Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters
"So here's the thumbnail review: read this book." (Buddhadharma)"Encouraging, inspiring, and profoundly useful. A kind of Blue Cliff Record for our own time." (Jane Hirshfield)"An exceptional and powerful classic with great depth, humor, and clarity." (Joan Halifax, abbess of Upaya Zen Center)"This book changes everything!Zen Womenis about all of us. It resets the common understanding of Zen history with eye-opening stories. A must-read." (Pat Enkyo O'Hara, abbess of the Village Zendo)"These pages come alive with the power to inspire." (Sojun Mel Weitsman, abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center)"Full inclusion of women is the single most revolutionary development in religion for our time. This book is crucial for anyone who wants to understand contemporary spiritual practice." (Norman Fischer, author of Sailing Home)"Men and women alike will weep to read these stories of generations of Zen women who risked everything-sometimes even their lives-to study the Dharma. This book should be required reading for truth seekers of every faith." (Lewis Richmond, author of Work as a Spiritual Practice)"With passion and verve, this inspiring work is a significant step towards filling the gaping holes in Buddhist literature on women's practice. Read it, laugh, and weep-and most of all, feel empowered." (Wendy Egyoku Nakao, abbess of the Zen Center Los Angeles)"Fascinating and delightful. This book will overturn many long-held stereotypes about Zen." (Ruben L.F. Habito, author of Living Zen, Loving God)"Zen Womenopens, onto millennia and across continents, women's places in Zen. The word beyond in the subtitle charges us to pass by the common yet limiting images of our possibilities as Buddhist women and move toward those that make us proud and ready to build an American Zen. Schireson is making a new record for the future. She seeks to resolve contradictions and missing stories in the record not by claiming victimization of women and calling for restitution but by revising the record and reinterpreting the Zen lineage for our own time. The stories function as case studies of women's social engagement and encouragement for women's leadership in the sangha and in society." (Inquiring Mind)