BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Buddhism Women in Buddhism articles/Women's History Month

March is Women's History month so all of my posts this month will be reviews of books or teachings by women teachers, or articles related to the feminine energy and symbology in Buddhism. First up is a review of Into the Heart of Life by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo:

Into the Heart of Life, by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Tenzin Palmo is a wonderful teacher who first came to prominence in a book called Cave in the Snow by Vicki Mackenzie about her 12 years in solitary retreat. Click through to the article for some great quotes from the book...

dear lisa,

I am eager to read ,about woman's contribution.

One Mahayana Buddhist Monk is Choi Drolma who has written or sung many Mantras,from Nepal and built her own school ,sangha and a home for elderly woman.
Will your posts be only on books or people that we can do some reseach on.

loong
simple buddhist

It will be books, people, and feminine symbols/deities (i.e. green tara etc.). Although I have written about a lot of these already, so in some cases I'll be adding new articles while in others I'll be adding on to existing ones. The articles I've already written are in the 'Women in Buddhism' section of the Buddhism site (the bottom category link):
BellaOnline BUddhism

You can research any of them you like. The author of this first book review is had a fascinating life, she is a great one to research. Of course you know my general advice - research is only valuable if it is helping empty the mind, not fill it!

To Lisa ,
This afternoon I fell upon a conference by PAPAJI.
Comtrary to Buddhism,he states that no one should have a Master or teacher .Would appreciate your comments

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZhCk6sieMA&list=WL5D34BDCFA8738A92[url]

Loong a simple nothing

I'm sorry I could not play the video for some reason. But I am very familiar with Papaji, because I have attended retreats with an American women student of his, Gangaji, and have in fact interviewed her and consider her one of my main spiritual guides.

Papaji was himself a teacher who very much functioned as a master and guru for Gangaji and many others. If you read his biography you will find that he also was engaged in a very traditional teacher/student relationship with his own teacher, Ramana Maharshi.

So to understand his words and teachings on this matter, you have to go deeper than the surface meaning of his words. Although I could not watch the video, Gangaji has said much the same thing, and in fact you will find very similar teachings throughout all of Mahayana Buddhism as well, including in those traditions that do have formal teacher/student relationships.

A teacher is meant to point us back to ourselves. On the level of our mind, they serve as 'check', guiding us in our practice and helping us to see obstacles that have arisen in our awareness that we cannot see ourselves. It is the nature of the mind to be blind to its own structures at times.

On another level the teacher is a connection with Source that we can draw upon in our own practice. By connecting to their own level of awareness, new doorways are opened up for us as well. Then there is also the idea of transmission (or shaktipat or darshan, there are many words for teacher transmissions) - through these we receive direct access to understandings that might be hard for us to access on our own.

So teachers function on all of these levels, and Papaji was both a student and a teacher in a lineage that very much functions along these lines!

So when he says no one should have a teacher, he is talking in ultimate terms - that enlightenment is already with us, and if we get caught in the idea that it is only in the teacher, we never discover it in ourselves. This is speaking to a particular obstacle that can arise for some students when they have been with a teacher for some time. For most people in the West though, this is not an issue. We are so conditioned to be independent that Westerners are not as likely to hand over their power in this way. But I believe this is what Papaji is speaking to.

He also often spoke about on the ultimate level there is no teacher and there is no student. Source/enlightenment comes through both. The teacher is the pointer for a student for a time, but on an ultimate level, the teacher is not 'higher.'

So one needs to understand Papaji's statements within this context, with a full understanding of his own lineage and his other teachings. This is always true - that is why it is so hard to progress if one jumps around too much from teacher to teacher - it is too easy to pick and choose what one wants to hear. A teacher's words are meant to be understood in relation to other things they have said, and their tradition, and the context.

It is International Women's Day today, a day for celebrating the accomplishments of women, as well as the feminine principle as it is expressed in all of us. I've posted a guest post by a friend of mine on the feminine principle as it is expressed through certain Tibetan Buddhist goddesses/archetypes here:

Embodied Forms of Feminine Power in Buddhism

At my blog, I've also put together a collaborative post of many different women's expressions of feminine energy in the world - artworks, poems, blog posts, etc. - some of which are Buddhist-inspired. I hope you enjoy!

Feminine Power - A Celebration!

For the next post in honor of Women's History Month, I decided to update an article on the Therigatha, a set of writings by the first Buddhist nuns, and amongst the earliest spiritual writings attributed to women in any religion:

Therigatha - First Buddhist Writings by Women

Hi Lisa, I enjoyed your article about early women in Buddhism. The Divine is for all of us, a be-all, and end-all.

Thanks Susan. I especially love the Therigatha because some of the first nuns were older widows, who had already raised families and lived very much 'in the world'. In many ways they were the first to connect Buddhist teachings to the struggles of 'real people' in the world, in contrast to most of the first monks, many of whom were young, celibate men (and of course they also expressed the Buddha's teaching in beautiful ways, but for those of us living today, the Therigatha often feels more relevant.)

I wanted to link to this older post on Pajapati, the Buddha's stepmom and aunt, who according to legend was instrumental in persuading Buddha to initiate women:

Pajapati, Buddha's Aunt and Stepmother, and First Buddhist Nun

Later this month I'll be doing an article on the current status of women with each of the major lineages in Buddhism...

To Lisa,

One of the reasons I left Thereavada was the fact that I read an article on Thannissaro Bhikkhu,refusing to be touched by a woman, stating that Buddha had said the same thing regarding saving his mother;s life,having to touch her.

loong
simple buddhist.

Yes, unfortunately there are many issues with women and Buddhism, based on the cultures Buddhism has developed within. Mahayana is actually not any better than Theraveda in this regard. Within Tibetan Buddhism, nuns are still treated as second-class citizens within most lineages, and cannot receive full ordination. Some actually travel to Theraveda countries to take their vows there. The Dalai Lama and other high Lamas have gradually been working on changing this, but it has not yet completely changed. So I am not sure Mahayana is any better than Theraveda.

Buddhism in the West of course has very few restrictions, and some of the most well-known Buddhist teachers and authors in the West are women. For example in Theraveda (through the Insight Society) there are Sharon Salzburg and Sylvia Boorstein, within Tibetan Buddhism Pema Chodron, Tsultrim Allione. These are just a handful, but they are all best-selling authors and teachers, all Western women.

In terms of texts, Buddhism is very much like any other religion. One will always be able to find a writing somewhere that supports their view. So there are many texts in historical Buddhism that reflect very old cultural views. This of course has nothing to do with Buddhism itself, which is not about a culture, but about awakening.

I'm going to post another older article in honor of Women's History Month before I get my next new article up:

Tara - Female Buddha of Compassion

So many people connect with Tara and Tara energy in their practice. It's interesting that Green Tara, compassionate and enlightened action, is one of the Tibetan deities said to be accessible to anyone anywhere, whenever she is called upon, by Buddhist or not.

Of course, as I've mentioned many times, all these deities are also meant to be embodiments of energies within ourselves. Awakening to this energy within ourselves is really what deity practice is about. So Green Tara is the embodiment of that part of ourselves that engages in enlightened, compassionate action in the world. Such a beautiful connection...

To Lisa,

I had been waiting for you to write on TARA.You have written a beautiful article.At one point I had aprayer by The Green Tara..She is what all woman in Buddhism should be.About the prayer,I beleive I lost it when I moved to my new apt.

Again thank you

loong
simple buddhist

This is actually an older article, but soon I will write a new article on Prajna Paramita, the feminine representation of non-duality (a dual representation of non-duality!)

As always, I need to add my note that although there are feminine and masculine deities, they are all representations of enlightened awareness that are within all of us. So male practitioners do Tara and Prajna Paramita (and other) practices in order to awaken these qualities within themselves, and women do the male deity practices as well. In the relative world, enlightened awareness, Buddha-mind, expresses itself in many different ways, and awakening all of these within ourselves is what deity practice is really about.

To close out Women's History month, I have added another biography of a famous women teacher/practitioner, this one from 13th century Tibet. The story of Jomo Memo can be read both literally and symbolically:

Jomo Memo - 13th Century Tibetan Female 'Terton'

For those in southern California, a documentary about one of my favorite teachers, Lama Tsultrim Allione, will be shown in LA this weekend, here are the details:

Lama Tsultrim Allione documentary

Thank you Lisa, will forward the link to few Buddhist friends in LA.

Tashi Delek!!!

Tara Brach, one of my favorite contemporary women Buddhist teachers just posted this lovely passage - ties to Earth day in a beautiful way:

"Out of the soil of friendliness (metta)
Grows the beautiful bloom of compassion (karuna)
Watered with tears of joy (mudita)
Under the cool shade of the tree of equanimity (upekkha)."
- Longchen Rabjampa, a 14th-century Buddhist monk

Another Buddhist quote very appropriate for Earth Day, also by a leading women Buddhist scholar (and environmental activist), Joanna Macy:


"Because the relationship between self and world is reciprocal, it is not a matter of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the Earth, the Earth heals us. No need to wait. As we care enough to take risks, we loosen the grip of ego and begin to come home to our true nature. For in the co-arising nature of things, the world itself, if we are bold enough to love it, acts through us. It does not ask us to be pure or perfect, or wait until we are detached from all passions, but only to care to harness the sweet, pure intention of our deepest passions, and, as the early scripture of the Mother of the Buddhas says, 'fly like a Bodhisattva.'"

- Joanna Macy