From THE BOND BETWEEN WOMEN: A JOURNEY TO FIERCE COMPASSION, pg 50
Once there was a woman named Yeshe Dawa, "Wisdom Moon." She lived a long time ago when people believed that in order to be enlightened one had to have a man's body"
Wisdom Moon was so developed in her understanding, her compassion, her wisdom, her patience, her consentration, and her generosity--in al ways--that people came from all over the kingdom to seek her counsel. crowds sat at her gate. finally all the monks and holy men gathered aroung her & told her, "Wisdom Moon, you are so close to being enlightened that if only you had come in the male form, you would have been fully and completely enlightened. You must pray to be magically transformed into a man. Please, for the sake of everyone, pray either to be transformed in this lifetime or to be born again in a man's body, for the moment you have the male form, you will be a buddha!"
Wisdom Moon was quiet for a moment. She knew that the monks and holy men meant well but that their vision was limited. Finally she addressed them. "Thank you very much, but I have thought this matter for along time. Worldly beings are always deluded on this account."
"Nowhere can I find waht is male, nowhere can I find what id female. These are simply forms, no more separate from each other than a wave is from water. But since most buddhas have shosen to come as a man, perhaps it would be more helpful if I became enlightened in a woman's body.
Therefore," she said slowly, looking at each of them lovingly, directly, "I vow for all time, until all suffering is ended, in all worlds, for all beings, in all universes, I will become enlightened only in a woman's body."
***
i usually read books in threes. recently i read three outstanding books about buddhism:
THE BOND BETWEEN WOMEN: A JOURNEY TO FIERCE COMAPSSION, China Galland, 1998
TURNING THE WHEEL: AMERICAN WOMEN CREATING THE NEW BUDDHISM, Sandy Boucher, Updated & Expanded Edition 1993
FRAGRANT PALM LEAVES: JOURNALS 1962-1966, Thich Nhat Hahn, English Translation 1998
all three books describe the transformation the patriarchal buddhist status quo as it comes in contact with individuals who incorporate feminism, egalitarianism, peace, & social justice with their buddhist practice. it is commonly said that buddhism is pre-occupied w/ the themes of suffering, desire, illusion, & enlightenment. in these three books, these themes are explored against the backdrop of very specific acts of misogyny: trafficking of girl-children, child abuse, rape, & domestic violence (BOND BETWEEN WOMEN), sappho-phobia, denegration of motherhood, sexual abuse by teachers, & rejection of holy orders (TURNING THE WHEEL), and the disinigration of community due to war (FRAGRANT PALM LEAVES). for every problem, there is a response--often an individual woman simply reaching out to another woman becomes the catalyst for communal action & transformation.
on a more personal note: over the past several years, i have heard all three authors speak. i've attended book readings for both china gallnd & sandy boucher @ gaia books, berkeley when china was reading from her previous book LONGING FOR DARKNESS: TARA & THE BLACK MADONNA (the "may as goddess" theme really challenged me) & when sandy was reading from the 1987 edition of TURNING THE WHEEL (jaw drop--a story of sexism told by a buddhist woman could have easily come verbatim from the mouth of a chrisitan). i was profoundly impressed w/ china's courage of forging her own spiritual path, embrassing equally buddhism & christianity. sandy is one of the most luminous jewel's in indra's net, reflecting jewels/buddhist women everywhere. these women will go anywhere, will do anything, & examine each situation in terms of its impact on women. in other words, they live the Yeshe Dawa vow.
i came in contact w/ the work of thic nhat hahn around the time of the persian gulf war. i remember activists melting in front of CNN. not having a television, i escaped this fate, but i & others were not exactly burning out, but more like "disparing out". involved w/ the church & the secular peace movement, i was constantly running & hither & yon not even taking the time to do ANYTHING remotely to maintain myself (plus i started running into brick walls of church sexism, but that took me a couple more years to figure THAT out).
one afternoon as i worked on yet another flyer, my radio ever-tuned to pacifica radio, i heard someone say "breathe!". as an airbreathing human & a libra (cardinal air sign), this should be a natural occurance. i found that i couldn't take a slow, deep breathe with awareness, so i listened closer. pacifica was playing a tape of thich nhat hahn, equating breath, awareness, & peace. coming from a monastic tradition, i was very familar with meditation, but never personally realized the political impact of a spiritual practice (unless you count leading the rosary w/ a bullhorn in front of @ women health clinics). so i listened more closely, practiced a little, saw him lecture a couple weeks later (& several times since), & studied. in the past ten years, he is the only male outside of my family/friends/coworkers/& Christ who has has any significant influence on me.
breathe/awareness/peace--so simple that even i, who have the attention span of a cursor blink, can do it.
in conlusion, i would like to quote sandy boucher who quotes an unnamed suffragist:
jennifer,ev