Buddhist Women on the Edge

by DRESSER, MARIANNE

• ISBN13: 9781556432033
• ISBN10: 1556432038
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1996-08-22
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Summary

As Buddhism is assimilated into the West, it is imperative that women reshape its patriarchal structures and carve out a fully legitimate, empowering position for themselves. Marianne Dresser brings together the likes of Pema Chodron, Tsultrim Allione, and bell hooks, 30 women in all, who are doing just that. Writers, nuns, scholars, priests--even a martial arts master and a private investigator--discuss women in Buddhism in a range of essays. Several pieces question the suppression of emotion required for selflessness, appealing to the undeniable reality of day-to-day living. Others discuss their experiences as women in Buddhism, whether as nuns or as lay practitioners. Still others address the history of women in Buddhism, racial questions, meditation, poetry, compassion, social activism, and sexual orientation. Most of these writers have been in Buddhism for two or three decades and offer a wealth of experience and insights, targeted at women readers but no less valuable to men.

Author Biography

Marianne Dresser is the editor of Buddhist Women on the Edge, an anthology of female Buddhist voices, and a Buddhist practitioner.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction
Wild, Wise, Passionate: Dakinis in America	p. 3
Form, Emptiness; Emptiness, Form	p. 13
Sounds of Silence	p. 19
Persons and Possibilities	p. 39
What Is the Emotional Life of a Buddha?	p. 45
The Light of Outrage: Women, Anger, and Buddhist Practice	p. 51
Bowing, Not Scraping	p. 57
Unlearning Silence: A Further Feminist Revaluation of Buddhist Practice	p. 69
Buddhism and Race: An African American Baptist-Buddhist Perspective	p. 81
Outside In: Buddhism in America	p. 93
The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism	p. 105
Walking a Few Steps Farther	p. 117
The Ruthlessness of the Practice of Compassion	p. 125
Community, Work, Relationship, and Family: Renunciation and Balance in American Buddhist Practice	p. 133
Romantic Vision, Everyday Disappoinment	p. 151
My Tantric Flip-Flop	p. 159
Watering the Garden with My Eyes Closed	p. 163
A Short History of Buddhists at The Tracks	p. 171
Frontier Buddhism	p. 179
Not To Injure Life: A Visit with Ruth Denison	p. 199
Suzuki Sensei's Zen Spirit	p. 209
Coming Home	p. 217
You're Becoming a What? Living as a Western Buddhist Nun	p. 223
Fertile Ground for a Warrior	p. 235
The Dark Clue	p. 243
Wholeheartedness	p. 257
Poetry as Siddhi	p. 263
The Province of the Saved	p. 277
Contemplation and Transformation	p. 287
No Right, No Wrong	p. 293
Glossary	p. 305
Selected Bibliography	p. 309
About the Contributors	p. 315
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