Ruth Denison, one of the first female vipassana teachers in America and the first Buddhist teacher in the United States to lead an all-female meditation retreat, passed away on the morning of 26 February at the age of 92. Denison suffered a stroke earlier this month, and spent her last days cared for by a small group of dedicated students at her Dhamma Dena vipassana center in California. In keeping with her end-of-life instructions, she received no medical intervention, including intravenous fluids.
From lionsroar.com
Born on 29 September 1922 in Germany, even as a young girl Ruth Denison was extraordinary, hearing the voices of angels and communicating with a being that she thought of as God. She had moments of inner silence, so that even when abused by Russian soldiers in Berlin during World War II, she felt that she was repaying some kind of debt for the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler.
In the late 1950s she moved to Los Angeles, where she met her husband, Harry Denison. They were part of a group that was interested in spiritual awakening, and Alan Watts gave talks on Eastern philosophy in their home. Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Ram Dass, and Lama Govinda, to name a few, were also a part of this alternative community.
The Denisons were drawn to Zen Buddhism and traveled to Asia in 1960, where they visited Zen monasteries in Japan. While in Burma they met Sayagyi U Ba Khin, who introduced them to vipassana, or insight meditation, which was unknown in the West at the time. They stayed with him for three months before returning to Los Angeles, where they resumed their Zen practice. Denison’s thoughts kept turning to vipassana, however, and so she returned to Burma to study with Sayagyi U Ba Khin. In 1969, he authorized her and several others to teach vipassana in the West.
Denison was now one of the first female Buddhist teachers in the West. She taught throughout Europe for four years, and then returned to California to introduce insight meditation there. In 1977 she bought five acres in Joshua Tree, founding the center Dhamma Dena, named after the bhikkhuni disciple of the Buddha, Dhammadinna.
Robert Beatty, a long-time student of Denison, kept her followers updated about her condition following her stroke. On the first day he wrote, “Please let us create a field of loving kindness to support her on her journey. One thing we can all do for Ruth is to practice metta. It’s not necessary to be with her in form to connect with her. As Ruth holds us in her heart we hold her in ours. She taught for decades that we should practice remembering that we are infinitely more than these bodies.” (ruthdenison.com)
A documentary film, The Silent Dance of Life, is being made about Denison’s extraordinary life, directed and produced by Aleksandra Kumorek. It contains over 100 hours of live footage taken over the past four years, of Ruth and the Dhamma Dena meditation center. Filming is already complete, and there is currently an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to bring the film through the editing and post-production phases.
Ruth Denison’s life was not just an example of an accomplished teacher of insight meditation but also one of a female pioneer, a progressive thinker, and a great practitioner.