Rev. Zenshin Florence Caplow is a Soto Zen priest in the Suzuki Roshi and Everyday Zen lineages. She has been practicing Vipassana and Zen for 30 years, and is a dharma teacher, field botanist, essayist, and editor. She is also an ordained Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister who has served congregations in Washington, Colorado, and Illinois. Rev. Zenshin and Reigetsu Susan Moon are co-editors of The Hidden Lamp, a collection of one hundred koans and stories of Buddhist women from the time of the Buddha to the present day.
In this episode, Zenshin and I discuss how she became a Buddhist, how The Hidden Lamp came to be, how come Ryonen had to scar her face, and how Zen + UU can change the world. 🙏🏼
From the publisher’s webpage: “The Hidden Lamp is a collection of one hundred koans and stories of Buddhist women from the time of the Buddha to the present day. This revolutionary book brings together many teaching stories that were hidden for centuries, unknown until this volume. These stories are extraordinary expressions of freedom and fearlessness, relevant for men and women of any time or place. In these pages we meet nuns, laywomen practicing with their families, famous teachers honored by emperors, and old women selling tea on the side of the road.
Each story is accompanied by a reflection by a contemporary woman teacher—personal responses that help bring the old stories alive for readers today—and concluded by a final meditation for the reader, a question from the editors meant to spark further rumination and inquiry. These are the voices of the women ancestors of every contemporary Buddhist.”
The Inextinguishable Hidden Lamp