Zen in Ten: The True Dharma Eye of Women

Emptiness Is Emptiness: Enough Said.

The poet Ziyong was a Chinese Buddhist nun in the 18th century and an exceptional poet. Photo by Deborah Bowman.

Dear Spark Zen Readers, I hope you’re meeting each moment with mindfulness and compassion. As I write this from Tassajara, it’s the second day of a very special workshop: The True Dharma Eye of Women. Two of my favorite teachers, Pamela Weiss and Jan Willis, are co-leading a deep dive into prominent, female Buddhist teachers who lived in ancient India, Tibet, China, and Japan.

The following passages are from Eihei Dōgen’s essay “Receiving the Marrow by Bowing,” from the book as Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, edited by the fabulous artist and sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi. I hope you have an illuminating week. Bowing from the mountain valley, Rev. Shōren Heather

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1. “The guiding teacher should be a strong person, regardless of being male or female. The teacher should be a person of thusness, with excellent knowledge and wild fox [transformative] spirit, whether living in the past or present. This is the face [essence] of attaining the marrow, the guiding virtue.”

2. “It is an excellent custom of study that when a nun has attained the way, attained dharma, and started to teach, monks who seek dharma and study join her assembly, bow to her, and ask about the way. It is just like finding water at the time of thirst.”

3. “Some refuse to bow to female teachers who have received dharma transmission. Because these people lack knowledge and study, they are close to animals and far from buddha ancestors.”

4. “Why are men special? Emptiness is emptiness. Four great elements are four great elements. Five skandhas are five skandhas. Women are just like that. Both men and women attain the way. You should honor the attainment of the way. Do not discriminate between men and women. This is the most wondrous principle of the buddha way.”

5. “Even seven-year-old girls who practice buddha dharma and express buddha dharma are guiding teachers of the four types of disciples [monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen]; they are compassionate parents of sentient beings. They are like dragon princesses who have attained buddhahood. You should make an offering and respect them just as you respect buddha tathagatas. This is an authentic custom of the buddha way.”

6. “Those who are extremely stupid think that women are merely the objects of sexual desire and treat women in this way. The Buddha’s children should not be like this. If we discriminate against women because we see them merely as objects of sexual desire, do we also discriminate against all men for the same reason?”

7. “What is the fault of women? What is the virtue of men? There are unwholesome men, and there are wholesome women. Hoping to hear dharma and leave the household does not depend on being female or male.”

8. “Before becoming free from delusion, men and women are equally not free from delusion. At the time of becoming free from delusion and realizing the truth, there is no difference between men and women.”

9. “When we look at Great Song China, there are monks who seem to have trained for a long time merely counting the sands in the ocean (studying letters) and wandering around in the ocean of birth and death. On the other hand, there are women who have studied with teachers, endeavored in the way, and become guiding teachers of humans and devas.”

10. “Having wondrous enlightenment is an unsurpassable stage. When women become buddhas of this stage, what in all directions cannot be thoroughly experienced? Who can try to block them and keep them from arriving at this stage? They attain the power of broadly illuminating all the ten directions.”

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