Hi all,

We finish out Chapter 6 with a discussion of the Japanese nuns, who Schireson thinks “…more often than monks, understood the bodhisattva practice to mean devotion to actual people and their everyday problems as opposed to a concept of compassion.”

Three well-known abbesses of Tokeiji, a refuge for women seeking asylum, are introduced: its founder Kakuzan Shido, Princess Yodo, and Tenshu. The temple came into being in part because of the connection of the abbess Kakuzan to the shogunate. In later years, its existence and leadership was subject to the whims of politics and power.

What was the essence of the teachings the “fallen flowers” at Tokeiji received over the years? What can we learn from Tokeiji and the other convents about women’s unique role in Zen?

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday