadda-Kundalakesa, practice. Recently, we revised the list slightly and the current Nuanduttara, Dantika, Sakula, Siha, Dhammadina, Kisagotami, chant is included below. At ZCLA, we typically chant three chants Vasetthi, Ubbiri, Patacara-Pancasasta, Isidasi, Bhadda-Kapilani, for the morning service, the second one for the lineage. Mutta, Capa, Dhamma, Citta, Vimala, Addhakasi, Padumavati, The Invocation (“Homage to...”) was adapted from an invocation Ambapali, Anopama, Abhirupa-Nanda, and Jenti. used at the Berkeley Zen Center.1 As I recall, they adapted it from The seven-year-old daughter of the dragon king Sagara achieved Lex Hixon’s Mother of the Buddhas. I added the names, “The Great enlightenement in an instant. Of her attainment, Great Master Ancestors,” as they appear in our current version of the chant. Dogen said, “At the time a female became a Buddha, everything During our recent revision process, we decided to leave in the in the universe was completely understood. What person would descriptors and also added currently deceased American female hinder her from entering the restricted territories thinking teachers, including pioneer women practitioners who were not that she had not truly come into this world? The merits of her transmitted teachers (such as Flora Courtois), but whom we attainment exist right now, illuminating the whole universe.” wished to honor for their pioneering status. There is nothing Great Master Bodhidharma transmitted his marrow, skin, flesh, definitive about the list, but is our attempt to capture those and bones to four disciples, three monks and a nun. Great Master important to us at this place and time. As the names of more and Keizan transmitted the Dharma to the nun Sonin. The nun Mo- more women come to light, I am sure we will revise the list again shan, disciple of Kao-an Ta-yu, taught the monk Chih-hsien. The at some future date. nun Miao-hsin, disciple of Hui-chi, enlightened 17 monks. Iron Brush Liu and Kuei Shan played equally in the fields of joyous Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, samadhi. Prajñaparamita, the Mother of the Buddhas. The World-Honored One also named laywomen among the four The lovely and the holy Perfection of Wisdom gives light. major practice groups. With the lion’s roar of a Buddha, laywoman Unstained, the entire world cannot stain her. Queen Srimala first taught the Buddhadharma to laywomen, She is a source of light and, from everyone then to her non-Buddhist husband, followed by laymen. An old in the triple world, she removes darkness. woman helped to clarify the mind of Te-shan. Antoku Inden Most excellent are her works. Kasho Myokei Zenni, the mother of Taizan Maezumi Honored She brings light so that all fear and distress may be forsaken One, bore seven sons who became monks and raised them in and disperses the gloom and darkness of delusion. the pure Dharma realms. From ancient times, laywomen have She herself is an organ of vision. accomplished the Way. She has a clear knowledge of her own being, of all dharmas, All the great masters know that paying homage to female for she does not stray away from it.
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