Buddhist scholar Simmer-Brown ’68 appears Jan. 26-27

Judith Simmer-Brown ’68, distinguished Buddhism scholar and author, will visit Cornell College Jan. 26 and 27 to lead meditation and give a lecture.

On Tuesday, Jan. 26, Simmer-Brown will lead a mindfulness meditation session from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in Allee Chapel.

On Wednesday, Jan. 27, she will present “Mindful Awareness and Leadership Development: Wisdom Insights from the Tibetan Sacred Feminine” at 11:10 a.m. in the Hall-Perrine Room of Thomas Commons.

Both events are open free to the public.

Simmer-Brown is Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, where she has taught since 1978. Her nationally recognized scholarship focuses on Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, American Buddhism, Women in Buddhism, Interreligious Dialogue, and Contemplative Education.

She has practiced Tibetan Buddhism for 45 years. As a founding member of the Religious Studies Department at Naropa, she teaches world religions and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, and Buddhist theology and interreligious dialogue for the masters’ of divinity program. She is the founder and senior faculty advisor to the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education (CACE), and has designed and now teaches the pilot Compassion Training program for undergraduates, drawing together compassion practices with a study of the neuroscience, social science, and humanities of compassion, a project of CACE’s Compassion Initiative.

Her books are “Dakini’s Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism” (Shambhala 2001); with Fran Grace, an edited collection of articles called “Meditation and the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for Religious Studies” (Religious Studies Series, State University of New York Press, 2010); and with David Steindl-Rast and others, “Benedict’s Dharma: Buddhist Comment on the Rule of St. Benedict” (Riverhead 2001).