As a student, my more basic concern is there are few actual teachers, male
or female, in the modern West. There are simply not enough people who have
gone deeply enough or have trained well enough to be good teachers. I
suppose this has often been true in other countries and times.
Gassho,
Gerald
On Sat, Dec 28, 2019 at 8:12 AM Barbara Reichart <barei@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear all,Sent from Gmail Mobile
I am trying to write to the new list and am asking if it worked. Thanks
for the work to set this up!
After all this time I would like to share my thoughts on this topic with
you.
As for Andreas' concern that there are not enough female teachers, I think
that will change over time. Male and female laymen have equal rights in
western countries, at least in Germany. The number is also similar,
sometimes there are even more women than men in our group. If many practice
seriously, probably some get the right insight, whether male or female, I
don't think there is a difference in gender. Of these, in turn, some will
develop the ability to become a teacher regardless of gender. It may take
some time, but I believe that the future of zen in lay zen is in the west.
I have also read the story of Miao-Tao. She certainly was a very strong
woman and can serve as a role model. However, it seems that as a woman she
had to be even better than a man in order to get the appropriate attention
(this is still the case in business today). It is very interesting that at
that time women in Zen played such a big role in China compared to today in
Japan. It speaks very much for the Zen masters at that time that they made
no difference (in the opposite to other religions until today).
So much for today.
Best wishes and greetings to all!
Barbara (Munich)
--
Barbara ReichartTruderinger Str. 91, 81673 München
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/Truderinger+Str.+91,+81673+M%C3%BCnchen?entry=gmail&source=g>
089 12209687
01522 9949590
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