The Soaring and (Final) Settling of Rita Gross 1943–2015

Rita Gross

Rita Gross, one of the pioneers in bringing feminist concerns and methodologies to the study of religion, passed away from the complications of a series of strokes last year, before we were able to complete our interview for the Across Generations section of the Journal. When Rita learned about this project “to foster feminist knowledge (in all its different articulations) and dialogue between different feminist generations,”¹ she approached me to see if I’d be her interviewer, since she wanted someone who understood Buddhism and its centrality to her work.

I’m sure she also knew that I would challenge her, as I often had in our conversations, since our ideas, including those on gender, often diverged. This is the reality of intergenerational feminist dialogue, which has too often been shut down by those not interested in entertaining difference. However, dialogue and appreciation of diversity, were, together with Buddhism, among the things that mattered most to Rita.

In the context of Buddhist-Christian dialogue, a field she also helped pioneer, Rita always affirmed her willingness to engage “anyone of any orientation who is genuinely willing to dialogue,” as long as that person could accept “that one important criterion for dialogue is being willing to be changed oneself by the encounter.”² Indeed, she was usually a much better listener than I was, always willing to hear my perspectives and seriously consider my concerns whether or not she felt she could address them herself.

I met Rita in 2001 through Her Eminence Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, one of the rare, female Tibetan Buddhist lamas who have had the privileged education and recognition of many of her male contemporaries. Rita had retired a few years previously as professor emerita of the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, a place where she had been deeply frustrated. For most of her twenty-five years at the school, she was the only female faculty member in her department. Furthermore, she was required to teach courses that only touched superficially on the subjects that interested her most and rarely had the opportunity to work with students who were inspired to go on to further studies in the field much less graduate students whom she might mentor.

There were, however, a few such students that I met at Khandro Rinpoche’s teachings over the years, who were devoted to Rita, having first encountered her teaching in a classroom and subsequently coming to know her through the dharma. In my case, conversations with Rita were part of the inspiration to return to school and pursue Buddhist studies in a way that would include gender. While her own work on Buddhism was more that of a theologian—or as she described it, a Buddhist critical and constructive thinker—Rita was an inspiring example of what it means to be a dedicated scholar, an independent thinker, and a fearless critic, as well as a dedicated Buddhist practitioner.

Rita’s approach to feminism meant a total commitment to speaking the truth of her life, which was always a part of her work. I have rarely encountered someone so willing to be honest, even when that meant challenging authority in the very hierarchical Tibetan Buddhist world, which she did respectfully but without ever being a hypocrite. As she recently claimed, “all I’ve ever tried to do in my scholarship and in my thinking is to tell the truth. It’s been hard to understand how that could be so controversial or resented by so many people.”³

In the context of her appointment as a lopön, or senior dharma teacher, in the Tibetan tradition of Khandro Rinpoche, Rita taught an annual course, Buddhist History for Buddhist Practitioners, from 2007 to 2014 at Mindrolling Lotus Garden in Stanley, Virginia. “Rinpoche,” Rita warned at the outset, “I have to be sure that you understand that most Tibetans would think that much of what I will be teaching is heresy.” Fortunately, Khandro Rinpoche just laughed and replied, “Oh, that’s good for us. It will...