Zen in Ten: "The Self Is Moon on Water"
Mugai Nyodai: The First Japanese Woman Acknowledged as a Dharma Heir
Chiyono (1223-98) was the first Japanese woman who received Dharma transmission in a Zen lineage. Her Dharma name was Mugai Nyodai. There are two versions of Chiyono’s life story that I know of and I’ve included both below. To all the known and unknown female spiritual teachers, I bow down.
“The existence of Mugai Nyodai (1223-1298), a Linji/Rinzai master, was accidentally discovered by the Japan scholar Barbara Ruch. Surveying a book of portraits of Zen abbots, Professor Ruch was stopped in her tracks when she saw Nyodai’s clearly feminine facial features. . . After seeing this portrait, Ruch focused her research on Nyodai and her heritage. She created the Institute for the Study of Medieval Japan to answer the questions that Nyodai’s existence raised.”1
“Mugai Nyodai ordained as a nun in her fifties, was well-educated in Chinese and Japanese classics, and had been married to a feudal lord. Her husband was killed in battle and his clan destroyed. We don’t know if she began her Zen studies during or after her marriage. We do know that she studied Rinzai Zen with the eminent Japanese teacher Enni Benen (1200-81) of Tofukuji Monastery, also known as Shoichi Kokushi, and the Chinese teacher Wuxue Zuyuan (1226-86), also known in Japanese as Mugaku Sogen or Bukko Kokushi.”2
In one version of Mugai Nyodai’s life, the “imperial convent records suggest that, threatened with the exclusion from training at Tofukuji, because the presence of a woman might distract the monks training there, Mugai Nyodai burned her face, and only then gained entry. . . .Her self-mutilation was a declaration of her sincerity and lack of interest in using feminine wiles.”3
“Nyodai’s fame as a strict Zen master was legendary, but unfortunately no contemporary records of her Zen teachings have survived. There are two waka poems attributed to her, however, which can be regarded as expressions of her awakened mind.”4
“One waka was written as reply to her teacher Wuxue Zuyuan, presumably during the period when she was undergoing kōan training with him:”
The master spoke and I replied:
Not understanding, I had surely lost my way.
But now I realize
my Self is moon on water,
none other than floating cloud. (Trans. Barbara Ruch)
“She had an impeccable Japanese Rinzai Zen lineage, having been recognized by Mugaku as one of his two Dharma heirs. She was the first woman in Japanese history to be recognized as a Rinzai Zen master, and she went on to found Keiaiji temple after the death of her father and the exile of her husband. Keiaiji grew to include more than fifteen subtemples.”5
“As was customary for all monastic leaders at the time, a portrait statue was made of Nyodai with shaved head and monk's robes. This statue was carved toward the end of her life, around 1298; it is now enshrined in Hojiin convent in Kyoto. A cursory glimpse may give you the impression that it is a statue of a male; but further perusal reveals a slightly plump, gentle woman with her hands resting in proper Zen contemplative form.”6
Another version of Chiyono’s life is that she was not a well-educated woman, but rather “a servant in a Zen convent who wanted to practice zazen. One day she approached an elderly nun and said, “I’m of humble birth. I can’t read or write and must work all the time. Is there any possibility that I could attain the way of Buddha even though I have no skills?”
The nun answered her, “This is wonderful, my dear! In Buddhism there are no distinctions between people. There is only this: each person must hold fast to the desire to awaken and cultivate a heart of great compassion. People are complete as they are. If you don’t fall into delusive thoughts, there is no Buddha and no sentient being; there is only one complete nature. If you want to know your true nature, you need to turn toward the source of your delusive thoughts. This is called zazen.”
Chiyono said, with happiness, “With this practice as my companion, I have only to go about my daily life, practicing day and night.” After months of wholehearted practice, she went out on a full-moon night to draw some water from the well. The bottom of her old bucket, held together by bamboo strips, suddenly gave way, and the reflection of the moon vanished with the water. When she saw this she attained great realization.”7
No matter how you look at it,
when the bottom of the bucket
falls away,
it will not hold water
nor will it house the moon. (Trans. Barbara Ruch)
Schireson, Grace. Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters. Somerville, MA. Wisdom Publications, 2009.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Fister, Patricia. “Commemorating Life and Death: The Memorial Culture Surrounding the Rinzai Zen Nun Mugai Nyodai.”
Schireson, Grace.
Fister, Patricia. In Memoriam? Rethinking the Portrait Sculptures of Princess-Abbesses Enshrined in the Dharma Hall at Shinnyoji Temple.
Caplow, Florence, and Susan Moon, eds. The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women.