Steven Tainer
Student of Buddhism and Taoism (born 1947)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[citation needed]
Upon the publication of Time, Space, and Knowledge[3] in 1977, which he ghostwrote for his first instructor,[dubious – discuss] Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, he earned an advanced degree in Tibetan Buddhist studies.[citation needed] He was eventually named a Dharma heir of Tarthang Tulku,[dubious – discuss] 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.[citation needed]
Career
He first taught under the direction of his masters in the early 1970s.[citation needed] Tainer began teaching his groups in 1990.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]