Soaring and settling : Buddhist perspectives on contemporary social and religious issues / Rita M. Gross.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-232) and index.

Overview: Buddhist Practice, Feminism, and Social Concern -- Pt. 1. The Road Less Chosen: Becoming a Feminist Buddhist Scholar-Practitioner -- Introduction: Autobiography and Feminist Method -- 1. The Female Body and Precious Human Birth: An Essay on Anger and Meditation -- 2. Crying in the Prophetic Voice as a Buddhist Feminist -- 3. Why Me? Reflections of a Wisconsin Farm Girl Who Became a Buddhist Theologian When She Grew Up -- 4. Passion and Peril: Transgressing Boundaries as a Feminist Buddhist Scholar-Practitioner -- Pt. 2. Soaring and Settling Buddhism Engaged in Contemporary Social Issues -- Introduction: Meditation, Impermanence, and Social Change -- 5. Soaring and Settling: Riding the Winds of Change -- 6. Helping the Iron Bird Fly: Western Buddhists and Issues of Authority -- 7. Interdependence and Detachment: Toward a Buddhist Environmental Ethic -- 8. Finding Renunciation and Balance in Western Buddhist Practice: Work, Family, Community, and Friendship -- 9. Buddhist Values for Overcoming Pro-natalism and Consumerism -- 10. Children, Children's Rights, and Family Well-being in Buddhist Perspective -- 11. Impermanence, Nowness, and Non-judgment: Appreciating Finitude and Death -- Pt. 3. Buddhist Perspectives in Feminist Theology -- Introduction: What Is Buddhist Theology? -- 12. Immanence and Transcendence in Women's Religious Experience and Expression: A Nontheistic Perspective -- 13. Some Buddhist Perspectives on the Goddess -- 14. The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism: Reflections of a Buddhist Feminist -- 15. "I Will Never Forget to Visualize That Vajrayogini Is My Body and Mind" -- 16. Life-giving Images in Vajrayana Buddhist Ritual.