{"id":11742,"date":"2023-03-20T08:05:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T14:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=11742"},"modified":"2023-03-20T08:05:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T14:05:05","slug":"women-zen-miaodao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2023\/03\/women-zen-miaodao.html","title":{"rendered":"Plucking a Blade of Grass: The Wondrous Dharma of Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Below you will find a dharma<\/a> talk by an incredible (and largely unknown) Zen master, Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o D\u01d0nggu\u0101ng (1095-1170), one of only three women Zen masters listed in <\/span>Outline of the Linked Flames<\/span>, a transmission of illumination collection published in 1183.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o had been a student of the C\u00e1od\u00f2ng (J. S\u014dt\u014d) master Zhenxie Qingliao (1088-1151; Tall Reeds Purity Field; J. Choro Seiry\u014d), but after twenty years of training had not awakened. She switched teachers and began working with the L\u00ednj\u00ec master D\u00e0hu\u00ec Z\u014dngg\u01ceo (1089\u20131163) and soon awakened by means of the \u201cnot mind, not buddha, not a thing\u201d keyword.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o was D\u00e0hu\u00ec\u2019s first student who kensh\u014d-ed and due to the success of his keyword method with her, he began using it with everyone \u2013 and thirteen monks awakened the following year.<\/span><\/div>\n
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So Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o played a key \u2013 and largely unsung \u2013 role in the development of the keyword method. D\u00e0hu\u00ec, however, was very supportive, frequently telling her awakening story, and using her example as proof that women as well as men could awaken. In addition, Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o became D\u00e0hu\u00ec\u2019s first successor. He continued to support her and her students as they trained together by sharing written and oral teachings with them.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Much more about Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o is available in an article by the wonderful Miriam Levering, <\/span>\u201cMiao-tao and Her Teacher Ta-hui.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
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Click here<\/a> to support my Zen teaching practice at Patreon of which translations and writings like this are one facet. You will also find an advertisement free version of this post there.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As a Zen master, Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o was extraordinary \u2013 as you will see for yourself below. The style of her dharma expression reminds me of D\u014dgen. However, Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o predated the old dog by almost a century, so I should say that D\u014dgen reminds me of Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o. In the passage below, you will find several phrases that D\u014dgen used, like \u201cchurn the Yangtze River into curds and transform the great earth into gold\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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There\u2019s also a dharma hall discourse in <\/span>Dogen\u2019s Extensive Record<\/span> (#266) that has a very similar and playful structure to the first portion of this Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o dharma talk, so much so that I wonder if D\u014dgen was familiar with Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o\u2019s teaching (he certainly knew the <\/span>Outline of the Linked Flames<\/span>) and even if he might have imitated her.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Hey, D\u014dgen, how about some citations!?<\/span><\/div>\n
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Those pesky citations, however, are a modern thing and D\u014dgen was a master at the unattributed copy\/paste, so the lack of citations for Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o are not unusual. That D\u014dgen may have been influenced by Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o speaks to how he may have admired her expression.<\/span><\/div>\n
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So, without further sidetracks and off-gassing, here\u2019s Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o:<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cIf what we are talking about is a meeting between the original endowment of two people, then there is no need to ascend this high seat. But dharma s do not arise singly; their arising depends on causes and conditions. And since today the balance scal [of authority] is in my hand, I respond to whatever changes occur in the moment, grasping tight and letting loose, rolling up and rolling out, doing this with great freedom.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cThere are times when on top of the solitary peak I command the essential place: This way won\u2019t do; the opposite, not this way, also won\u2019t do.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cThere are times when in a crowded street I make a passageway: this way will do, not this way will also do.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cThen I can churn the Yangtze River into curds and transform the great earth into gold, pluck a blade of grass and make it into the sixteen-foot golden body [of Shakyamuni], take the sixteen-foot golden body and make it into a blade of grass.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cWhen I hold on firmly, then the three mysteries [of Linji], sword and armor, the five ranks of correct and one-sided [of Dongshan], setting the whisk upright and taking up the cudgel, being silent for a long time, and [making quick responses like] stone-struck sparks or lightning flashes \u2013 all these are not necessary.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cHow even more unnecessary are words that like hooked sentences and barbed phrases disclose the point of a statement [words that are refined and beautiful like] a gathering of flowers and elegant brocades \u2013 they are only of benefit to an impractical, useless theoretical discourse.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cTherefore, it is said: \u2018If one could thoroughly investigate all explanations of the mystery, it would be [as useless as] a fine hair extended across the great void [in a feeble attempt to cover it]. If one were to exhaust all the deepest principles of the world, it would be [as useless as] hurling one drop into the great ocean.\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cMoreover each person is complete in every way, each thing is perfect, and [that which is totally complete and perfect] covers the earth and reaches to heaven. Eyes are horizontal and noses are vertical. Spring courses amoung the ten thousand plants; the moon is reflected on a thousan waves. There is no lack and no excess.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cWhat is there to think about? What is there to deliberate about? Even if I sing such a tune, I still can\u2019t avoid falling into irrelevancies and confusing statements.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cSo I will lose no time in arriving with you at the very best, most appropriate, most opportune moment.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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She set her staff upright and said: \u201cDo you still understand? A thousand-foot whale spouts, and vast waves fly; one clap of thunder and the storm arises.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Sensei, with Vine of Obstacles Zen<\/a>, an online training group. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is also the author of Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/a><\/i>. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a> was published in 2021 (Shambhala). His\u00a0third book, Going Through the Mystery\u2019s One Hundred Questions<\/em><\/a>, is now available. Click here<\/a> to support the teaching practice of D\u014dsh\u014d R\u014dshi.<\/div>\n
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Below you will find a dharma talk by an incredible (and largely unknown) Zen master, Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o D\u01d0nggu\u0101ng (1095-1170), one of only three women Zen masters listed in Outline of the Linked Flames, a transmission of illumination collection published in 1183. Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o had been a student of the C\u00e1od\u00f2ng (J. S\u014dt\u014d) master Zhenxie Qingliao (1088-1151; Tall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":11745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[254,11,82,513,501],"class_list":["post-11742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dahui","tag-dogen","tag-dogen-zen","tag-miaodao","tag-women-zen"],"yoast_head":"\nPlucking a Blade of Grass: The Wondrous Dharma of Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Below you will find a dharma talk by an incredible (and largely unknown) Zen master, Mi\u00e0od\u00e0o D\u01d0nggu\u0101ng (1095-1170), one of only three women Zen masters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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