Caitriona Reed
 | This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject. (February 2019) |
Caitriona Reed | |
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| Born | Christopher Reed 1949 |
| Occupation(s) | Public Speaker, Seminar Leader, Hypnotherapist, Performance Coach, Meditation and Zen Teacher |
| Partner | Michele Benzamin-Miki |
| Website | FiveChanges.com |
Caitriona Reed (born 1949) is a trans woman sensei of Thiền Zen Buddhism who also has a background in Vipassanā meditation. She co-founded Ordinary Dharma in Los Angeles, California; the rural Manzanita Village Retreat Center, located in San Diego County; and Five Changes, to mentor aspiring leaders, cultural creatives, and spiritual visionaries. Reed, a member of the American Zen Teachers Association, led retreats and workshops in Vipassana, Deep Ecology, and Buddhism 1981–2008. She received authority to teach Zen from Thich Nhat Hanh in 1992.[citation needed]
She is a 'woman of transsexual experience' who transitioned in 1996. She stated about her transitioning, "As a teacher encouraging others to live more honest and authentic lives, it was increasingly difficult for me to deny a basic fact—that I was a woman."[1]
Currently, informed by her work as a Buddhist teacher, Reed focuses on public speaking; mentoring individual clients; and together with her partner Michele Benzamin-Miki conducting professional certification training in neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy with an emphasis holistic approaches to life-coaching and personal and professional mentorship.[2][3][4]
Personal life
Prior to her transition Reed married her long-time partner (since 1981) artist, Aikido and Iaido Sensei Michele Benzamin-Miki. They continue living and working together.
Published Essays
- Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology (Alan Hunt Badiner, Editor)
- What Makes A Man: 22 Writers Imagine The Future (2004) (Rebecca Walker, Editor)
- The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women (2012) (Florence Caplow and Susan Moon, Editors)
See also
- Buddhism in the United States
- Buddhism and sexual orientation
- Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States
- Neuro-linguistic programming
References
- ^ Yar, Harriette (2006-12-19). "Just Another Dharma bum: Buddhist teacher Caitríona Reed". The Advocate. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^ Badiner, Allan Hunt (1990). Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology. Parallax Press. pp. 261. ISBN 0-938077-30-9.
- ^ Gottlieb, Roger S. (2003). Liberating Faith: Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 533. ISBN 0-7425-2534-1.
- ^ "American Zen Teachers". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
External links
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- 1949 births
- Living people
- American motivational speakers
- Women motivational speakers
- American hypnotists
- Life coaches
- Neuro-linguistic programming
- American Zen Buddhist spiritual teachers
- Female Buddhist spiritual teachers
- LGBT Buddhists
- LGBT people from California
- Thiền Buddhists
- Transgender women
- 21st-century LGBT people
- American Buddhists
- American former Christians
- Zen biography stubs
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