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.
Upon the publication of Time, Space, and Knowledge[3] in 1977, which he ghostwrote for his first instructor, Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, he earned an advanced degree in Tibetan Buddhist studies. He was eventually named a Dharma heir of Tarthang Tulku, 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.
Career
He first taught under the direction of his masters in the early 1970s. Tainer began teaching his groups in 1990.
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.
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.
See also
References
- ^ "Dream Yoga". Yoga Journal. January–February 1997. Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
- ^ Lojeski 2009, p. xix.
- ^ Tarthang Tulku 1977.
- ^ Belyea & Tainer 1991.
- ^ Komjathy 2004, p. 16.
- ^ "Institute for World Religions". Dharma Realm Buddhist University. Retrieved 2025-10-30.
- ^ Berkeley Monastery: Teachers
- ^ "Kira Institute". Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
- ^ 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.