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Pamela Weiss

Goodreads Author

Born

in Oakland, CA, The United States

Website

https://www.appropriateresponse.com/

Genre

Memoir, Spirituality, Nonfiction

Influences

Rebecca Solnit, Elizabeth Alexander, Annie Dillard

Member Since

February 2020

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I'm a Buddhist teacher in two traditions—Zen and Theravada. After living as a monastic at Tassajara Zen Mountain monastery, I completed teacher training with Jack Kornfield at Spirit Rock, where I am on the Teacher Council and co-lead the Community Dharma Leader Program. I'm also an executive coach and pioneer in bringing the principles and practices of mindfulness to the workplace.

Here's a bit of backstory about how all of that came about...

As a little girl, I wanted to be an astronaut or a pop star. I had a keen curiosity and a deep yearning to explore the edges of the known. I also loved putting on my mom’s cast off dresses and high heels and belting out show tunes with a hairbrush-microphone in hand.

When I was ten, I was diagnosed with I'm a Buddhist teacher in two traditions—Zen and Theravada. After living as a monastic at Tassajara Zen Mountain monastery, I completed teacher training with Jack Kornfield at Spirit Rock, where I am on the Teacher Council and co-lead the Community Dharma Leader Program. I'm also an executive coach and pioneer in bringing the principles and practices of mindfulness to the workplace.

Here's a bit of backstory about how all of that came about...

As a little girl, I wanted to be an astronaut or a pop star. I had a keen curiosity and a deep yearning to explore the edges of the known. I also loved putting on my mom’s cast off dresses and high heels and belting out show tunes with a hairbrush-microphone in hand.

When I was ten, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Living with a chronic illness forced me into the nitty-gritty: counting grams of carbohydrates; titrating insulin syringes; carrying lifesavers in my pocket in case my blood sugar dropped. My body became a battlefield, with clear lines drawn between me and it.

After graduating from Wesleyan University with High Honors, I landed a job at a health care consulting firm where I sat behind a desk in a grey cubicle, crunched numbers and wrote reports. Although I had all of the outward signs of success, I quickly became disheartened and world-weary. Having a job and a paycheck did not satisfy my need to understand the world or help me make peace with being embodied.

In 1987, I knocked on the door of San Francisco Zen Center to learn meditation. I was greeted by a bald man in a long black gown. I found the place odd. But I was moved by the simple honesty, presence and kindness of the people there. “Whatever it is they’ve got, that’s what I want,” I remember thinking.

So I quit my job and lived for five years at Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara, sitting many (many) long hours in meditation, dicing vegetables, pulling weeds and scrubbing toilets. During that time, I received lay ordination and took Bodhisattva vows. A Bodhisattva is someone dedicated to waking up for the benefit of all beings. Bodhisattvas understand that we are part of an intimate web of inter-being; that no one of us can be free unless all of us are free; that our well-being as humans is intricately tied to the health and well-being of the planet.

When I left Zen Center, I carried my vows with me into the world, where they have permeated and informed everything I do. I’ve done my best to articulate the heart of the Bodhisattva spirit in accessible, down-to-earth language, and to offer clear principles and practices that address the pressing issues and concerns of our time: racism and oppression; climate change; rampant stress; and the longing for meaningful engagement. ...more

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Average rating: 3.81 · 94 ratings · 13 reviews · 1 distinct work • Similar authors

A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism

3.81 avg rating — 94 ratings — published 2020 — 4 editions

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Quotes by Pamela Weiss (?)

“It’s not about stopping the ruckus,” she explained. “Our practice is not about transcendence. It’s about getting to know all the parts of ourselves, especially those we have ignored or abandoned.”
― Pamela Weiss, A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism

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“One of the most radical shifts we can make is from understanding waking up as an event to seeing awakened life as the expression of beneficial qualities - generosity, patience, virtue, honesty, wisdom, lovingkindness, enthusiasm, equanimity - cultivated in our relationships with other. Here, awakening is measured not by the depth of our insight but based on our behavior: how we act and interact with each other and the world.”
― Pamela Weiss, A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism

tags: awakening, buddhism, eastern-religion, enlightenment, spirituality

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“Buddhist teaching uses the metaphor of a bird to describe the two wings needed to engage the spiritual path: one wing is wisdom—clearly seeing into the emptiness of all things; and the other wing is compassion—the ability to bring care and kindness to everything we see. Both wings are needed to fly.”
― Pamela Weiss, A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism

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“A more feminine flavor of spiritual practice tilts toward embodiment and engagement in the world. It focuses on transformation rather than transcendence and on staying grounded, with our feet firmly planted on the earth. It is a process of learning to cultivate humility, to celebrate the wide, wild expression of humanity, and to love and care for our one shared home.”
― Pamela Weiss, A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism

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