54 BUDDHADHARMA: THE PRACTITIONER’S QUARTERLY
examples of different kinds of women
practitioners. I teach workshops on that,
and the message is that wherever you
are as a woman, whatever role, whether
you’re in a temple or you’re in a family,
you can find a way to come forth. Once,
when I went to a Tibetan center to give
a talk on female ancestors, I was inter-
viewed and asked what I thought about
the fact that men had a superior birth.
Why, they asked, would we want to
recognize female ancestors if they were
inferior? I said, well, there are two possi-
bilities. One is that what you’re telling
me is not true and somebody just made it
up. The other is that it is true and, there-
fore, it’s like a dog speaking English—if
these women can teach, given this infer-
ior birth problem, then how miraculous!
I think there’s still a lot of work to be
done toward making a space—lots of
spaces—for women to teach and educa-
ting them about the history of women in
their tradition.PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE: In our
sangha, we take on these topics explicitly:
What is the difference between gender
and sex? What is androcentrism? What
is misogyny? I point it out when it’s
in the literature. I also try to bring up
points of view in Buddhist literature that
argue against misogyny, so they can see
that there’s more than one perspectivein Buddhism and our own lineage about
these ideas. Even if students don’t notice
it on their own right now, at some point
they’re going to come across a text that
talks about women being inferior. When
that happens, I want them to be ready.
I want them to know the philosophical
arguments.MYOAN GRACE SCHIRESON: I do think
young men are changing. But in my
tradition, there are many older men, and
there are lots of Zen centers where these
roles, including the teacher as a beloved
one to be served, play a big part. Young
women get pulled into that because they
get to have a closeness with the teacher;
they get a sense of being special. We like
to please, we like to be liked, and this
kind of being pulled in by the teacher is a
problem that I still see a lot of.
The biggest thing for me is teaching
women how to support other women.
For whatever reasons, maybe because
there are fewer women, women tend to
see each other as competitors. It’s a zero-
sum game—there aren’t enough positions
to go around. As a result, women don’t
necessarily support women. Teaching
them how to is important.PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE: What advice
you would have for a young female
teacher who is just starting out?CYNDI LEE DARA WILLIAMS JUDITH SIMMER-BROWN EVE MARKO SHENPEN HOOKHAM