From Being Bodies, Buddhist Women on the Dilemma of Embodiment,
edited by Susan Moon and Lenore Friedman, Shambala, 1997
Chapter by Barbara Brodsky
No Eye, Ear, Nose…
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
No form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or objects of mind…
Prajnaparimita Hridaya Sutra
No ear; no sound; no realm of hearing: in 1972 I lost my hearing and all the inner ear
nerves which effect balance. This loss has been my life’s greatest burden and greatest gift.
I dealt with this loss the way I’d always dealt with difficulties, which was to put my energy
into the coping and not allow myself any self-pity. I was the mother of an infant, and although I felt
vulnerable and sick, my upbringing didn’t allow me to be needy. Coping “well” helped me to feel
safe and in control at a time of my life when my physical condition was so terribly out of control. I
couldn’t hear; I couldn’t even stand, walk, read or focus my eyes as the world swirled dizzily by my
sick-bed in nauseating spirals. I was encapsulated in a bubble which none of the world’s voices
could penetrate.
After a month … continue