Sea Changes in the Lives of Japanese Buddhist Women in Hawai‘i

Three cycles of change characterize the evolution of Japanese Buddhist temples in Hawai‘i: the early years, the war years, and the contemporary period. This brief article explores women’s roles and patterns of adaptation to local circumstances over generations during these cycles of change. Special attention is given to the experiences of Japanese immigrant Buddhist women in the Jōdo Shinshū school of Buddhism. The aim is to show how Japanese women who immigrated to Hawai‘i helped shape a uniquely local flavor of Buddhism, made significant contributions to Jōdo Shinshū’s development, and helped ensure the continuity of Buddhist traditions up to the modern period

Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age. Edited by Christopher Patrick Miller, Michael Reading, and Jeffery D. Long. Landham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020

While the canon is replete with biographies of individual spiritual exemplars—Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain, and the Dalai Lama’s Freedom in Exile come to mind—few have examined exemplars across faiths. This collection focuses on Hindu masters from many different perspectives and practices, as well as a variety of Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh masters. The editors set their focus on religious leaders and spiritual guides who have served as sources of inspiration and “dispellers of darkness.” Their introduction discusses the defining characteristics of these “beacons of Dharma,” recognizing that the Sanskrit term dharma is “polyvalent and uniquely understood within each traditional context.” (xiii) The editors invite the contributing authors to uncover new scholarship regarding the “distinctive philosophies, ethical commitments, over- all life work, etc.” of their subjects and to offer insightful proposals about “how the remedial and redemptive power embodied by each...can best serve our contemporary world.” (ix) The chapters are woven around these central themes

Wisdom from the Center of the Heart: The Life and Work of Pamela Ayo Yetunde So Far

In recent years, Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde has emerged as a prominent figure in the Black, Buddhist, and queer communities. As I caught a glimpse of her amidst the excited crowds at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto in 2018, a gathering of 10,000 delegates from 80 countries and nearly 200 religious, spiritual, and Indigenous traditions, her humble free spirit immediately captured my attention. Unpretentious, unaffected by the grandeur of the immense gathering, and unfazed by the power and prestige of the luminary figures assembled there, she flowed through the hallowed halls with confidence and grace. In an era of shameless self-promotion, to be simple, humble, and authentic is a distinction. In the Buddhist context, self-effacement is construed as a sign of respect for others and dedication to their well-being

Imagining Enlightenment: Icons and Ideology in Vajrayāna Buddhist Practice

Iconography has been used to represent the experience of awakening in the Buddhist traditions for millennia. The Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions are especially renowned for their rich pantheons of buddhas and bodhisattvas who illuminate and inspire practitioners. In addition, the Vajrayāna branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism presents a host of meditational deities (yidam) who serve as catalysts of awakening. These awakened beings are regarded as objects of refuge for practitioners, both female and male, who visualize themselves in detail as embodiments of specific enlightened figures, female or male, with all their enlightened qualities. These meditational deities, which are mentally constructed and insubstantial by nature, are distinguished from worldly deities (deva) who also inhabit the Buddhist pantheon and may be supplicated for attaining worldly boons. This article explores the philosophical foundations of Varjrayāna Buddhist practices, the ontological status of these archetypes of awakening, and the epistemological process of visualizing oneself an enlightened being as a skillful means to achieve awakened realization

Death, Identity, and Enlightenment in Tibetan Culture

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Nurturing the Seeds of Zen: The Life and Legacy of Shundo Aoyama Rōshi

Aoyama Rōshi’s legacy and her place in the Buddhist world are unique. Situated within a notably patriarchal tradition, she has been a leader in the struggle for gender parity in contemporary Japan. Due to her unflagging efforts, nuns in the Sōtō Zen tradition have now achieved unprecedented visibility and independence. According to religious studies scholar Paula Arai, the leading contemporary scholar of Sōtō Zen laywomen and nuns, “the nuns now control their own religious training, enjoy educational and ceremonial rights, and have ... appropriate titles and religious robes” (Arai 1999, 74). Today, at Aichi Senmon Nisōdō, Aoyama Rōshi not only directs the leading training program for Zen nuns in Japan, but also conducts regular classes and meditation programs for laypeople. Every Sunday, she opens the monastery to the public and delivers two talks, along with sessions of zazen, formal oriyoki meals, and, periodically, tea meditation (chazen) (Arai 1990, 38). By training a generation of highly qualified nuns and dedicated female teachers from Japan and around the world, she has ensured the continuity of a monastic lineage that was believed to be in precipitous decline. As a lineage holder, she epitomizes three generations of twentieth-century female Zen practitioners who have valiantly embodied, and thereby preserved, the tradition

Illustrating the Way: The Life and Times of Bhiksuni Shig Hiu Wan

Bhikṣuṇī Shig Hiu Wan was a Buddhist master in more than one sense of the word. She was not only a highly accomplished practitioner, teacher, artist, and poet, but she was also a feminist pioneer in higher education. When she arrived in Taiwan in 1966 and began teaching at the Chinese Cultural University, she was the first Buddhist nun to teach at the university level in Taiwan. At that time, it was highly unusual for a nun to take a visible role in the public sphere, so when Shihfu allowed her paintings to be exhibited in Taipei, this was an important breakthrough in helping raise awareness of Chinese and Indian Buddhist culture, Buddhist women’s cultural achievements, and women’s achievements in general. In this paper, I take a participant/ observer approach in an effort to understand Shihfu’s unique teaching style and the qualities and achievements that establish her as one of the leading Buddhist nuns of the twentieth century. In this personal reflection, based on fieldwork conducted in Taiwan between 1982 and 2002, I consider her life’s work and the impact that she has had on successive generations of Buddhists, particularly Buddhist women. In the process, I examine what it means to be a uniquely progressive master in an overtly, proudly traditional Buddhist culture

Creating Religious Identity

The author, a Buddhist monastic and scholar, explores the varieties of religious identity, their sources, and their effects on society. She discusses the fluidity of religious identities in the modern world and, in particular, the various challenges to women in confronting the stubborn persistence of gender-based exclusionary practices in religious traditions

Socially Engaged Buddhist Nuns: Activism in Taiwan and North America

The last decades of the twentieth century have been a time of new visibility and social activism for Buddhists in Taiwan and around the world. This paper compares the social engagement of nuns in the Chinese Buddhist tradition in Taiwan and North America. I would like to argue that whereas nuns in Taiwan have developed a variety of approaches to social involvement, their counterparts in the Chinese diaspora in North America have had to face a set of challenges specific to overseas Chinese communities in addition to Chinese Buddhist tradition. The article concludes with reflections on the prospects for nuns\u27 social activism in Taiwan and North America in future years

Dying, Death, and Afterlife from a Buddhist Perspective

Since earliest times, death has fascinated, terrified, and confounded human beings. Virtually every religious tradition offers some explanation of three key concerns: the beginnings of the world, the meaning and purpose of human existence, and the end of life. The Buddhist traditions have given special attention to the meaning of life and the end of life as central topics for reflection