Completeness
In Zen tradition men are front and center. This is manifested in various aspects of practice such as in koans, the spiritual lineage of patriarchs, recitations during Buddhist services, during ceremonies such as jukai (taking the Buddhist precepts), shuke tokudo (becoming a renouncer of home, monk or nun) and shiho (dharma transmission). Women are marked by their absence.
Nearly all stories within Zen concern male practitioners who are mostly practicing in a monastic environment. As such there are no stories about women, about nuns, about matriarchs.
When women do appear in a text it is often in a very minor role, and only serve to support the story centering the male protagonist. Occasionally, there are old women who serve tea by the roadside, who sell rice cakes, encounter monks on their journey, or offer directions. And sometimes they are ruthless, setting fire to a cabin, slapping a Zen master or using a fire poker as a teaching tool for monks. Characteristically, these women have no names. Without name, without status, but their actions are testament to their enlightened nature.
Then, fortunately, there are also female practitioners whose names and (part of) their histories we do know. By including these female ancestors in the Zen tradition, a gap is filled in a way that enriches every practitioner. With the quests, questions and wisdom of the grandmothers alongside those of the grandfathers, the spiritual pedigree becomes complete and more balanced.
Recognition
Political, cultural and social circumstances have often been limiting for women in many ways. These limits have led to different ways of practice and different expressions of the Dharma. As such, stories of female practitioners often provide a different kind of inspiration compared to stories about men. There were aspects of the situation of women that align with the context current day practitioners find themselves in, such as practicing outside a monastery, having obligations toward family and household, and not receiving financial support from others or the government to pursue their practice.
There are also examples of female Zen masters who did not live in a monastery and did not have a permanent group of students around them, but simply practiced and embodied their Zen mastery in daily life as a wife or grandmother, such as Satsu . Additionally, there were women who started their own business after receiving transmission, such as Yu Daopo and Zhidong/Kongshi Daoren.
This means we have examples of practice in the midst of daily, ordinary life. In that way our current situation is not new or unique.
Broadening
Another expression of practice that historically occurred more often with women is the granting way as opposed to the grasping way. Granting is more often practiced in daily life and the given circumstances that we happen to live in, where emotions are part of the way and practice is more relational. Grasping is characterized more by struggle, fighting and ‘seizing the grail’. This is not about right or wrong ways of practice. Both ways are possible and have probably been traversed by both men and women. However, the granting way is more prominently in women’s stories (see also Norman Fischer in the foreword of the book The Hidden Lamp). It should be added that the division into two ways is, of course, conceptual and can never fully capture the uniqueness of the actual quest.
Expansion of themes, situations and words
Several themes have been added or made more explicit through the inclusion of female ancestors. For instance, acknowledging and working with emotions as part of Zen practice is a theme that regularly emerges in the stories about Buddhist women. This is not about transcending emotions, but about being fully human and functioning freely IN the situation. Examples of emotions include: the grief over the death of a loved one, loneliness, the love for a friend or teacher, the impotence in a situation that imposes so many limitations, and the longing for what is not there. See the biographies of Satsu, Zhidong/Kongshi Daoren, Miaohui, Zhiyuan Xinggang
Another theme that is highlighted in a more multifaceted way with practice by both men and women is sexuality. In stories concerning exclusively male practitioners, sexual feelings are regularly externalised. They frame women as the source of temptation, a source that must be excluded. In a few stories that feature nuns or female practitioners this framing sometimes takes a hilarious turn. The idea that a woman is to blame for inducing sexual lust in a monk is dismissed, and the nun in question seizes upon the opportunity to give a very direct Dharma teaching to the monk. See for example the biography of Miaozong and Eshun.
By broaching the subject of sexuality it is given a place as part of our lives and thus of our practice.
A theme that has unfortunately been added as a result of female practitioners is that a beautiful appearance is an obstacle in obtaining dharma teaching. Because women were often seen as the representation of temptation, they were sometimes excluded from access to teachings. Their presence was said to distract and seduce men and thus impede their spiritual growth. This problem was viewed as being caused by women and solved by excluding them. Some women were so driven by their desire to awaken that they sacrificed their beauty. They horrifically mutilated themselves to remove the temptation they were accused of radiating. Examples of this are Ryonen Genso and Eshun. There is also Mugai Nyodai who has probably maimed her face with a hot poker. Questions of how to deal with desire and temptation arise from these narratives, questions that can still be relevant for practitioners today.
By including female ancestors we also expand the spectrum of situations in which practice took place. Some women had to deal with the loss of a child, or duties of care towards their parents. See the histories of Patacara, Kisagotami, Sumana, Zhidong/Kongshi Daoren.
Not only do we get more examples of circumstances in which practice takes place, but the type of objects and metaphors is expanding as well. For instance, there was the mirror meditation, introduced by Kakuzan, to foster the opening to awakening. In the history of Xinggang , there is talk of giving birth to an embryo. And the goddess Prajnaparamita, the embodiment of ‘wisdom beyond wisdom,’ is said to have a womb from which all Buddhas are born. This brings forth a different kind of energy, which can be helpful. For example, Joan Sutherland Roshi mentions in one of her dharma talks how it helped her to just use the word ‘she’ instead of ‘he’ in koans.