Anne C. Klein is professor and chair of Religious Studies at Rice University. She is also a founding director and resident teacher of Dawn Mountain, a center for contemplative study and practice in Houston. Her publications include Path to the Middle (SUNY Press), Unbounded Wholeness, coauthored with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (Oxford University Press), and Knowledge and Liberation (Snow Lion Publications).
The paradox of identity-self with others-is examined by a Buddhist feminist and author who has studied under Tibetan lamas. After joining a women's studies program at Harvard Divinity School in 1982, Klein hoped to reshape dialog between the essentialist and postmodern feminists by encouraging selected Buddhist practices. Mindfulness, for instance, can foster a sense of uniqueness in women's caretaking roles. Visualizing Tibetan Queen Yeshey Tsogyel (eighth century) for meditation, women can be empowered by the "unconditioned self" to surpass personhood and transcend linguistic constraints. Recognizing that some feminists, especially postmodern constructivists, will find an "ungendered essence" distasteful, Klein uses Yeshey Tsogyel, the Great Bliss Queen, as an emblem of the clear mind sphere, beyond dualities and available to all. Rather difficult reading, this treatise is recommended for academic libraries.-Dara Eklund, Los Angeles P.L.
Despite their formidable differences, Buddhism and feminism share common ground, according to Klein, who has studied with refugee Tibetan lamas in India, Nepal and the U.S. and is an associate professor of religious studies at Rice University. In this erudite tome, she suggests that the open boundary between self and cosmos in Tibetan Buddhism can offer inspiration to Western women seeking to redefine interdependent selfhood in a male-centered world dominated by individualism. Klein describes Buddhist meditation techniques for cultivating compassion, then links these practices to feminists' quests to overcome dualisms (active/passive, reason/emotion) that tend to marginalize women in the West. Eighth-century Tibetan queen Teshel Tsogyel encouraged the spread of Buddhism and is identified today with the largely mystical Great Bliss Queen of wisdom and compassion. Klein sifts the literature on the blissful red queen for her relevance to women seeking connectedness, self-empowerment and active engagement with the world. (Jan.)
"At the same time there is an element of personal reflection in
Klein's work that makes the book immediately approachable and that
contextualizes the scholarly material in a way that is rare in
contemporary writing in the field of Buddhist studies. A work of
great erudition and sensitivity. A must-read for anyone interested
in the dialogue between Buddhism and feminism."-Jose Ignacio
Cabezon, Iliff School of Theology
"An astute and absorbing exploration of the interface between
Buddhism and Feminist perspectives."-Tsultrim Allione, founder of
Tara Mandala and author of Women of Wisdom
"A groundbreaking and important book. Klein is one of the few
scholars in the Buddhist studies field who has devoted serious
attention to the literature of Western feminism; likewise her long
experience in the field of Tibetan Buddhist study and practice
provides her with the solid grounding necessary to speak for that
tradition. The bringing together of these totally dissimilar worlds
holds great promise for adding new insights to contemporary
discussions of the nature of the self; indeed it is difficult to
imagine that the kind of conversation Klein proposes will not end
by profoundly transforming the participants on both sides."-Jan
Nattier, Indiana University
"This book is a breakthrough in feminist cross-cultural reflection
on self and subjectivity. An eminent scholar of Tibetan Buddhist
studies has distilled twenty-five years of her rich research and
personal experience in this compelling study. She succeeds in
showing the current relevance of Buddhism to Western feminists
without minimizing any of its challenge to certain notions about
selfhood. The conversation constructed around the Great Bliss Queen
is artful, elegant, and of importance to anyone interested in
feminist theory Buddhist religious philosophy in America and
different meanings of the self."-Nancy K. Frankenberry, Dartmouth
College
"Through the symbol of the Great Bliss Queen, a mythical figure of
Tibetan Buddhism, she explores the problems of a cross-cultural
dialogue between women. Klein's well-wrought work challenges
traditional understandings of Buddhist textual and interpretive
traditions as well as a number of feminist assumptions. The book
will be welcomed by those of us who examine gender issues in the
classroom as well as in our own work. Meeting the Great Bliss
Queen moves the debate forward and opens it to new
participants."-Bernard Faure, Stanford University
"Anne Carolyn Klein lays bare the interface between Buddhism and
the feminist world view with deep grasp of both. This is a lucid
and scholarly explanation of the western feminist standpoint placed
in matrix of the Buddhist thought process."-Tibet Journal
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