⋙ Download The Hidden Lamp Stories from TwentyFive Centuries of Awakened Women Zenshin Florence Caplow Reigetsu Susan Moon Zoketsu Norman Fischer Books

The Hidden Lamp Stories from TwentyFive Centuries of Awakened Women Zenshin Florence Caplow Reigetsu Susan Moon Zoketsu Norman Fischer Books

Download As PDF : The Hidden Lamp Stories from TwentyFive Centuries of Awakened Women Zenshin Florence Caplow Reigetsu Susan Moon Zoketsu Norman Fischer Books

The Hidden Lamp Stories from TwentyFive Centuries of Awakened Women Zenshin Florence Caplow Reigetsu Susan Moon Zoketsu Norman Fischer Books

I absolutely cherished this book. It is a wonderful bedside book. Each chapter is a short Buddhist story or teaching from the past 2,500 years involving a woman, then a contemporary female practitioner interprets the story, and finally a few questions are asked of the reader to help the lesson sink in. Although a few chapters around the middle felt a little weak, the overall quality is incredibly high. I found myself googling nearly every chapter’s author to see what else she’d done. If you have any interest in feminism and Buddhism, this one is great. P.S. Skip the audio version, which does a horrendous job of letting the reader absorb the stories. Grade: A


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The Hidden Lamp Stories from TwentyFive Centuries of Awakened Women Zenshin Florence Caplow Reigetsu Susan Moon Zoketsu Norman Fischer Books Reviews

The book is koans featuring women followed by an interpretation by a woman Buddhist practitioner. Each koan and interpretation take no more than 5 minutes to read. However understanding/digesting this takes time. This not a read through book. I used it as part of my daily meditation practice. At times I found some of the interpretation a stretch and torturous. But these were based on greater knowledge of historic Buddhist texts. If you wish to explore Buddhist writings specific to women and/or want something thought provoking as part of your daily practice, I would suggest this book.
This book gives stories and koans featuring women -- if you know the classical koans, some of these will be familiar. What won't be familiar is the wonderful way the contemporary Buddhist women comment on them. They open them up, hold them up to the light, talk about what they mean in our lives, right now. It is beautifully written. My study group read it this fall, and it was the first time we all wanted to stay with the book past our usual eight meetings. I keep it on my bedside table and open it up often, diving for pearls and finding them every time.
This collection is a wonderful addition to zen practice, whether you are in the rinzai or soto tradition. As a soto practitioner for 15 years, I found the use of these koans/stories by women ancestors very accessible and they help me delve deeper into my practice. The stories, the commentaries, and the questions at the end of each koan/story helps me understand myself in new ways. The variety of teachings and even the organization of the book is wonderful. I enjoy reading about each zen teacher who wrote a commentary at the end of the book. I was SO inspired, that I started a women's dharma study group in my sangha and the group is quite enthusiastic! Nine bows to this book! (a companion book to this could be Zen Women by Grace Schireson, who helps understand the history of women in zen)
The motivation for me to purchase this book came after attending a meditation and Soto Zen Dharma talk. While I appreciate the format of the book, where commentary or reflection is given by a single female Buddhist practitioner following an ancient koan, I would've preferred it debated. Like a poem, there is no single "correct" viewpoint. I am in agreement with Jean La Valley''s approach to practicing koans "These stories are not about gaining anything. They are about illumination. They are not about rearranging the furniture in the room; they are about turning the light on in the room so you can see what's there." The lighter the room, the better to see.
Christianity is not the only patriarchal religious tradition. Some Buddhists are attempting to recover the gifts of the wise women of their tradition. This book is a collection of 100 ancient and modern stories with comments from as many Buddhist women. I enjoyed reading one a day for 100 days, letting the wisdom sink in. An example is Joan Sutherland’s reflection on an ancient story which raises the question, “what is helping?” The young woman in the story sees her father fall. She runs to him and throws herself down as well. Sutherland notes that the woman’s action in the story obliterates the idea that there is a helper and a helped. She says that compassion helps liberate the intimacy inherent in any situation. “Usually the most intimate response to another’s difficulty begins with the willingness not to flee. Fleeing can take the form of abandoning the situation, and it can also mean escaping into ‘helping,’ into a whole constellation of ideas about what ought to happen. Intimacy is being willing to stay and accompany and listen, to be vulnerable and surprised and flexible. It’s a willingness to fall with someone else and see what becomes possible when we do.”
The Hidden Lamp is a fresh breeze through stale forrests. It's an incredibly wonderful collection of , of what? Essays? Dharma talks? Hints? Pointers? It's a great collection of mostly contemporary zen teachers and writers on zen who happen to be female. This is not a point to be lost in the shuffle. As a 'disclaimer', I need to say that I know and have worked personally with at least 2 of the writers in this collection, so it was their contributions that I read first. Unique voices that I have always found personally helpful in my own exploration of the Dharma and my own life. I didn't stop there.
This is not just an important collection because it is a collection of and by women in the Dharma. It's important because of the value of their perspectives. Reading these stories, allowing them to enter one's life as if hearing them in the Dharma Hall, the power of koans and Dharma take on a life of their own, intermingling with each of our lives, enriching them, broadening them, awakening that which does not change and bringing it to the foreground. It is by far THE best collection of zen stories I've seen compiled in some time.
Many of the stories comment on stories I've never heard before. It's fresh.
Perhaps one of the most important contributions America and the West has made to buddhism in general is the recognition that women are not just nameless tea ladies of the past, but vibrant, awakened, specific women of our time, of all time. I am grateful to Zenshin Caplow for taking on this project and for producing such a beautiful collection and I highly recommend it for your study.
I absolutely cherished this book. It is a wonderful bedside book. Each chapter is a short Buddhist story or teaching from the past 2,500 years involving a woman, then a contemporary female practitioner interprets the story, and finally a few questions are asked of the reader to help the lesson sink in. Although a few chapters around the middle felt a little weak, the overall quality is incredibly high. I found myself googling nearly every chapter’s author to see what else she’d done. If you have any interest in feminism and Buddhism, this one is great. P.S. Skip the audio version, which does a horrendous job of letting the reader absorb the stories. Grade A