presentation abstracts 4

11th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
December 28, 2009, to January 3, 2010

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Conference Topic: Buddhist Education Across Cultures

Buddhist Education Across Cultures
Elisa Cadwell

In April 2003, nearing the completion of my teaching degree, I introduced myself to Nga, an elder at Van Hahn Temple in Santee, California, and offered my services as an English teacher. The temple’s new monk, Tinman had only been in the country for 3 months and did not speak English. Nga and I scheduled a weekly training regimen for the monk. Within a short time, temple members invited me to ceremonies and special events. Although treated with a great deal of respect, I found that I was not above reproach if I did not follow proper protocol with the monks. There were no nuns and I was the only female teacher at the temple. I discovered that it was not culturally acceptable to hug or be behind closed doors with a monk. Being an American did not trump being female.

Wonderful things have happened at Van Hahn Temple over the last 6 years. At first, there was only one monk to teach; now there are five. Once there were only a few people at temple events; now there are so many participants that many of the ceremonies must be held outside in the parking lot. I found it significant that a woman (Dr. Karma Lekshe Tsomo) was invited to be the guest speaker at at one such ceremony, conducted in both Vietnamese and English. The first American style wedding took place two years ago. Not only was the ceremony conducted in English, but the newly wedded couple were allowed to kiss. This spring, Tinman received his Masters Degree from San Diego State University.

In my experience, skillful communication is the key to spreading the teachings of the Buddha in the United States. Americans are ready and willing to learn about Buddhist philosophy and culture, but most prefer to learn in English. Teaching English is therefore one way to encourage cultural understanding and promote peace. The more human beings know about each other, the more we will be able to share our heritages and ideas and, in the process, learn to respect our differences and similarities.

Buddhist Women Teachers: Lay and Ordained
Sister Sumangala

The purpose of this paper is to look at the contributions of Dhamma teachers to the development of Dhamma education in Malaysia over the last few decades. These teachers, lay and ordained, have played a very important role in helping propagate the Dhamma among Buddhist devotees in Malaysia. This paper will specifically look at the contributions of female Dhamma teachers who have made significant contributions to Dhamma education, both formally and informally, in Malaysia over the years. It is noteworthy that many active Buddhist devotees in Malaysia today are female.

The paper begins by discussing the background of Dhamma teachers in Malaysia in the Theravada and Mahayana traditions. Next, it explains the contributions made by well-known female teachers in Malaysia and explores the motivations of the female volunteer teachers. Finally, it considers how more women in Malaysia can be encouraged to become dedicated Buddhist teachers.

Bhiksuni Xiuwen: Enlightening Society by Institutionalizing Buddhist Education
Yu-chen Li

As the founder of Huafan University, the Buddhist nun Xiuwen (1912-2004) had extensive influence in Taiwan, creating a model for Buddhist learning and social engagement through “jue” (enlightening) education. In Taiwan in the 1990s, the image of Xiuwen shifted from that of a world-traveled artist nun to an extraordinary educator, as she set about establishing the first Buddhist University in Chinese history. Her achievements stand in marked contrast to the Chinese government’s expropriation of Buddhist temples to reform the public school system. The opening of Huafan Technology College in 1990 and its growth to the status of a university seven years later indicate significant changes both in the system of religious education in Taiwan and in mobilizing strategies, which were implemented especially by Buddhist women. This paper will examine how Xiuwen, a female religious leader, succeeded in establishing the first Buddhist university in Taiwan.

Buddhism and Buddhology: One Root, Two Fruits
Jampa Tsedroen

Buddhism is not only a living religion with millions of followers worldwide, but also an academic discipline and the subject of scientific research. It is important to understand how religious thought and activities influence cultural and social developments in the course of history. If religious practices change in new cultural contexts, the authenticity of the doctrine is not necessarily in question, but this is an indication that it is a living tradition being expressed and shaped as it is experienced in different environments.

In this paper, I will consider the tension that exists between the traditional study and practice of Buddhism, on the one hand, from the viewpoint of an adherent, and, on the other hand, from the viewpoint of Buddhist studies as an academic discipline that is based on scientific research. The two worlds are quite different, but can also be mutually enriching.

From an academic viewpoint, it is not a contradiction to be a Buddhist and Buddhologist at the same time. However, when Buddhist practioners take up Buddhism as an academic discipline, they simultaneously become insiders and outsiders. As outsiders, they must examine Buddhism in a historical-critical way, using a methodology that is not part of their traditional religious training – a method that was previously unknown in Buddhist cultures.

As the International Congress on Buddhist Women's Role in the Sangha at Hamburg University in 2007 demonstrated, dialogue between Buddhist scholars and practitioners can be a valuable and insightful experience on both sides. Buddhist scholars can discuss the historical and current development of the ordination of nuns from a historical perspective, even though researchers are generally theorists whose work is not involved with internal decisions in the Buddhist order. Buddhist practioners can understand the historical method as another approach to the critical inquiry encouraged by the Buddha and a useful tool both to evaluate Buddhist sources in their historical, social, cultural, and political context, and to address issue of contemporary relevance from a Buddhist perspective.



Conference Topic: Diverse Dharma Paths

Liberation from Gender-based Oppression: From Beauty Standards to Sex Trafficking
Bonna Devora Haberman

The sale of women and children into prostitution is one of the most egregious contemporary violations of human rights. Based upon exploitation of some of the most vulnerable members of humanity, this burgeoning global business meshes smoothly with the gears of culture, a perverse conjunction of power with money. Human trafficking is not an isolated phenomenon, but an extreme expression of gender-based oppression that permeates human society. Through everyday and ongoing processes of socialization, we internalize messages and practices that habituate us to participate in abuse, rendering the enslavement of girls and women in relentless degradation and rape tolerable to the "clients" and profitable for the "dealers."

Messages and practices objectifying and dehumanizing women are deeply embedded in many layers of culture -- religion, economy, politics, law, literature, the media, and public discourse, to name a few -- In subtle and conspicuous structures. This paper lays out a replicable method for intervening in the machinery of gender-based oppression in two stages that can be applied to any setting. The first stage is to unveil and make explicit the mechanisms by which societies assemble and produce abuse through multi-disciplinary cultural analysis. The second stage proposes a liberation alternative based on creative feminist interpretations and activism. I will demonstrate this approach with reference to Jewish primary sources and the experience of implementation.

The Friendship between Catholic Nuns and Buddhist Nuns in Taiwan
Guo Hsiang Shih

The purpose of religion should be creating friendship, harmony, peace, and well-being for people in this world. However, some religious followers have strong biases against other religions. Those biases have generated hatred, conflicts and disasters for people on Planet Earth.

In Taiwan, Catholic sisters have very good relationships with Buddhist nuns. They respect each other, learn from each other, and cooperate with each other on certain activities. For example, the Buddhist organization that I belong to, Dharma Drum Mountain, and myself have a great deal of contact with Catholic sisters. I know there are other nunneries, such as Bau-an Temple, that have good relationships with Catholic nuns, too. Bhiksuni Chao-hwei cooperates with Catholic sisters on conferences and social movements as well. There are touching stories about the friendships of women practitioners from diverse faiths in Taiwan.

It is worthwhile to share our stories with people abroad. We hope that someday all religious followers will embrace the believers of other faiths as friends. Perhaps Buddhist women can take the leadership in this initiative, so that eventually people around the world can cooperate with sincerity and honesty to build a Pure Land on Earth – heaven here and now.

Images of the Feminine in Buddhism and Christianity: "Wisdom and Her Bounty"
Morny Joy

In recent years, several excellent works exploring the role of wisdom and its feminine idealization have emerged. These include Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self by Anne Carolyn Klein, and She Who Is by Elizabeth Johnson. These two works explore prajna, the Buddhist idea of wisdom, and Sophia, the Greek Christian conceptualization of wisdom. In this preliminary survey, I would like to examine these Buddhist and Christian lineages of the ideal of wisdom, it’s relationship to the principal concepts of these traditions, how the qualities and ideals of compassion and relationship are honored and promoted, and, finally, the repercussions the idealization of wisdom has had for the role of women in our era.

My study is also an attempt to understand what is at the root of the appeal of wisdom by women and for women. As a relic of past symbolic systems, the traditional image of wisdom as a feminine archetype in both Buddhist and Christian cultures is, in many ways, limited by the predominantly masculine ambiance that has pervaded both religions. In its contemporary prototype, the ideal of wisdom as a form of knowing has moved beyond gender-based imagery and its concomitant restrictions. This new ideal also provides a prospect that responds to the divisive conflicts between women and men, and between women and other women.

As we explore the observations of Johnson and Klein, we will discover an ambivalence as to whether wisdom should be inherently neutral or feminine. Both idealizations have their limitations. While Klein emphasized the importance of the female form in the formation of wisdom and Johnson the importance of female qualities, there is reluctance to focus on the conflicted state that women presently inhabit. Women can now take pride in entering echelons of power and acquiring knowledge formerly denied to them. However, women are also nostalgic and insecure at the loss of perceived past strengths (however compromised).

What women naturally desire is to combine the strengths of past spiritual ideals and contemporary feminist ones. Women’s explorations of wisdom need not require definitive explanations but rather may be expansive and open-ended. Wisdom may be an antidote to assertions that feminism has subverted the natural order, that violence and disintegration are inevitable, and that a new war of the sexes is underway. Wisdom can see beyond these extremes and provide a calming and inspiring influence. The ultimate question will be not whether this is simply a utopian fantasy but, rather, how women can achieve wisdom as a worthwhile practical reality. The aim is show that the ideals of past, powerful and pervasive as they are, are the only options for women’s self-development.

Bhiksuni Hiu Wan’s Grand World Tour
Shu-yuan Lin

Bhiksuni Hiu Wan (1912-2004) was born in Nanhai, Guangdong. Recognized as an eminent Buddhist nun in Taiwan, she also achieved international renown. She had a profound impact and made outstanding contributions to Buddhist art, literature, and education, especially in Taiwan. She also founded Huafan University, the first university established by the Buddhist community in Taiwan, which emphasized “Awakening Education” and students’ cultivation of virtues. She completed a “Grand World Tour” through dozens of countries, from Southeast Asia to Japan, Europe, and the United States. Although she is not the first woman who traveled and recorded her voyage in the modern period, she was the first Buddhist nun who traveled the world alone and bequeathed a record of her travels in a variety of media – poems, diaries, prose, and paintings.

Today, in a climate flourishing with women travel writers and Buddhist women exploring the world, Bhiksuni Hiu Wan’s Grand World Tour stands as a significant model. The diverse texts that record what she saw and heard are significant contributions to a genealogy of alternative female travel writing. In this paper, I will explore Bhiksuni Hiu Wan’s motivation and goal in traveling, the cultural value of her texts, her aesthetic achievements, and historical significance. I will also discuss the values evident in her views of the world and the significance of creating a genealogy of Buddhist travel literature within contemporary women’s travel writing.

Canadian Buddhist Interaction – Or Not?
Mavis Fenn



Conference Topic: Exceptional Role Models

A Relevant Role Model: An Ordinary Woman (Like Me) Who Achieved Enlightenment
Rita M. Gross

When we think of “notable” Buddhist women, we tend to think of famous or outstanding women, women who stand out or are unusual for their accomplishments and have been remembered by later generations. When we think about it, we realize that most women have no chance of becoming such “notable” women, of doing something so outstanding or extraordinary that they will be remembered for generations to come. And yet, throughout the current Buddhist women’s movement, there has been a longing for female “role models,” for stories of women practitioners that would stand beside all the stories of all the great male practitioners who have been remembered throughout Buddhist history. We want these stories, because they reassure us that this practice tradition is not just for men – that it is truly relevant for women who are not content to play subsidiary roles as adjuncts in the enterprise of Buddhist practice, for women who want to be more than donors and supporters, for women who want to have some input into the unfolding of Buddhist practice and tradition. We also want these stories simply to assure ourselves that Buddhism’s promised fruition of enlightenment is possible for women. We need those stories because so many texts and so many threads of the tradition have told us that women have an “unfortunate rebirth,” that the best we can do in our lives as women is to accrue the karma to attain a future, more fortunate rebirth as a male. But what self-respecting woman who appreciates her “precious birth as a human being,” as we have been encouraged to do, would give her life energy to such a religious system?

Is there some contradiction between our longing for stories of notable Buddhist women and female role models, on the one hand, and the reality of our own ordinary lives and the fact that very few of us have the capability to achieve such eminence, on the other? I have long joined the quest for female role models and have written about Yeshe Tsogyel and Machig Labdron, great heroines of Tibetan Buddhism, as role models who could encourage us on our own paths. But how realistic is the goal of achieving such heroic stature? These exceptional role models may have been women, but they were also outstanding practitioners whose accomplishments are far above the expectations most of us could have for ourselves. What about us? Are there role models for us? Or does Buddhist tradition only provide a few stories about women who are so outstanding that they are not realistic role models for most of us? Is there a record of women who, while not as outstanding as Yeshe Tsogyel or Milarepa, nevertheless are counted as worthy practitioners who became enlightened and contributed to the development of their lineages? It seems that such stories are few. Whether or not such exceptional women are fewer is an open question, but there are definitely fewer such stories. Androcentric record keeping practices often erase all but the most outstanding women, women who are not only exceed the accomplishments of most other women, but also of most men.

Recently, while teaching workshops on female role models in Tibetan Buddhism, I have begun to highlight the life of Orgyen Chokyi, who lived in the area of present day Nepal from 1675 to 1729. Though several manuscripts of her life story survived in Himalayan libraries and she was somewhat known in her home region, she was completely unknown to Westerners until the recent translation of her autobiography Himalayan Hermitess by Kurtis Schaeffer. Setting her story side-by-side with that of Yeshe Tsogyel, I have begun to feel that she presents a more realistic role model. She was not blessed with a miraculous conception and birth and she did not enjoy a privileged childhood. She was the daughter of parents who wanted a son and subsequently abused her severely. She spent her youth herding goats, dzomo¸ and horses, grieving bitterly when their young were devoured by eagles or wolves. She joined a local religious community, but spent most of her time doing menial work in the kitchen and was not trained in either meditation or scholarship. Throughout her life, she lamented the woes of a female rebirth and prayed that no being of any species ever be reborn again as a female. Only after many years and numerous requests was she finally taught meditation and spiritual discipline by her guru. When, towards the end of her life, she asked to be allowed to write her spiritual autobiography, her teacher told her that there was no reason for a woman to write a spiritual autobiography. In short, there was nothing outstanding or remarkable about her life, seemingly. Nevertheless, she pursued her practices and was eventually told by her teacher that she had surpassed the need for further meditation. She was granted her own solitary residence, which had long been her dream and goal, and died as a locally respected practitioner who managed to write her autobiography after all.

Orgyen Chokyi is a realistic role model, in that she was not seen as someone pre-destined for high spiritual accomplishment, as was Yeshe Tsogyel, nor did she not have an outstanding teacher who immediately recognized her potential and trained her individually. She suffered the same indignities of a difficult family situation and frustration over the liabilities of the female gender that many of us suffer. Nevertheless, she persevered and came to be regarded as someone who had attained the Buddhist goal of liberation from samsara. To my eyes, she seems a lot more like me than does Yeshe Tsogyel.

In this presentation, I will discuss the inspiring story of an ordinary role model and discuss what it might mean for contemporary Buddhist women to see themselves as both empowered, self-determining women and as relatively ordinary. What a relief to realize that we do not all have to be Yeshe Tsogyels in order to accomplish the Buddhist path!

The Meaning of Mountain in the Korean Tradition of Eminent Bhiksunis
Hyesoen Sunim

In my presentation, I will discuss the significance of mountains as practice sites for Buddhist nuns in the Korean Seon tradition. The importance of mountains in Korean Buddhism is well testified by the convention of affiliating a monastery with a major mountain in its vicinities. The mountain is referred to as a part of the name of the monastery. Unmunsa, for instance, is formally called Hogŏsan Unmunsa, which literally means the “Cloud Gate Temple in the Crouching Tiger Mountain.” The so-called “Nine Mountain Seon Sects” of late Silla, which mark the beginning of Korea’s Seon tradition, are distinctly named after prominent mountains.

Mountains play an important role for monastic practitioners in Korea. When summer and winter retreats end, nuns and monks tend to travel, often visiting eminent Seon masters seated in faraway mountains. This itinerancy, which is called unsuhaenggak (wandering like a cloud and water) in Korean, is another form of practice. Given that Korea is a mountainous country, the monastic lore is full of stories in which an itinerant practitioner encounters a spiritual breakthrough in a tall mountain. The biographies of eminent nuns often offer such types of awakening stories.

My paper will examine the patterns of mountain practice related specifically to eminent nuns. Mountains are traditionally associated with monks rather than nuns. However, some of the highly venerated bhiksuni Seon masters, such as Mansŏng, Pongŏng, and Daehaeng among others, are known for their extraordinary experiences in remote and rugged mountains. I will analyze the specific traits of their mountain practices and attempt to draw connections among them. This endeavor can offer insights into the relationship between eminent nuns and the tradition of mountain practices in Korean Buddhism, which is now vanishing due to the intense land development over the last few decades.

Buddhist Women Beyond Borders
Christie Yuling Chang

Throughout history, there has been a tradition of brave Buddhist women pioneers crossing borders, breaking boundaries, and establishing new territories. This tradition begins with the legacy of Mahaprajapati, who walked, together with five hundred women, beyond the boundaries of the palace to follow the Buddha’s path. Time and again, we see Buddhist women continuing this dissident tradition, despite innumerable obstacles that have come their way. Imagine the travels of Princess Sanghamitra, who made her way from India to Sri Lanka, carrying with her a sapling from the bodhi tree, to transmit the bhiksuni lineage to the women of this beautiful island. Imagine the groups of bhiksunis who traveled for two years by sea all the way from Sri Lanka to China back in the 5th century CE to pass on the bhikhuni lineage to their Chinese sisters at the other end of the ocean. In the 20th and 21st centuries, we again witness eminent Buddhist women pioneers flying beyond borders and starting brand new Buddhist communities outside their homelands. Even when they may not speak the local language well and may have to start everything literally from scratch, they appear unstoppable.

This paper hopes to continue the documentation of the brave Buddhist women who have gone beyond borders of various types in the contemporary era. As a linguist, I have always been especially intrigued by the nature and role that language plays in human communications. Therefore, I will examine the role of language of these eminent Buddhist women’s works and lives, how they manage to break through boundaries with or without language expertise, and how they manage to build transnational networks. I will focus particularly on Bhiksuni Hiuwan (1912-2004) and Bhiksunis Suimiao (1922-1998), two eminent Buddhist nuns who left their homelands in Guangdong (or Canton) and Fujian (or Hokkian), China, respectively, and examine how they managed to create transnational legacies, despite their noticeable disadvantages in the use of local languages. In addition to sharing my own participant observations, I will present the results of interviews with people who personally encountered Bhiksuni Hiuwan and Bhiksuni Suimiao. Eventually, I hope to use these two examples to initiate a project documenting the various methods of speaking/communication employed by eminent Buddhist women in different speech communities. In this way, I anticipate that our understanding of the nature of language may lead us to a new level of understanding about how language use may be integrated into Dharma practice.

The Life and Work of Bhiksuni Tri Hai
Thich Nu Huong Nhu

Since ancient times, Vietnamese Buddhism has been affected by the political currents of the country. During 100 years of French domination (1854-1954), Vietnamese Buddhism became distorted. Ordinary people understood Buddhism as polytheism and most of the pagodas practiced superstitious forms of worship and rituals. Fortunately, at the beginning of the 20th century, following the Buddhist reform movements initiated by Dharmapala in India and by Bhiksu Taixu (1890-1947) in China, a movement to reform Vietnamese Buddhism arose, as the result of a campaign carried out by several senior monks. From 1920 to 1945, this movement spread throughout the country and several Buddhist institutes and associations for the study of Buddhist doctrine were founded.

After World War II, Buddhist organizations were re-opened in Hanoi under the leadership of Bhikkhunis Tri Lien and Tri Hai. In Saigon, Bhikkhuni Nhu Thanh established Hue Lam Nunnery for training bhikkhunis to teach Dharma and do charity work. Wherever she went, Bhikkhuni Nhu Thanh worked quietly and patiently to mobilize and unify Vietnamese nuns. This created a firm foundation for the bhikkhuni revival movement and the founding of the Bhikkhuni Sangha Association of South Vietnam in 1956. The unification of bhikkhunis was not only to gather strength to struggle for equal rights between monks and nuns, but to support, encourage, and enhance the capacity of all bhikkhunis to educate other human beings and shine the light of Dharma to remove the darkness of ignorance everywhere.

This paper introduces the work of an exemplary bhikkhuni who devoted her entire life to teaching the Dharma to help liberate human beings from suffering. Happily, her achievements are being amplified by successive generations. At present, the daughters of the Buddha throughout the world are making great strides in many different fields. In Vietnam, the leadership qualities of Bhikkhuni Nhu Thanh helped propel the Vietnamese Bhikkhuni Sangha through difficult times to great achievements and a bright future.