In 1979, Maura O’Halloran, a young woman from Ireland, applied for entry to a traditional Zen monastery in Tokyo—one of the few western women accepted in this very male world. After only 6 months her Roshi proclaimed with astonishment that she had achieved enlightenment.
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“Suddenly I understood that we must take care of things just because they exist." Yet she did not consider enlightenment something to cling to. She wished to go deeper, to empty herself to serve others in the way of compassion. “If I have another 50 or 60 yrs (who knows?)...
...I want to live it for other people...So I must go deeper and work hard, no longer for me, but for everyone I can help.” After 2 years of training and on her way home to Ireland she was killed in a bus accident on 10/22/82 at age 27. bit.ly/35TsBOD
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Her short road to holiness in a Zen monastery has been compared to the compressed career of Therese of Lisieux, the French nun who set out as a child to become a saint. It is likely that Maura would have identified with Therese’s hope to spend her heaven doing good on earth.
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