Loy, D.

Loy, D. on the DRL

Authors of English Works • Professors • Western Buddhist Teachers

David Robert Loy

English Phonetics	David Loy
Sort Name	Loy, David

Dates

Birth:	1947

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Contact information

Website:	Personal Website

About

PhD University

National University of Singapore

Education

• PhD, National University of Singapore
• MA, University of Hawaii, Honolulu
• BA, Carleton College
• Attended King’s College, University of London
  

Biographical Information

David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism.

He is a prolific author, whose essays and books have been translated into many languages. His articles appear regularly in the pages of major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist magazines including Tricycle, Lion's Roar, and Buddhadharma, as well as in a variety of scholarly journals. Many of his writings, as well as audio and video talks and interviews, are available on the web. He is on the advisory boards of Buddhist Global Relief, the Clear View Project, Zen Peacemakers, and the Ernest Becker Foundation.

David lectures nationally and internationally on various topics, focusing primarily on the encounter between Buddhism and modernity: what each can learn from the other. He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues. A popular recent lecture is "Healing Ecology: A Buddhist Perspective on the Eco-crisis", which argues that there is an important parallel between what Buddhism says about our personal predicament and our collective predicament today in relation to the rest of the biosphere. You can hear David's podcast interview with Wisdom Publications here. Presently he is offering workshops on "Transforming Self, Transforming Society" and on Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Precipice, which is also the title of a new book forthcoming in early 2019. He also leads meditation retreats.

Loy is a professor of Buddhist and comparative philosophy. His BA is from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and he studied analytic philosophy at King’s College, University of London. His MA is from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and his PhD is from the National University of Singapore. His dissertation was published by Yale University Press as Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy. He was senior tutor in the Philosophy Department of Singapore University (later the National University of Singapore) from 1978 to 1984. From 1990 until 2005, he was professor in the Faculty of International Studies, Bunkyo University, Chigasaki, Japan. In January 2006, he became the Besl Family Chair Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society with Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, a visiting position that ended in September 2010. In April 2007, David Loy was visiting scholar at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. From January to August 2009 he was a research scholar with the Institute for Advanced Study, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. From September through December 2010 he was in residence at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, with a Lenz Fellowship. In November 2014, David was a visiting professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands. In January through April 2016, David was visiting Numata professor of Buddhism at the University of Calgary. (Source Accessed Sep 17, 2021)

Publications

• Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1988). A softcover reprint edition was published by Humanities Press in 1997. A softcover reprint edition was also published in 2019 by Wisdom Publications, with the revised title Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond. A German language edition (translation by Clemens Wilhelm) was published as Nondualität: Über die Natur der Wirklichkeit by Krüger, Frankfurt, in 1998. A Spanish language edition (translation by Fernando Mora and David Gonzalez Raga) was published as No dualidad by Kairos Press in 2000.
• Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism (Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1996). Awarded the 1999 Frederick J. Streng Book Prize by the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, for best book of the year. A softcover edition was published by Humanity Books (an imprint of Prometheus Press) in 2000
• A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack (SUNY Press, 2002).
• The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003). A Spanish language edition (translation by Vicente Merlo) was published as El Gran Despertar: Una teoria social budista by Kairos Press in 2004. A Czech translation was published as Velke Probuzeni by Eugenia Press in 2006.
• The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004). Co-authored with his wife Linda Goodhew. Finalist for the 2006 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies.
• Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution (Wisdom Publications, 2008). Translated and published in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, Korean, Thai, Japanese, and Estonian.
• Awareness Bound and Unbound: Buddhist Essays (SUNY Press, 2009).
• The World Is Made of Stories (Wisdom Publications, 2010).
• A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution, and Ethics in the Modern World (Wisdom Publications, 2015).
• Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis (Wisdom Publications, 2019).

Links

Wiki Pages

• Loy, D. on the DRL
• Loy, D. on the LIB
• Loy, D. 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

David Loy

The Blue Annals

State University of New York

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.