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Living in the Dharma - Confusedly > Significant Women Paving the Buddhist Path
Dharma Message, July 27, 2005
By Melanie S. Hatter
In the spirit of Obon, which we celebrated recently, I want to reflect on a few women who helped build the Buddhist path.
The woman attributed as the founder of the first order of Buddhist nuns was Maha-pajapati Gotami. When she was born in northeastern India, an astrologer predicted she would be a leader of a large following. She was named “Pajapati,” which means “leader of a great assembly.” “Maha” means “Great” and was later added to her name.
She was Siddhartha Gautama’s aunt – her sister being Maya, Siddhartha’s mother. When Maya died a week after childbirth, Pajapati raised Siddhartha as her own son.
Years later, when Siddhartha found enlightenment and became known as the Buddha, he returned home, and Pajapati was the one who warmly welcomed his return. After hearing his teachings, she became a follower.
Pajapati eventually found herself leading countless women – widows, and women who for various reasons found themselves alone. They came seeking her advice and support. With so many women coming to her, she sought out the Buddha, asking for his permission to establish an order of nuns.
Three times he said no before finally granting permission, although the nuns had to obey specific rules.
Susan Murcott writes in The First Buddhist Women “It must have been evident to the Buddha that Pajapati and a group of women with her, who had walked one hundred fifty miles barefoot, with heads shaved and the saffron-colored robes of the already ordained, would not accept ‘no’ for an answer. The site of these women and their unshakable sincerity must have made a vivid impression, and not only on the sympathetic Ananda. Their resolve was audacious in a culture where humility and obedience were desirable traits in women. Perhaps that Eight Special Rules, the acceptance of which was a prerequisite to women’s ordination, were a bulwark against any possible future boldness. Though the Eight Special Rules clearly relegated women to a secondary status, Pajapati accepted them in order to achieve her primary goal of establishing an order of nuns.”
Maha-Pajapati reportedly lived to be 120 years old. She and her sister Maya are considered the Great Mothers of the Buddhist tradition.
A woman who may be considered the mother of Jodo Shinshu is the nun Eshinni.
Details of Shinran’s marriage are vague – the exact date is unknown; it is also uncertain when he met Eshinni. Some say it was before his banishment from Kyoto. Others say it was after he moved to the Echigo province where Eshinni’s family was located. However, it is understood that Shinran viewed marriage as a turning point when he abandoned the traditional life of a Buddhist priest.
Records show that Shinran was around 34 and Eshinni was about 25. Much of what we know about their marriage and about Shinran himself was due to letters Eshinni wrote to her youngest daughter, Kakushinni.
These letters were discovered in 1921 by scholar Washio Kyodo, who was conducting an inventory of the Nishi Honganji temple archives in Kyoto.
He found 18 pages of writings by Eshinni that, when translated, amounted to 10 letters. The earliest letter was written in 1256 when Eshinni was 74; the last letter was dated 1268. Eshinni was 86.
In 1256, she was living away from Shinran — the family had moved to the Kanto region, near modern-day Tokyo, and then to Kyoto. Eshinni returned to Echigo to manage family land and servants who worked the fields and tended her household. Two of the letters indicate her wish that upon her death, ownership of the servants would transfer to Kakushinni. The letters also reveal her deep reverence for her husband. One tells of a dream she had showing Shinran as the bodhisattva Kannon.
The letters not only offer tremendous insight into Shinran, but also tell us much about Eshinni’s life as an independent woman managing land and servants and coping with famine during the 13th century. Eshinni clearly followed her husband’s view that marriage was not an impediment to being a nun and to following her religious beliefs. Eshinni means “the nun Eshin.”
“Eshinni’s own conception of nunhood, wherein she combined marriage width nun’s status, was probably akin to this outlook. Her marriage to Shinran, she believed, was not a deviation from the religious values underlying her nunhood, but rather an extension of them. It provided the context in which those values could be actualized and fulfilled. She thus saw no contradiction between her identity as a nun and her dedication to family and household, which resonates throughout her letters.” – Letters of the Nun Eshinni by James C. Dobbins.
Congregations began to follow Eshinni and Shinran’s example, whereby men and women led Shin temples as husband-and-wife teams.
Kakushinni in her own right made a significant contribution to Jodo Shinshu. It was through her determination that the first memorial chapel was built in her father’s honor. Shinran’s ashes were interred at the chapel, which also included a statue of him.
When Kakushinni’s husband died, she inherited his land and rather than will it to her children, she gave it to her father’s followers as a place of pilgrimage; and so the Hongwanji temple was formed.
She instituted her descendants as caretakers of the chapel and temple, forming the family-based leadership of the Hongwanji, which continues today.
These women were pioneers of their time and it is with deep gratitude that I honor them and share their stories with you today.