Women Living Zen Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns

by Arai, Paula Kane Robinson

• ISBN13: 9780195123937
• ISBN10: 019512393X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In this study, based on both historical evidence and ethnographic data, Paula Arai shows that nuns were central agents in the foundation of Buddhism in Japan in the sixth century. They were active participants in the Soto Zen sect, and have continued to contribute to the advancement of the sect to the present day. Drawing on her fieldwork among the Soto nuns, Arai demonstrates that the lives of many of these women embody classical Buddhist ideals. They have chosen to lead a strictly disciplined monastic life over against successful careers and the unconstrained contemporary secular lifestyle. In this, and other respects, they can be shown to stand in stark contrast to their male counterparts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix	(6)
Transliteration Guide	xv	(2)
Prologue	xvii
ONE Introduction	3	(28)
Scholarly Contexts	4	(16)
Theoretical Considerations	20	(5)
Methodological Considerations	25	(6)
TWO Historical Background	31	(18)
Pioneering Monastics	31	(5)
Dogen and Women	36	(8)
Tokugawa Encroachments	44	(1)
Meiji Reclamations	45	(4)
THREE Twentieth-Century Leadership	49	(33)
First Generation: Rapid Ascent through Education	52	(11)
Second Generation: Strategists of Egalitarianism	63	(11)
Third Generation: Zen Master of a New Tradition	74	(8)
FOUR The Monastic Practices of Zen Nuns	82	(39)
Nuns' Vision of Monastic Life	82	(4)
Daily Life in a Monastery of Zen Nuns	86	(12)
Divisions within the Monastery	98	(4)
Ceremonial Rituals and Activities	102	(7)
Educational Curriculum and Degrees	109	(5)
The Aesthetics of Discipline	114	(7)
FIVE Motivations, Commitments, and Self-Perceptions	121	(34)
Changing Life Patterns of Twentieth-Century Zen Nuns	125	(12)
Buddhist Practice: Meaning and Action	137	(11)
Nuns' Views on Monastic Life	148	(7)
SIX Conclusion: Innovators for the Sake of Tradition	155	(10)
Preservers and Creators of Buddhist Tradition	159	(2)
Bearers and Transmitters of Traditional Japanese Culture	161	(4)
Endnotes	165	(30)
Appendix A. Questionnaire	195	(6)
Appendix B. Glossary of Japanese Terms	201	(12)
Bibliography	213	(14)
Index	227
Photographs follow page 146