Buddhist Studies

Buddhist Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Buddhism about their new books.

Adeana McNicholl, "Of Ancestors and Ghosts: How Preta Narratives Constructed Buddhist Cosmology and Shaped Buddhist Ethics" (Oxford UP, 2024)

October 9, 2024

Of Ancestors and Ghosts

Adeana McNicholl
Hosted by Jessica Zu

In Buddhist cosmology, pretas make up one of several categories of rebirth. They are best known as "hungry ghosts," pitiful beings with miniscule mout…

Rafal K. Stepien, "Buddhism Between Religion and Philosophy: Nāgārjuna and the Ethics of Emptiness" (Oxford UP, 2024)

September 24, 2024

Buddhism Between Religion and Philosophy

Rafal K. Stepien
Hosted by Jessica Zu

Nāgārjuna (c. 150-250), founder of the Madhyamaka or Middle Way school of Buddhist philosophy and the most influential of all Buddhist thinkers aside …

The Body in Classical Hathayoga, with Ruth Westoby

September 8, 2024

The Body in Classical Hathayoga

Ruth Westoby
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

In this episode Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Ruth Westoby a scholar, teacher, and practitioner of yoga. We discuss Ruth’s work on the body in ea…

Christopher P. Miller et al., "Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age" (Lexington, 2019)

September 5, 2024

Beacons of Dharma

Christopher Patrick Miller, Michael Reading, and Jeffery D. Long
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Today’s globalized society faces some of humanity’s most unprecedented social and environmental challenges. Presenting new and insightful approaches t…

Alone in a World of Wounds with Zen Abbot Shodhin Geiman

August 29, 2024

Alone in a World of Wounds

Shodhin Geiman

Shodhin Geiman is Sensei & Abbot at Chicago Zen Center and recently retired Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University. He has written on aspe…

Justine Chambers, "Pursuing Morality: Buddhism and Everyday Ethics in Southeastern Myanmar" (NUS Press, 2024)

August 15, 2024

Pursuing Morality

Justine Chambers
Hosted by Patrick Jory

What is the right way to live? This is an old question in Western moral philosophy, but in recent years anthropologists have turned their attention to…

Yoga, Disability, and Animism, with Theo Wildcroft

August 11, 2024

Yoga, Disability, and Animism

Theodora Wildcroft
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

In this episode, Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Dr Theodora Wildcroft, a researcher, anthropologist, and long-time teacher of what she calls “post-…

D. E. Osto, "Paranormal States: Psychic Abilities in Buddhist Convert Communities" (Columbia UP, 2024)

August 1, 2024

Paranormal States

D. E. Osto
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

A number of converts to Buddhism report paranormal experiences. Their accounts describe psychic abilities like clairvoyance and precognition, out-of-b…

Stephen Harris, "Buddhist Ethics and the Bodhisattva Path: Santideva on Virtue and Well-Being" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

July 20, 2024

Buddhist Ethics and the Bodhisattva Path

Stephen Harris
Hosted by Malcolm Keating

An influential eighth-century Buddhist text, Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, or Guide to the Practices of Awakening, how to become a supremely virtuous …

Stephanie Balkwill, "The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century" (U California Press, 2024)

July 20, 2024

The Women Who Ruled China

Stephanie Balkwill
Hosted by Jessica Zu

In the late fifth century, a girl whose name has been forgotten by history was born at the edge of the Chinese empire. By the time of her death, she h…

Rory Lindsay, "Saving the Dead: Tibetan Funerary Rituals in the Tradition of the Sarvardurgatipariśodhana Tantra" (WSTB, 2024)

July 11, 2024

Saving the Dead

Rory Lindsay
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Saving the Dead: Tibetan Funerary Rituals in the Tradition of the Sarvardurgatipariśodhana Tantra (WSTB, 2024) explores Tibetan funerary manuals based…

Neena Mahadev, "Karma and Grace: Religious Difference in Millennial Sri Lanka" (Columbia UP, 2023)

July 6, 2024

Karma and Grace

Neena Mahadev
Hosted by Jessica Zu

Around the turn of the millennium, Pentecostal churches began to pepper majority-Buddhist Sri Lanka, setting off a sense of alarm among Buddhists who …

Cameron Bailey and Aleksandra Wenta, "Tibetan Magic: Past and Present" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

June 21, 2024

Tibetan Magic

Cameron Bailey and Aleksandra Wenta
Hosted by Jue Liang

Tibetan Magic: Past and Present (Bloomsbury, 2024) focuses on the theme of magic in Tibetan contexts, encompassing both pre-modern and modern text-cul…

The Religious Landscape of Taiwan: A Discussion with Yushuang Yao

June 21, 2024

The Religious Landscape of Taiwan

Yushuang Yao

How is Buddhism seen and practiced in Taiwan? And how do neighbouring countries influence Taiwanese Buddhism? In this episode we explore the religious…

The Enlightenment of the Body, with Naomi Worth

June 9, 2024

The Enlightenment of the Body

Naomi Worth
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

In this episode, Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Naomi Worth, a scholar and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism’s postural yoga tradition. We dive into…

Benjamin Brose, "Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim" (U Hawaii Press, 2023)

May 23, 2024

Embodying Xuanzang

Benjamin Brose
Hosted by Jessica Zu

Xuanzang (600/602–664) was one of the most accomplished and consequential monks in the history of East Asian Buddhism. Celebrated for his sixteen-year…

Wei Wu, "Esoteric Buddhism in China:  Engaging Japanese and Tibetan Traditions, 1912–1949" (Columbia UP, 2023)

May 17, 2024

Esoteric Buddhism in China

Wei Wu
Hosted by Jessica Zu

During the Republican period (1912–1949) and after, many Chinese Buddhists sought inspiration from non-Chinese Buddhist traditions, showing a particul…

Richard M. Jaffe, "Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism" (U Chicago Press, 2019)

May 5, 2024

Seeking Sakyamuni

Richard M. Jaffe
Hosted by Samee Siddiqui

Though fascinated with the land of their tradition’s birth, virtually no Japanese Buddhists visited the Indian subcontinent before the nineteenth cent…

Reiki and the Subtle Body, with Justin B. Stein

May 4, 2024

Reiki and the Subtle Body

Justin B. Stein
Hosted by Pierce Salguero

Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Justin B. Stein, a specialist in modern Japanese religion and the preeminent historian of Reiki. We discuss Justin’s…

Matthew Robertson, "Puruṣa: Personhood in Ancient India" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 9, 2024

Puruṣa

Matthew I. Robertson
Hosted by Malcolm Keating

The concept of the puruṣa, or person, is implicated in a wide range of ancient texts throughout the Indian subcontinent. In Puruṣa: Personhood in Anci…