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About Luke Thompson

Luke Thompson received his PhD from Columbia University in 2017 and his MA (in Buddhist Studies) from the University of Bristol (UK) in 2008. While his academic research focused on medieval Japanese Buddhist intellectual history, he is interested in Buddhism beyond Japan, and has lived or spent extended periods in Buddhist monasteries in Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, northern India, England, and the US. He currently teaches Buddhist Studies courses in NY State prisons as a faculty member of the Bard Prison Initiative. He also tutors in Classical Japanese, is a practicing, licensed massage therapist, and in 2021 will begin training as a psychotherapist.

Luke Thompson's research focuses on medieval Japanese Buddhist intellectual history, though he has interests in Buddhism beyond Japan, and particularly in anthropological approaches to Buddhism.

NBN Episodes hosted by Luke:

Buddhist Studies August 13, 2021

Exile and Otherness

The Ethics of Shinran and Maimonides

Ilana Maymind

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In Exile and Otherness: The Ethics of Shinran and Maimonides (Lexington Books, 2020), Ilana Maymind argues that Shinran (1173–1263), the founder of True Pure Land Buddhism (Jodo Shinshu), and Maimonides (1138–1204), a …
Buddhist Studies March 18, 2021

Yasodhara and the Buddha

Vanessa R. Sasson

Hosted by Luke Thompson
By combining the spirit of fiction with the fabulism of Indian mythology and in-depth academic research, Vanessa R. Sasson shares the evocative story of the Buddha from the perspective of …
Buddhist Studies March 16, 2021

Wisdom as a Way of Life

Theravāda Buddhism Reimagined

Steven Collins

Hosted by Luke Thompson
This wide-ranging and powerful book argues that Theravāda Buddhism provides ways of thinking about the self that can reinvigorate the humanities and offer broader insights into how to learn and …
Buddhist Studies December 15, 2020

Chinese Esoteric Buddhism

Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition

Geoffrey C. Goble

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent book, Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition (Columbia University Press, 2019), Geoffrey Goble examines the emergence and early history of …
Buddhist Studies February 11, 2019

The Buddha’s Wizards

Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism

Thomas Patton

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent monograph, The Buddha’s Wizards: Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism(Columbia University Press, 2018), Thomas Patton examines the weizzā, a figure in Burmese Buddhism who is possessed …
Buddhist Studies February 7, 2018

Assembling Shinto

Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan

Anna Andreeva

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In her recent monograph, Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2017), Anna Andreeva focuses on a complex network of religious sites, figures …
Buddhist Studies December 4, 2017

Ritualized Writing

Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan

Bryan D. Lowe

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent monograph, Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2017), Bryan D. Lowe examines eighth-century Japanese practices that ritualized writing, or …
Buddhist Studies October 9, 2017

Anarchy in the Pure Land

Reinventing the Cult of Maitreya in Modern Chinese Buddhism

Justin R. Ritzinger

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent monograph, Anarchy in the Pure Land: Reinventing the Cult of Maitreya in Modern Chinese Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2017), Justin R. Ritzinger examines the cult of Maitreya …
Buddhist Studies April 2, 2017

Buddhism in America

Global Religion, Local Contexts

Scott A. Mitchell

Hosted by Luke Thompson
Scott A. Mitchell's recent monograph, Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts (Bloomsbury, 2016), provides a much-needed up-to-date overview of Buddhism in the United States. To tackle such a large …
Buddhist Studies March 3, 2017

Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of the Law

The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka

Benjamin Schonthal

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent monograph, Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law: The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Benjamin Schonthal examines the relationship between constitutional law and …
Buddhist Studies January 20, 2017

Deathpower

Buddhism's Ritual Imagination in Cambodia

Erik W. Davis

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent monograph, Deathpower: Buddhism's Ritual Imagination in Cambodia (Columbia University Press, 2015), Erik W. Davis explores funerary ritual in contemporary Cambodian Buddhism and the way in which Buddhist …
Buddhist Studies May 16, 2016

Thailand's International Meditation Centers

Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices

Brooke Schedneck

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In her recent monograph, Thailand's International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation centers in Thailand and draws our attention …
Buddhist Studies January 20, 2016

Real and Imagined

The Peak of Gold in Heian Japan

Heather Blair

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In her recent monograph, Real and Imagined: The Peak of Gold in Heian Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2015), Heather Blair explores the religious and institutional history of Kinpusen, a …
Buddhist Studies September 26, 2015

Love and Liberation

Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro

Sarah H. Jacoby

Hosted by Luke Thompson
Sarah H. Jacoby's recent monograph, Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro (Columbia University Press, 2014), focuses on the extraordinary life and times of the …
Buddhist Studies June 27, 2015

Rescued from the Nation

Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World

Steven E. Kemper

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent book, Rescued from the Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Steven E. Kemper examines the Sinhala layman Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) and …
Buddhist Studies May 7, 2015

Experimental Buddhism

Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan

John K. Nelson

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent book, Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2013), John K. Nelson delves into the historical circumstances that have led to the …
Buddhist Studies April 25, 2015

Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China

Stuart Young

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China (University of Hawai'i Press, 2015), Stuart Young examines Chinese hagiographic representations of three Indian Buddhist patriarchs--Asvaghosa (Maming), Nagarjuna (Longshu), and Aryadeva (Sheng …
Buddhist Studies March 18, 2015

The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography

Censorship and Transformation of the Tripitaka

Tanya Storch

Hosted by Luke Thompson
Tanya Storch's recent book, The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography: Censorship and Transformation of the Tripitaka (Cambria, 2014), focuses on the development of Chinese Buddhist catalogs from their first appearance …
Buddhist Studies February 11, 2015

India in the Chinese Imagination

Myth, Religion, and Thought

Meir Shahar and John Kieschnick, eds.

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), eleven scholars (including editors John Kieschnick and Meir Shahar) examine the Chinese reception of Indian …
Buddhist Studies February 6, 2015

Miracles of Book and Body

Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan

Charlotte Eubanks

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan (University of California Press, 2011), Charlotte Eubanks examines the relationship between MahÄyÄna Buddhist sÅ«tras and the human body …
Buddhist Studies January 23, 2015

Wondrous Brutal Fictions

Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater

R. Keller Kimbrough

Hosted by Luke Thompson
In his recent book, Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater (Columbia University Press, 2013), R. Keller Kimbrough provides us with eight beautifully translated sekkyō …
Buddhist Studies January 8, 2015

The Birth of Insight

Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw

Erik Braun

Hosted by Luke Thompson
Erik Braun's recent book, The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (University of Chicago Press, 2013), examines the spread of Burmese Buddhist meditation practices …
Buddhist Studies December 25, 2014

The Taming of the Demons

Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism

Jacob Dalton

Hosted by Luke Thompson
Jacob Dalton's recent book, The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (Yale University Press, 2011), examines violence (both symbolic and otherwise) in Tibetan Buddhism. Dalton focuses …
Buddhist Studies November 11, 2014

Secrecy's Power

Cover Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment

Clark Chilson

Hosted by Luke Thompson
Clark Chilson's new book, Secrecy's Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment (University of Hawai'i Press, 2014) examines secret groups of Shin (i.e., True Pure Land Buddhist) …