"socially engaged Buddhist women"

In a way, this phrase is redundant. It seems as though, from many of the presentations, that Buddhist women see their religious vocation as implicitly for the benefit of society, and thus their social action is quite seamless. It is not some special thing they do. It is inherent in why they became nuns or devoted laywomen. Several papers talked about the Buddhist nun in Taiwan, Zhengyan who is the founder of the Tzu Chi, or Ciji, Movement, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Merit Association. This organization has grown immensely worldwide taking on projects of social welfare and ecological issues. They operate a hospital, medical school, and a university as well as disaster relief.

The woman in the picture is wonderful. She lives in Cambodia and continues much of the work of Maha Gosananda. Right now she is working on a peace walk which will take place in Cambodia this March. The walk will incorperate many social causes ... I will write more when I run upstairs and get the beautiful write-up ... sorry for the delay ...

Her friend, BethGoldring is an American Zen priest living in Cambodia. She runs an AIDS hospice in Phnom Penh. She and her staff help people find as much peace as possible within their situation. They provide emotional and spiritual support, listening and counseling, and material aid as well, including medicine, foodand transportation. They use Reiki and Healing Touch as well as Khmer chanting ceremonies and Buddhist ceremonies. She presented a beautiful slide show of the staff and patients and told stories of their lives. I will write more about Beth in a few weeks when I visit her project.

Buddhist women, lay and ordained run projects dedicated to children, the poor, victims of disasters, both human and natural, animals, the environment and the terminally ill. Paper after paper, we heard about dozens of women and their inspiring life's work. I will continue to post these stories. For now, I am sweaty and need water.