Irish female Zen Buddhist saint: O'Halloran

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Score: 4.4 out of 5 stars (with 45 ratings)

It's days like this in LA, sunny and green from the pre-spring rains, that the mind takes to wondering about Zen and Saint Soshin Maura O'Halloran (\oh hollerin\), who attained (kensho) in the Zen tradition.

Maura "Soshin" O'Halloran (1955-1982) was an Irish Zen Buddhist nun known for her book, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, which was posthumously published.

She was one of the "first of few Western women allowed to practice in a traditional Japanese Zen monastery."

What is the true nature of things?

O'Halloran was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents then moved back to Ireland when she was 4-years-old. She was educated in a convent school in County Dublin and later attended Trinity College Dublin.

She graduated with a joint degree in mathematical economics/statistics and sociology. Shortly after her graduation, O'Halloran traveled to northern Japan, where she studied to become a Zen monastic at Tōshō-ji in Tokyo and at Kannonji (Iwate Prefecture). More

In 1979, 24-year-old Maura O'Halloran

left her waitressing job in Boston and began

her study of Zen in Japan. Today she is

revered as a "Zen Buddhist saint," and a

statue stands in her honor at the Japanese

Zen Buddhist monastery where she lived.

This is the story of her journey.

At 23 she left Harvard Square for Tokyo?

The Zen Journals of Maura "Soshin" O'Halloran (Gale Literature Resource Center)

After the ecstasy, the laundry...and always the dishes.

Commonweal readers already know of Maura O'Halloran, 23, whose mother, Ruth O'Halloran, wrote about her daughter's life in an essay published on Feb. 28, 1992.

A scholarship student at Trinity College, Dublin, who "early gave promise of a rare spirituality," Maura O'Halloran left a waitressing job in Harvard Square at age 23 to begin an apprenticeship as a Buddhist monastic at a zendo in Japan.

There, too, she showed uncommon gifts early on: She glimpsed enlightenment almost immediately and solved koans with the aplomb of a veteran Zen master. She stayed at the zendo for most of two years, resolved to "not stop until I reach complete enlightenment."

In 1982, intending to return to her family in Dublin, she had set out on a trip through Asia when she was killed in a bus accident in Thailand.

Since then "Maura-san," or "Soshin" -- celebrated during her lifetime in the Japanese media as an anomaly of anomalies, a female Irish Zen monastic -- has come to be regarded as a Buddhist bodhisattva or "saint of compassion."

Now, prompted by the Commonweal article, Tuttle & Co. has published the journal Maura "Soshin" O'Halloran kept while at the Buddhist monastery, along with letters she wrote to her family and a series of delicate, lovely drawings by her younger sister, Elizabeth.

Together they form a remarkable record of a life fully lived, a unique and inspiring and even heartbreaking book.

On one level Soshin's personal journal is an account of her determined progress toward Zen enlightenment (satori).

In an afterword, the American Zen monastic Patricia Dai-En Bennage sees it as a "record of a pure heart" (soshin) and a summary of her way, or teaching: "intense meditation, known as zazen, for long hours in natural...  More

Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Life and Letters of an Irish Zen Saint

Maura O'Halloran (author), Beth O'Halloran (illustrator), Ruth O'Halloran (intro)

One of the most beloved Buddhist books of all time — having inspired popular musicians, artists, a documentary film, and countless readers — is now available in an expanded new edition, loaded with illustrations and extras.

It's absolutely absorbing from start to finish. This is a true story to truly fall in love with. At only 24, Maura O'Halloran left her Irish-American family in the States and traveled to Japan, where she began studying under a Zen Buddhist master.

She would herself become recognized as a Zen master, in an uncommonly brief amount of time.

What mighty lass made a go of Zen and satori?

Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind is Maura O'Halloran's beautifully-written account of her journey. These journal entries and letters home reveal astonishing, wise-beyond-her-years humor, compassion, wisdom, and commitment.

This expanded edition includes never-before-seen entries and poems, the author's unfinished novel, and an afterword that discusses the book's cultural impact.

It will be a must have for her fans and admirers and will surely find her thousands of new ones. More