Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Exploring ritual practices followed by Soto Zen women today reveals a broad spectrum of activities and ceremonies, including functional, ‘‘sacramental,’’ daily, annual, private, public, expensive, inexpensive, and even esoteric rites. These practices are not outlined or advocated in any text. It is through ethnographic research methods and analysis that the range and sig- nificance these practices have for women become clear. Such investigation expands our understanding of the contours of Zen experience and helps clarify what it means to be a Zen Buddhist woman.

Despite the distinctly ritual-based practices of these women, the icono- clastic image and antiritual rhetoric generated about the Zen Buddhist tra- dition has deflected attention away from the roles of ritual practices in Zen Buddhist lives. Compounding this antiritual rhetoric is what I would call the ‘‘Protestant Undercurrent’’ that has dominated most Western practice of Zen, which until recently placed a premium on zazen and philosophical under- standing with few of the ceremonial practices of Japan having been imported.’ (Women and Dogen: Rituals Actualizing Empowerment and Healing)