Fotografie Journalistiek Vormgeving

2000: Sylvia Wetzel: Feminist Buddhist Teacher

Sylvia Wetzel, Feminist Buddhist teacher in Germany
Text and photo’s by Marlies Bosch

Watching a video of the Dalai Lama talking to western Buddhist teachers in 1993 Sylvia Wetzel, a German feminist of the first generation, caught my attention. And not only mine.

She surprised the Dalai Lama and her colleagues, like Robert Thurman, Tenzin Palmo, Jack Kornfield and Stephen Batchelor with a very unusual visualization. She called on everyone present to imagine themselves in a Buddhist world in which all Buddhas, deities, and most importantly teachers were women. They were first in rank and made the rules. Now, she reminded them, you are all males entering into this totally female space. How does that make you feel? The Dalai Lama couldn’t really give an answer. He merely said it was an interesting picture about which he would have to think more. Her western colleagues in Buddhism however caught her message loud and clear. They chuckled.

Conference in Germany
Seven years after this video was made, at a conference in Cologne I actually met Sylvia Wetzel. There, in March 2000, for the first time in German Buddhist history, she and Sylvia Kolk, both well known within the Buddhist Communities In Germany and in Spain, organized a Conference for Buddhist women. They come from two different traditions: Mahayana-Vajrayana (Wetzel) and Theravada (Kolk). For many years they both have been giving courses and teachings for men and women who want to educate themselves in Buddhist matters. Much to my surprise over 1200 women crowded in the City Hall of a Cologne suburb to attend the opening ceremony on March 28th. It set off a fast-paced four day program on different Buddhist workshops during which many well known Buddhist teachers, like Joan Halifax and Tsultrim Allione, were asked to present. Already aware of her striking appearance on the videotape I had seen before, I was impressed by the way Sylvia Wetzel presented herself. Dedicated and down to earth. It was difficult to get some time with her for an interview. She was busy during the four days of the Conference. But on Saturday I was lucky: I was granted a short twenty minutes for an interview. After we sat down on a mattress in one of the rooms back stage, we talked for almost an hour.

Last night during the opening ceremony you mentioned that you were a student of Lama Yeshe’s. I have heard so much about him from a friend of mine who was one of his first students. How was meeting him for you?

Sylvia Wetzel: ‘Lama Yeshe was the great spiritual love of my life, the best thing that ever happened to me. He was very inspiring and encouraging. I met him in Dharamsala in 1977 on a stop over from China on the way home. With a women’s group we had been checking the situation of women in China. For me it was the second journey to the east. In Dharamsala I went for a walk with a girlfriend and we ran into two enrobed monks, Lama Zopa and Lama Yeshe as we soon found out. They were very friendly. Lama Yeshe said to us: ‘Hallo, what are you doing, where are you staying?’ We told them we stayed at the Tibetan Library and that we were studying Buddhism. ‘That is very good’ he answered, ‘and what are your plans for the future?’ We told him we were planning to go to Nepal, to the Kopan Monastery, to study. Then Lama Yeshe asked us who our teachers were. My friend said: ‘the Tibetan Lama at the library’. His answer came quickly: ‘then you better stay here’ and then to me: ‘and you?’ ‘I have no teacher so far’, I said. ‘You come’, he answered. So that is what I did. I went to Kopan to study with him. He was different from all other lamas I have ever met. While I was working with him I was convinced that every lama would be as open as he was. Every time he opened his mouth, what he said made sense. And I had no difficulties understanding him, the way I experienced later with some other lamas. Often, being a feminist at heart, I couldn’t relate to what they said. Only after Lama Yeshe had died in 1984 I realized what a special man he had been. At the time I found it quite normal that we could communicate so well. His courses in Kopan were just perfect for me. I stayed in Kopan for two years to study with him. In 1981 I became the director of his German Buddhist Center for eight years, the Arya Tara Institute. I translated most of the tapes with his English talks into German. So I spent half my adult life listening to his voice and his teachings. Even long after he had died he was still very close to me.’