Robert Buswell

Professor; Director of the Center for Buddhist Studies

Department: Asian Languages and Cultures

11385 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1487
buswell@humnet.ucla.edu
Personal Website

Keywords: Asia, Buddhist Studies, Korea, Religion

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley. December 1985. Buddhist Studies. Dissertation Title: "The Korean Origin of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra: A Case Study in Determining the Dating, Provenance, and Authorship of a Buddhist Apocryphal Scripture." UMI #8609960. Readers: Lewis Lancaster, Michael Rogers, Michel Strickmann

M.A., With Distinction. U.C. Berkeley. June 1983. Sanskrit (South and Southeast Asian Studies). Three comprehensive examinations: 1) Abhidharma Literature: Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhaya with Yasomitra's Sphurthavyakhya; 2) The Sanksrit Grammarians: Patanjali's Mahabhasya Bhahuvrihyahnika with Kasikavrtti and Nyasabhasya; 3) general examiniation in South and Southeast Asian Studies.

A.B., With Highest Honors. U.C. Berkeley. June, 1981. Chinese (Oriental Languages). Valedictorian. Honor's Thesis: "Syncretic Trends in Chinul's Thought: An Annotated Translation of the Wondon songbullon [Treatise on the attainment of Buddhahood according to the Complete and Sudden school]."

Fieldwork in Buddhist Monasticism: Wat Bovoranives, Bangkok, Thailand, 1972-73 (Theravada); Polam-ji, Landau Island, Hong Kong, 1973-74 (Ch'an); Songgwang-sa, Cholla Namdo, Korea, 1974-79 (Son and Hwaom).

University of California, Santa Barbara. September, 1971 - December 1972. Asian Studies

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Buddhist Studies

PUBLICATIONS

 Books

1992: The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 245pp

1992: Paths of Liberation: The Marga and its Transformations in Buddhist Thought. Coeditor (w/ Robert M. Gimello) and contributor. Studies in East Asian Buddhism series, no 7. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, A Kuroda Institute Book. 525pp

1991: Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen. Classics in East Asian Buddhism, no. 2. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, A Kuroda Institute Book. 232pp (Paperback abridgment of The Korean Approach to Zen).

1990: Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. Editor and Contributor. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 338pp.

Articles

1995: "The Hagiographies of the Korean Monk Wonhyo (617-686)." In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

1993-94: "Zen Buddhism and the Context of Belief." Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 7 (1993-94): 283-318.

1993: "The Debate Concerning Moderate and Radical Subitism in Korean Son Buddhism." In Han'guk chonggyo sasang ui chae chomyong, Chinsan Han Kidu paksa hwagap kinyom (Reconsiderations of Korean Religious Thought, in Honor of the Sixtieth Birthday of Chinsan, Dr. Han Kidu), pp 489-519. Iri, Korea: Won'gwang University Press, 1993

1992: "Zen Monastic Practice in Korea." Korean Culture 13-3 (Fall, 1992): 34-44

1992: "The Path to Perdition: The Wholesome Roots and their Eradication." In Paths to Liberation: The Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought, ed. Buswell and Gimello, pp. 107-134