308 CHAPTER TWELVEbeen presented by a student of Chogyam Trungpa, Rita Gross, in her book
Buddhism After Patriarchy (1993). Following the classical pattern of Enlighten-
ment scholarship, Gross's absolute values are abstractions drawn from the study
of history, psychology, and comparative religion. She argues that Buddhism,
like all other religions, must accept that it is a system of myths with no ab-
solute claims to scientific or historical truth. It should also abandon as inap-
propriate any concepts of dualistic, other-worldly freedom-such as a nirval).a
beyond this world-and reject as irrelevant such questions as rebirth and the
individual's preparation for death. Instead, it should focus on its sufficient role:
mandating gender equality and providing a psychological grounding of whole-
ness, balance, tranquility, and deep peace so that one may (1) find the freedom
within the world by developing composure amid change, (2) communicate
with and provide comfort for other people, and (3) develop a sense of care
and appreciation for the Earth. Any Buddhist doctrines, practices, or institu-
tions that deemphasize this role for the sake of other goals, she argues, are
holdovers from a patriarchal mind-set and so should be dropped from the tra-
dition altogether.
Another reformer who uses social science paradigms to rethink the Bud-
dhist Path is Jack Kornfield. In his book A Path with Heart (1993), he com-
bines his background in humanistic psychology and meditation with his
extensive reading in comparative religion to present a picture of the Buddhist
Path that transcends the limitations that he claims are inherent in all practice
lineages. He asserts that spiritual practice should center on issues of relation-
ship and personal integration. Many would-be meditators are so wounded
psychologically by modern society, however, that meditation alone cannot
deal effectively with these issues in their lives. Thus they might benefit by
combining humanistic psychotherapy with their meditation. This does not
mean that one gets one's psychological house in order and then strikes out for
nirval).a, he says. Rather, one should use psychotherapy step-by-step along
one's way to heal the mental wounds uncovered in meditation and to inte-
grate newfound insights into one's life. Although he warns against becoming
obsessed with goals in the practice, he concludes his discussion with a person-
ality profile of the type of maturity that spiritual practice should produce: a
sense of the sacred that is both integrated and personal; an embracing of op-
posites; an attitude of nonidealism, kindness, immediacy, questioning, flexibil-
ity, and ordinariness; and the ability to express these qualities in the entire
range of one's relationships-to one's family, one's sexuality, the community,
the environment, politics, money-every being and action. Spiritual practice
begins and culminates, he claims, in the simple presence of intimacy. The .ulti-
mate test of the success of one's practice should be the ability to love well, live
fully, and let go.
Other reformers limit themselves more to institutional restructuring. For
instance, there are attempts to revive the Tibetan and Theravadin Bhik~ul).i
Sanghas (Strong EB, sec. 9 .2) and to design new formats for teaching and
practicing meditation so that lay people may devote more time to the practice
without sacrificing their families and careers. However, there is wide disagree-
ment among reformers as to what in the Buddhist tradition is dispensable and