Dharma Matters

de Jan Willis

"Jan Willis is the generation of those first Westerners who encountered exiled Tibetans, the most renowned teachers of the day, in India for the first time in the late sixties, instantly finding her spiritual and academic home, and she has engaged with virtually all of the great Tibetan Buddhist scholar-practitioners. Time magazine named Willis one of six "spiritual innovators for the new millenium" both for her considerable academic accomplishments and for her cultural relevance, as her writing engages head-on with issues current to Buddhist practitioners in America, including those from marginalized groups and dual-faith practitioners. This collection of 18 scholarly and popular essays spans a lifetime of reflection and experience by Willis. It addresses the relevancy of Buddhism to everyday people, particularly those outside of the dominant white male culture. Grouped in four sections-Women and Buddhism, Buddhism and Race, Tantric Buddhism and Saints' Lives, and Buddhist-Christian Comparative Reflections-the essays pose provocative questions that guarantee them to be timely, topical, and relevant to all Dharma practitioners in America: Why can't women fashion their own lineage outside of and apart from the patriarchal traditions? Can the stories of women ancestors empower contemporary women? Does one's race or ethnicity matter in Western Buddhist settings? Are there Black Buddhists in American, and how does it feel for them to practice in Buddhist centers? Can Buddhist Dharma in America teach both the "dominant" group and the "subordinate" group how to be free? Within tantric Buddhist narratives, Willis explores the sacred life story in its traditional hagiographic form but also gives readers access to the real story of living human beings outside of the formulaic narrative framework of the saints' lives. In the Buddhist-Christian reflections, Willis draws out how both traditions speak of the universal principle of love, thus drawing in dual-faith practitioners"--