It Takes One to Move One: Teachings of Shundo Aoyama
AS WITH MUCH of Soto Zen in Japan, there is a lot that Westerners don’t know about the world of Japanese nuns. At the forefront of their lineage and training is Shundo Aoyama Roshi: an enigma, a rock star, a laughing buddha, and a fiercely dedicated, humble practitioner of the Way. One American monk described her as a mountain—a mountain on fire.
Aoyama Roshi, eighty-six years old, entered temple life at age five. Now the abbess of Aichi Senmon Nisodo, or Women’s Monastic College, she learned the traditional nun’s way, and then later also explored the traditional monk’s way, as well as the scholar’s way. A few years ago, she was awarded the title of Shike-kai Kaicho, or Master of Zen Masters, making her the highest-ranking nun in the history of Soto Zen. For Zen women, this is a very big deal—to have a nun teaching monks is virtually unheard of, and Aoyama Roshi trains Zen masters, not novices. As a Zen master’s master (or a nun’s nun) she has broken through Zen’s glass gate.
Along the way, Aoyama Roshi has had many detractors, both male and female. Nuns were not allowed to have their own disciples until around 1947, and sexism dominates Japanese Soto Zen, historically and today. Training opportunities for nuns remain scarce, and the belief that only men can be enlightened persists. Fortunately, Roshi has also had many supporters. Her dedication to bringing the dharma to all beings, regardless of gender, guides her and inspires others.
How best to describe such a person? Her lectures fall from her lips like poems, challenging us and enchanting us with their beauty. She sits zazen like a mountain, despite severe pain
