Anne C. Klein on Becoming a Buddha & Being Human too

New Books in Buddhist Studies

You’re human, but are you also a Buddha? If so, which one comes first? What does it mean to be human? What is a Buddha exactly? Is our humanity lost or superseded if we become a Buddha? Such questions might interest our more philosophical listeners.

Being Human and a Buddha Too (Wisdom Publications, 2023) by today’s guest Anne Klein explores the 7-point mind training of Longchenpa, a 14th century Tibetan Scholar and Yogi from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Anne is professor of religion at Rice University, a co-founder of the Dawn Mountain centre for Tibetan Buddhism in Housten, Texas, and a lama in the Nyingma tradition herself.

Her key research areas are Tibet and Indian epistemology, Tibetan texts and language. We touch on the following themes and questions;

• How do you manage the dual roles of university academic and Nyingma Lama?
• Buddhism in the West has gone through a lot and very quickly since its more prominent emergence in the 1960s. Do you have any thoughts on Buddhism’s future in the west and whether it will maintain any significant presence once its key teachers from the boomer generation begin to pass away?
• Whether its problematic teachers, or, and perhaps more importantly, the insistence on a model that it antithetical to western modes of teacher student interaction, the Tibetan Lama, guru and core figure cannot escape a compatibility issue with Western norms. Worse for some still, there is also an increasing lack of teacher availability for those willing to embrace this model. Thoughts?
• What are we to do with language and the hermeneutic challenges its presents for translators of old Tibetan texts?
• Why this book? Why now?
• You have a series of events coming up, including retreats with translators in Germany, Switzerland and in Italy. Can you tell us about that and how listeners can get involved if they wish to?

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