Gardner, A.

Gardner, A. on the DRL

Authors of English Works

Alexander Gardner

English Phonetics	Alex Gardner

Dates

Birth:	1969/11/08
Place of birth:	Burlington, Vermont

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Primary Affiliation (Workplace)

Treasury of Lives

PhD University

University of Michigan

Education

University of Michigan

Ph.D., 2006. Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Dissertation title: “The Twenty-five Great Sites of Khams: Religious Geography, Revelation, and Nonsectarianism in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Tibet.” Committee: Donald S. Lopez (Chair), Luis Gomez, Tomoko Mazuzawa, and James Robson.

M. A., 2000. Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Thesis: “Drawing Fear from the Wilderness: Tibetan Rituals of Domestication.” Thesis advisor: Professor Donald S. Lopez

University of Vermont

M.A., 1996. Department of History. Thesis: “One God or Twenty: Fundamentalism, Pluralism, and the Battle over ‘Secular Humanism’ in the United States.” Thesis advisor: Professor Doris Bergen

Marlboro College

B.A., Philosophy. Graduated with Honors, 1992. Thesis: “Self in the Absence of a Self.”

Biographical Information

Alexander Gardner is the Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives, an online biographical encyclopedia of Tibet and the Himalayan Region. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007. From 2007 to 2016 he worked at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, serving as their Executive Director from 2013 to 2016. His research interests are in Tibetan life writing and the cultural history of Kham in the nineteenth century. He is the author of The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, published by Shambhala in 2019. Alex served as the writer-in-residence for Tsadra Foundation's Buddha-Nature Project from 2017-2019.

Publications

The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 2019.

2016. "Open View, Solid Ground." Buddhadharma, Fall 2016 issue, pp. 64-69.

2009. “The Twenty-five Great Sites of Khams: A Native Map of an Imperiled Place.” In Studies on the History of Eastern Tibet. Wim van Spengen and Lama Jabb, eds. Leiden: Brill.

2005-2006. “The Sa Chog: Violence and Veneration in a Tibetan Soil Ritual.” Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines 36-37: 283-323.

2003. “Lama” and “Om Mani padme h?m.” In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by Robert E. Buswell. New York: Macmillan.

Book Reviews:

2007. Tibetan Treasure Literature: Revelation, Tradition, and Accomplishment in Visionary Buddhism. By Andreas Doctor (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2005). Journal of Asian Studies 66:1146-1147.

2006. Pioneer in Tibet; the Life and Perils of Dr. Albert Shelton. By Douglass A. Wissing (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). Tibet Journal 30, no. 3: 107-110.

2003. Khams pa Histories: Visions of People, Place and Authority (review article). Edited by Lawrence Epstein (Leiden: Brill, 2002). Tibet Journal 28, no. 3: 61-96.

Book Reviewer, Buddhadharma, 2007-2011. Ten book briefs four times a year. Books were both academic and popular titles.

Links

Wiki Pages

• Gardner, A. on the DRL
• Gardner, A. on the LIB
• Gardner, A. 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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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.