Words to a Zen Nun

I practice Zen Buddhism, and was recently on retreat when an elder nun approached me to talk about (trans)gender within our community. She shared her personal belief that trans women are fundamenally just men, who pose a threat to women everywhere, for example by transitioning in order to get into women’s prisons.

It was really painful to hear this. But equally, I was somehow glad to receive it within the context of a practice that teaches us to move beyond the everyday binaries of friends/enemies, good/bad, us/them, maybe even men/women.

The next period of zazen was a complete hurricane, during which my thoughts and feelings dragged me in every direction. Gradually, I felt a poem take form. I tried to let it go, but in the end, it was there in front of me.

Words to a Zen Nun

From one human to another
why does my body scare you so much?

Both of us make small stitches
in the field that Buddha has given us.

I served you grains of rice
and you gave me some of your own

maybe together we can grow a garden.
Kodo Sawaki says Only zazen can save

both our friends and our enemies.
If we already share all of this

how can a toilet door separate us?