A Tribute to Steven Goodman
(1945 – 2020)
from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
August 4, 2020
Steven Goodman’s passing on August 3 is a big loss for Khyentse Foundation. Steven was not only a dedicated advisor, he was involved hands-on at so many levels. And it is a big loss for me personally, because Steven was such a jolly, teasable fellow with lots of humour—which is a practically nonexistent quality these days.
In a much larger sense, Steven Goodman’s passing is also a major loss for Buddhism in America, and especially for the study of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
Steven had all the requisite academic knowledge and achievements, and he was also one of those very, very rare scholars who looked at Buddhism directly for what it truly is. And so he dared to go beyond both the subjective and the objective.
In a world that kowtows to the supremacy of supposed academic objectivity and is ever suspicious of anything remotely spiritual, Steven was never shy about taking that courageous step. Maybe that’s one reason he was such a genuine scholar of Buddhism—because he never considered himself learned.
Both as a Buddhist and as a close friend of Steven Goodman, I am praying and in fact know with certainty that he will never stop working for the dharma.
Professor Steven Goodman has been an adviser to Khyentse Foundation since its inception in 2001. We will miss his valuable advice and guidance, and his friendship.
May we, the westerners, receive properly the influence of Steven Goodman gratefully.
Thank you Rimpoche. He was a teacher of mine at CIIS. I wish we maintained our friendship more after grad school. He was such a wealth of knowledge, and as you say so humble and approachable. A trickster and coyote incarnate in all ways fo contending. Some favorite Steven memories: Discussing the band the Grateful Dead and how they embodied the teachings of Tantra in their songs and lyrics (a brief conversation at the copy machine one afternoon), how he made all of us turn on the ringers of our cell phones in class so that we could hear them go off every few minutes, and take a pause. How he let me do a research paper on “The Pilgrimage to Burning Man” for our methodologies class, with great interest. HIs smile, his humility, and the “Steven Show” in the classroom
Thank you for your beautiful words that move to capture Steven’s spirit. His deep humility and playfulness was something so attractive to me as his student. I’m a so grateful to have know him.
Thanks for Sharing about this Amazing Dharma Teacher.i would like to buy this book.where can I order this book from.
https://www.shambhala.com/the-buddhist-psychology-of-awakening.html
A little ‘hit’ after the puja…Goodman did what he
was supposed to do.