Thich Nhat Hanh Healing in Vietnam The Wonderful World of Gathas

ook REVIEWSFirst BuddhistWomenPoems and Stories ofAwakeningBy Susan MurcottParallax Press, 2006Reviewed by Phillip Toy“Why has Gautama come here? To take away our sons andmake our daughters widows!” — The MahavaggaThis masterful re-issue of a 1991 original — ten yearsin the making, five of which it took to write — showcasesSusan Murcott’s scholarship, coupled with considerable poeticsensitivities. This marriage of talents seamlessly brings tolife a pivotal period for buddhadharma in general, but morespecifically, the religious, social, and political context forBuddhism’s first enlightened women. The common threadsof loss, estrangement, marginalization, madness and, finally,liberation are eloquently and simply woven and illustrated inthe enlightenment poetry (the Therigatha) of eight of the mostimportant groups of women of that day.Pajapati, the Buddha’s aunt and foster mother who raisedhim, and consequently lost him to “the homeless life,” becamethe first ordained woman and the first woman teacher. Shefounded the first order of nuns. She writes: “I have reached thestate where everything stops.” Early in her nunhood she challengedher famed foster son, via his chief disciple, Ananda, onthe first of The Eight Special Rules: even the most senior nunmust bow down before the most novice monk.The privileged Patacara (meaning “cloak walker”) havinglost her son and entire prominent family in a fire, went mad andwandered in circles dragging her clothes to ribbons till they felloff her body. Townsfolk drove her off with sticks and rubbish.Gautama tracked her down: “Sister, recover your presence ofmind!” She says, “I concentrated my mind the way you train(Continued)When our beloved says something that hurts us, ThichNhat Hanh invites us to practice by closing our eyes, breathingmindfully in and out, and imagining the two of us onehundred years from now. After three breaths, when we openour eyes, we’ll no longer feel hurt; instead, we’ll want to hugour beloved. What I find continually amazing is Thich NhatHanh’s ability to bring liberation into daily life. When we gofrom being hurt to being mindful and loving, he tells us weare touching nirvana!“Samsara [the endless cycle of birth and death and itsinherent suffering] and suchness [the nature of nirvana] arenot two; they are one and the same.” Once we realize this, wecan smile “the smile of non-fear.” Even in pain, when we arecentered, we can give ourselves fully to peace.a good horse.” Eventually Patacara’s following was secondonly to Pajapati’s.The pabbajita, or wandering heretics and disciples, someof whom were forest-dwellers, write a curious mix of diligenceand desperation. Frequently, as with the other groups portrayed,traumatic personal events were springboards for deepreligious experiences and new beginnings — even, indeed,enlightenment: “I have ended the hunger of gods and humans,and I will not wander from birth to birth. I have no thoughtof becoming.”Whether wise woman and teacher, mother, wife, oldwoman, prostitute, courtesan or beautiful woman — each role’spoetry describes its unique path to yet a common destination.Murcott’s ardent, scholarly grasp of her material is polishedby an unspoken, intensely personal treatment that hints at herown journey — obviously similar in many ways to her book’ssubjects’.Supported as it is throughout by copious notes and footnotes,by an exhaustive bibliography including unpublishedtheses, an index of poems and poets, a pithy glossary, and astriking appendix of “The Rules of the Nun’s Sangha,” thisvolume belongs on every serious Buddhist student’s bookshelf.A compact and artful explication of the Therigatha, sixth centuryB.C.E. enlightenment poetry of the Buddhist nuns andthe earliest known collection of women’s religious poetry, itdelineates the way so many of us come to the Dharma — outof brokenness, irretrievable loss, confusion and sorrow.These eloquent lines, which appear in some form in almostevery poem, express it poignantly: “I remove my shoes/wash my feet/ sit down beside the Buddha/ I am quenched, Iam cool.”the Mindfulness Bell 45