Dynamic Stillness
The State of Formation seeks to provide a platform for emerging religious and ethical leaders in formation. But what does it really mean to be in formation? This personal reflection looks at reconciling between two contrasting notions of what it means to be in formation for a young British Muslim.
Bilal Hassam
Bilal Hassam is a trainee Doctor at the University of Nottingham concurrently studying a Masters in Inter-Religious Relations at De Montfort University, Leicester. He spent a year as a Faiths Act Fellow for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Interfaith Youth Core (Chicago) serving as an Inter-Religious Ambassador for the UN Millennium Development Goals; mobilising faith communities to work together in the fight against global poverty. He continues to be involved in a plethora of charitable and community organisations and initiatives across the UK and Europe and can be followed at twitter.com/bilalhassam
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Contributing Scholars
Jason LembergNosce te ipsum. Somewhere in everyone of us is the capacity to love and be loved; I have chosen to dedicate the rest of my life to helping others discover their love.
Bhikshuni LozangBhikshuni Lozang Trinlae, B.Sc., Ed.M., (भिक्षुणी लोजाङ् त्रिन्ले) is presently a doctoral student in practical theology at Claremont Lincoln University, where she is conducting research in formal vajrayana meditation practice. She was ordained a novice Buddhist nun in Mysore in 1991; took full-ordination Bhikshuni precepts in 1998 in Bodhgaya, India; and is also a priest in the Buddhist vajrayana tradition (Drukpa Kagyu and Gelug lineages primarily).
A summa-cum-laude graduate in physics, she earned her master's degree in education from Harvard University, where she also studied Tibetan language in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. She taught science and English in India and in Tibet while undertaking contemplative training in vajrayana Buddhism. After teaching Buddhism in Taiwan in the mid-1990's, she founded Mahaprajapati Hermitage in Sagarmartha Mt. Everest National Park in Nepal, where she completed ten years of cloistered, intensive, vajrayana retreat, including two great approaching retreats (शतलक्ष मन्त्र इष्टदेव पुरश्चरण/བསྙེན་ཆེན།). Bhikshuni Lozang is also a trained chaplain and certified instructor in relationship education.
More details of her present research, and hermitage, including texts and photo album, can be found at bhikshuni.insightdeliverysystems.com and mahaprajapativihar.insightdeliverysystems.com.
Elizabeth BonneyElizabeth is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School. Although she recently converted to Judaism, she comes from an ecumenical background; she was raised in the Presbyterian Church (USA), attended a Catholic high school, and graduated from a Baptist college, where she took interest in interfaith dialogue, gender studies, and equality advocacy.