Dhammadinna
For so long
I thought only of the river’s end.
Then one morning, I set my paddle down
to watch the sun rise over the eastern hills —
only to find myself floating — somehow gently upstream.
I promise it was not what I had expected.
Dhammadinna was a therī — an enlightened, senior nun among the first Buddhist women to be ordained. Her poems appear alongside fellow therīs’, who wrote about their lives, needs, and achievements in the Therīgāthā — the first known collection of female Buddhists’ udāna (“inspired utterances”).
Poets like Dhammadinna gave form to ephemeral phenomena and insight arising from disciplined practice that affected how they experienced themselves, others, and the world. Not only do udāna convey a specific and embodied knowledge about some situation, they carry the euphoria that’s related to the arising of transcendental insight. Because such insight leads to true freedom, it’s accompanied by joy. These poems are artifacts of truly somatic experiences and, as such, have the potential to be gateways for us, providing imaginative glimpses into what could be different for ourselves and the world.
