This is Sunday May 11, 2025 and I want to start off by wishing Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our Sangha and beyond, including my own mom, when I started to think about what would be a fitting topic for today's ta show, what immediately bubbled up was one of our Zen ancestors, mother moshan Liao run she was the first woman to be officially recognized in The Zen school lineage, and she's among the women included in a new chant in homage to ancestors that will soon be introducing and adding to our weekly schedule of chanting services. It's true that the recorded history of Zen ancestors primarily consists of men, but there were also women, both Sung and unsung. Centuries of enlightened ones, and
there's nothing about Zen practice nor awakening that makes it exclusionary to certain categories of people. From the very beginning, there's not a single thing the through the only way there can be exclusion, separation, division on the basis of sex, gender, race, class, age and so on. The only way that can happen is through the filter of thoughts
conjuring up and clinging To ideas, mental constructs about have and have not. Should and shouldn't, right and wrong, good and bad, this and that, our true nature cannot be limited or confined or put into categories in any way, it's beyond all of that. It excludes nothing and no one. So when it comes to the history of exclusion and marginalization of women, not just in Zen but in most of the world's great religions as what as well as in other realms of life, such as work and politics and so On. It's all a product of conditioning, social conditioning, traditions, customs, patterns, habits of mind that we're preserved by cultures and societies and get passed on from generation to generation, and they're manifested In our thoughts, our speech and our actions.
And they're difficult to notice and therefore also difficult to let go of, because we take them to be intrinsic to who we are, to how things are. And.
Okay, they're reflected in all the assumptions that we make about one another. For example, the assumption that women are supposed to be fragile and emotional, whereas men are supposed to be strong and rational,
it's a kind of binary thinking that plays out in a lot of different ways, and it's also a form of ego delusion.
We end up projecting stereotypes and biases onto other people in service to our own self identity, but also unto ourselves, because we can internalize them, and as A consequence, we can contribute to our own oppression. We do that to the extent that we buy into ideas about differences.
Another aspect of this delusion is just the fact that we put people into neat, tidy little boxes in the first place, counting only to two I uh, not seeing the whole spectrum that is gender and sex, and it's A form of control. Really, social norms do provide us with a sense of order. So it gives us the illusion of being in control. We want our social world and all of our interactions to be predictable. We become uneasy when people don't fall into line with the order of things. That is how we think it should be
in early Buddhism, with within a culture that valued masculinity over femininity, women were seen as obstacles to men's practice in a monastic setting, especially nuns were generally separated from the monks So they would not serve as a potential distraction, or say temptation, for the monks, as if they were responsible for the monks reaction to them and the story of the Buddha's enlightenment also has aspects to it that reflect the patriarchal culture. At that time, he left his wife, leaving her to raise their newborn son on her own, and he renounced domestic life altogether, and we might be inclined to judge him in a negative way for this, because it goes against our ideals of the family unit including parental responsibility and loyalty to one's spouse, and we might even see his actions as a form of abandonment. That caused significant harm to his loved ones. That's not the whole of it. We can also see Siddhartha gotama's departure from his family as a desperate and courageous act of renunciation of worldly and material life. He saw it as necessary. He believed that it was what he needed to do in his quest for enlightenment, and later on, as the story goes, and we don't often hear this part of the story, but it is said that his wife became a nun, and his son became a monk. They both became devoted followers of the way, and they both realized their true nature.
Of course, with the historical record being what it is, we don't know how much of this story is the stuff of myth, but that doesn't minimize its value to us. I
The story of the Buddha, most importantly, points us in the direction of letting go of attachments in whatever form or way that might look like in our life. And one certainly doesn't have to leave their family or become a monastic in order to wake up, actually monastic practice, you can say, has its limitations, because, on the one hand, the structure of it does enable one To focus on one's practice with with intensity being supported by the structure and by the Sangha, in a way that is more difficult for a householder or a lay practitioner. But on the other hand, what happens when the monastic exits the the gate goes out into the world?
Are they equipped
to integrate their practice? In this social world that is unwieldy and not so structured. That's one of the things I've grown to appreciate about our center.
Thanks to Kapleau Roshi and Bodhin Roshi, there's been this tradition at our center of finding the Middle Way, holding on to tradition when it comes to training, holding on onto structure and order, but Not too tightly, making adaptations in a way that fits with this American setting and with present day life in general. Thus we have all this technology in the Zen do. So now let's look at Master moshan Liara, who, as a woman, was a real path breaker. She lived in ninth century China in the later years of the Tang Dynasty. Which was regarded as the golden age of Zen, a time when Zen, or chan as it was called, was flourishing with the development of distinct schools and traditions and also koan practice, politically and economically, though it was a time of great hardship, there was no centralization of power. There were conflicts, rebellions among various independent regional factions, and yet, chan thrived in that environment, and it makes me think of what's happening now. There's a lot of division and partisanship, clashing of beliefs and values, also chaos and fear sown by the federal government, and some people's lives are being upended by it. And yet such circumstances can be the very thing that drives one to practice, to have the determination to see through all that delusion, all that separation,
there's very little biographical material about Master motion. One source is a short entry about her in the book Zen women beyond tea, ladies, Iron Maidens and macho masters. The author Grace Shearson says, although we know nothing of Motion's early life, her life as a woman, or how she came to practice Zen, her status as a teacher is unquestionable. Now, to put this in perspective, there are many male masters that we likewise know very little about, and that's because the historical records are minimal from that time. It was a time in human civilization when the spoken word, not the written word was the primary form of communication. So as a consequence, there was a lot that wasn't preserved, and some that some of the stuff that was preserved may not even be fully accurate. There are some really inspiring stories, though, based on what is known about motion, Shearson says she was tough as nails, a female Zen master who matched the strongest of male masters. And her very name gives us a clue to this. The name motion translates as Summit, summit of the mountain. So she was legendary. She's even mentioned in the transmission of the lamp, which is a large, multi volume text that recorded the dialogs of the early masters. And it's a text that dates back to the Song Dynasty, but I'm going to use instead Andy Ferguson's translation of his from his widely respected book, Zen Chinese heritage, and that includes some snippets about motion in it, the most famous story about her involves a monk named Guan chi Xian. Who first studied with the founder of the Rinzai school, Master Lin chi. Ferguson says that after training with Master Lin chi, Guan chi went off traveling on pilgrimage, which was a common practice at the time, visiting various teachers and temples, and eventually he came upon motions monastery where she was the abbess. So she taught both women and men at her monastery, typically in ninth century China, as I mentioned earlier, monks would have lived and practiced separately from the nuns in separate area areas of the monastery complex. And on top of that, there was a distinct hierarchy. The monks were ranked higher than the nuns, while the nuns were ranked higher than lay men and lay women, so all lay practitioners, and then traditionally, because the monks had a higher status, it was not appropriate for them to bow to a nun. On the other hand, a nun was expected to bow to a monk to show their respect, and the nuns were also not allowed to correct or critique monks for their behavior, but monks could do so for nuns. But here we have mother motion, a woman, serving as the head of the monastery. The installed abbess, and you can't help but to wonder if the social dynamics at her monastery were any different. For example, did the nuns have more privilege or higher status there than typical, and you could also see the predicament for a monk serving as a student or a disciple of an abbess at that time that would require some real letting go of gender norms.
And as far as the historical record goes, motion is recognized as the first female master to have transmitted the Dharma to a male ancestor, and that male ancestor was Guan chi, who was also a Dharma Heir of Lin chi. Andy Ferguson quotes Guan chi as saying I received half a ladle at father Lin Chi's place and half a ladle at Mother motions. Since I took that drink, I've never been thirsty. So that's where the reference comes from, to motion as mother Guan chi, expressing his gratitude to his two teachers, his father and his mother, Lin chi and motion he two halves of a ladle Full,
taking that drink and never being thirsty again and
so what was in that drink?
You might think it would have to be something very, very special and extraordinary. I. Something that you you will never get to taste.
But as Harada Roshi famously said, for 40 years, I've been selling water by the bank of a river.
We think we're lacking something, that there's got to be some special place we have to get to,
somewhere other than this, this ordinary place right here. That's just a thought. It's a rather sticky thought for a lot of people, but it's, in the end, just a thought, and it's one that you can drop, just like all others.
Next, Ferguson recounts this dialog between motion and Quan Chi that appeared in the lamp records. It begins once the monk Guan Sheng arrived at Mount Mo. Mount Mo, just like Mother, is another reference to motion. Mount mo literally refers to her temple, but you can also see it as referring to her, as in she herself is the summit. Guanxi arrived there at Mount Mo and said, If there's someone here who's worthy? I'll stay here. If not, I'll overturn the meditation platform. He then entered the hall. So this sounds like a Dharma duel. You can kind of picture Guan chi swaggering into the temple trying to stir up some action. And for those of you who don't know what a Dharma duel is, it's an ancient tradition that dates back to Zen Chinese ancestors, monks who went on pilgrimage as guanxi was doing, would try to find Enlightened Masters and other monks that they could engage with as a way of deepening their own practice. So it would often take the form of an exchange, which would involve, could involve just words, but also gestures andor actions. It could be an exchange between a student and a master, or two masters, or more than two masters, and we can see it as a kind of competition where all the participants win, they win because it's intended to test and clarify their understanding. So even when someone ends up explo exposing their own delusion. They win
because they see it.
And these dialogs that were recorded recorded were the basis for the koan collections that we continue to use today. But back to Guan chi, so he's showing some bravado. He's basically saying, I'll stay in practice here at Mount mo if someone anyone, in other words, Master motion herself, can demonstrate understanding that exceeds mine. But of course, we don't really know if he actually has insight to begin with. It's possible that he was just kind of imitating what he's seen other masters or monks do while he was on pilgrimage. Anyway, motion sent her attendant to query the visitor, saying. Your reverence. Are you here sightseeing, or have you come seeking the Buddha Dharma, to which guanxi said, I seek the Dharma. Then motion, sat upon the Dharma seat and guanxi entered for an interview. In other words, she's about to test him and notice that she addresses him as your reverence, which is a term of respect, but what she's really doing is setting him up motion. Said, your reverence, where have you come from? Today? There, there are a number of dialogs that begin with that ordinary question, where'd you come from? It's a natural question to ask in the context of all these monks coming and going on pilgrimage at the same time, how one answers is also an expression of their understanding. By the way, nuns also went on pilgrimage, not just monks, but there are very few recorded stories about their travels and their dharma exchanges compared to that, as compared to that of monks. So Guan chi replies to her question, where did you come from? He says, from the intersection on the main road. Now that's an interesting response, because he didn't say, Oh, I came from such and such temple or province. He says I came from the intersection on the main road, the crossroad, that road that connects with all other roads and
with a crossroad, you can't say that It's one road or two roads or more,
so that's not a bad start for Guan chi. Next motion says, Why don't you remove your sun hat? And Guan chi didn't answer for some time. Why didn't you, why don't you remove your sun hat? It's like saying, expose yourself. Show me your true self. Show me your understanding and to that silence, why didn't he answer right away? Was he faltering?
There's a sidebar comment in this exchange that says later, Shu Chan said the battle begins here. Shushan is another master in the Lin chi lineage, and this comment was apparently made at some later, time could be years later for all we know. And so he's looking back at the exchange and saying, This is where the Dharma duel really begins. When motion says, take off your hat. What do you have to hide? Finally, Guan chi removed his hat and bowed, saying, What about Mount Mo? He removes his hat and vows a monk, bowing to a woman who is also a Zen master. How often would that have happened in that time and place? So it really speaks to a. Chi sincerity, and is not being caught up in ideas about motion as a woman. And then he asked her, What about Mount Mo? What about you? What is your understanding? And she replied, the peak isn't revealed. The peak isn't revealed. So she answers with negation, saying not what it is, but why it's not it's not revealed.
Our true self is no self. It's beyond any ideas we might have about it. And also in making that comment, the peak isn't revealed. She could be commenting on Guan Xi's understanding. Saying this guy hasn't seen the summit yet. He's caught up in his ideas about the peak.
But guanxi persisted, and he asked, who is the master of Mount mu? So again, he's asking, what is your understanding who is the master of the summit? What is this true Self that is no self? So he's he's determined. He's genuinely seeking her guidance. And in response to this question, who is the master of Mount Mo, she said, without the form of man or woman. Guan chi then shouted and said, Why can't it transform itself? Sounding pretty desperate. If it's not a man nor a woman, if it has no form whatsoever, whatsoever, how can one come to know it? How can I experience it? What is it? And to that motion said, it's not a god or a demon. So how could it become something else? It's not this, and it's not that. It's beyond good and bad, right and wrong, this and that. How could it be other than this, just this, things as they are. You and at that guanxi submitted to become motion student, and he worked as Head Gardener for three years, and that's the end of the exchange, and that he became her student is pretty remarkable, given again the gender customs at the time, and eventually, as his practice ripened, he saw the Summit, and he became Motion's successor. And he never forgot that half ladle full that he received from her.
There's another exchange involving motion, but we don't have time to get to it this morning. I want to close with a verse in praise of her. It's translated also by Andy Ferguson, and it comes from a classic text called Gu Ansu yuwu. I'm sure I'm not pronouncing that correctly, but it's the recorded sayings of the ancient worthies. And here is the verse, Mount mo does not reveal its pure summit, but through. All Time. The pinnacle is before the eyes. It said it has no male or female form. But do distinguish the Lotus amid the flames, without form, without mind, without intention, becoming male or female just accords with conditions. These times are replete with monks and lay practitioners. Each one shines with flawless incandescence. You These
times
are replete, not just with monks and lay practitioners, but nuns, women, mothers and sisters, and also practitioners of all sexes and genders, each and every one, without exception you shines With that same flawless incandescence
