| Houn Jiyu-Kennett | |
|---|---|
| School | Sōtō Zen Buddhism |
| Personal | |
| Born | January 1, 1924 St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England |
| Died | November 6, 1996 (aged 72) Mount Shasta, California, United States |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | Shasta Abbey |
| Title | Roshi |
| Predecessor | Keido Chisan Koho |
| Successor | Daizui MacPhillamy former Head of the Order Haryo Young Head of the Order Eko Little Former Abbot of Shasta Abbey Meian Elbert Current Abbess of Shasta Abbey Daishin Morgan Abbot of Throssel Hole Abbey Gyokuko Carlson Kyogen Carlson James Ishmael Ford |
| Religious career | |
| Teacher | Ven. Seck Kim Seng Suigan Yogo |
| Website | www.obcon.org/ http://shastaabbey.org/ |
Houn Jiyu-Kennett, (法雲慈友ケネット, January 1, 1924—November 6, 1996), born Peggy Teresa Nancy Kennett, was a British roshi most famous for having been the first female to be sanctioned by the Soto School of Japan to teach in the West. Jiyu-Kennett founded Shasta Abbey in Mount Shasta, California in 1970 after many years spent studying Zen and Buddhism in Asia—mainly in Japan. Shasta Abbey was the first Soto Zen school in the United States to be established by a woman, and in 1978 Jiyu-Kennett's order became known as the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. After ordaining in the Chinese Linji Chan school while in Malaysia, she left for Japan and trained at Sojiji under Keido Chisan Koho Zenji—from whom she received Dharma transmission in 1963. Her order, which is celibate, now has chapters in the Netherlands, Canada, the West Indies, the United Kingdom and Germany—in addition to the United States.
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Houn Jiyu-Kennett was born as Peggy Teresa Nancy Kennett in St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England on January 1, 1924. As a young woman she found herself questioning gender roles in society and grew to become disillusioned with Christianity. She studied medieval music at Durham University and then received a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, England.[1] Though attracted to Buddhism, she felt during this period that she was called to serve the Church of England as a priest. However, church policies did not allow women to be ordained, and this enhanced her previous disillusionment with Christianity. She first became interested in Theravada Buddhism during this period of questioning and searching, joining the London Buddhist Vihara. In 1954 she joined the London Buddhist Society, where she continued her Buddhist studies and lectured. While there, she met the scholar D.T. Suzuki, and developed a strong interest in Zen Buddhism. In 1960 when Keido Chisan Koho of Sojiji in Japan came to the society, she was asked to make the arrangements for his stay. Koho asked if she would consider becoming his student back in Japan. She accepted the offer, and two years passed before she arrived at Sojiji to study under him.[1]
In January 1962 Jiyu-Kennett traveled to Malaysia to accept an award she had been honored with for setting a Buddhist hymn, "Welcome Joyous Wesak Day" by Venerable Sumangalo, [2]to music.[1] Before leaving for Japan she was ordained by Ven. Seck Kim Seng[1] in the Lin Chi school and given the Buddhist name Sumitra, meaning compassionate friend (慈有, Ciyou in Chinese). Jiyu-Kennett arrived in Japan in 1962, where she remained until after the death of her master Koho in 1967.[3] Because Koho was often preoccupied with administrative affairs, Jiyu-Kennett spent much of her time studying under one of Koho Zenji's senior officers, Suigan Yogo roshi. According to James Ishmael Ford, "Jiyu Kennett Roshi received Dharma transmission twice, from both Suigan Yogo Roshi and Chisan Koho Roshi.[4] One of the interesting parts of Jiyu-Kennett's story is that her zuisse[5] ceremony was conducted in public in Japan, whereas previously women were more or less forced to undergo such ceremonies in private. Koho had decided that the practice of private ceremonies for women and public ceremonies for men was ultimately wrongheaded. According to her own account, "I have never done a ceremony with more terror inside me than that one with twelve men down each side, each one with curtains drawn as if to say 'I'm not here.' Those were the witnesses. Try that sometime! That can be pretty scary—in a foreign country, in a language you're not one hundred percent sure of, with a lot of people who are hating your guts. And the reason Koho Zenji did it—and I've got it on tape—was for the benefit of women in his country."[6]
Following her graduation ceremony, Jiyu-Kennett was installed as abbess of a temple of Mie prefecture known as Unpukuji, and by 1969 she had received authorization to begin teaching Sōtō Zen in London, England. However, before returning to England, she decided to visit the San Francisco Zen Center in San Francisco, California to see why the organization had become so successful. It should be noted that at this time she was not in good health, as during her time in Japan she experienced many illnesses.[7] Impressed with the quality of practice in California, Jiyu-Kennett opted to remain in California and not return home. So she founded the Zen Mission Society in a small apartment in 1969, which moved to somewhere in Oakland, California not long after.[4] In 1970, "[Jiyu Kennett] developed a feministic Zen at the Shasta Abbey, founded in Northern California in 1970."[8] In 1972, two years after having founded Shasta Abbey in California, Jiyu-Kennett's British chapter of the Zen Mission Society established Throssel Hole Priory in Northumberland, England.[3][9]
In 1975 Jiyu-Kennett was stricken with illness yet again, and this time she became bedridden. In 1976 she resigned from her position as abbess of Shasta Abbey and went into retreat in Oakland, California. Still rather ill, of unknown causes, she had her student Daizui MacPhillamy with her often to tend to her care. Following a kensho experience he had, she conferred Dharma transmission to him at her bedside in 1976.[7] Not long after she began having visions.[4] Stephen Batchelor describes these episodes, "The visions lasted for 12 months, until 26 January 1977, the first twelve occurring in Oakland, the rest at Shasta, where she returned on 25 October. Each vision unfolded as a dream-like episode, charged with Western and Buddhist religious symbolism, superimposing itself on whatever she saw around her. She compared the series of visions to an elaborated contemporary version of the classical Zen images of the ten 'ox-herding' pictures. By the time the final vision faded, she was cured. She interpreted the experience as that of a 'third kensho.'"[7] In 1985 new rules had been implemented within the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives that required monastics to be celibate, and Gyokuko Carlson and Kyogen Carlson chose to part ways with the community rather than seek a divorce. As a consequence, their center in Portland, Oregon (today's Dharma Rain Zen Center) chose to break ties with Shasta Abbey, and ultimately invited the Carlsons to remain their leaders.[4]
According to the book The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, "Her adaptation of Zen for Westerners has been likened to Japanese Soto Zen with a flavor of the Church of England, for she believed that Zen in North America should adopt Western monastic dress and liturgical forms. For example, she set the traditional Buddhist liturgy to music based on Gregorian chants."[10] Jiyu-Kennett had a commanding presence about her, both intellectually as well as physically. Of a rather husky build, she had a tremendous laughter and was known to be gifted at storytelling.[6] To some, her demeanor appeared rather persistent at times, as author James Ishmael Ford writes, "My memories of Jiyu Kennett Roshi as a teacher are mixed. She followed in the authoritarian style of her Japanese inheritance. Interpersonally, she was remarkably invasive. Indeed, in my twenties, she pushed me into a marriage with another student that would cause great unhappiness for both of us. On the other hand, she had genuine insight into the boundless realm and also pushed me toward my own deepest experience of the great matter."[4] Jiyu-Kennett was an advocate for equality between the sexes, and was herself swayed by the idea that women would never be deemed as equal to men if they were not understood to possess souls. According to author Catherine Lowman, "She asserts that no woman will be certain she is equal 'until she knows with the certainty that I know, that her own Buddha-nature, or her own soul, exists.'"[11]
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