Table Of ContentWomen
Living
Zen
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Women
Living
Zen
J A P A N E S E
S O T O B U D D H I S T
N U N S
Paula Kane Robinson Arai
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
1999
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1999 by Paula Kane Robinson Arai
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arai, Paula Kane Robinson.
Women living Zen : Japanese Soto Buddhist nuns
Paula Kane Robinson Arai.
p. em.
ISBN 0-19-512393-X
1. Monastic and religious life for women—Japan. 2. Monastic and
religious life (Zen Buddhism) —Japan. 3. Religious life —Sotoshu.
4. Buddhist nuns—Japan. I. Title,
BQ9444.2.A73 1998
294.3'657-dc21 98-17675
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For mv parents,
Masuko Arai Robinson
Lucian Ford Robinson
and my bodhisattva,
Kito Shunko
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F O R E W O R D
Reflections on Women Encountering
Buddhism across Cultures and Time
Abbess Aoyama Shundo
Aichi Zen Monastery for Women in Nagoya, Japan
"We must all, male and female alike,
profoundly respect Buddhist teachings
and practice. We must not argue over
male or femaleness."
[excerpt from "Raihaitokuzui,"
Shobogenzo, by Zen Master Dogen]
"I chose the study of comparative religion, because I was born betwixt and
between a mother who is a Japanese Buddhist and a father who is an American
Christian. In time I was drawn to Buddhism, and in 1987 / sojourned to India
where I was able to visit the place where Sakyamuni attained enlightenment. It
was there that I met the Zen nun, Kito Shunko, who was at the Japanese Temple
in Bodh Gaya. I was deeply moved at having encountered a person who genuinely
lived according to the Buddhist teachings. At that time, the nun, Kito Sensei,
introduced to me the book written by the Abbess, On Becoming a Beautiful
Person. These experiences and events drove me to come to this Zen monastery for
women in Nagoya, Japan."
viii Foreword
This was my first conversation with Paula. When she said, "I encountered a person
who genuinely lived according to the Buddhist teachings" a tear glistened in her
eye. It was a tear that came out of the joy of having had a profound encounter
with a wonderful person and teachings while on a journey in search of the truth.
At that time, I thought that she must have received the seeds of Buddhist
teachings from her mother when she was very young, and her Buddhist-seeking
antenna were raised from having experienced the complexities of being raised
between the two teachings of Buddhism and Christianity. Having met the nun,
Kito Shunko—who is like a living Buddha —she decided the direction of her
search. Since then Paula has come directly and deliberately along this path. These
are my thoughts about Paula's actions and commitments.
Buddhist history is about 2500 years long. Nuns' history is the same 2500 years.
The first people who began walking this path were the stepmother who raised
Sakyamuni, Mahaprajapati, and his wife, Yasodara. Along with the particularities
of cultural and historical influence, the Buddhist teachings have been transmitted
from India, China, and Japan. Even if there appeared discrimination between
monks and nuns, we today continue to receive the unwavering truth as expressed
by Zen Master Dogen's profound heart and mind: "We must all, male and female
alike, profoundly respect Buddhist teachings and practice. We must not argue over
male or femaleness."
The foundation of nuns' responsibility, conscience, and honor is to have been
granted the role to support the spiritual dimension of the efforts of women who
bear the responsibility—granted by the gods and Buddhas — to give birth to and
raise the people of tomorrow who will saddle the world on their shoulders. We
must exert ourselves unremittingly. This is the only path on which we must con-
tinuously advance.
In order to write this book, Paula experienced these nuns' path in a personally
embodied way; she studied our history, actual circumstances, and various other
dimensions. For Paula's posture of commitment and practice, I express respect
from my heart.
Gassho.
Acknowledgments
Giving thanks to people for having helped is one of life's true joys. It is my great
pleasure to thank all the people who have contributed to this book with their
expertise, time, insights, texts and documents, and hospitality—plus their thoughts
and hearts. It is my tremendous sadness, however, that I am unable to thank
personally a number of the key people whose efforts were vital to this book, for
they have passed on. One of the benefits of writing about nuns, however, is that
it has fostered a number of important relationships with truly remarkable people.
These relationships have helped sustain me through these losses. Most notably I
am grateful for the profound understanding of Kito Shunko, who is the inspiration
for this work.
I have come to know just how true the heeding of Wilfred Cantwell Smith,
my first-year Ph.D.-candidate advisor at Harvard University, was in stressing that
the study of religion is the study of religious people. He taught that you must
become genuine friends with various religious people. It is only then that you can
learn what is in their hearts and understand their religiosity.
Friendships, however, were fostered during my tenure in the monastery, not
out of a conscious methodological preference, but because we were engaged in
an intense shared experience. Silence being the norm in the monastery, unspoken
bonds of mutual respect were cultivated — especially during arduous periods of
fourteen-hour-a-day meditation. Having established these bonds of trust and re-
spect, at times of crisis we turned to each other for help. Indeed, during a period
