Walking on Lotus Flowers: Buddhist Women Living, Loving and Meditating

This is a wonderful book. The author somehow manages to convey something of the essence of each of the 18 Buddhist women interviewed. They vary greatly: from the childlike I Tsao Fashih of the title essay to Western therapist Maura Sills. It is not IMHO a women's or feminist book. The chapters are divided into 4 sections: The Meditative Path, Training the Mind, The Creative Life, and Healing the World. The interviewees are from different countries & Buddhist traditions (Theravada, Zen, Tibetan). Some (Tenzin Palmo & Thubten Chodron) are well known Western Buddhist nuns & authors. The chapters include art, music, therapy, physical healing, & their relation to Buddhist practice. Several addressed Buddhism moving West: p. 45: Ayya Khema: "Buddhism in the West must stop expressing itself in the foreign languages of Asia and speak modern Western languages. The Buddha [in] `The Exposition of Non-Conflict' explains that the dharma has to be learned in one's mother tongue...Diluted Buddhism pandering to society's desires becomes psychodharma which contains only partial truth" and p. 185: Maura Sills: "The older historical experiences of Buddhism should not be diluted, but they must be retranslated into ways that all people can get into. Buddhism has become enshrouded in dogma, structures and forms." They also point out the relation between Buddhism and universal truth: p. 46: Ayya Khema: "Contradictions are human. In reality there is only one truth and mystics of all ages have always found the same truth. There is universal consciousness that can be experienced in meditation-the infinity of consciousness," p. 51: Aoyama Sensei: "All life is seen simply as an expression of underlying universal unity. However, our own little egos do not realize our existence emerges from a universal light source," & p. 115: Haeju Sunim: "In the Mahayana there are the six perfections. It is good to cultivate all of them. However, if you practice only one very well, it is the same as practicing them all. Through something you do very well, you are able to bring the whole sublime universe into existence." The Talmud states this principle as well. Some, however, serve to explain Buddhist practices in terms Westerners can understand: p. 77: Myongsong Sunim: "If we bow to the Buddha while thinking the Buddha lives outside ourselves, this is idol worship. If we think our mind right here is the Buddha, we are bowing to our true nature with respect, we are trying to curb thinking which would lead to self-importance. This is the meaning of bowing" and p. 99: Thubten Chodron: "If we can change our attitude, we can change our experience." Some of their observations/realizations are more Buddhist specific or zen-like: p. 40: Ayya Khema: "If we grasp something, we have not realized it" and p. 82: Myongsong Sunim: "If I look in a mirror I see my face reflected in it; the reflection is neither better nor worse than my face." All in all, this book is both d

Outstanding book published in 1996 by Thorsons Publishing. Martine Batchelor's "Walking on Lotus Flowers" consists of eighteen chapters, each a dharma lecture or narrative by highly-competent Buddhist leaders and thinkers who happen to be female as well. Additionally the work contains an introduction, references and glossary. The chapters are well-referenced and informative.Readers should be aware that this book was published virtually verbatim as "Women on the Buddhist Path," also in 1996 and by Thorsons. While this publishing gaffe is not explained, the content of the work is exceptional in both books! Readers who had purchased the same text twice due to the title confusion should pass one copy on to their sisters. (Or even their brothers!)

Buddhism has traditionally been as sexist as any of the other so-called major religions, perhaps far more so than some. That situation seems to be changing somewhat in the 20th Century. It is certainly the case that nowadays many of the most remarkable writers and thinkers in buddhism are women (e.g., Charlotte Joko Beck, Sylvia Boorstein, and many, many others) - but that fact in itself is not remarkable. The essence of buddhist practice does not rely on the number of x or y chromosomes one has, it relies primarily on committment.This book profiles approximately a dozen accomplished buddhist practitioners who happen to be women. Several things emerged for me that were very interesting. First, I did not sense that this was a book about "women buddhist issues" per se - it was a book about buddhist practitioner's issues. In other words the topics and themes were just as interesting to me (a male, by the way) as they might be to a woman. In buddhism, it seems to me, what is the difference?? Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, etc., etc.Anyway, another interesting thing was that Martine Batchelor does a great job of conveying a unique essence of each person as a distinctive individual. Some of the stories are incredible (e.g., the woman who dug herself out of her retreat cave following an avalanche) and others just ring with the absolute truth of everyday practice for the buddhist layperson - again, regardless of gender (e.g., discussions on sexuality, raising a family while maintaining a religious practice).Obviously I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in buddhism and spiritual/religious issues.