the conference...

This is a picture of me and Susmita Barua, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship ambassadors... Susmita is leading a workshop called "Deep Conscious Capitalism"... We hope to share our experiences of the conference with the socially engaged Buddhist community and everyone else soon...

Feeling all at once like an insider and outsider, between nun and laywoman, half-academic half-religious... These seeming contradictions leave a burden. I arrived with the question: Is the current state of women in Buddhism oppressive or liberative? Are things a mess and going to hell or is the future bright with equality? Both. (of course) The theme of this years International Conference on Women in Buddhism is "Eminent Buddhist Women". Each day we have heard dozens of papers about amazing female teachers, devoted laywomen and agents of social change from many countries. There are women from Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Korea, India, Nepal, Australia, England, Tibet, Taiwan, China, US, Germany, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mongolia, Bangladesh and more. History is being written, from our perspective now. We are documenting our teachers, our challenges, our practice, our lives. The complete sangha is coming to life again.