Customer Reviews

Woman Awake: Women Practicing Buddhism

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think this book is inspirational and beautifully written. In response to the previous review, I've studied Mahayana Buddhism for two years now and did not find that Christina Feldman contraditcted any of these teachings in her writing. While I agree she may make some generalized statements, at the same time, I think her writing is guided by some very positive and meaningful intentions: to empower, enlighten, and enliven women- all without having to put down or take anything away from the world of men. She attempts to show women a path that exists outside of the societal norms and gender roles so many feel compelled to comply with. I think it's a great book and definitely worth reading.

I cannot help but think it not a coincidence that of the three reviews, the negative is by a man. So, as a man, I felt moved to respond.

This is an excellent book that I've suggested or given to over a dozen women in my life (students, friends and even a female zen buddhist teacher I thought too dominated by her male teacher). Too much of Buddhism denigrates women, desire, the body and family/social relationships. What is often overlooked is that when desire is made the enemy, a whole system of estrangement arises. We hear of the disparagement of "the worldly" over and against the "man of the way," and the body - the seat of desire itself - is also devalued. Not coincidentally, wherever we see this devaluation of the body, women as a group are oppressed. But Christina Feldman, in Woman Awake asks, "What is this worldly life - so easily dismissed - composed of? Bonding and caring for one another, generating life, directing and creating our social and political lives with sensitivity and wisdom, and rejoicing and despairing with others - this is the worldly life that is held in contempt... To withdraw from the world is life denying and a negation of the essence of spirituality, which is to end pain. Passive negation and withdrawal degenerate into rejection and denial."

Men and women need to hear what Feldman has to say. Many men (especially those with vested interest in the entrenched power dynamics of institutional buddhism) won't like it.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends WOMAN AWAKE as a book to be relished daily, in small doses, like the very best of delicacies - mindfully, thoughtfully, carefully, & yes, joyously -- first class sustenance for the mind & spirit.

The author is an Insight Meditation Society teacher who studied Theravada/Mahayana Buddhism for 5 years in India. But this book is nothing like Goldstein's "Experience of Insight," rather it's an elementary level, popular book with few references & no bibliography. It's quite short yet wordy & is full of over-generalizations, complaints/criticisms, self-contradictions (especially between chapters), 1-sided/biased views, platitudes, & value-based assumptions. IHMO the author should have used "I" rather than "We" (all or most women?) since "We" is "Me" upside down. The writing style is choppy & disjointed, like a series of bullets or 1-liners--many of which seem wise, but also self-evident & redundant. Surprisingly she seems to contradict many standard Buddhist views. She condemns fairytales: "Fairytales join the conventional culture in transmitting clear warnings to rebellious females" (vs. Marie-Louise von Franz, Lois Khan, Jean Bolen et al who tout their value & provide psychological interpretations of archetypal images in relation to psyche & society). Much criticism might be alleviated by knowledge of Jungian psychology (e.g. the correlation between Feelers/women is about 2:1; same as for Thinkers/men--so much gender stereotyping is actually/merely personality preference & subject to conscious change), Vajrayana Buddhism (which uses emotions for spiritual purposes), & familiarity with relating Psychology & Eastern Thought (e.g. Suler, Rubin, Katz, Goleman, Levine, et al). She includes several guided meditations but I'm a bit wary of their use by the uninitiated-there could be danger. She makes some valuable observations: "Our spiritual insights are only liberating if they are integrated & applied," "In the rigidity in which we hold our models they become unconscious truths that are accepted as reality," "To continue to blame men, tradition or institutions for denying our spirituality is symptomatic of our unreadiness to be alone & trust in our own spiritual awakening," "If we adopt the role of the powerless, we actually become powerless." But other assertions aren't tenable: "An authentic spiritual path will never call upon us to surrender our freedom to question, our inner direction or our trust" ["never" allows no exceptions but the unconscious is non-rational], "The self-image we hold, whether negative or positive, is rooted in our conditioning" [her nurture view is incomplete, nature=genetics is equally important plus there's karma-she presents simplistic views/partial pictures]. She contradicts herself & exemplifies what she vilifies--e.g. she extensively speaks about conditioning & the futility of willpower ("We cannot help but enact our internalized beliefs. We cannot help but enact and express our vision of who we are" which seems pretty deterministic to me), yet attempts to inspire people to consciously change themselves. She fails to adequately address balance & to recognize the cyclic nature of life (see "The Kybalion"), tending to present a naïve, binary (black & white) view--occasional statements to the contrary cannot counteract the bulk of her expositions. There are far better books to read than this one: for Buddhist practices-Pema Chodron, Buddhist popular psychology-Thubten Chodron, Buddhist Women's issues/sociology-Karma Lekshe Tsomo, great woman practitioners-Tsultrim Allione (history) & Tenzin Palmo/Vickie MacKenzie (contemporary) & many others (e.g. Dresser)-see my Listmania lists on Buddhist Women & Society & Western Buddhist Nuns.