Books by Anne Carolyn Klein
Women and Interreligious Dialogue Series 3 , 2013
When we inquire into gender and our lived experience as men and women, we generally use terms lik... more When we inquire into gender and our lived experience as men and women, we generally use terms like "women" and "feminine" in juxtaposition to "men" and "masculine." These categories are part of a living dialogue, of conversations emerging through shifting sets of culturally determined dichotomies and polarities. To the extent that this is so, the poles of female and male get lined up with other polarities fundamental to cultural constructions of personhood-mind and body, self and other, intellect and emotion, abstract and particular, strong and weak. This has long been recognized in feminist discourse, and I have long been interested in how this plays out in spiritual perspectives.
Wisdom, 2023
An edited excerpt pulling together segments of my new book, "Being Human and a Buddha Too." It's... more An edited excerpt pulling together segments of my new book, "Being Human and a Buddha Too." It's about finding wholeness in life, and a prelude to the sevenfold mind training of Longchenpa, whih itelf is the story of a dance with one's own true and intimate nature. A kind of ultimate love story. Enjoy!
Path to the Middle: Oral Madhyamaka in Tibet, 1994
Introduction discusses the genre and importance of scholarly oral commentary in Tibet. Detailed s... more Introduction discusses the genre and importance of scholarly oral commentary in Tibet. Detailed scholarly oral commentary on the opening verses of Chapter VI,
on emptiness, of Tsongkhapa's Illumination of the thought (dbU ma dgongs pa rab gsal), his commentary on Candrakirti's Entrance to the Middle Way (dbU ma 'jug pa).
FICTION! SHORT STORIES by Anne Carolyn Klein
Articles by Anne Carolyn Klein
Traditional ritual can seem out of sync with modern day practitioners. A closer look at our resis... more Traditional ritual can seem out of sync with modern day practitioners. A closer look at our resistance to ritual can itself open a portal to greater freedom. The starting point here is ritual in the context of Tibetan Buddhist practice. What modern lines does it invite us to cross? What idioms does it scramble? What What kind of dialogue does it inspire ? Such questions themselves suggest a contemporary style of engagement with tradition.
Description of the cultural, ritual, and social understandings associated with the practice of a... more Description of the cultural, ritual, and social understandings associated with the practice of a Hail Master, charged with the important task of protecting crops . Based on extensive discussion with the renowned Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, who was a successful Hail Master in Tibet until the early 1960's. The main texts for his practice are Ser bsrung gnams ljags gur kha (Tent House Guarding Agagainst Hail ) and rTa mkhrin gsnang sgrub gyi sgo nas ser ba bsrung ba'i gdams pa ma rlung 'khrugs pa'i gter (Intstructions for holding off ferocious fire and water), both by Rig 'dzin 'god gyi ldem phru can (1333-1409)
Image by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | https://tricy.cl/2x9KRnS The headlines roar. The feel... more Image by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | https://tricy.cl/2x9KRnS The headlines roar. The feelings, however, are more nuanced. A disaster this big throws both shade and light, just like meditation itself can do. Our own and others' afflictions are exacerbated, and our goodness shines brighter. That's what we've seen here in Houston. I'm riveted by the overwhelming elemental power of the storm, the angry people waiting in long lines at gas stations, and the heartwarming human grace the situation inspires in people of so many races, religions, and nationalities in what has become the most diverse city in the United States. By late Friday afternoon we had shopped for food, despite empty shelves not seen here since Hurricane Rita, the last big hurricane that hit in 2005. The rain cut loose completely after that. Not silently, but with loud bouts of thunder following big bolts of lightning. Even though I think I know what a hurricane can do, I'm stunned at what the freshly unleashed forces of nature feel like. Below the skies dripping with menace and amid the streams and bayous bursting their basins were people from all walks of life helping their neighbors. Among them, a Jesse Gonzalez and his son rescued people in southeast Houston by boat. On Monday I first learned of the Louisiana Cajun Navy, born in the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, who brought their vessels to Houston to help.
Papers by Anne Carolyn Klein
Contemporary Buddhism
Abstract In fourteenth-century Tibet, Longchen Rabjam drew from classic Indian Buddhist writing a... more Abstract In fourteenth-century Tibet, Longchen Rabjam drew from classic Indian Buddhist writing and early Dzogchen tantric poetry to articulate unique features of the Great Completeness (Dzogchen] tradition. I trace here the pivotal shifts he describes: he upturns classic Buddhist views of self and senses. For the senses are not problems, they are portals to reality. The state of awakening, enlightened mind, bodhicitta, is not a goal to achieve, but the way things are. The path does not go anywhere, it simply opens. Wisdom, the ultimate truth, suffuses mind, body and world. Recognising this wisdom evokes in practitioners feelings of wonder, amusement and spacious delight. Longchenpa’s narrative is rooted in confidence that these qualities are so natural that they are bound to be elicited through practice. Therefore, in closing, I connect some of his key points with a more contemporary manner of eliciting feeling and knowing that otherwise remains occult to us.
TANTRA in Practice , 2000
A short text by Dodrupchen III( rdo grub chen 03 'jigs med bstan pa'i nyi ma, b 1865), with oral ... more A short text by Dodrupchen III( rdo grub chen 03 'jigs med bstan pa'i nyi ma, b 1865), with oral commentary by Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, expounding on the Dzgchen meaning of Manjushri's name. Describes the meaning of smoothe, (manju), splendid (shri) and fresh (ghosha) in the context of the base, path, and fruit that are a core stucture of Dzogchen practice and philosophical discourse.
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion
Emmanuel/A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, 2013
From the earliest days of Buddhist teachings, it was made clear that neither the teaching itself,... more From the earliest days of Buddhist teachings, it was made clear that neither the teaching itself, nor the realization of it, was a matter simply of speaking words or of understanding them. Refuge, for example, is something Buddhists recite every day. Yet refuge is not just words. It is an experience born of learning, refl ection, and the wisdom of meditation that these make possible. This wisdom, though widely described as inconceivable and inexpressible, is capable of becoming fully evident. The practices that make it evident go beyond texts to include posture, chanting, movement, imagination, the performing and visual arts, ethical orientation, and more. These are related not only with words or ideas but also with the felt sense of the body, touching on the shifts in energy that accompany even the most elementary practices. The wisdom of meditation requires the movement of energy. This energy is the mount or steed of consciousness and experientially all but indistinguishable from knowing itself. These energies must be part of what we consider when we look into the living practices of Buddhist communities. Body as Dynamic Mystery Meditation practices are the revered heart of Buddhist culture, even if relatively few persons seriously engage them. Meditation is the culmination of the three wisdoms of listening, refl ection, and meditation. 1 Our way of inquiring into meditation and meditators will focus not only on their texts and instructions or even on the practices themselves. We take interest in the multiple dimensions of learning that these practices are meant to foster:
Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts, 2019
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Books by Anne Carolyn Klein
on emptiness, of Tsongkhapa's Illumination of the thought (dbU ma dgongs pa rab gsal), his commentary on Candrakirti's Entrance to the Middle Way (dbU ma 'jug pa).
FICTION! SHORT STORIES by Anne Carolyn Klein
Articles by Anne Carolyn Klein
Papers by Anne Carolyn Klein
on emptiness, of Tsongkhapa's Illumination of the thought (dbU ma dgongs pa rab gsal), his commentary on Candrakirti's Entrance to the Middle Way (dbU ma 'jug pa).
http://www.tricycle.com/blog/across-expanse