The scholar Miriam Levering’s article “The Dragon Girl and the Abbess of Mo-Shan: Gender and status in the Ch’an Buddhist tradition” (Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5, I ( 1982): 19-35) tells us about a recurring theme in the teaching of the Chan master Dahui Zonggao.
It is hard to overstate Dahui’s importance in the mature presentation of Zen in the middle of the twelfth century.
The contemporary Zen teacher Dosho Port describes Dahui.
“Few if any figures in Zen history have elicited as much admiration and antipathy as Dahui (1089-1163). He trained rigorously with several Caodong teachers, Linji teachers in the Huanglong line, and then finally with Yuanwu Keqin, of the Blue Cliff Record fame, in the Yangqi line.
“Dahui is reputed to have had eighteen great awakenings and innumerable small awakenings.”
He was half of a famous debate around Zen practice.
At the heart of his presentation was a profound dedication to the great matter of awakening.
And as Professor Levering tells us he had a rather strong view about who had achieved the deepest insights into the fundamental matter. She writes,
“Ta-hui also mentions the story more than once, and tells it from beginning to end in one sermon. He repeats what he believes to be the fact that although the Buddha preached the Dharma in over three hundred and sixty assemblies, only three persons in all of the sutra literature are described as attaining complete, perfect enlightenment in that very life. One is a butcher, who lays down his knife and attains perfect enlightenment. The second is the youth Sudhana in the Gandavyuha section of the Avatamsaka Sutra. The third is the niiga girl. All three are lay persons, while the butcher because of his occupation and the girl because of her gender and youth are unlikely candidates.”
In case you were wondering.
A butcher, an adolescent, and a girl.
You’re welcome.
(Thank you, Mark Strathern, Roshi, for the pointer…)
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