Opening the Lotus: A Woman's Guide to Buddhism

When I began studying Buddhism, I found myself wondering how my feminist philosophies would fit into the Buddhist view. This book was a great help in exploring Buddhism as it relates to women, written in an almost conversational tone by Sandy Boucher, who has been practicing for over 20 years. This is not a definitive book, but one very helpful in introducing Buddhism to women. It's an excellent read, and comforting in its own way. I'm on my second read through, and still think this is one of my favorite books on Buddhism.

She has a nice general overview about the history of Buddhism, even though the rest of the book address one direction. That's fine. I esp. liked her comparisons of different Buddhist meetings/sessions (found an error on page 30: scroll is the gohonzon, page 31: cabinet is the butsudan, not the gohonzon). I found the description of the roles of women in Buddhism also very helpful. I never knew there was a sect in Korea with NUNS!