Archives: Authors
Rafal K. Stepien
Rafal K. Stepien is Research Associate and European Research Council Principal Investigator within the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He also serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy, and his publications include Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature. He has held the inaugural Berggruen Research Fellowship in Indian Philosophy at Oxford, the inaugural Cihui Foundation Faculty Fellowship in Chinese Buddhism at Columbia, an Exchange Scholarship in the Study of Religion at Harvard, and a Humboldt Research Fellowship in Buddhist Studies at Heidelberg University.
Helen Tworkov
Helen Tworkov is the founding editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the first and only independent Buddhist magazine; the author of Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers; and the co-author, with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, of In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey through the Bardos of Living and Dying. She first encountered Buddhism in Japan and Nepal during the 1960s, and has studied in both the Zen and Tibetan traditions. She began studying with Mingyur Rinpoche in 2006 and currently divides most of her time between New York and Nova Scotia.
Sera Khandro
Sera Khandro (1892–1940) was one of the most prolific Tibetan female authors of the past several centuries. At the age of fifteen, she left her home in Lhasa for eastern Tibet, embarking on a lifetime devoted to her spiritual path. She became a spiritual master, a revealer of ancient hidden teachings, a mystic, a visionary, a writer, a mother, and a vagabond. Her written works and spiritual lineage have been preserved and are now cherished worldwide.
Christina Lee Monson
Christina Monson (1969–2023) was a Buddhist teacher and Tibetan language translator who studied Buddhism for over thirty years, beginning at Brown University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Monson journeyed to Nepal in 1989 where she met her root guru, Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche, under whose guidance she studied and practiced for the next twenty-seven years. Chatral Rinpoche first introduced her to Sera Khandro’s teachings, and Monson spent the last several years of her life translating Sera Khandro’s instructions into English.
John Dunne
John D. Dunne serves on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities at the Center for Healthy Minds. He is also chair of the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures. His work focuses on Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice, especially in dialog with Cognitive Science and Psychology. His more than fifty publications appear in venues ranging across both the Humanities and the Sciences, including Foundations of Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy (2004) and Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics: The Mind (2020). John Dunne speaks in both academic and public contexts, and he occasionally teaches for Buddhist communities. His broader engagements include being a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, where he was previously a member of the board of directors, and serving as an academic advisor to the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Sara McClintock
Sara L. McClintock (they/them) is a Buddhist philosopher and scholar of religion whose interests converge at the intersections of ethics, metaphysics, truth, and story. They obtained their PhD from Harvard in 2002, and are now an associate professor at Emory University, where they teach graduate and undergraduate courses in Indian and Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist narrative traditions, women in Buddhism, and interpretation theory in the study of religion. A specialist in the work of Santaraksita and Kamalasila, they also write and translate more broadly on topics in narrative, epistemology, and ethics. Their current book project is a philosophical exploration of the transactional and camouflagic nature of truth, drawing on ideas from Indian Buddhist thinkers and putting them in conversation with contemporary concerns. While not busy with teaching and research, their passion is to discover ever new ways to nourish freedom and joy in daily life.
Johan Elverskog
Johan Elverskog is Dedman Family Distinguished Professor, professor of religious studies, and, by courtesy, professor of history at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He is the author or editor of eleven books including the multiple award-winning Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road.
Melanie Anne Gin
Melanie Anne Gin (she/they), True Light of Aspiration, is a Zen Buddhist poet and social changemaker residing on Chochenyo Ohlone land (Oakland, California). She currently works with local governments to support well-being and equity in communities of color, and is building the beloved community with Plum Village sanghas.
Aruni Wijesinghe
Aruni Wijesinghe is a project manager, ESL teacher, occasional sous chef and erstwhile belly dance instructor. A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, her debut poetry collection, <em>2 Revere Place</em>, is available through Moon Tide Press and elsewhere. She lives a quiet life with her husband Jeff and their cats Jack and Josie.
Shin Yu Pai
Shin Yu Pai is Seattle's Civic Poet. She is the author of thirteen books, including <em>Less Desolate</em> (Blue Cactus) and <em>No Neutral</em> (Empty Bowl). She has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, Artist Trust, and 4Culture. Shin Yu Pai studied at Naropa University and earned her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ryan Lee Wong
Ryan Lee Wong, who holds an MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark, is the author of the novel "Which Side Are You On." He’s currently the administrative director of Brooklyn Zen Center, which oversees Ancestral Heart Temple, a residential training center where he lived for two years.
Stacy McClendon
Stacy McClendon (she/her) has been a student of Insight (Vipassana) meditation for nearly 20 years. Her home sangha is Common Ground Meditation Center, where she teaches and leads retreats. Stacy leads to promote strategies for understanding harmful stress reactions and responding with integrity, wisdom, and kindness. She offers mindfulness practices for employees and leaders in the public and private sectors, supporting skillful distress management and effective interpersonal engagement. Stacy is the Project Director for <a href="http://dharmarelief.org/healing-racial-trauma/">Dharma Relief 2</a>, an initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices and increasing the presence and longevity of Black dharma teachers.
Father Gregory Boyle
Father Gregory Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world.
Alisa Dennis
A teacher at Insight LA and Spirit Rock, Alisa Dennis is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice.
Rachel Goldsmith Turow
Rachel Goldsmith Turow is the author of <em>The Self-Talk Workout: Six Science-Backed Strategies to Dissolve Self-Criticism</em> and <em>Transform the Voice in Your Head.</em>
Reverend Michael Tran
Reverend Michael Tran is an ordained Buddhist minister who has practiced Buddhism for over thirty years. He’s provided compassionate, devoted spiritual care for over ten years, and provided Buddhist ritual services for over twenty years. He received a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Cultures from the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Divinity in Buddhist Chaplaincy from the University of the West. Rev. Tran completed Clinical Pastoral Education at USC Arcadia Hospital.
Cathryn Dhanatya
Cathryn is cofounder and president/CEO of Growing Good Inc., a professional services firm that partners with nonprofit organizations and companies who aim to do good in the world. She has lived and worked on five continents, earned her PhD in Social Science and Comparative Education from UCLA, and has led and conducted research on media and technology as it relates to health issues around the globe.
Bodhi Leaves
<em>Bodhi Leaves</em> is a monthly digital publication featuring articles and teachings written and curated by Asian American Buddhists. <a href="https://mailchi.mp/0099f1a2d01f/bodhi-leaves" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sign up </a>to receive Bodhi Leaves to your inbox.