Sr. Suzanne Zuercher, OSB & Khenmo Nyima Drolma, MFA

What motivates women to become nuns in the 21st century? How are women creating community, sharing spiritual lives, and revitalizing ancient systems? How are lay and monastic women working together? What are the current obstacles to maintaining the legacy of nun’s communities and establishing the appropriate role for women in each religious tradition? A Buddhist nun and Roman Catholic sister discuss these issues.

Sr. Suzanne Zuercher is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago and president of St. Scholastica Academy. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist and the author of Enneagram Spirituality, Enneagram Companions, Thomas Merton, An Enneagram Profile, and a book of poetry , I Don’t Expect an Answer. Khenmo Drolma is the abbess of Vajra Dakini Monastery. (See panel descriptions for more information.)

102 The Zen of Gender

Susan McConnell, MA & Beth O’Neil, LCSW

Zen practice pierces through layer after layer to uncover the spring of a deeper self. Sex and gender identity are among the most profound layers that obscure this spring of self, leading to illusions of separateness and other forms of suffering. In this workshop, we will experience various playful approaches to witnessing and dropping our attachments to our gender identities.

Susan McConnell, M. A., assists clients at her Chicago Matrix Center to enhance somatic awareness and recovery of wholeness of body, mind, and spirit. She teaches psychotherapists and body workers throughout the U. S. and Europe. Beth O’Neil, L.C.S.W, is a psychotherapist working with individuals, couples and groups. These life partners draw upon various therapeutic and bodywork modalities and the Zen tradition.

103 Difficult Conversations as Practice

Rev. Kyoki Roberts

Three of the Ten Cardinal Precepts have to do with not misusing speech. Participants will be introduced to a specific process to use in difficult conversations. When both parties can speak of what is important to them and why; only then can solutions be addressed. One-on-one or in a whole room, this process can be used in families or international diplomacy. Workshop includes role-plays to practice these skills. Rev. Kyoki Roberts is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest and was a mediator for the State of Nebraska for 10 years. (See panel participants for more information.)

104 Leadership as Practice

Charlotta Koppanyi, MS

The Dhammapada teaches how a wise person responds to life through her presence, rather than simply reacting in an intellectual way. This presentation discusses these teachings and encourages participants to open new venues of active practice, enlarging their experience of Buddhism in everyday life.

Charlotta Koppanyi holds an M.S. in psychology and B.A. in contemporary religion from Stockholm University, Sweden. She has studied depth psychology, leadership and Buddhism since the late 1980's.

105 For Crying Out Loud: Motherhood as Spiritual Practice

Karen Maezen Miller

At your wits’ end trying to combine the responsibilities of motherhood and the commitment to a spiritual practice? That's a good start for this workshop, which offers consolation, insight and encouragement to recognize and embody the spiritual practice of motherhood. Workshop combines readings with an informal and practical discussion of parenting as a gateway to practice.

Karen Maezen Miller is a student of Nyogen Roshi and a priest at the Hazy Moon Zen Center in Los Angeles where she is a dharmaholder in the Soto-Rinzai lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. She is the author of Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood to be published by Shambhala Publications in July 2006.

106 Working With Women In Prisons And Shelters

Alice Dan, PhD

Workshop invites participants to share their stories of working with women in prisons, halfway houses, clinics or other settings serving women who have experienced intense suffering.

Alice Dan is the Director of the Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago and Professor Emeritus from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is beginning a project to offer meditation instruction and practice in a shelter for women.

107 Engaged Buddhism and Other Species

Jacquie Lewis

This workshop will explore what we, as women, can do to engage in compassionate social engagement toward other species. Discussion will include two issues that affect our daily lives: how to become mindful about household and personal care products that are tested on animals and how to examine and reflect on our food choices.

Jacquie Lewis is a Ph.D. candidate in psychology with an emphasis on Consciousness and Spirituality at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. She also holds a certificate in Socially Engaged Spirituality from Saybrook and is the president of SPEAK (Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom), a national humane education organization.

108 Creating Women’s Retreats

Holly Johnson, Linda Somlai

This interactive workshop will discuss planning, building, and creating space for women’s retreats. A slide presentation and handouts will present the building blocks and provide an experience of creative practice.

Linda Somlai is a Bodhisattva Teacher and the founder of Women’s Retreat and abbot of the Original Root Zen Center in Racine, Wisconsin. She is studio artist who has practiced meditation for over 30 years. Holly Johnson is a Reverend Teacher at ORZC and has practiced meditation for nine years. She is a writer and graphic designer.

109 Mandala Making and Meditation

Joan Cantwell, MA

The Sanskrit word ‘mandala’ means ‘purified universe’, ‘circle’, or ‘connection’. In Buddhism, the mandala may be used as an external symbolic expression of the world within. Participants will use art materials to create their own mandalas as a means to explore the energies and connections in their lives.

Joan Cantwell, M.A., C.J.E.A., is a registered nurse with a certification in expressive arts, which she practices at several universities and hospices. She is a Buddhist practitioner at Liberation Park, Oak Park, IL.

110 Asian Women in America: Straddling the Ocean of Dharma

Asayo Horibe, RN & Panel

How do Asian born and Asian American women translate practice between cultures? How do they negotiate and resolve the cultural clashes and expectations. Are there common challenges that run though different Asian cultural groups and what advice and wisdom can they share between themselves and translate to women of other cultures?

Asayo Horibe is an R.N. and President of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest will facilitate a panel discussion of Asian women.

111 Daughters of Emptiness: Poems of Chinese Nuns

Beata Grant, PhD

Women played major roles in the history of Buddhist China, but their voices have faded. Beata Grant has recovered and translated the enchanting verse of 48 nuns from sixteen centuries of imperial China. Join us for a reading of this work.

Beata Grant, Ph.D, teaches literature and religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Her writings include a study of the Woman Huang story-cycle, Mount Lu Revisited: Buddhism in the Life and Writings of Su Shih, and several articles on Buddhist nuns and laywomen of the Ming-Qing period. She is currently an editor of Nan-Nü, a new journal devoted to the study of gender issues in traditional China.

112 Tibetan Yantra Yoga

Lama Lobsang Palden Rinpoche

Tibetan Yantra Yoga is a system of yoga dating back to the time of the great sage Padmasambhava. Previous yoga experience is a plus but not necessary.

Lama Lobsang Palden Rinpoche was born in Tibet, where he was realized as a reincarnated lama and trained in a monastery. He has been practicing Yantra Yoga for more than two decades and teaches in Chicago.

113 Writing in the Practice

Susan O’Leary

Deep Listening, close observation and open awareness are all parts of the practice that can be brought to (and more closely understood through) writing. This workshop presents a series of exercises that will help participants to join practice and writing.

Susan O’Leary has practiced in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh for 12 years. Last year she was part of a delegation that accompanied Nhat Hanh on his return to Vietnam after 39 years of exile. Her most recent works are Breath Taking (Cross Roads Press) and “A Rare Haven” in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Friends on the Path.