Among all the many interesting opportunities at this year’s General Assembly there have been (or will be) some fascinating Buddhist possibilities. Later today the social activist, deep ecologist and Buddhist scholar (as well as one of my teachers during my seminary years) Joanna Macy will be addressing “Spiritual Practices for the Great Turning.” This event is sponsored jointly by the UU Ministry for Earth and the Ferry Beach Park Association. Earlier in the week Buddhist writer and social justice activist Will Tuttle spoke on “Eating for Sustainability, Peace, and Spiritual Health,” sponsored by UUs for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
For me the high point has been Dr Rita Gross’s presentation “What the Buddha Really Said about Gender.” This event was jointly sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship and (I’m terribly sorry, but I don’t have the organizations exact name in front of me, so I’ll return and correct this) the Women and Religion Taskforce.
Professor Gross is Emerita Professor of Comparative Studies in Religion at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Professor Gross has written or edited ten books and over two hundred articles and essays on Buddhism, feminism and related areas. A life-long scholar practitioner she began Vajrayana practice under the direction of the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche. To use her Buddhist title, Acharya Gross has been authorized as a meditation teacher and Vajrayana Buddhist spiritual director by the Venerable Khandro Rinpoche, one of the few Tibetan Buddhist women teaching in North America. Most notably, perhaps, Dr Gross is author of Buddhism after Patriarchy, Feminism and Religion: An Introduction, and most recently Soaring and Settling: Buddhist Perspectives on Contemporary Social and Religious Issues, a spectacularly important book in the development of contemporary Buddhism.
What an honor to hear her speak…
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