Buddhism beyond Gender: Liberation from Attachment to Identity

(Paperback)

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A prominent Buddhist scholar and practitioner challenges women and men to free themselves from the prison of gender roles. A bold and provocative work from the late preeminent feminist scholar, which challenges men and women alike to free themselves from attachment to gender. At the heart of Buddhism is the notion of egolessness-"forgetting the self"-as the path to awakening. In fact, attachment to views of any kind only leads to more suffering for ourselves and others. And what has a greater hold on people's imaginations or limits them more, asks Rita Gross, than ideas about biological sex and what she calls "the prison of gender roles" Yet if clinging to gender identity does, indeed, create obstacles for us, why does the prison of gender roles remain so inescapable Gross uses the lenses of Buddhist philosophy to deconstruct the powerful concept of gender and its impact on our lives. In revealing the inadequacies involved in clinging to gender identity, she illuminates the suffering that results from clinging to any kind of identity at all.

Reviews

Rita Gross offers readers an amazing example of a lifelong, ongoing commitment to feminist thinking and practice. Her visionary insistence that the path to ending patriarchal domination must lead us beyond gender is a revolutionary paradigm shift, one that can lead to greater freedom for everyone.bell hooks

Interma(treasure) traditions, texts appear in the world, mysteriously, at the precise moment when they will have the greatest benefit. Rita Grosss posthumously published book,Buddhism beyond Genderset to be released by Shambhala Publications at a time when clarity around gender is needed more than evermay be just such a treasure.Lions Roar

"In Buddhism Beyond Gender, Rita Gross provides her final and most candid assessment of the state of gender dynamics within Buddhism...This book feels as much as a scholarly culmination as it does a call to arms."Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies

The Buddhist scriptures tell us that we are neither male nor femalethat gender is an illusion, and that clinging to it just brings suffering. In this, her last book, Rita Gross, one of the founding figures in the feminist study of religion, explains why this is so. One of the few academics to speak from an insiders perspective, Professor Gross devoted most of her life to challenging the structures of patriarchy and oppression in the Buddhist traditionto repairing the tradition and making it more just. Buddhism beyond Gender is Rita Gross at her very best: clear, direct, insightful, and uncompromising. The book is not just an important contribution to Buddhism and gender studies, it is a practical guidebook on how to see through the fictions of gender identity and free oneself from the prison of gender roles so as to lead a more liberated life.Jos Ignacio Cabezn, Dalai Lama Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara

Author Bio

RITA M. GROSS (1943-2015) was Professor Emerita of Comparative Studies in Religion at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. An important figure in the study of women in religion in general, she was also a Vajrayana Buddhist practitioner and teacher, appointed a lopon by Mindrolling Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche. She is the author, coauthor, or editor of eleven books, including her classic Buddhism after Patriarchy- A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism.