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Thread: Zen Women, Chapter 8, Pages 174-183

  1. #1

    Zen Women, Chapter 8, Pages 174-183

    Hello everyone!

    In this portion we look at Someko, a woman who received awakening and a subtle ordination from her teacher despite her being married and sexually active, Satsu, who began to practice as a fiery teenager and was prescribed by Hakuin to marry and go out and practice in worldly life, Satsu, who fell in love with her teacher, and Gyokusen, and artist who may have also had a relationship with her teacher. This portion ends with some thoughts on having a relationship with a teacher.

    I don't have any particular thoughts on this section, or prompts, only that I enjoyed this chapter very much.

    Please share your thoughts, if you wish!

    Gassho
    Sat, lah
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  2. #2
    I really enjoyed this chapter too and I like the sound of Satsu.

    I thought the Teishin/Ryokan relationship was interesting. Whatever was going on there, they produced some beautiful poetry particularly:

    We monastics are said
    To overcome the realm
    Of life and death -
    Yes I cannot bear the
    Sorrow of our parting


    Gassho

    Heiso
    StLah

  3. #3
    I do have a great deal of fondness for Ryōkan and his relationship with Teishin, although I am not sure it would be viewed with as much sympathy if it happened now. I think there is something very touching about it.

    Teishin gathered together many of his poems after his death in 1831, and was with him at his passing, publishing a collection of work called Hachisu no Tsuyu (Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf) in 1835.

    In Sky Above, Great Wind, Kaz Tanahashi shares a lovely squence of poems that occur after Teishin compares the middle-aged Ryōkan, weathered in his old black robe, to a crow:

    Tomorrow
    I will fly away
    to who knows where
    as someone has made me
    a crow


    Teishin asks in response:

    Oh mountain crow
    if you are going home
    please bring along
    a young crow
    even one with fragile wings.


    Ryōkan, however, worried for both of their reputations:

    I wish I could
    bring you along
    but what would become of us
    if people started
    to talk?


    Teishin was having none of it:

    A kite is a kite
    a sparrow is a sparrow
    a heron is a heron
    but a crow with a crow --
    who should suspect?



    This was also an interesting chapter in terms of looking at the different expectations on men and women in Japan after ordination, with it being much harder for women to take on the role of a temple priest whilst being married, and having children. I am glad that we have members of different genders here at Treeleaf with younger families.

    Gassho
    Kokuu
    -sattoday-

  4. #4
    Lovely, Kokuu.

    Gassho
    Sat, lah
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  5. #5
    I really like Satsu, she must have kept Hakuin on his toes and he was no slouch either.

    With regard to Teishin, it looks like transference from the partial evidence on view. Unresolved issues concerning her husbands death? A father substitute? But, I don’t get the feeling that Ryokan was manipulating or abusing the relationship.

    Stewart
    Sat

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