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[Last updated: 28 March 1994]
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"THE BUDDHA'S WAY AND ABORTION - LOSS, GRIEF AND RESOLUTION" 
a lecture by Yvonne Rand, Sensei.

Originally published in: Mind Moon Circle, Autumn 1994, pp.5-8.

This text addresses some of the most fundamental and delicate
religious issues. Therefore, it should be read, quoted and analysed in
a mindful way.

All copyrights to this document belong to Yvonne Rand, California, USA.

Enquiries: The Editor, "Mind Moon Circle", Sydney Zen Centre, 251
Young St., Annandale, Sydney, NSW 2038, Australia. Tel: + 61 2 660
2993
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The Buddha's Way and Abortion: Loss, Grief and Resolution

by

Yvonne Rand

(Yvonne is a Zen Buddhist priest and meditation teacher in the San
Francisco Bay area.)

Attitudes about abortion have given birth to heartbreaking
polarization and violence. The need for a safe and respectful meeting
ground for everyone concerned now overrides the issues themselves. My
own view on the issues may appear inconsistent on the surface, for I
am anti-abortion and pro-choice, but what concerns me these days is
the intolerance and intemperance which prevent any harmony between the
contending camps. I see remarkable grief in people as an aftermath to
abortions and miscarriages and no container in which to heal that
grief.

The perspective on abortion I present here has developed through my
experiences as a practicing Buddhist and as a Zen priest. In
conducting memorial ceremonies under the benevolent auspices of Jizo
Bodhisattva, I have come to appreciate the capacity the Buddha Dharma
gives us to accept what is painful and difficult. In Japan, Jizo is
the much loved form of the Bodhisattva of the underworld; he is the
emanation of compassion which guides and protects transmigrators into
and out of life.

My first encounter with Jizo happened in 1969 after a dear friend of
mine died in a train accident in Japan. Several years earlier, my
friend had gone on a search for himself which ended at a Zen
monastery. His sudden death was a blow and I grieved his passing
deeply. Later that year I found myself driving Suzuki Roshi to
Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre from San Francisco. When I told him that
I had been taking care of a footlocker holding my friend's precious
belongings (music, a flute, essays, books drawings), Suzuki Roshi
suggested that we burn the belongings in the stone garden near his
cabin at Tassajara. After a proper funeral and fire ceremony, we
buried the ashes in the rock garden, and marked the spot with a small
stone figure of Jizo.

This, my first meeting with Jizo, affected me deeply. For some years
afterwards, I could not explain my pull to the figure of this
sweet-faced monk with hands in the mudra of prayer and greeting.

Several years after this funeral ceremony, I terminated an unexpected
pregnancy by having an abortion. I suffered after the abortion, but it
was not until some years had passed that I came to fully understand my
grieving and/or the resolution to which I eventually came.

Subsequently, I began spending time in Japan and became reacquainted
with Jizo. Figures of Jizo are everywhere there. I saw firsthand that
Jizo ritual and ceremony involved not just graveyards and death in
general, but particularly the deaths of infants and foetuses through
abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth. Back home, during the 1970's and
1980's, women had begun coming to me and asking if I could help them
with their difficulties in the aftermath of an abortion or a
miscarriage. In consequence I began doing a simple memorial service
for groups of people who had experienced the deaths of foetuses and
babies. After many years of counselling both men and women I decided,
three years ago, to spend several months in Japan doing a focused
study of the Jizo practices.

Initially, I did the ceremony only with women. But now I include men
and children as well. The participants are neither all pro-choice nor
all pro-life in their politics; a full spectrum of opinion and belief
is represented in the circle we make. Many of the people who come are
not Buddhists. Yet somehow this old Buddhist way seems to absorb
whoever does come.

What the ceremony accomplishes is to provide a means for people to be
with what is so, no matter how painful that may be. Being
fundamentally awake to what is so is a great path, open to us all. The
path means awakening to what is truly and specifically so, rather than
remaining narcotized or habitually preoccupied by our fears and
desires, our loves and hates. Ignorance and unconciousness make us
lose our way and cause great suffering to ourselves and others. Sex,
as we know, can lead to pregnancy. Failure to consider the gestative
potential of sexuality can result in suffering for the lifetime of
many lives over multiple generations. Women who have had abortions are
sometimes haunted for decades afterwards.

Each of those who attend our ceremonies has suffered the death of one
or more small beings. Strangers assemble with their grief and
unresolved dismay. Over time I have been struck by how successfully
the ceremony has provided a container for the process of acknowledging
what is so, for encompassing what is difficult, and for bringing about
resolution and healing. When I initially performed the Buddhist
Memorial Ceremony, I followed a quite traditional form. Slowly I have
modified and added to it in a way that seems to work better for
Americans.

The ceremony is as follows: we sit in silence, sewing a bib or hat for
one of the compassion figures on the altar. The figures are from
different cultures: Jizo, Mary with Jesus, "Spirit entering and
leaving" from the Eskimo people, or a mother and child. Our commitment
is to listen to those who wish to talk without attempting to give
advice or comfort. Some of know from twelve-step meetings of the
important practice of simply listening.

The principle of "no crosstalk'' provides safety from uninvited
comforting and solicitude, and many find it to be the most healing of
possible attentions. After this, we walk to the garden, form a circle,
and go through a simple ceremony of acknowledging a particular life
and death. One by one, each person says whatever is in his or her
heart while offering incense, placing the sewn garments on one of the
altar figures and bowing. We then chant the Heart Sutra, give the
unborn beings Dharma names and say goodbye to them. Prayer sticks are
made and inscribed with prayers for forgiveness and for the wellbeing
of those who have died. No names are signed. The prayers are hung from
the bushes and trees in the meditation garden, thus committing our
messages to the wind and the rains. Afterwards we have a cup of tea,
walk in the garden, and go home with a quieter heart.

Over the years, I continue to learn from the people who participate.
About seven or eight years ago, at a conference for Women in Buddhism,
I led the Jizo ceremony for a large group of conference participants.
At the end of the ceremony a woman spoke about her own experience. She
described herself as a nurse midwife who did a lot of abortion
counselling. After undergoing an abortion herself, she had begun to
ask women who came to her for help to first go home and talk to the
foetus they were carrying. She encouraged each woman to tell the baby
all the reasons for her inner conflict about the pregnancy. She
reported that the number of spontaneous miscarriages that occured was
remarkable.

After hearing this woman's story, I began to hear about a similar
practice of speaking to the foetus in other cultures: in Cambodia, in
the Netherlands, and among native peoples in America, to name a few. I
find great sense in this practice. Speaking to the foetal baby is a
way to recognise and acknowledge that the being in utero also is a
presence, also has a voice, also has some concern for the outcome. I
continue to be struck by the deep rightness of such an attitude in the
midst of the suffering that comes with conflict over a pregnancy.

I have added modern touches to the ceremony. Yet the wisdom it
embraces comes from traditional Buddhist teachings which, although
steeped in history, nevertheless offer profound guidance for the
current conflict over abortion. For me, the Buddha's first grave
precept - not to kill intentionally - cannot be denied, much less
minimized. Since I am convinced that the teaching embodied in the
precept is correct, both conventionally and ultimately; and since
adherence to it is a necessary step on the path that leads away from
suffering, I feel compelled to take a stand against abortion.

At the same time, I can readily and willingly keep someone company
when abortion is the choice she has arrived at. I am strongly in
favour of the freedom of each individual to chose what to do for
herself regarding a conflicted pregnancy. I could not and would not
advocate a return to the years when the government controlled the
woman's decision. In 1955 when abortion was illegal, almost one out of
four American women had an abortion by the age of forty-five, and some
perished in the process.

What, then, is the solution? My experiences as a Buddhist priest
continues to teach me that looking into a situation in detail, without
glossing over what is unpleasant or difficult, is what helps us to
stay present and clear and break through ignorance. This is certainly
true in the potent realms of sexuality, fertility and gestation. The
premise of restraint, which underlies all the Buddha's precepts and is
fundamental in the practice of compassion, is also of critical
importance in how we lead our sexual lives. Through the precepts and
through the practice of awareness of what is so, we can understand our
previous actions and make wise decisions about future actions. By
contrast, action which is based on unexamined and habitual thought
patterns - implanted in childhood and reinforced by the generalities,
platitudes and superficialities of the common culture perpetuates
ignorance and sentences us to ever-renewing suffering.
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