Buswell, R.

Buswell, R. on the DRL

Professors • Authors of English Works

Robert E. Buswell

English Phonetics	Robert E. Buswell Jr.

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

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Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

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Rab Jyung

About

Primary Affiliation (Workplace)

University of California, Los Angeles; Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

PhD University

University of California, Berkeley

Education

PhD in Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley (December, 1985). Dissertation: "The Korean Origin of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra': A Case Study in Determining the Dating, Provenance, and Authorship of a Buddhist Apocryphal Scripture."; MA, University of California, Berkeley; A.B. University of California, Berkeley;

Biographical Information

Robert E. Buswell Jr., Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies in the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, is the Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Humanities at UCLA, and the founding director of the university’s Center for Buddhist Studies and Center for Korean Studies. From 2009-2011, he served concurrently as founding director of the Dongguk Institute for Buddhist Studies Research (Pulgyo Haksurwon) at Dongguk University in Seoul, Korea.
      He is widely considered to be the premier Western scholar on Korean Buddhism and one of the top specialists on the East Asian Zen tradition. Buswell also served as editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference, 2004), and coeditor (with Donald S. Lopez, Jr.) of the [now published] one-million word [Princeton] Dictionary of Buddhism. In 2009, Buswell was awarded the Manhae Prize from the Chogye Order in recognition of his pioneering contributions to Korean Buddhist Studies in the West. Buswell was elected president of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) for 2008-2009, the first time a Koreanist or Buddhologist has ever held the position, and served as past-president and past-past-president in subsequent years. (Source Accessed Nov 25 2019)

Publications

• The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea (Princeton, 1992).
• Religions of Korea in Practice (Princeton, 2007).
• Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen (Honolulu, 1991).
• Currents and Countercurrents: Korean Influences on the East Asian Buddhist Traditions (Honolulu, 2005).
• Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wonhyo’s Exposition of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra (Honolulu, 2007).
• The Formation of Ch’an Ideology in China and Korea (Princeton, 1989).
• The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul (Honolulu, 1983).

Links

Wiki Pages

• Buswell, R. on the DRL
• Buswell, R. on the LIB
• Buswell, R. on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
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All beings have Buddha-nature
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If "Qualified", explain:
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Which Wheel Turning
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Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
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Zhentong vs Rangtong
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Promotes how many vehicles?
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Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
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What is Buddha-nature?
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Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
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Causal nature of the vajrapāda
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Full Name

Robert E . Buswell, Jr.

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.