Steven Tainer

Steven Arthur Tainer (born 26 July 1947) is an instructor of Asian contemplative traditions. ^{[1] [2]}

Spiritual education

Tainer began his study of Tibetan Buddhism in 1970. His primary teachers included Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche and Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche.^{[ citation needed ]}

Upon the publication of Time, Space, and Knowledge ^[3] in 1977, which he ghostwrote for his first instructor,^{[ dubious – discuss ]} Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, he earned an advanced degree in Tibetan Buddhist studies.^{[ citation needed ]} He was eventually named a Dharma heir of Tarthang Tulku,^{[ dubious – discuss ]} however, he did not take up the position. After collaborating with Ming Liu (born Charles Belyea) in the 1980s, Tainer was declared a successor in a family lineage of yogic Taoism. In 1991, he co-authored a book with Ming Liu (Charles Belyea), titled Dragon's Play and together founded Da Yuen Circle of Yogic Taoism. ^{[4] [5]}

Starting in the mid-1980s, he studied Confucian views of contemplation emphasizing exemplary conduct in ordinary life.^{[ citation needed ]}

Career

He first taught under the direction of his masters in the early 1970s.^{[ citation needed ]} Tainer began teaching his groups in 1990.^{[ citation needed ]}

Since 1995, Tainer has been a faculty member of the Institute for World Religions ^[6] and the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. ^[7]

Tainer is one of the founders of the Kira Institute. ^[8] Between 1998 and 2002, Piet Hut and Tainer organized a series of annual summer schools.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 2024, Yuko Ishihara and Tainer published Intercultural Phenomenology: Playing with Reality, ^[9] which explores using play within "suspension of judgement", with roots in Western phenomenological and Eastern Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian disciplines, for first-person direct examination of experience.^{[ citation needed ]}

See also

• Cognitive psychology
• Reality in Buddhism

References

1. "Dream Yoga". Yoga Journal. January–February 1997. Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
2. Lojeski 2009, p. xix.
3. Tarthang Tulku 1977.
4. Belyea & Tainer 1991.
5. Komjathy 2004, p. 16.
6. "Institute for World Religions". Dharma Realm Buddhist University. Retrieved 2025-10-30.
7. Berkeley Monastery: Teachers
8. "Kira Institute". Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
9. Ishihara & Tainer 2024.

Works cited

• Belyea, Charles; Tainer, Steven A. (1991). Dragon's Play: A New Taoist Transmission of the Complete Experience of Human Life. Xiao-Lun Lin (illustrator). Great Circle Lifeworks. ISBN   0-9629308-1-4.
• Ishihara, Yuko; Tainer, Steven A. (2024). Intercultural Phenomenology: Playing With Reality. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   9781350298286.
• Komjathy, Louis (Fall 2004). "Tracing the Contours of Daoism in North America". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 8 (2): 5–27. doi:10.1525/nr.2004.8.2.5. JSTOR   10.1525/nr.2004.8.2.5.
• Ochiogrosso, Peter (January–February 1997). "Dream Yoga". Yoga Journal. Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
• Lojeski, Karen Sobel (2009). Leading the Virtual Workforce: How Great Leaders Transform Organizations in the 21st Century . John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   978-0-470-42280-9.
• Tarthang Tulku (1977). Time, Space, and Knowledge: A New Vision of Reality . Dharma Pub. ISBN   0-913546-08-9.
• Tainer, Steven A. (Fall 2002). "Studying "No Mind": The Future of Orthogonal Approaches, Special Section on "Buddhism and Cognitive Science" (PDF). Pacific World Journal.

Further reading

• Yogis, Jaimal (October 2008). "Losing Everything Can Mean Finally Beginning". Shambhala Sun. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013.

External links

• Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, Institute for World Religions
• Ways of Knowing