Later, the Buddha acknowledged that Mahapajapati was a master of “great powers.” And yet the idea of women in practice struck him as far too radical and troublesome, a contaminant that would ruin the purity of monks’ practice. Finally he allowed her ordination, and the formation of an order of nuns, only after she and her sangha sisters had endured a 150-mile barefoot walk-and then only because of Ananda’s persistent, tender intervention, and under pain of an especially heavy set of rules having to do with female subordination. Though he allowed women to listen to the dharma, he was adamant in his rejection of his aunt Mahapajapati’s passionate wish to practice. She asserts that Buddhism’s rejection of women practitioners began squarely with the Buddha. Schireson rightly says that this can no longer be permitted. While it is utterly true that when you forget the self and look with unclouded eye there’s neither male nor female to be found, historically women have been forced to walk a path strewn with thorns to win the right to practice. Schireson lets us feel the extraordinary obstacles they encountered while becoming Zen masters. “Zen Women” tells the stories of some of these extraordinary women who managed to enter intensive practice and went on to embody and convey the teaching uniquely-and, in some cases, more humanely, with no sacrifice of clarity. Not only have Zen women’s names had a strange tendency to fall off (the rare koan encounters involving women usually refer only to “an old woman” or a “tea lady”), but entire female lives have been made to disappear, or their gender has been changed, their stories having been doctored in the records. Grace Schireson’s book “Zen Women” is a serious attempt to rectify several millennia of careless and diligent erasure of Zen women from the record. Zen lineage charts have been starkly female-free zones all the way up until the most recent generation, despite the openly acknowledged existence of powerful female Zen ancestors. These fascinating insights help us better understand the complex social systems of lions.Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters They avoid roaring beyond their home range boundary, and are more likely to roar repeatedly near rivers and water points. Lions roar more when wind speed is low, when it is cooler, and when air humidity is higher. A recent study found that there is a peak of vocalizing near dawn, and that lions roar more when acoustic conditions are conducive to sound traveling far. Consequently, they seem willing to fight for that control regardless of the odds. Fighting between males is also frequently deadly, but pride males appear to have nothing to lose by approaching intruders because their only chance of reproductive success is when they control a pride. Fights between females often result in severe injury or death, so it is critical for lionesses to gauge the risks before engaging. Females are more likely to respond to roars of other groups if they outnumber the other group, whereas males tend to approach the roars of competing lions regardless of their number. A number of studies have used playback experiments to assess the reaction of lions to the playback of roars from varying numbers of lions. Both male and female lions demonstrate ownership of territories via roaring and are able to gauge the strength of opposition based on the number of roars heard from other groups. Roars are used to signal territoriality and to locate distant pride members. They are active, vocal, see excellently in the dark, and can be aggressive towards other lions and of course when hunting. In my travels to the bush around Africa, I feel a true adrenaline rush and vulnerability when hearing lions roaring at night, especially when they are near and particularly when I am camping in a tent! Lions at night are very different creatures to the sleepy, docile animals they appear to be during the day. The sound is deafening and awe-inspiring when heard from nearby. Roars can be heard from over several kilometers away when conditions are right. A lion’s roar is arguably the world’s most iconic animal sound. Roaring is a key component of lion social behavior and territoriality. Defending against incoming males is thus essential for both pride males and females. Non-pride males, nomadic males, or those that may have deposed the pride males are frequently infanticidal, killing cubs to hasten the onset of estrus among pride females. Group living also plays a critical role in the defense of territory against other females and incoming males. Female lions frequently share food, nurse one another’s cubs, and hunt cooperatively. Their social system is such that groups of related lionesses occupy a pride area, and a male or a coalition of males have territories that can encompass those of multiple female prides. Lions are the only big cats that are truly social.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |