Noting the Death of Buddhist Teacher & Scholar Rita Gross

I was saddened to learn that Rita Gross, who had suffered a debilitating stroke in October, suffered another and succumbed on the 11th of November.

The Lion’s Roar quoted Judith Simmer-Brown:

“Rita Gross died peacefully today at her home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Following the instructions of her teacher, Ven. Khandro Rinpoche, her body has been washed and perfumed with saffron in the traditional Tibetan manner and her Wisconsin friends will sit with the corpse for the specified three days before it is cremated. Rita asked that her ashes be sprinkled into the Lotus Pond at Mindrolling Jetsun Khandro, Rinpoche’s retreat center in central Virginia.”

She was a signal figure in late twentieth and early twenty-first century Western convert Buddhism, both as a Dharma teacher and as a scholar. Professor Gross is probably best known for the groundbreaking study Buddhism After Patriarchy.

I had the pleasure of meeting her at a Buddhist teachers conference at Garrison Institute, where I gushed my gratitude for her work, and where she said she’d enjoyed reading me, as well. Made way more than my day.

She will be missed. But her influence will last for a long time.

Many bows…

Here are some of her Dharma talks.