Page 196 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015

LW:

That’s what I intuited, it’s why I wanted to do this interview.

AS:

Yes, this was the other push in stepping out from the old safe environment and coming to this small

place, leaving behind the security of this huge lineage which has hundreds of monasteries. I should say

“security” in quotes.

LW:

I don’t know if you know Mary Daly, the great feminist philosopher. She writes about the spider in

freefall, who has to jump into the void in order to spin her web.

AS:

Yes, it was like that, and it still feels that way. We’re out in the Sierra Foothills near Placerville, we’re

three nuns with a manager, tomorrow we’re having our first novice ordaining and now taking on this

property and developing it. It’s a tall order, we’re not builders or anything. And as you know, women are

not as well-supported as men in Buddhism.

LW:

Absolutely not. And we’re not where the money is. So all of this takes a lot of courage.

AS:

Thank you. But you know, it didn’t feel like a choice, it was just clear this is what needs to be done.

LW:

I love that you’ve made it clear that this wasn’t just about you and your spiritual growth, it’s on behalf of

the whole planet.

AS:

Well, also because I can’t make that separation anymore. If you’ve been practicing for a certain amount

of time, you just can’t do it.

LW:

Yes, you would think so, but I don’t hear this that often from other Buddhists. That their own spiritual

evolution and the state of the planet are indivisible.