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The article focuses on the evolution and current trends within the field of Buddhist Studies in the U.S. It examines how scholars are challenging traditional disciplinary boundaries, addressing issues of diversity, decolonization, and methodological inclusiveness. Key themes discussed include the need for demographic diversity, the engagement of emic scholarship and the embrace of critical theories analyzing gender, race, and class.

The study of global Buddhism through a study abroad encounter presents invaluable opportunities for teachers and students at liberal arts institutions to contemplate the conundrum of global citizenship, a standard aim of liberal education in North America. When studying abroad, students become viscerally aware of their own positionality, which is reflected back to them constantly as they move through the social and cultural landscapes of Buddhist Asia. This reflection leaves them eager to raise, to the level of critical thinking, what is quite literally an embodied experience of difference and privilege. The essay connects the field of Buddhist studies to a larger conversation in the field of global education, arguing that Buddhist studies travel courses must interrogate concepts of global citizenship, address the legacies of colonialism, and teach the principles of ethical travel, in addition to introducing students to the living traditions of global Buddhism.

Reflecting on the implications of Dipesh Chakrabarty's "The Climate of History" for a critical Buddhist Studies of/for the Anthropocene, this article introduces a seven-hundred-years-old reflection among Inner Asian Buddhist scholastics about the perspectival tangle of worlds and beings. Rooted in canonical Indian Abhidharma literature and then the Tibetan Pakpa Chökyi Lodrö's didactic compositions meant for the princelings of the 13th century Mongolian Empire, Tibetan and Mongolian authors have long considered the ontological and epistemic nature of environments, beings, and perceiving minds in relation. Tracing an intellectual history leading into the Mongolian revolutionary period and Tibetan refugee diaspora in the twentieth century, this article shows that Inner Asian Buddhist have never been burdened by the tyranny of Nature and Culture, whose conceptual blurring in the Anthropocene Chakrabarty cites as imperiling the Humanities. Let the Humanities, as such, die. Finding resonances with earlier perspectival constructions of nature in the work of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th century father of ecological studies, as well as critiques of nature/nurture in body and disability studies, this article argues for using Inner Asian perspectives as new methodological resources in the ruins of liberal humanism and the normative human sciences.

Reflecting on the implications of Dipesh Chakrabarty's "The Climate of History" for a critical Buddhist Studies of/for the Anthropocene, this article introduces a seven-hundred-years-old reflection among Inner Asian Buddhist scholastics about the perspectival tangle of worlds and beings. Rooted in canonical Indian Abhidharma literature and then the Tibetan Pakpa Chökyi Lodrö's didactic compositions meant for the princelings of the 13th century Mongolian Empire, Tibetan and Mongolian authors have long considered the ontological and epistemic nature of environments, beings, and perceiving minds in relation. Tracing an intellectual history leading into the Mongolian revolutionary period and Tibetan refugee diaspora in the twentieth century, this article shows that Inner Asian Buddhist have never been burdened by the tyranny of Nature and Culture, whose conceptual blurring in the Anthropocene Chakrabarty cites as imperiling the Humanities. Let the Humanities, as such, die. Finding resonances with earlier perspectival constructions of nature in the work of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th century father of ecological studies, as well as critiques of nature/nurture in body and disability studies, this article argues for using Inner Asian perspectives as new methodological resources in the ruins of liberal humanism and the normative human sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of global Buddhism through a study abroad encounter presents invaluable opportunities for teachers and students at liberal arts institutions to contemplate the conundrum of global citizenship, a standard aim of liberal education in North America. When studying abroad, students become viscerally aware of their own positionality, which is reflected back to them constantly as they move through the social and cultural landscapes of Buddhist Asia. This reflection leaves them eager to raise, to the level of critical thinking, what is quite literally an embodied experience of difference and privilege. The essay connects the field of Buddhist studies to a larger conversation in the field of global education, arguing that Buddhist studies travel courses must interrogate concepts of global citizenship, address the legacies of colonialism, and teach the principles of ethical travel, in addition to introducing students to the living traditions of global Buddhism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the Sudattasutta of the Pāli Yakkhasayutta and its direct commentary (aṭṭhakathā), both extremely significant in outlining meditative techniques that entail the figure of the Buddha as their object in order to arouse and cultivate wholesome factors of the path to liberation, such as faith and joy. These practices, applied to a variety of meditative techniques, have become popular in contemporary South-East Asia and, to some extent, in contemporary Theravāda worldwide. The examination of the Sudattasutta and its aṭṭhakathā--with the original translation of the latter--will shed light upon the dawn of this contemplative practice and of the cultural background behind it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This was a qualitative research study, which utilized systematic Grounded Theory methodologies and was conducted at the Dhammavithi School (alias), which has been recognized as an exemplary Buddhist Way School from the perspective of those, who had witnessed the phenomenon. The results of the research presented a procedural theory that illustrated the following two important operational characteristics of this school: 1) it was operated by utilizing the principle of "Dtrai Sik-Kăa," and 2) it was managed by utilizing the twenty-nine ways of Buddhist identity. There were three important reasons for the implementation of such methods: 1) the problems, 2) inspiration & expectations, and 3) cooperation from communities, schools, and temples. Therefore, this led to the following two key strategies: 1) determining the school's aspirations, visions, and identities to work together; and 2) determining the roles of the personnel that could emphasize the adoption of the Buddhist ways of life under the contextual conditions, in which students were at risk and the intervening conditions had created an integrated student care system. Many positive results led the Dhammavithi School (alias) to be recognized as an exemplary Buddhist Way School. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the relationship between Buddhism and science, presented in the works and activities of Buddhist leaders and scholars. The aim of the study is to determine the specifics of the relationship between Buddhism and science, associated with both the peculiarities of the development of modern science and the peculiarities of the religion itself. The study is based on an integrated approach that allows to identify the problem of relations between Buddhism and science at different levels: the doctrinal provisions of Buddhism, the texts of Buddhist leaders and their activities, the analysis of these relations made by representatives of science. One of the phenomena of the dialogue between Buddhism and science is the Mind and Life Institute, created in 1987, initiated by the 14th Dalai Lama, scientist and philosopher Francisco Varela, lawyer and entrepreneur Adam Engle. The creation of this Institute was based on the idea that science is not only a modern source of knowledge but also a critical means of improving the quality of life; this means can be developed by combining it with the wisdom of Buddhist teachings. Interest in the problem of interaction between Buddhism and science has noticeably intensified in the last decade in Russia. It was expressed in the publication of books of Buddhist leaders and scholars on this topic, holding meetings of researchers and Buddhist clergy for discussions on complex topics of knowledge, organizing scientific conferences on the dialogue between Buddhism and science. The intensification of the dialogue between Buddhism and science and its reflection in the research of scientists and the activities of Buddhist organizations are associated with a number of reasons: the search for new effective ways to solve global problems; the actualization of a systematic approach to solving a number of complex research problems (for example, the problem of consciousness); interest in the possibility of synthesizing Buddhist techniques and ideas and scientific approaches as a resource for the development of both Buddhism and science.

Using statistical data, scholarly research, institutional models from higher education, and highlighting key personages from the academy and the business world, we argue that including Buddhism-related content into the general education of students can offer a powerful avenue of reform for the humanities in American universities. The article shows how humanities-based skills are becoming more desirable in today's business environment, and demonstrates how the skills that Buddhist Studies—and religion more broadly—provide are consistent with those needed in today's global and integrated technological world. Utilizing the Universities of Harvard and Arizona to help frame the discussion, the paper outlines the history of the American general education system, the ongoing crisis in the humanities, how Buddhism fits within the humanities viz. religion, and specific ways to implement Buddhism-related content into the academy domestically and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indakasutta, its commentary (aṭṭhakathā), and sub-commentary (purāṇa-ṭīkā) describe and discuss the phases of intrauterine development. By adopting a terminology remarkably comparable to that of other Buddhist and non-Buddhist texts, they illustrate fundamental Buddhist teachings like the non-self (anattā) view and the dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda). I here offer a translation of these three texts, preceded by an introductory outline of their contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first glance, it seems that the relation between the study of Korean Buddhism within Korea and outside it can be characterized by the metaphor of osmosis: while Korean research freely travels to other academic communities that cite, critique, or otherwise engage it, Western scholarship on Korean Buddhism rarely receives any mention in Korean scholarship. Differing research agendas, linguistic barriers, and cultural assumptions can be identified as stumbling blocks, together with incompatible terminology. However, looking at the bigger picture, it is unmistakable that research agendas are growing increasingly closer. This article will attempt to briefly chart the intertwined histories of academic research on Korean Buddhism in Korea and in the West, identify the hurdles to meaningful exchange in both directions, and formulate some strategies for closing the gaps that separate academic communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on archival research and oral history, this article examines the career of Holmes Welch (1921-1981). Welch is a towering figure in the study of Buddhism whose trilogy on modern Chinese Buddhism stood as the definitive work on the topic for decades and remains a touchstone today. In many ways, Welch appears ahead of its time. Yet an investigation of Welch's papers makes clear that his work can only be fully understood in the context of the Cold War, for it was not only shaped by but also served the American struggle against Communism. Welch's formation as a scholar took place less at Harvard, where he earned a master's, than Hong Kong, where he served as a political officer in the Foreign Service. Afterward, he continued to write and consult in the service of Cold War objectives into the early 1970s. This intertwining of the academic and the political in his work and career suggests the existence of a "hidden transcript" of Buddhist Studies and the Cold War that merits further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the "Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An anthology" book edited by Georgios T. Halkias and Richard K. Payne is presented. Topics include European and the U.S. imperialism led to the uniformity of political organization; aspect of the nineteenth century Protestant legacy that endures in religious studies and in Buddhist studies; and valorization of individual, silent, seated meditation.

With regards the crucial issue of the existence of the self, within canonical texts of the Buddhist Abhidharma schools we find passages that are frequently at odds with one another. Sometimes the Buddha defends or respects the belief in the self and in personal continuity; at other times he seems to deny that beyond the psycho-physical factors to which our existential experience can be reduced there is an ātman that contains, owns or controls these same factors; in further cases still, he states that the use of the metaphysical categories of "being" and "non-being" must be avoided – thus, about the self (or everything else), it is inappropriate to say that it exists or that it does not exist. Faced with these divergences (or contradictions) within contemporary Buddhist studies, we can detect two main tendencies. Some scholars start from the assumption that the Buddha's teaching is or should be coherent and univocal, and, therefore, propose readings of his original message that are supposed to iron out or conciliate any inconsistencies. Others believe that the inconsistencies are actually irreconcilable and, therefore, maintain that the Abhidharma canons are a composite and stratified redaction in which the opposite views of different writers overlap and intersect. Against these historiographical approaches, the purpose of the present paper is to show that the three aforementioned modes of the Buddha's teaching are, in fact, both alternative and irreconcilable. This, however, far from presenting a puzzle to be solved or explained (by resorting to suppositions of which, in the canons, we have no explicit confirmation), is nothing more than a feature of the Buddha's Dharma, which appears to be a teaching that develops different pedagogical/soteriological modes for different purposes, and which is conceived for the spiritual growth of followers with different intellectual and psychological profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using statistical data, scholarly research, institutional models from higher education, and highlighting key personages from the academy and the business world, we argue that including Buddhism-related content into the general education of students can offer a powerful avenue of reform for the humanities in American universities. The article shows how humanities-based skills are becoming more desirable in today’s business environment, and demonstrates how the skills that Buddhist Studies—and religion more broadly—provide are consistent with those needed in today’s global and integrated technological world. Utilizing the Universities of Harvard and Arizona to help frame the discussion, the paper outlines the history of the American general education system, the ongoing crisis in the humanities, how Buddhism fits within the humanities viz. religion, and specific ways to implement Buddhism-related content into the academy domestically and internationally.

This paper is a comparative study of two texts separated by a considerable temporal-spatial gap. The methodological approach is, as we would like to define it, a-philological. Five central concepts drawn from the Dàshèng qǐxìn lùn (大乘起信論, *Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra, QXL), traditionally associated with Aśvaghoṣa (1st-2nd cent. CE), Paramārtha (499–569 CE), and Śikṣānanda (652–710 CE), shall be examined against the related ideas found in Ratnākaraśānti's (970–1045 CE) Prajñāpāramitopadeśa (PPU). Our observations are the following: 1) The two dimensions of the single mind (一心二門, yīxīn èrmén) advocated in the QXL are doctrinally identical to the two forms (rūpa) of the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva) in the PPU. 2) The intermingling mind (和合識, héhé shí) which is taken as ālayavijñāna (阿梨耶識, ālíyē shí) in the QXL, corresponds to the imagination of the unreal (abhūtaparikalpa) in the PPU. 3) The mutual perfuming of the real and the unreal (真妄互熏, zhēnwàng hùxūn) is in essence the same as the false inseparability (tādātmya) of clear light (prakāśa) and image (ākāra) in the PPU. 4) The essence of perception (覺性, juéxìng) and its synonyms used in the QXL, its commentarial literature and other related texts, find equivalents such as prakāśamānatā, prakāśātmatā, saṃvedyatā, buddhilakṣaṇa, in the PPU. 5) The concept of activated perception (始覺, shǐjué) in the QXL sheds light on a puzzling word in the PPU, arvāk, which can be interpreted as the opposite of "suddenly" (忽然, hūrán) in the QXL. Our investigation reaffirms the philosophical value as well as the religious legitimacy of the QXL, and it underscores the significance of the late mādhyamika texts for Buddhist Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I tried to illustrate a brief history of Buddhist Studies in the Western world and role of Mongolian Buddhism in its history and future prospects. Buddhist Studies is an independent academic discipline that pioneered by outstanding Western scholars and it covers roughly 200 years. In the modern world, Buddhist Studies has formed interdisciplinary academic research, and expands its research area with new requirements of society and newly discovered manuscripts. From the outset of the Buddhist Studies, western scholars involved with Mongolian Buddhism and manuscripts; however, unfortunately Buddhist Studies in the Mongolian context could not develop in parallel with its rapid development. In other words, Mongolian Buddhism comparatively has been slighted in the past history of Buddhist Studies. The researches by domestic scholars have been reviving after 1960. Only foreign scholars do conspicuous researches on the Mongolian Buddhism, but domestic scholars are not active on the academic research due to some reasons. First of all we should define what makes Buddhism “Mongolian”. We should describe identity of the Mongolian Buddhism, and then we able to analyze its past, present and future prospects. I assume the following five tendencies explore researches of the Mongolian Buddhism.Assimilation of Buddhism with Mongolian tradition and customs, syncretism of Buddhism and Mongolian traditional shamanism Distinctive character of Mongolian monasticism, secularity, role of Buddhism in the Mongolian society Study of ethnic Mongolian lamas as influential historical figuresResearch of Mongolian Canons and other sources in Mongolian language, and their translation Study on Tibetan and Mongolian works by Mongolian lamas in comparison with doctrinally affiliated works

Scholarship on religion has often centered on the gaps between academic analysis and the self-understanding of religious people. In the study of Buddhism in America, however, many scholars and practitioners share cultural histories, material circumstances, and textual space. This article examines the nature of the relationship between particular academics and particular convert Buddhists to argue that they share a way of thinking about religion: perceiving a strong dichotomy between modernity and tradition, and a resulting willingness to take Buddhist modernist narratives at face value as descriptions of religious life. This normative modernism, along with reactions against it, leads to the collapse of descriptive and prescriptive discourse on American Buddhism. By contrast, scholarship that does not participate in the dichotomy between modern and traditional religion reveals a much richer, messier, and more accurate picture of Buddhism in America, and the Buddhists whose practices and self-representations exceed the boundaries of modernism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-authored between a professor and student, this essay discusses how an experiential learning assignment of “deep listening” was integrated into an online course on histories of Buddhist meditation. Paired with a group art project, the work provided not only an opportunity to practice critical communication skills, but also a sense of connection and community, which is especially important during the conditions of pandemic isolation. The course design relied on pedagogical principles specifically aimed at supporting student well-being, such as trauma-informed teaching. We reflect on how grounding course design in inclusive, anti-oppressive and care-focused principles may enable new outcomes in teaching and learning beyond this pandemic year.

We describe the course of a hackathon dedicated to the development of linguistic tools for Tibetan Buddhist studies. Over a period of five days, a group of seventeen scholars, scientists, and students developed and compared algorithms for intertextual alignment and text classification, along with some basic language tools, including a stemmer and word segmenter.

This article presents a comprehensive review of the literature on teaching in Buddhist Studies within a framework of backward design, which begins by identifying our learning goals, then determining evidence of learning and planning course activities to facilitate such learning. It identifies big ideas in Buddhist Studies and transferrable skills that could serve as learning goals for our undergraduate courses. Finally, it concludes by suggesting future avenues of research about Buddhist pedagogy in the field of scholarship of teaching and learning.

This paper explores how white, Western followers of Japanese Buddhist schools (primarily Sōka Gakkai) practice Buddhism through acts of purchasing, decorating, and positioning altars (butsudan) in the space of their homes. Drawing on a pilot ethnographic study of altar practice, I detail the oft-overlooked dimension of becoming and being Buddhist that is material consumption. Western consumption of Buddhist popular culture is often critiqued as aesthetically driven and Orientalist. However, aesthetics, "Japanese-ness," and ease of use are often not the only or primary concerns when crafting an altar. Rather, altar-making can be a continuous process involving significant deliberation, DIY, and compromise. By directing attention to the domestic religious sphere and the concrete artifacts via which Buddhism has crossed oceans, I show how making a place in the home for butsudan is tied up in the process of making Buddhism "at home." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with poet Naomi Shihab Nye is presented. Topics discussed include talking about religion in the novel "Habibi;" writing the poem "I Feel Sorry for Jesus" that was printed in the Christian Century magazine; Jesus Christ deserves better than what people give him; and doing courses on Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

This article examines the question of why the way that rights are granted, and compassion and responsibility practiced, are inadequate in addressing social problems. There is a tendency to treat rights, compassion, and responsibility as disparate phenomena, rather than as interrelated. The frequent call is for the granting of more rights, often without requiring the recipients to take reciprocal responsibility. The lack of reciprocity has the psychological effect of entrenching those that are being assisted in their positions of vulnerability, resulting in a loss of dignity and self-esteem. I offer a psychological perspective on responsibility, rights, and compassion grounded on the Buddha's teachings, Daseinsanalysis, and Heidegger's philosophy. I argue that the psychological needs of the recipients have to be taken into account in the formulation of social policies, and that rights and compassion have to be complemented with personal and social responsibility. If individuals, governments, and community leaders appreciate the interrelationship between poverty and personal aspirations, empowerment and dependency, and respond appropriately, they can provide a circuit breaker for the vicious cycle of learned helplessness and an erosion of human dignity that often perpetuate human suffering and social problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]