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Buddhism beyond Gender: Liberation from Attachment to Identity
Kindle Edition
by Rita M. Gross (Author), Judith Simmer-Brown (Introduction)
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Format: Kindle Edition
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Length: 189 pages Word Wise: Enabled Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“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
“In terma (treasure) traditions, texts appear in the world, mysteriously, at the precise moment when they will have the greatest benefit. Rita Gross’s posthumously published book, Buddhism beyond Gender—set to be released by Shambhala Publications at a time when clarity around gender is needed more than ever—may be just such a treasure.”—Lion’s 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 female—that 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 insider’s perspective, Professor Gross devoted most of her life to challenging the structures of patriarchy and oppression in the Buddhist tradition—to ‘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.”—José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
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About the Author
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. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
Product details
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File Size: 1358 KB
Print Length: 189 pages
Publisher: Shambhala (March 27, 2018)
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B076NPZW4F
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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Customer reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
3 customer ratings
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Top Reviews
Top Reviews
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinarily insightful
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2018
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I found this book to be extraordinarily insightful. As a Buddhist practitioner--one who cares deeply about the issues of gender but feels they are underrepresented or glossed over--this book was a revelation. The main theme is that attachment to gender roles—of any gender—creates suffering. The author refers to this as the “prison of gender roles.” But ultimately, the view in Buddhism is that attachment to any fixed views or fixed identity leads to suffering. She shows both how we as individuals can find freedom (through emptiness, or egolessness) and how Buddhist traditions can address this. I love the author’s occasional personal anecdotes of how she’s confronted issues related to gender roles in her own life.
As for the one-star review that exists for this book, my impression is that the reviewer missed the forest for the trees, though I wish them the best.
15 people found this helpful
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Lisa Rayner
1.0 out of 5 stars people like my transgender wife
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2018
Shambala Publications has disgraced itself by publishing this book by an openly transphobic author. Transphobia hurts real human beings every day, people like my transgender wife, and me, a non-binary person. Rita Gross gave talks about the book while she was writing it. Even though she died before she could write about transgender people, leaving a placeholder in the book, it is clear that what she would have written would likely have been transphobic. Before her death, she expressed much ignorance about transgender people. She also appeared to conflate gender roles with gender identity, like many 2nd wave feminists still do (trans exclusionary feminists who believe, wrongly, that transgender women are not women). There is plenty of scientific data on the effects of hormone timing in the womb on the sex and gender of developing embryos. The Endocrine Society recently published a position statement that transgender identity is not a mental illness and that biology underlies gender identity. The commenters on this page who are writing transphobic opinions are just making the situation worse. When did science-denialism become “Buddhist” Transphobic Buddhist feminists. What a horrific perspective on Buddhism and 2nd wave feminism. Where’s the empathy and compassion for the real human beings who are discriminated against and treated poorly every day because they were born transgender? Shambala Publications has harmed the public perception of Buddhism. I will never look at this company or Buddhism the same benign way again.
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9 people found this helpful
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