Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America

A good book if you are interested in how women are finally beginning to have a respected role in Buddhism, approximately 2500 year after the time of the Buddha himself. Women given a chapter each, or combined with other teachers, in this book are: Pema Chodron (Tibetan) Sharon Salzberg (Theravada-Vipassana) Toni Packer (Zen lineage) Joanna Macy with Tsering Everest Charlotte Joko Beck Ruth Denison Ayya Khema with Jacqueline Mandell and Colleen Schmitz Maurine Stuart Bobby Rhodes Jiyu Kennett Kaurna Dharma Gesshin Prabhasa Dharma Sonja Margulies with Yvonne Rand And, of course the title is a play on Gurdjieff's "Meetings with Remarkable Men," published in 1963 (and these men weren't remarkable except to Gurdjieff himself).

This is a biographical book on American Women Buddhist teachers: 10 have individual chapters (with photos); 7 share 3 chapters; & quite a few have short vignettes in the Epilogue including many Zen, a fair number of Theravada, & some Vajrayana bios. The larger bios often include interviews with students. Some of the teachers are well known & included in books by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Martine Batchelor, Sandy Boucher, Ellen Sidor, & Thubten Chodron (e.g. Ayya Khema, Jiyu Kennet, Ann Klein, Maurine Freedgood Stuart, Ruth Denison, Tsering Everest, Jacqueline Mandell, Gesshin Prabhasa Dharma, Pema & Thubten Chödron). This book includes significant teachings: a learning experience for both readers & its psychotherapist author, who has a great talent in biography. Her main thesis is ADAPTATION: p. 24: "As Buddhism moved from country to country, its methods & character changed considerably...the most skillful views in one culture are not necessarily the most skillful means in another. As time went on, each country developed a distinctive form of Buddhism with its own flavor & particularities." Her Introduction seems feminist, but p. 26: "Most of the women teachers described in this book do not technically consider themselves feminists," pp. 89-90: Maurine Stuart says "One of the frightening things I see sometimes is that people are destroying differences. What a pity. To reduce everything to a sameness in the cause of equality is foolish. Exploring our diversity, our differences together, we go beyond our differences & come to understand & show concern for one another. We go beyond our differences to our deepest level of communication, which is not merely communication, but communion," (but also p. 91: Maurine Stuart-"Those texts which say it's so difficult for a woman to become enlightened, well that was some man who wrote that!") & p. 303: "She [Jacqueline Mandell] made it clear that she didn't believe men repress women or that a system represses anyone. `Everyone is doing it together,' she said. And all aspects of conditioning have to be looked at." The interviews well support her sub-thesis that American Women Buddhist teachers are active in ADAPTING BUDDHISM TO THE WEST: pp. 97-8: "Maurine's particular genius seems to lie in creating a setting, a medium in which practice flourishes, hearts open, & differences among people become spices, not thorns. It is safe to be whatever one is-crazy, strong, critical, confused. There is room for everything." Ruth Denison:--"When there is strong awareness, one can be creative. A new approach is no problem." p. 280-2: To make the Dharma accessible to more people, Gesshin Prabhasa Dharma introduced family retreats, variable intensities of practice, "bicycle sesshin," etc. Gesshin also introduced these students to "laughing Zen." More specifically, she addresses THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGY for Western Buddhists: p. 146: Elizabeth Hamilton-"In all the approximately 1,700 trad

Kudos to Lenore Friedman for recognizing the birth of Buddhism among American women twenty years ago - and for keeping us up to date in this revision. She introduced us to Toni Packer, to Pema Chodron, to Joko Beck. This book is an important contribution for women (for all) spritual seekers. With her meticulous insights and her obvious devotion to the material, one imagines that meeting Ms. Friedman would be remarkable, too.