Returning to Our Core Values - A Response to the Online Critique of “The First Free Women”

The Watercooler
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For the successful resolution of a rift, it is necessary to:

  1. Clearly specify the issue and establish the fault/problem. If not immediately accepted and acted upon, this escalates to criticism and admonishment. However, as Snowbird says, this requires a similar goal/understanding of all parties. Without this common understanding of acceptable/not acceptable it is impossible to do. The issue, as presented on this forum, was the publishing, promoting etc of a book of creative contemporary poetry, being misrepresented as a translation of the Therigatha.
  2. There needs to be an acknowledgement of fault. In my understanding this is about the impact - the actual result of the actions. This is about accepting responsibility for the impact caused. While intention is an important consideration for each individual involved, one cannot escape the outcome. If intention and outcome were at odds, then hopefully wisdom can grow, and similar mistakes not be repeated in the future. This doesn’t negate the need for an acknowledgement of fault and the acceptance of responsibility for the actions though.
  3. Only with acknowledgement of fault, comes forgiveness. But ‘who’ can we forgive, if there is no-one taking responsibility? We are all humans doing our best in this sea of defilements. To forgive the mistakes of those who see and acknowledge the shortcomings of their actions, and who have a desire to act with greater skill and wisdom in the future, is a pleasure and delight. However, for genuine forgiveness to occur, there must first be genuine acceptance of responsibility and genuine remorse for the impact of the actions, irrespective of what the underlying intentions were.

From where I am looking, with no vested interest in the issue, it appears that there is no real acknowledgement of fault or acceptance of responsibility of harm done, beyond the absolute minimum to ‘quiet down’ the criticism.

Instead the issue has been deflected into a ‘blame game’, as Ven Akaliko and others have pointed out. This is indeed disingenuous, as it focuses attention on artifacts of the issue, rather than on the issue itself. As long as this continues I don’t see the possibility for a true and deep reconciliation. But of course our expectations of the responses and processes of each party (publisher, author, sangha) varies. We expect lower standards of ethical conduct from the Publisher, than we do of the Sangha.

It’s not that complicated. A serious mistake was made (intentional or not), with nothing less than the obscuration of the Dhamma being at issue. Each participant needs to acknowledge their role and responsibility, ensure that the mistake is properly corrected, and then, in the case of individuals, be forgiven. I sincerely hope that this is the sequence that ensues. :pray:

While our conduct may not be perfect, we can all aspire to perfecting our conduct.

May the Sangha preserve and spread the words of the Buddha for the benefit of all Beings, now and for those yet to be born.
:pray: :dharmawheel:

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Thank you, Venerable Akaliko, for your articulate and valuable contribution! There is one matter, however, that I think needs a bit more nuance, namely the following:

I suspect you are not fully aware of the background to this. The founding nuns of Aloka Vihara have had a long and close relationship with Amaravati Monastery in the UK. Now the UK monasteries in the Ajahn Chah lineage have a very different attitude to Buddhist Canonical literature than you or I. In general they allow themselves much more licence and sometimes fall back on their tradition as a greater authority than the suttas themselves. Overall, they place much less emphasis on the EBTs than the monastics and lay people we tend to deal with.

It’s a bit like monastics using money. They often get criticised by those who don’t, yet we forget to take into account that they have been conditioned this way by their teachers and peers. It is not as if they choose to use money in a vacuum. Over time, once the problem is pointed out to them, they may change. If they don’t, well then they really do become responsible for their actions.

I think this may explain much of the attitude of Ven. Anandabodhi. The way she relates to Buddhist scriptures is just different. I hope this has been a wake-up call for her. Hopefully she will regard this matter differently from now on.

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(For the folks at home who may not be aware, Ven Brahmali began his monastery life as a layman at Amaravati before moving to Bodhinyana to study under Ajahn Brahm.)

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Warm greetings all,

All I can offer to this thread at this moment is just a brief checkin on how it is landing for me now.

I am heartened, and intend to cite why more clearly tomorrow.

I have only had opportunity to glance over the inputs on this thread today and wish to express my gratitude for nuggets that I cannot at this moment acknowledge directly given my end-of-day energies. I need to head to the yurt in the forest now and will resume reading the thread in the morning.

I promise to keep doing the work toward clear seeing and, to the best of my abilities, practicing in community in ways that are supportive for Saṅgha care.

I appreciate everyone’s dedication to the Path.

With kind care,
Niyyānikā Bhikkhunī

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I only learned about this controversy with this very thread. Now that I’ve spent a little time digging into it, I find myself agreeing with Viveka below:

It really is that simple. You make a big mistake, you sincerely and fully own up to it, those you’ve wronged forgive you, and everybody moves on all the better for it. The bonds of trust are restored and strengthened. But if you don’t own up to it, those bonds of trust are tainted and nobody really moves on. People don’t forget these things.

The lion’s share of any blame here falls on the the author, Matty Weingast. It’s ultimately his work at the center of this fiasco and thus his apology that would have the most impact. He needs to personally and publicly apologize without delay. This would open the doors of reconciliation and lead to the best outcome.

At the very least, he needs to make a public statement. If he doesn’t want to apologize, then he needs to explain why he doesn’t think he’s at fault. It’s ridiculous that others are out there defending him while he stays silent. Think about what kind of message that sends.

IMO, of course.

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Hello everyone,

My name is Ayya Dhammadipa, and I am a nun in residence at Aloka Vihara. I am writing to say something about my role in “The First Free Women” and where I stand on the issues that have been raised.

Matty stated that all of the nuns here at the time of his visit were involved in the book. My role was to give some suggestions for the title, but not for the subtitle, and to find a typo or two. Ultimately none of the titles I suggested was chosen. You may have noticed that I am the only nun that was here at that time that did not endorse the book.

I believe I have always said that the book should not be called a translation, and I’m not aware of any time that I used that language. If folks find places where I have, please alert me to them, so that I can remove them. I believe that if Matty’s poems are called translations of the Therigatha, then he becomes just another entitled male who is telling us “what the nuns really meant to say.”

However, following the teaching examples here, though my mistakes are my own, I began teaching from the poems saying "Venerable Bhikkhuni so and so said…"and then reading from Matty’s poem. I am grateful to Ayya Sudhamma and Bhante Sujato and Bhante Akaliko for pointing out the error in this. Without their comments, I likely would have gone on making that mistake for some time. This does not mean that I agree with all of the language that was used to describe Matty and people’s ideas about his motives.

Once I learned of my mistake, I began investigating in more detail, and I discussed my concerns with others here at the vihara. I’ve chosen to provide feedback directly to the members of my community, rather than use this forum. I have expressed the fact that I view this as a very serious matter, and that
I want to explore skillful responses and solutions going forward. I have also removed from the public sphere any teachings I gave in which I used language that suggests that Matty’s poems are the Theris poems. Again, if folks find instances where I have missed taking something down, please let me know.

Though we were in retreat, on March 11th I issued an apology on my blog here. (What?! You don’t all read my blog?) My website was recently updated, but I made a point to carry over that post. Reading it now, I think that it was a bit optimistic.

So I want to again state my firm belief that, as monastics, we have a responsibility to the traditions in which we are ordained. We carry a responsibility to the great teachers and teachings of the past. We have a responsibility to be a source of clarity about the texts and the teachings they contain, and not to conflate them with our own experience and teachings. That is a key aspect of the way in which we monastics carry the tradition forward, and it is not well understood by many people. We also have a responsibility to guide others to do the same. And we will inevitably make mistakes and have to make corrections.

There must also be room for folks to give contemporary interpretations of the teachings and to comment on the texts. This too is an important part of carrying forward the tradition, finding it in relatable language and examples. The problem comes when we conflate the two, when personal experience is put forward as the teachings of the elders.

I suppose that the most troubling part of this controversy is that it has revealed, for me and perhaps many other folks, the fact that there are seemingly fundamental differences in the understanding of the accountability and responsibility that accrues to monastics, of the expectations of care and comportment, of the responsibility to respond to concerns. The suttas are quite clear about the Buddha’s position on this, as he again and again received feedback from monastics and laity alike. He responded directly, in a timely fashion, and with clarity and compassion. I feel the absence of Ayya Anandabodhi and Matty Weingast from this discussion.

So the message I’d like to leave you with is this: There must be room for both direct, clear translations and creative expression and interpretation of Dhamma. I believe these kinds of expression can coexist, but they must be offered without being conflated. If there is a lack of clarity about this point, we risk blurring the voices of the great teachers of the past, at least their voices as we find them in the Nikayas today. When you offer admonitions, please do so with clarity and kindness, without adding to the harm. When you (and I) are offered admonitions, please listen to them and respond with care. Otherwise, we are all just increasing the dukkha in the world, and behaving in ways that are uninspiring.

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@Konin dear Ayya, just a quick message to say many thanks for your invaluable and timely contribution. I really appreciate your honesty, even-mindedness and sincerity. I’m also impressed by your principled approach to the issue and grateful for your engagement here.

I hope that the experience you had with your community on this issue was not too onerous and that you continue to flourish in the holy life.

Thanks also for the link to your website and your art :heart_eyes:

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I think your blog is lovely, Ayya Dhammadipā.
Even more, he’s tiptop. He’s great!

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Dear Ayya, thanks so much for your clear and honest reflections. In addition to our responsibilities regarding the scriptures, it is also our responsibility to ensure that monastics in our communities feel the confidence to speak up and speak out, even when they disagree. And I am so happy to see that this is the case.

And lovely website, and lovely art! The deer reminds me of the deer I saw at Aloka Vihara in my all-too-brief stay there.

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I have never posted on anything before and awkwardly joined the dialogue on this thread midstream. I appreciate being called into this conversation by Venerable Akaliko to disclose my associations. I apologize for not, as my companion in the holy life, Ayya Niyyanika, wisely did, identifying my social location in relation to The First Free Women (TFFW).

I am one of the resident bhikkhunis at Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery and was living here when Matty Weingast was here working on the poems. I wrote an endorsement for the first publication. As I say in my endorsement, I have been nourished by the poems in TFFW.

That being said, I want to make it clear that I understand and agree with the outrage about the subtitle, categorization, endorsements and marketing of TFFW, causing confusion and leading to the poems of TFFW being misrepresented and mistaken as a translation of the Therigatha. Shambhala’s retraction of the first publication of TFFW is an important step to repairing this.

I regret that this was not my first post in this thread.

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Many thanks for continuing this conversation with such openness and good faith, Venerable.

I’m feeling particularly optimistic this morning for some reason :sun_with_face: and get the impression that on this issue, it’s possible we are approaching a moment of change; a turning point!

So I’d like to encourage that growth of mutual understanding as much as possible :seedling: if there’s any way to further the conversation that I can help with, please reach out here or privately. I am not particularly interested (you’ll be pleased to know :laughing:) in revisiting the issues themselves but more about fostering spiritual friendship and healing.

Once again, I’m so delighted to hear from you and the other members of Aloka here on the forum and to get to know your views on the issues more thoroughly.

I feel really confident that we are moving in a good direction.

:pray:

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Āloka Vihāra Bhikkhunī Community Response

This post is from my account but it comes from all the bhikkhunīs at Āloka Vihāra Forest Monastery:

We see the gravitas of this situation. We recognize that there has been much pain and we regret our mistakes.

Our response here is independent of any response the author of “The First Free Women”, Matty Weingast, may make.

Understanding the difficulty that has resulted from the lack of clarity around what “The First Free Women” represents, the Āloka Vihāra bhikkhunīs acknowledge that it is not a translation of the Therīgāthā. We have a unanimous resolve that whenever we are using these poems, we will be crystal clear that they are contemporary poetry by Matty Weingast.

With the wish that there can be time and space for continued repair of the ruptures that have occurred, we are in discussion with Shambhala Publications to postpone the release of the re-issue of “The First Free Women”, which is currently slated to come out on June 22nd.

We acknowledge that it took a very long time to come to this Āloka Vihāra community response.

With much goodwill,
Ānandabodhī Bhikkhunī, Santacittā Bhikkhunī, Ahimsā Bhikkhunī, Niyyānikā Bhikkhunī, Dhammadīpā Bhikkhunī

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my name is santacitta b and i am one of the co-founders of aloka vihara forest monastery. i have not contributed to this thread earlier, as all my energy went into supporting an appropriate response from within our aloka vihara bhikkhuni community. the controversy around TFFW has initiated deep discussions and changes in our own group and we have asked shambhala publications to wait with re-issuing TFFW, until there is more clarity & reconciliation within the wider sangha.

TFFW has brought up very important & fundamental issues to clarify, in particular how to strike a skillful balance between protecting the ancient texts, while allowing contemporary creative energy to enliven our inheritance and communicate to those people, for whom the ancient texts don’t resonate (yet). this dichotomy has shown up again and again over the centuries and is not just an issue regarding TFFW.

we are living at a time where diversity is emerging powerfully into the public conversation, simply because we need all of us to put our heads and hearts together to move into a future, which looks so very uncertain in the face of climate change and increasing polarisation. many of the old approaches are falling apart and we need to open up and include more diverse expressions of what it means to be alive at these times. i feel so fortunate to have the Dharma as a guide and it is important to me to find our common ground again - through reconciliation & forgiveness.

here is the english translation of my explanation & apology regarding TFFW to my german speaking online group, which was sent on march 2 (i have added 2 notes for clarity).

with metta & goodwill
santacitta bhikkhuni

note: between june 2 and 22 i am travelling to teach two retreats and several other events, so my possibilities to engage in this thread during this time will be limited.

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Dear venerable Ayyas:

I don’t have the standing to be truly replying to your heartfelt posts today, but I feel that something needs to be said. The Therīgāthā is simply perfect in its own original form, and the poetry of these noble women deserves to be celebrated and taught as a standalone treasury of the elder nuns of ancient times. Here’s one description of this ancient text: “The poems they left behind are arguably among the most ancient examples of women’s writing in the world and they are unmatched for their quality of personal expression and the extraordinary insight they offer into the lives of women in the ancient Indian past—and indeed, into the lives of women as such.” To me, teaching from the Weingast poems is a failing, and introduces to modern disciples and students an aberrant view of the lives and thoughts of these noble women.

The idea that we should be encouraged to allow for an approach to " include more diverse expressions of what it means to be alive at these times" shouldn’t be so wokeful that the heart and soul of a body of poetry is changed, adulterated, and diluted, anymore than an allowance for diversity should allow for diverse opinions about actual facts, or allow professors in universities to teach alternate theories of science, such as creationism theory. It seems if our “contemporary creative energy” is doing anything, in many ways it is moving away from truth and integrity, and toward some kind of free form acceptance of all ideas, whether they be true or kusala, or not. Where the Dhamma is concerned, IMO, this is not acceptable. We owe the ancient therīs at least this respectful consideration.

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The Buddha was quite clear with regards to the Dhamma - it is Not an ‘Opinion’ or a ‘View’.

There was recently a thread on this forum, asking participants to vote on their view/opinion of what Jhanas are. We also see Matty Weingast using this approach to justify/describe his book of poetry. see quote below by M Weingast.

I link to the response I gave on the other thread, as I feel it is also directly relevant here.

As such, I can only conclude that to allow the popular desires in a group in society to dilute or change the nature of the Dhamma that is taught by monastics is directly hastening the demise of the Dhamma, just as the Buddha outlined.

I am very saddened to see that this is happening before our eyes. To be clear, imo, whatever any private Lay person choses to do is their business, and carries much less weight, but what the Sangha does is another matter altogether. In fact, reading this thread, the issue has become much deeper for me than the misleading marketing of a book of poetry as a translation.

We/I take refuge in the Triple Gem, the third arm being the Sangha. This is what is at risk - how can we take refuge in the Sangha, if it can’t fulfil it’s obligations to the Dhamma? … This erodes the trust… “can I have confidence that they even know what the Buddha Dhamma is? What qualifies them to teach me?” I ask this with all sincerity, as I see many of the poems in the book as having divergent and even the opposite meaning to those of the Theris in the Therigatha. It might be nice and comforting or speak to someones personal experience - but it is NOT the Dhamma. If I want general, feel good support, there are endless resources available. Why would a Monastic, knowingly and in full awareness, teach poetry that changes the message of Enlightened Bhikkhunis and erodes the Dhamma - unless it is to highlight and expose the changes from Dhamma to ADhamma?

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Within all respect, but I don’t believe this to be true.
Not all these poems are by ancient Indian women, let alone written by them.
Monks and the Buddha himself uttered them as well (words of the Pali Society).
Ancient Indian women were second-class citizens. I wonder if all could even write.

I have learned that these Theris developed great spiritual attainment and received recognition for it. And some monks found their poems remarkable. So they were transmitted orally. Mainly by monks since the Buddhist teachings were in their hands.

I understood that many years later, monks laid the first hands on the Pali Canon.
They translated these old poems, already adapted by monks, into Pali. And many years after that, mostly monks translated these translations into their languages.
Is it really fair to represent these poems as original spiritual women’s voices?

Let’s imagine a rare collection of ancient poetry by black people coming to the attention of modern black and white people worldwide. At last we might think. Now black people spread the poems within their communities, mostly through a creative adaptation sold on Amazon. A company where workers are slaves. Long before, the poetry was translated and written down by white people in their ancient language. Later on, it was once again translated by white people into modern languages. Some black people seem to neglect that they are reading an adaptation of a translation of a translation. And others don’t take it to heart once they realise it, as they are used to white supremacy. All they want, is to get to the heart of their black people’s voices. Very understandable. But will they?

I believe we need to be careful when representing (an adaptation of) a translation of a translation, mostly by men, as spiritual women’s voices. And it certainly doesn’t help by calling it “First Free Women” and selling it on Amazon, a white man’s company that has literally gone above and beyond to enslave his people. There is something very irreconcilable about spiritual freedom and Amazon.
I can’t believe people still don’t get that.

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It does seem highly likely that the Pali of the Therigatha is a translation of an earlier language or dialect, perhaps a collection of languages or dialects.
As to whether the original authors of the poems were men or women, or both, it seems impossible to say with certainty.
Perhaps it comes down to a question of saddhā, or faith.

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Dear Ayyas, thank you for coming on our forum and taking a step towards acknowledging your mistakes over the past year. To acknowledge ones’ errors and resolve to do better in the future is growth in the Dhamma.

As a demonstration of good faith, may I ask you to address the following issues.

  • Your response is expressed in a passive voice. Please consider rephrasing it in active voice so as to make it clear that you are taking responsibility for your own actions. For example, rather than “the difficulty that has resulted from the lack of clarity”, consider “the distress we caused by our misrepresentations”.
  • Your website is still actively promoting and linking to sites that sell Weingast’s book as a translation. Even this URL still says “poems of the early Buddhist nuns”.
  • Your website is still quoting from and referring to Weingast’s book as a translation.
  • You are still misframing events by reducing it to an error of “categorization and subtitle”. This was Shambhala’s error, which they have taken (albeit inadequate) steps to address. But the problem on your side is that you continually asserted that these were translations, that they are the words of the bhikkhunis, and they are not.
  • Ayya Anandabodhi’s “Core Values” essay contains errors and hurtful mischaracterizations in virtually every paragraph. Several of these have been pointed out in this Discourse thread, yet you have avoided acknowledging them or correcting the mistakes.
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Your comment seems an effort to cast doubt on whether Matty did any harm. You say the provenance of the Therīgāthā poems can’t be known, maybe they really had nothing to do with women, yada yada. It seems you want people to think the ancient scripture had little value before Matty continued a tradition of men messing with it.

Here’s how Matty described his process of drafting The FFW:

He read a nun’s poem from the Therīgāthā collection, meditated, noted the feeling that arose, then wrote a new poem to express the feeling. He then placed his new poem beneath the name of the nun, and called it a translation of her poem. Chapter by chapter he imitated the layout of the Therigatha with his poems replacing the original in all but 2 poems (one being the 1st poem - the poem that people are most likely to glance at to see if the collection looks legit).

Matty got a group of nuns to help him edit his poetry collection; Ayya Anandabodhi told me she was initially under the impression that they were helping to adapt a translation. These nuns whom he (accidentally?) misled would help create enthusiasm and a market for his book.

Matty sold his collection of new poems as a translation of the Therīgāthā book. Under American law, those book sales were fraudulent. A form of fraud, in fact, that the Fair Trade Commission would readily and swiftly address if any buyer were to simply submit a complaint onto their easy to use website, according to the FTC agent whom I consulted for info. (If Shambhala hadn’t retracted the book when they did, they’d likely be knee deep in paperwork from the FTC by now).

Today Matty posted to the effect that we all have our own truths. True in a way, but that doesn’t make his collection of new poetry into the ancient scripture that he presented it to be.

Now you add that the provenance of the Therīgāthā cannot be known for sure. There may be some truth to that, in part, but it is irrelevant to the issue that a text of ancient scripture as it has come down to us was completely hijacked by a man for his own purposes.

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It may be relevant to note that the Alokavihara appears to view this publication as one of it’s own books, as per their website

Our Books
The First Free Women ~ Matty Weingast & Ayya Anandabodhi, 2021 (our response to online critique)
Leaving It All Behind ~ Ayya Anandabodhi & Ayya Santacitta, 2019
Let the Light Shine ~ Reflections from Theravada Bhikkhunis, 2019
Aloka Vihara Chanting Book ~ 2011

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