Our Great Matriarchs

The First Nuns:

Mahapajapati

“Shakyamuni's aunt and stepmother. She is the one who challenged the ban on women becoming monks in Shakyamuni's original Sangha. She became the first female monk and leader of the female monastic community. She is said to have lived to 120 years.”   (Tisdale)

Mitta

“One of Mahapajapati’s disciples. A devout lay believer, she was one of the “Five Hundred” women who had lost their husbands or male relatives to a war between the Sakyan and Koliyan clans. She later became a nun, her true calling.”  (Murcott)

Yasodhara

Shakyamuni’s wife. She later became a practitioner, after hearing his teaching.

Tissa

“A former member of Shakyamuni’s harem. Little is known about her background, but this verse is attributed to her:

Tissa, practice the practice.
Don’t let attachments overwhelm you.
Free from ties,
live in the world without obsessions.”   (Murcott)

Sumana

“She was the lay disciple most eminent in Shakyamuni's time. She could not be ordained because she had to care for her grandmother, but made an effort to attend the Buddha's lectures whenever he was near.. She was an old woman herself before her grandmother died. At that time, she and her brother were ordained together, and on the day of her ordination she achieved awakening.”   (Tisdale and Murcott)

Upasama

“Also a former member of Shakyamuni’s harem. Again, little is known about her background, but this verse survies:

Upasama, you should cross
this flood, this place of death
sohard to cross.
Upasmam, you have conquered
Mara and his forces.
Endure this body;
it is your last.”   (Murcott)

Nanduttara

“Naduttara was of a brahman family. She first joined the order of the Jains, where she practiced austerities. Then, after encountering and entering into debate with Moggallana, she became converted to Buddhism and swiftly became enlightened. Here is her verse:

I used to worship fire, the moon, the sun and the gods.
I bathed at fords, took many vows,
I shaved half my head, slept on the ground,
and did not eat after dark.

Other times I loved make-up and jewelry, baths and perfumes,
just serving my body, obsessed with sensuality.

Then faith came. I took up the homeless life.
Seeing the body as it really is, desires have been rooted out.

Coming to birth is ended and my cravings as well.
Untied from all that binds, my heart is at peace.”   (Murcott)

“Dantika was another of Mahapajapati’s disciples. She often went to the forest to meditate, and perhaps lived in the forest. She did this before the rule was established that nuns could not go into the forest alone.”   (Murcott)

Sakula

“Sakula came from Savatthi, the home of the beautiful park, Jeta Grove. She was present for the dedication ceremony, when this park given as a gift by Anathapindika. The ceremonies lasted nine months, and during this time, Sakula decided to become a lay disciple. Still, she was uneasy about her life, and after hearing a monk speak, decided to become a nun. She later became an arahat and was singled out by the Buddha as foremost among nuns possessing the psychic power of the “eye of heaven,” able to see into all worlds, near and far.”   (Murcott)

Siha

“Siha was the niece of the famous general Sihasenapati. He had been a follower of the Jain sect, met Gautama, and converted to Buddhism. Siha was named after him; her name means “lioness.” She entered the nun’s order after hearing Gautama speak. She practice for seven years without attaining peace of mind, reached a point of despair and decided to kill herself. She tied a noose to the branch of a tree, put the rope around her neck, but just as she was about to jump, her heart was set free.”   (Murcott)

Dhammadina

“She lived at the time of the Buddha but it was said of her that she had lived and trained with many Buddhas through many lifetimes, and even helped one Buddha rise from a deathbed. In Shakyamuni's time, her husband went to hear the Buddha preach and decided to become a monk. He told Dhammadinna to do whatever she wanted. She asked to be admitted to the nuns' order and entered solitary practice. Because of her past lives of merit, she quickly realized Arhatship and returned to the nuns. She “answered every question as one might cut a lotus-stalk with a knife,”and the Buddha called her the foremost woman preacher, and her words were declared to be buddhavacana, Buddha words. She converted many people and became the master of many disciples and heirs. Her name means ‘giver of the dharma.’”   (Tisdale and Murcott)

Kisagotami

“Kisagotami was a cousin of Shakyamuni. She was overcome with grief when her child died, and carried his dead body for days. The Buddha told her that he would revive her son if she brought him a mustard seed from a house where no one had died. She went from house to house seeking this, but was unable to find a family untouched by death. With this understanding, her mind was healed. She became a nun and was eventually known as foremost in austerity.”   (Tisdale)

Vaidehi (same as Vaddhesi?)

“Vaddhesi was her personal name; her family name is lost. She was born in Devadaha, the same village as Pajapati, and was Pajapati’s nurse. When Pajapati renounced the world, Vaddhesi did also. Here is her enlightenment poem:

It was twenty-five year
since I left home,
and I hadn’t had a moment’s peace.

Uneasy at heart,
steeped in longing for pleasure,
I held out my arms and cried out
as I entered the monastery.

I went up to a nun
I thought I could trust. [Dhammadina]
She taught me the Dharma,
the elements of body and mind,
the nature of perception,
and earth, water, fire and wind.

I heard her words
and sat down beside her.

Now I have entered
the six realms of sacred knowledge:
I know I have lived before,
the eye of heaven is pure,
and I know the minds of others.

I have great magic powers
and have annihilated
all the obsessions of the mind.
The Buddha’s teaching has been done.”   (Murcott)

Vasetthi

“Vasetthi was born in Vesali and happily married to a man by whom she bore a child. When the child died, she went mad and ran away from home. She roamed from place to place like an unwanted animal. Eventually, she came to Mithila, encountered the Buddha, and regained her sanity. She became a nun and later, an arahat.”   (Murcott)

Ubbiri

“She lived for centuries with Buddhas and accumulated great merit. After her beloved daughter died, she could not stop mourning until the Buddha pointed at the graveyard and said it was full of his daughters. On seeing the universal nature of suffering, she became an arhat while still a laywoman.”   (Tisdale)

Patachara (original spelling “Patacara” or “Pata-Cara”)

“She went mad from grief after her children, parents and husband died and wandered the countryside. Eventually she met the Buddha, who calmly told her to recover her "presence of mind," and she was cured. She became a highly influential teacher who brought many women to the Dharma and had many disciples.”   (quote from Tisdale; reading from Murcott)

Isidasi

“Before her renunciation, Isidasi tried to live up to the ideal role of wife, acting towards her husband as mother, servant and slave. Despite her best effort, her marriage was neither successful nor happy. Her husband left her. She later became a nun.”   (Murcott)

Bhadda-Kapilani

“The legend goes that Bhadda-Kapilani had many lives, and all of them were intertwined with a man by the name of Kassapa, famous as one of the greatest disciples of the Buddha. Bhadda’s less famous story begins eons ago when she heard of renunciant who could recall her former lives. Bhadda resolved to acquire that same power and Kassapa, her husband, resolved to live a life of austerity. They were together in several lives after this.

In the life contemporary with the Siddhartha Gautama, Bhadda Kapilani was born into a wealthy family of the Kosiya clan. One day as a child she was distressed by the sight of crows eating some insects that were wriggling among drying sesame seeds. She was further distressed when adults told her that the insects’ death was due to her own sin. This incident shaped her later decision to renounce the world. A similar incident influenced the boy Kasssapa. Standing in a freshly plowed field, he saw worms being eaten by crows. He, too, was told he was to blame for their suffering. Like Bhadda, he resolved to become a renunciant when he grew up.

Both Bhadda and Kassapa assumed they would never marry, but Kassapa’s parent were so upset by this that he agreed to marry on the condition that the woman his parents chose resemble a statue he would make. He made the statue and messengers were sent throughout the land to search for the living match. Amazingly, Bhadda was found. The two sets of parents began secretly to arrange the marriage. When the young bridal pair found out, they tried to sabotage them, writing each other letters about what terrible spouses they would be. But the letters were intercepted and the marriage took place anyway.

Privately, Bhadda and Kassapa agreed not to consummate the marriage, but instead to renounce the world together. The cut off each other’s hair, donned saffron robes, granted freedom to their slaves, and set off into homelessness. Kassapa walked in front and Bhadda behind but they quickly realized that this was not appropriate, because a man walking in front and a woman behind signified marriage. There was the contradiction. Were they married or renunciant? When they came to a crossroads, they resolved the matter by parting, he taking the right fork, and she the left.

Within a brief time, Kassapa encountered the Buddha and was given ordination. However, it was five years before Mahapajapati formed the order of nuns. Meanwhile, Bhadda waited near the Jeta Grove, and when the community of nuns was established, Bhadda joined them, received full ordination and attained the peace she sought.”   (Murcott)

Mutta

“The daughter of a poor Brahman family, Mutta was married to a hunch-backed Brahman through the arrangement of her parents. The marriage was an unhappy one. Mutta convinced her husband that she be allowed to become ordained as a Buddhist nun. He agreed, and she took up her new life with great sincerity, eventually becoming an arahat.”   (Murcott)

Chapa (original spelling = Capa)

“Chapa was married to Kala, who the first person the that Sidhartha Gautama encountered after his enlightenment. Kala, a wandering ascetic, did not follow the Buddha at that time, but remembered the encounter. Shortly thereafter, he met Chapa, a trapper’s daughter, and fell in love. They were married, had a child, and lived happily for a period. Later, their relationship became strained; she would provoke him and he would threaten to leave, always holding unto the memory of the Buddha. Finally, their fighting came to a head. Chapa, terrified by the thought that she and her child might be abandoned, tries to get him to stay. She first offers to be his slave, then tries seduction, and finally appeals to him through their son. When nothing works, she suddenly and remarkably shifts and lets it all go. “Then goodbye, Kala. Where will you go?” she asks tenderly. When he tells of his desire to seek out the Buddha, she asks him to bring an offering to Buddha on her behalf. After his departure, she is broken-hearted. She leaves the child with her father, and follows Kala, not to get him back, but to meet this Buddha herself. She meets the Buddha at Savatthi, receives ordination, and later becomes an arahat.”   (Murcott)

Dhamma

“Dhamma was from a respectable family and married a respectable husband. When she heard the Buddha teach, she wanted to become a nun, but her husband wouldn’t give his permission. She did not disobey her husband, but waited until after his death to become ordained. Her realization experience happened one day when, returning to the hermitage after begging rounds, she lost her balance and fell: ‘Suddenly I fell down and could see clearly the misery of this body. My heart was freed.’”   (Murcott)

Chitta (original spelling = Citta)

“In Rajagaha, Chitta was born into a well-to-do family. It was hearing Gautama’s teaching at the gate of Rajagaha that led her to seek ordination by Mahapajapati. It was not until she reached old age that she gained insight. This breakthrough occurred one day when she had climbed Vulture Peak and done the usual exercises of a recluse. Though Vulture Peak was not a high mountain, it required some stamina to ascend. It consisted mostly of rock, and was named for the formation at the top which resembled a vulture’s head. From the top, Chitta would have seen a beautiful, wide view of rolling, craggy hills and a dense forest below. She writes:

Though I am thin, sick, and lean on a stick,
I have climbed Vulture Peak.

Robe thrown down, bowl turned over,
leaned on a rock, then great darkness opened.”   (Murcott)

Vimala

“Vimala was the daughter of a prostitute. When she grew up, she followed her mother’s trade. One day in Vasali, she encountered Moggallana and tried to seduce him. Her attempt failed completely and he spurned her, calling her a “bag of dung” and other unpleasant put-downs. No record exists of her immediate response, but she does, as a result of this interaction, change her life, becoming a Buddhist lay disciple, then a nun and finally an arahat.”   (Murcott)

Addhakasi

“In a previous life, Addhakasi had once reviled a woman renunciant, calling her a prostitute. For this act of wrong speech, she was reborn as a prostitute in the kingdom of Kasi. Kasi was a port town, with a flourishing ecomony. Prostitutes there made big money. Her name refers this affluence. The revenue of Kasi was one thousand pieces of money. Addha means “one half.” Her fee was one thousand per day, or one half of one thousand per night. Even her most wealthy patrons visited her for only brief periods.

Kasi was also a center of Brahmanic culture and visited by a variety of religious teachers. The Buddha preached his first sermon at Deer Park, just outside of Kasi. Addhakasi did not hear that sermon, but she did hear a later one, and decided to join the community of nuns.”   (Murcott)

Padumavati

“Renowned for her beauty, Padumavati worked as a prostitute in her native town of Ujeni, but her reputation extended as far as the palace of King Bimbisara Magadha. The King goes to meet her, and they have a son together who later becomes the Buddhist monk Abhaya. Padumavati attains realization through a meditation taught to her by her son.”   (Murcott)

Ambapali

“Her origins were supernatural. According to legends, Ambapali came to birth spontaneously in the city of Vesali. She was discovered by a gardener at the foot of a mango tree – her name, Ambapali, means “mango protectress,” or “mango guardian.” She was so astonishingly beautiful that princes fought to possess her. The strife was settled by appointing her the chief courtesan of Vesali. Because of her, Vesali was said to have become very prosperous.

Among Ambapali’s patrons was King Bimbisara Like Padumavati, Ambapali also bore a son by Bimbisara who became a Buddhist monk. Her son was also influential in her decision to renounce the world. She finally had the opportunity to meet the Buddha, hearing a sermon and then inviting him and his monks for lunch. After that she built a hermitage on her land and gave it to the sangha. It was in that very place that the Buddha rested in his eightieth year, four months before he died.

Ambapali wrote a humorous poem about the impermanence of the body’s beauty. Here is one verse from the poem:

My eyes flashed like jewels, long, black.
Now they don’t make anyone look back.”   (Murcott)

Anopama

Here she tells her own story:

I was born into a family
great in property and wealth,
Majjha’s daughter.
My skin and figure were lovely.

Sons of kings sought me out.
Sons of merchants longed for me.

There was one who sent
my father a messenger.
“Give me Anopama
and I will give you
eight times her weight
in gold and jewels.”

But I have seen the Enlightened One,
first in the world, unsurpassed,
and I bowed at his feet
and sat down to one side.

In his compassion, Gautama taught me.
Sitting right here
I gained the third fruit of meditation.
Then I cut off my hair
and turned toward homelessness.
This is the seventh night
since my craving has died.   (Murcott)

Abhirupa-Nanda

“Abhirupa-Nanda was the daughter of a man named Khema and his chief wife. When Abhirupa-Nanda came of age, the day arrived when she was to choose her husband. The man she chose died that same day. Perhaps because her suitor’s death was considered a bad sign, her parents made her become a nun in Mahapajapati’s order. She resisted her instruction, and resisted meeting the Buddha. When she did meet him, he created before her an image of a women as beautiful as she, and made the image age before her eyes. The point struck home, and from that time on, she practiced with great diligence.”   (Murcott)

Jenti

“Jenti came from Vesali, the same town as Vimala and Ambapali. Like Abhirupa-Nanda, she was considered beautiful and conceited. But as a nun, she attained the seven qualities of enlightenment – concentration, energy, rapture, investigation, tranquility, equanimity and mindfulness.”   (Murcott)

Bodhisattvas and Mythic Figures:

The Mother of the Buddhas; the Womb of the Buddhas; the Perfection of Wisdom. Also: The Heart of Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom. Boucher says this goddess signifies “the essential matrix of existence – the fecund, inexhaustible ‘emptiness’ out of which all phenomena arise.”

Queen Srimala (Tisdale has her as Queen Shrimala)

“She was a lay practitioner whose story is told in the sutra “The Lion’s Roar of Queen Srimala.” The story goes that she lived in the Buddha’s time and was the daughter of Queen Mallika and King Prasenajit of Kosala. She asked Shakyamuni to give her eloquence that she may preach the dharma – and she is granted eloquence. Queen Srimala is the female equivalent of Vimalakirti as an example of enlightened practice in lay life.”   (Tisdale and Wayman. Also Flower Ornament Scripture.)

The Dragon Girl

Eight-year-old daughter of a Dragon King of whom Manjushri says, “She is able to receive and uphold the entire storehouse of extremely profound secrets spoken by the Buddha. She has deeply entered Samadhi and thoroughly penetrated all Dharmas. Her eloquence is unobstructed and she is compassionately mindful of all living beings as if they were her children. Her merit and virtue is complete. The thoughts of her mind and the words from her mouth are subtle, wonderful, and expansive. She is compassionate, humane and yielding; harmonious and refined in mind and will, and she is able to arrive at Bodhi.”

She presents a precious pearl to the Buddha, suddenly transforms her body into a man, attains enlightenment and proceeds to proclaim the Dharma. The Lotus Sutra also reports: “Hearing that Dharma, limitless living beings understood and awoke, attaining to irreversibility. The world without filth quaked in six ways, while in the Saha world, three thousand living beings came to dwell on the ground of irreversibility, and three thousand living beings brought forth the Bodhi mind.”   (Chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra)

Tara

“Tara is a Tibbetan Buddhist Bodhisattva, with roots in the Indian mother goddesses. Her name means star, which is interpreted as “she who leads across” or the Great Savior. The story goes that in a previous life the woman who was to become Tara made a vow to help all suffering beings. Some monks told her that she could only accomplish her goal of becoming a bodhisattva if she transformed herself into a man. She refused, reminding them that all forms, including the concept of male and female, are empty of reality. Then she vowed that she would serve the aims of all worldly beings while retaining her female form. After overcoming challenges from many previous lives, she is said to have been reborn from a lotus that grew in Avaloketesvara’s tears. She is also known as “Mother of all Buddhas.” She represents nature, plants, animals, and our capacity for awakening. Some scholars believe Tara was a model for Kwan Yin.”   (Boucher)

Kwan Yin

“Like Tara, Kwan Yin is seen as the Buddhist female embodiment of compassion. Her name means “she who hears the cries of the world.” She offers relief from suffering, sometimes shown with thousands of hands and eyes. She came to China from India as the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, a male figure. As she became more Chinese, she also became more womanly. She is also sometimes seen a goddess capable of granting children, and, while childless herself, she is shown holding a child, representing universal motherliness.” There are now orders of nuns devoted to Kwan Yin.   (Boucher)

Great Zen Mother Ancestors:

Zongchi

“She was the daughter of an Emperor of the Liang dynasty of 6th-century China. She became Bodhidharma's disciple. In Dogen's Shobogenzo chapter called Katto (“Twining Vines”), she is named as one of his four Dharma heirs. Although Bodhidharma's line continued through another of the four, Dogen emphasizes that each of them had a complete understanding of the teaching. (She is also known as Ts'ung-ch'ih, by her title, Soji, and as Myoren, her nun name.) [early-mid 500s]”   (Tisdale)

Iron Grinder Liu (Liu Tiemo)

“A disciple of Guishan Lingyou, but little is know about her life. She taught Zen in a style described as “precipitously awesome and dangerous.” Her ability to test the true mettle of Zen adepts brought her the name of “Iron Grinder” or “Iron Grindstone.” She was an eccentric and fearless teacher famous for “grinding up” the delusions in everyone with whom she engaged in Dharma combat. She appears in Case #60 of the Book of Serenity and Case #24 of the Blue Cliff Record. [800s?] “   (Tisdale)

Mo-shan (also: Mo-shan Liao-jan, or Liao-ran)

“Mo-shan, which means Summit Mountain, was well known in her time (around 800 A.D.) and referred to by many later writers. She is one of the role models of wisdom cited by Dogen in his chapter Raihai-tokuzui (“Paying Homage and Acquiring the Essence”). Mo-shan was a disciple of Kao-an Ta-yu and is the first woman Dharma heir in the official Ch'an transmission line. Mo-shan has a chapter in the Chinese book of enlightenment stories called the Ching-te-ch'uan-teng-lu, the ‘Record of the Transmission of the Flame,’ from 1004 A.D.

Mo-shan is the first recorded woman who was the teacher of a man. Dogen notes that Chih-hsien's willingness to overcome his cultural resistance to being taught by a woman was a sign of the depth of his desire to attain understanding. In Japanese, her name is spelled Matsuzan.. [800-900]”   (Tisdale)

Miao-xin

“Her story is told in one of the Chinese transmission histories and used as a prominent example in Dogen's chapter, Raihai-tokuzui, “Paying Homage and Acquiring the Essence.” Myoshin was a disciple of Yung-shan Hui Chi, who said of the resistance to her gender, “Because a person who has attained the Dharma is an authentic ancient Buddha, we should not greet that person in terms of what she once was. When she sees me, she receives me from an entirely new standpoint; when I see her, my reception of her is based entirely on today... A nun who has received the treasury of the true Dharma eye through transmission... should receive the obeisance” even of Pratyekabuddhas, Arhats and advanced Bodhisattvas.

Myoshin was the provisions manager of the monastery. Seventeen visiting male monks came to the monastery one evening and she overheard them arguing about a story in the Platform Sutra, concerning a flag in the wind - does the wind move or the flag? The monks requested formal teaching. She said, “It is not the wind which moves, it is not the flag which moves, and it is not the mind which moves.” With this they had a realization and became her disciples. Adds Dogen, “There is no doubt that there are many who will not pay homage to women or nuns, even if they have acquired the Dharma and transmitted it. They do not understand the Dharma, and since they do not study the Dharma, they are like animals.” [mid-late 800s]”   (Tisdale)

Miao-shan

“Lengend has it that Miao-shan was the youngest of three daughters of King Miao-chuan-yen and his lady Pao-ying. At the time of Miao-shan’s conception, Pao-ying dreamed she swallowed the moon. When she was born the earth quaked and wonderful fragrance and heavenly flowers were spread near and far. She grew up naturally kind and gentle, dressed plainly, ate only one meal per day and was known as “the maiden with the heart of a Buddha.” All her ladies in waiting were converted and renounced their desires. Still, her father did not want her to be a holy person and tried to coax her to marry. She refused and the King forced to do menial work, hoping she would change her mind. Finally, he allowed her to go to White Sparrow Monestary, but he insisted that the nuns treat her harshly, again, hoping she would change her mind. The nuns were intimidated by the King, and gave her the heaviest tasks to do, such as fetching wood and water and running the kitchen garden. However, the more harshly she was treated the more her gentleness and love bloomed. Also the natural world provided miracles to aid her – the vegetables flourished, even in winter, and a spring welled up besides the kitchen.

The king was furious when he learned of this, and sent his soldiers to kill her and all the nuns. As the soldiers approached, a fog descended and a spirit lifted Miao-shan away.

Time went by and the King became ill with jaudice. He was about to die when a monk appeared and said he could cure him, but he would need the arms and eyes of one free from anger. The King could not think of anyone who was free from anger, but the monk said that there was a Bodhisattva in the south-west of the King’s dominion, who could surely give him these two things. The King sent a messager to the Bodhisattva, not realizing that she was his own daughter, Miao-shan. Miao-shan, upon getting the message, did not hestitate in cutting out her eyes and severing her arms.

The King was cured, and went with his lady and two other daughters to thank the Bodhisattva. Upon seeing her, they recognized that it was indeed Miao-shan and they were choked with tears. Miao-shan said, “Mindful of my father’s love, I have repaid him with my arms and eyes.” The King and Queen embraced her, bitterly weeping. Then, clouds appeared, divine musicians began to play, the earth shook, flowers rained down and the holy manifestation of the Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes appeared, with tens of thousands of attendants, and voices celebrating the bodhisattva’s compassion shook the mountain. In a moment, Miao-shan reverted to her former person, and died.”   (Internet East Asian Sourcebook)

Miao-tao

“She was an important teacher with many recorded sermons and records and a Dharma heir of Ta-hui Tsung-kao. Her story is presented in the Lien-teng Collection. She received Imperial approval to be a teacher and abbot. Her teaching was partly about the limits and necessity of teaching with words. She defeated the head monk at Kinzan Mountain in mondo by showing him the depth of his fear of and desire for her and other women. She was invited to "ascend the Hall" of the monastery which sponsored her convent and teach the monks there, the only certain record of this happening. (However, Dogen wrote that this happened a number of times with women masters.) Also known as Mujaku. [1089-1168?]”   (Tisdale)

Ryonen

“She was one of Dogen's main disciples, though ordained elsewhere, and her high understanding was noted in writings of other masters. Dogen wrote an exhortation specially for her and mentioned her accomplishment in a Dharma talk and in the Eihei Koroku. She was an old woman before her ordination and died before he did. [early 1200s]”   (Tisdale)

Egi

“She was ordained as a Daruma-shu nun, but became a disciple of Dogen's at Eihei-ji. She spent more then twenty years with him and attended his sickbed. She also helped Koun Ejo in the transitional politics following Dogen's death. There is an indication that she helped to record the Zuimonki. [early 1200s]”   (Tisdale)

Ekyu

A disciple of Keizan, she was the first Japanese nun known to have received a Soto dharma transmission.   (Bodiford)

Mofuku-sonin

She was a also a disciple of Keizan and the daughter of Shozen. She was ordained in 1319. (Her husband was ordained a few years later as Myojo.) She and her husband gave a great deal of land to Keizan and invited him to found Yoko-ji there after dismantling the family home to allow this. She was the first abbot of Entsu'in, an important convent.. Keizan called her the reincarnation of his grandmother and said that he and she were inseparable. [early 1300s]”   (Tisdale)

Soitsu

“She was an heir of Gasan and had female heirs of her own.” [mid 1300s] (Tisdale)

Mugai Nyodai

“She is considered one of the most important women in all of Rinzai Zen. She was heir to Mugaku Sogen, the founder of Engaku-ji.. After her transmission, she established a temple known as Keiai-ji, the first sodo for women in Japan. She is also known as Chiyono. Her enlightenment story is famous. She was carrying a bucket of water when the bottom brok e out. At that moment she awakened. ‘No more water in the pail!’ [1223-1298]”   (Tisdale)

Ryonen Gesho

“She became a monk at 26, leaving behind her husband and children. She entered a Rinzai training monastery (Hokyo-ji) but was denied ordination by two masters because her beauty would distract the monks. She burned her face with a poker and was then ordained by Haku-o. He certified her enlightenment and she became abbot of Renjo-in and a respected poet. [1646-1711]”   (Tisdale)

Mizuno Jorin

“One of the four nuns established the Aichi-ken Soto-shu Niso Gakurin (commonly called Nigakurin) on May 8, 1903, nine months after the Soto-shu regulations prohibiting women's education facilities were lifted. All four (the others were Hori Mitsujo, Yamaguchi Kokan, Ando Dokai) were key figures in re-opening Soto to women after centuries of increasing limitations. All four nuns spent their entire adult lives striving to create monasteries for women at a time of tremendous political and social upheaval. [late 1800s-1900s]”   (Tisdale)

Nogami Senryo

Born in 1883, she practiced in an inconspicuous temple in Nagoya and she tried to live according to Dogen’s teachings with her entire being. She practiced, Zadatsu Ryubo – die sitting, die standing. And she did die standing front of the Buddha sculpture in the Worship Hall in in 1980 at age 97, attaining one of the highest achievements in Zen.   (Arai)

Kojima Kendo (Tisdale has her as Kendo Kojima)

She was born in 1898 and wanted to be a nun from a very young age. Kojima eventually became the first leader of the Pan-Japanese Buddhist Nun Association, a group supported by Koho Zenji when he was the abbot of Soji-ji. She was executive director of the Japanese Federation of Buddhist Women and the only Japanese of either gender at the 3rd and 4th International Buddhist conferences.

In the middle of the century, in spite of the war, Kojima led a fight to equalize the treatment of women within the Soto-shu. Only a fraction of the money spent on the training of men was available to women, and the women's training was strictly limited in terms of education and practice. Their transmissions were not officially recognized, they couldn't transmit their own disciples, and weren't allowed to participate equally in the Soto-shu administration. Paula Robinson says of Kojima, “She was notorious for speaking out at official sect meetings, frequently the only nun among many powerful male leaders of the sect. She pounded her fist and spoke with conviction.” On Sept. 29, 1952, she received an award of excellence from the Soto-shu.

Something akin to true equality was finally offered in 1989 when nuns were given the right to be named Zen Masters and temple heads. Kojima died in the early 1990’s.   (Tisdale)

Zenpo Eshun (Tisdale has her as Yoshida Eshun)

An heir of Hashimoto-roshi and abbess of Kaizen-ji Temple in Nagoya. She taught robe, rakusu and okesa sewing and brought this craft to the United States in the early 1970s, particularly transmitted the skills to Tomoe Katagiri and Blanche Zenchi Hartman. [1907-1982]   (Tisdale)

Rengetsu (we will be adding soon to the lineage we chant)

She was the illegitimate child of a Geisha and a Samurai, and was adopted by a priest in a temple.. She could not inherit the temple because she was a woman, but her training had been very strong, not just in the sutras, but in calligraphy, pottery and jujitsu. She went into the life of the court, but left to request admittance to a monastery. . . Refused at the monastery because of her beauty, she scars her face [putting on the grill of a hibachi], demonstrating that she is renouncing her power as a woman in order to enter: demonstrating her resolve in the same way Bodhidharma’s student did by cutting off his arm.”   (Dysinger)

References:

Arai, Paula Kane Robinson. Women Living Zen. Oxford University Press. New York. 1999.

Bodiford, William. Soto Zen in Medieval Japan. A Kuroda Institute book. University of Hawaii Press. 1993.

Boucher, Sandy. Opening the Lotus.

Buddhist Text Translation Society in the USA, translators. “The Lotus Sutra.”

Cheung, Shakya and Upasaka Richard. Empty Cloud: The Teachings of Xu Yun, chapter 12 (Mo Shan).

Dysinger, Carol Kyoryu. “Letters from the Grandmothers” article from the newsletter of Zen Center of New York City.

Halsall, Paul. “Chinese Cultural Studies: The Legend of Miao-shan” translated by Paul Halsall, Brooklyn College, Internet East Asian Sourcebook.

Murcott, Susan. The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentary on the ‘Therigatha.’

Nakao, Wendy Egyoku. “Women Acquiring the Essence” by Wendy Egyoku Nakao-sensei, Zen Center of Los Angeles website.

Tisdale, Sallie. “The Mothers: Discovering a Lineage of Women,” Tricycle Magazine, Fall, 2002.

Wayman, Alex and Hideko, translators. “The Lion’s Roar of Queen Srimala,” from a collection of Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan versions by Alex and Hideko Wayman of Columbia University.