Buddhist practices such as mindfulness - in which calm centering and keen awareness of change coexist - and compassion - in which the self is recognized as both powerful in itself and interdependently connected with all others - can be important resources for contemporary Western women. Likewise, feminism can expand the traditional horizons of Buddhist concerns to include social, historical, and psychological issues.

In this collection of original essays, international scholars put Asian traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, into conversation with one or more contemporary feminist philosophies, founding a new mode of inquiry that attends to diverse voices and the complex global relationships that define our world. These cross-cultural meditations focus on the liberation of persons from suffering, oppression, illusion, harmful conventions and desires, and other impediments to full personhood by deploying a methodology that traverses multiple philosophical styles, historical texts, and frames of reference. Hailing from the discipline of philosophy in addition to Asian, gender, and religious studies, the contributors offer a fresh take on the classic concerns of free will, consciousness, knowledge, objectivity, sexual difference, embodiment, selfhood, the state, morality, and hermeneutics. One of the first anthologies to embody the practice of feminist comparative philosophy, this collection creatively and effectively engages with global, cultural, and gender differences within the realms of scholarly inquiry and theory construction.

Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tāre Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. In fifty-six letters exchanged from 1978 to 1980, Tāre Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche envisioned a shared destiny to "heal the damage" done to Buddhism during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. Holly Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of their courtship and its consummation in a twenty-year religious career that informs issues of gender and agency in Buddhism, cultural preservation among Tibetan communities, and alternative histories for minorities in China. The correspondence between Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche is the first collection of "love letters" to come to light in Tibetan literature. Blending tantric imagery with poetic and folk song styles, their letters have a fresh vernacular tone comparable to the love songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama, but with an eastern Tibetan flavor. Gayley reads these letters against hagiographic writings about the couple, supplemented by field research, to illuminate representational strategies that serve to narrate cultural trauma in a redemptive key, quite unlike Chinese scar literature or the testimonials of exile Tibetans. With special attention to Tare Lhamo's role as a tantric heroine and her hagiographic fusion with Namtrul Rinpoche, Gayley vividly shows how Buddhist masters have adapted Tibetan literary genres to share private intimacies and address contemporary social concerns.

A beautiful, evocative, and eminently useful array of texts sharing the foundational practices from Jigme Lingpa's Heart Essence transmission. These foundational practices have for over three centuries been one of the most widely practiced and beloved gateways to Dzogchen in Tibet. Like most Tibetan practices, these are chanted in solitary practice or in groups, their words supporting the vision, emotion, and understanding being cultivated. This compilation of texts includes the story, history, music, and commentaries to help practitioners more fully understand the elements of the practice. A link to downloadable audio of the chants in English is included, so that practitioners can absorb the meaning while also following along with the chants written in English and Tibetan.

A Buddhist manual for replacing an anxious, narrow, uncomfortable identity with one that is expansive, peaceful, and capable. In the shamanic worldview of Tibet, the five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space are accessed through the raw powers of nature and through non-physical beings associated with the natural world. The Tibetan tantric view recognizes the elements as five kinds of energy in the body and balances them with a program of yogic movements, breathing exercises, and visualizations. In Dzogchen teachings, the elements are understood to be the radiance of being, and are accessed through pure awareness. Healing with Form, Energy, and Light offers the reader healing meditations and yogic practices on each of these levels. Tenzin Rinpoche's purpose is to strengthen our connection to the sacred aspect of the natural world and to present a guide that explains why certain practices are necessary and in what situations practices are effective or a hindrance. And the world too is transformed from dead matter and blind processes into a sacred landscape filled with an infinite variety of living forces and beings. "The secrets freely given in this volume can help us lay sound foundations for whatever yogic practice we may adopt. Tenzin Rinpoche has rendered all a great service." —Yoga Studies

Explaining Dzogchen teachings for the Western audience, this text provides a study and translation of the 'Authenticity of Open Awareness', a foundational text of the Bon Dzogchen tradition. This book provides an introductory and explanatory material that situates it in the context of Tibetan thought.