Rothberg, Donald

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Rothberg, Donald

PERSONAL:

Education: Boston University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—San Francisco, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, educator, meditation instructor, and spiritual advisor. Saybrook Graduate School, educator and member of executive faculty. Instructor in Buddhism and Buddhist spiritual practices. Buddhist Peace Fellowship, organizer, instructor, and board member.

WRITINGS:

The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Donald Rothberg is an author, meditation teacher, and practicing Theravada Buddhist in the San Francisco Bay area. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University, and frequently writes and teaches on subjects such as daily life practice, socially engaged Buddhism, and spirituality. In his book The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, Rothberg "explores the interconnections of social activism and individual spiritual transformation and argues that they are symbiotic," noted Jerry Shuttle in the Library Journal. Social activism requires spiritual awareness to be effective, Rothberg posits, but it also needs such awareness in order to prevent recreating those conditions and circumstances it is attempting to change. Rothberg seeks to lay the foundation for a new method of combining the individual transformation of a dedicated spiritual practice with the types of social movements that work to change the conditions of the outer world. "This substantive guidebook weds theory and practice in a vital and memorable way," commented Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat in a review posted on Spirituality & Health. "With grace and persuasiveness, Rothberg shares spiritual practices that get to the core of our private and public realms of experience," remarked the Brussats. Rothberg includes a selection of relevant writings from prominent spiritual leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and numerous others. He also presents a number of exercises designed to clarify his spiritual principles and to assist readers in identifying the junction of spiritual growth and social awareness.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, October 1, 2006, Jerry Shuttle, review of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, p. 82.