Great Buddhist Teachers

 

12.10.2021 GREAT BUDDHIST TEACHERS The January 2022 issue of Lion’s Roar magazine is our “Great Teachers Issue.” Inside, you’ll meet 26 Buddhist luminaries through a series of teacher profiles and read some of their greatest teachings. It’s a wealth of inspiration on living with wisdom, compassion, and ease for the coming year from teachers both past and present. You may already be familiar with some of those teachers featured in this issue — from Thich Nhat Hanh to Pema Chödrön — but there’s plenty to discover as well. Below, you’ll find a series of profiles and teachings from six Buddhist teachers “you may not know but should,” alongside profiles from the Lion’s Roar archives of Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo — two more great teachers featured in this issue. May they each bring fresh inspiration and wise guidance to your weekend. —Lilly Greenblatt, Digital Editor, LionsRoar.com

Teachers You May Not Know But Should Ross Nervig on some teachers past and present whose lives and teachings have a lot to offer us. Qiyuan Xinggang was a legendary female Chan master who amassed thousands of devotees in seventeenth-century China, resisting family pressure to marry and skepticism from male Buddhist leaders. As a child, Qiyuan Xinggang demonstrated a strong interest in Buddhism. Fated to marry, she yearned to train under a Chan master instead. Even after her fiancé died, her parents still refused to allow her to seek a religious life, so she went on a hunger strike until they gave in. Seeking spiritual direction from a series of masters, Qiyuan Xinggang encountered abuse, setbacks, and frustrations as she struggled with the difficult questions put to her by the masters, but nonetheless, she persisted.

The Radical Buddhism of Rev. angel Kyodo williams “I just want people to be liberated.” John DeMont on the radical Buddhism of Rev. angel Kyodo williams. Rev. angel Kyodo williams sees the world from a multitude of angles, starting with her viewpoint as a Black, queer woman who had a traumatic childhood. Williams is also an activist whose politicization can be traced back to Freedom Summer ’92—the inaugural event of the Third Wave Direct Action Corporation, created to mobilize women to become more socially and politically involved — where she worked on a cross-country voter registration drive that helped Bill Clinton get elected. Then there is williams’ perspective as a Buddhist priest. Rather than renounce the world of politics, political engagement, and activism, she has chosen instead to interweave them into her path as a bodhisattva. “You make an actual vow to hear the cries of the world,” she says, “to step into the experience of awakening to the suffering of the world, and the desire to bring an end to that suffering.”

Tenzin Palmo: “There is nothing” a woman can’t accomplish Dominique Butet and Olivier Adam profile Tenzin Palmo, the nun who is changing the role of women in Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Translated from French by Susan Maneville. Young Diane was born in 1943 and was a solitary child. During adolescence, themes on suffering, aging, and death haunted her. She remembers being thirteen, watching a bus pass in front of her, and observing the people in it talking and laughing. Her reaction was quite surprising: “Don’t they realize, don’t they know what’s going to happen to them?” “Reading my first book on Buddhism at 18 is what changed my life completely,” she’s said. When she was halfway through it, she announced: “I’m a Buddhist” — to which her mother replied, “Finish the book and we’ll talk about it!” But Diane had found her spiritual path and would follow it with all her strength.

GIVE THE GIFT OF WISDOM