Buddhadharma Fall 2019

46 BUDDHADHARMA: THE PRACTITIONER’S QUARTERLY

had to run out of the room, leaving her

purse behind, because she already had

four children and being around this baby

made her want another one. She was very

human and very feminine and very car-

ing. That was wonderful.

REBECCA LI: Hillary Richards, a teacher

of Western Chan fellowship in the UK,

traveled at one point to New York to

co-lead a retreat with me and Simon

Child; it was a difficult retreat to lead,

and she was one of the people who

trained me to do it. She has three children

and a feminine energy about her, but she’s

able to hold her own in the Chan hall. In

my tradition, the teachers are monks, and

my two other teachers are men, so it was

really lovely to train with her, to see her

being in that space as a woman.

NARAYAN HELEN LIEBENSON: The

woman who comes to mind for me is

Dipa Ma, who was known not just as a

teacher but as a master—it’s unusual for

a woman to hold that kind of authority

and designation. I met her only a few

times in casual situations, but just the

fact that she was alive and had such an

ordinary life, and that she could practice

so intensively and to such a great depth—

which was obvious to anybody who met

her or knew her—was quite remarkable

to me.

MYOKEI CAINE-BARRETT: All of the

women who taught me about Buddhism

were Japanese war brides. My mother

did not like religion, but these were her

friends. The women, especially in the

early days, were the teachers, showing

us and teaching us how to practice our

way through our difficulties. They dealt

with alcoholism, with the loneliness of

being women with children while their

husbands were away in service to the

country, and also with being foreigners

in a land filled with hatred toward them.

Through all of it, they imparted a lot of

deep training in how to use Buddhism

to live your life in such a way that you

could be happy. As I get older, the teach-

ing has gotten deeper, but it’s still along

the same vein as what I learned from

those women, who shared their problems

and the difficulties they overcame. They

taught us how to take care of each other

and be there for each other.

PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE: I’m wonder-

ing, did any of you face any great exter-

nal obstacles to being a teacher, some

kind of resistance or difficulty that you

experienced because you were a woman?

NARAYAN HELEN LIEBENSON: I received a

lot of support from my male colleagues,

and I’m grateful for that. But given that

I began to teach so young and I was a

PEG SYVERSON JUDY ROITMAN SUMI LOUNDON KIM SHINSO ITO KAMILAH MAJIED