Jan Willis: On Faith at washingtonpost.com

Jan Willis

Scholar-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism

“On Faith” panelist Janice Willis is a professor of religion at Wesleyan University. One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, Willis has published numerous essays and articles on Buddhist meditation, hagiography, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. Her latest book was Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey (2001). Willis also is the author of The Diamond Light: An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (1972), On Knowing Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi (1979), Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition (1995); and the editor of Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (1989). She has studied with Tibetan Buddhists in India, Nepal, Switzerland and the U.S. for four decades, and has taught courses in Buddhism for 32 years. In December 2000, Time magazine named Willis one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium.” In 2003, she was a recipient of Wesleyan University’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and she was profiled in a 2005 Newsweek article about “Spirituality in America.” Close.

Jan Willis

Scholar-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism

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Interfaith Issues Archives

November 13, 2006 1:02 PM

We Must...Become as Empty Vessels

Many people -- often people who consider themselves to be quite “religious” -- believe that they have a monopoly on truth. Such a belief, however, can clearly be seen to limit one’s flexibility and ability to learn.

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February 13, 2007 9:48 AM

Environment Should Be Everybody's Priority

It is not only “people of faith” who should make care for the environment a major priority; everyone should do so, whether they are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or completely secular, non-religious human beings. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “either we will learn to live together on this tiny planet that we share, or we will inevitably perish together.”

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April 12, 2007 10:52 AM