The Buddhist Studies Podcast

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Geoff Barstow about his beginnings as a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, the complicated status of animals in Buddhism, his research into the history of vegetarianism in Tibet, and how thinking with animals can help us see the world in a new way. We discuss common questions about Buddhism and animals, such as: what did the Buddha teach about animals? Are most Buddhists vegetarians? What are some of the different ways Buddhist communities have interacted with animals? We also preview his upcoming online course, BSO 106 | Buddhism and Animals, which will explore these issues in more depth!
Speaker Bio
Dr. Geoffrey Barstow is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Oregon State University.
He first encountered Tibetan Buddhism in 1999, and since that time the study of Tibetan religion, history, and culture has been the focus of his professional life. For the last decade and a half, his research has focussed on the history and practice of vegetarianism on the Tibetan plateau, asking questions about how animals were viewed, how they were treated (i.e., eaten), what that can tell us about Tibetan Buddhism, and how Buddhist ideas about animal ethics might impact broader philosophical discussions. His published work includes Food of Sinful Demons: A History of Vegetarianism in Tibet (Columbia University Press) and The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Writings on Vegetarianism (Wisdom Publications).
Links discussed in episode

• BSO 106 | Buddhism and Animals
• Food of Sinful Demons: A History of Vegetarianism in Tibet
• The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Writings on Vegetarianism
• Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination by Reiko Ohnuma
• The Rule of Threefold Purity in MN 55.5
• Janet Gyatso on animal ethics on the Wisdom Podcast
• Kinship and Killing: The Animal in World Religions by Katherine Perlo

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jue Liang about her beginnings as a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, the life of the Tibetan saint Yeshe Tsogyal, and the broader topic of women in Buddhism. How should we think about the place of women in Buddhist philosophy, narrative, and practice? How do scholars attempt to recover the lives of women who are often forgotten in Buddhist history? And how does thinking with and about gender help us—whatever our gender—understand Buddhism? We also preview her upcoming online course, BSO 105 | Women and Buddhism, which will explore these issues in more depth!
Speaker Bio
Dr. Jue Liang is a scholar of Tibetan Buddhist literature, history, and culture, and is Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Denison University and incoming Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Wittenberg University in Fall 2022.
She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. Her dissertation, Conceiving the Mother of Tibet: The Life, Lives, and Afterlife of the Buddhist Saint Yeshe Tsogyel, examines the literary tradition surrounding the matron saint of Tibet, Yeshe Tsogyel, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It also presents the blossoming of this literary tradition in tandem with the efforts to trace their religious pedigree and define what counts as authentic Buddhism by Nyingma Tibetan Buddhists.
She is currently working on a second book project titled Who Is a Buddhist Feminist: Theorizing Gender and Religion in Contemporary Tibet. It is a study on the history, discourse, and social effects of the khenmo program, a gender-equality initiative that has been taking place at Tibetan Buddhist institutions in China for the past three decades. Jue is also an active participant in discussions on Buddhism in both academic and public forums.
Links

• BSO 105 | Women and Buddhism

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Constance Kassor about her beginnings as a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, different Tibetan interpretations of emptiness, and how studying history sheds light on philosophy and practice. Plus, we chat about some of our favorite books, articles, and other resources for learning more about Tibetan Buddhism!
We also preview Dr. Kassor's upcoming online course, 104 | Tibetan Buddhism, which will cover the history, schools, philosophy, and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. The course is meant to give an overview of various important aspects of Tibetan history and culture that give students frameworks of understanding that can support future study and practice.
Speaker Bio

Dr. Constance Kassor is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, where she teaches courses on Buddhist thought and Asian religious traditions. Prior to joining the Lawrence faculty in 2016, she taught Buddhist Studies at Smith College, Hampshire College, Amherst College, and the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal.

Connie’s research primarily focuses on Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, and she is interested in different ways that Tibetan Buddhist scholars understand the cultivation of knowledge. Her forthcoming book, Accounting for Awakened Awareness, examines the nature of knowledge through the lens of the 15th century philosopher Gorampa Sonam Senge. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Connie is also currently translating Gorampa’s extensive Madhyamaka treatise, Synopsis of Madhyamaka (dbu ma’i spyi don) into English, in collaboration with Khenpo Dr. Ngawang Jorden, principal and abbot of the International Buddhist Academy in Nepal.

Connie has spent several years living, working, and teaching in Buddhist communities in India and Nepal. In addition to her scholarly publications, she has written for Lion’s Roar and Tricycle, and has recently published an audio course for The Great Courses and Audible

Links

• 104 | Tibetan Buddhism

Referenced in the Episode

• The Parable of the Raft (in the Alagaddupama Sutta, MN 22)
• The Sound of Two Hands Clapping by Georges Dreyfus
• "The Heart Sutra: the Fullness of Emptiness" by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Accounting for Awakened Awareness by Constance Kassor (no link yet, but click here for other publications by Connie!)
• High Peaks Pure Earth Tibet Reading List

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Maria Heim about her beginnings as a scholar of classical South Asia, the role of commentaries in Buddhism, and the importance of emotions to the Buddhist path. We also preview her upcoming online course, BSO 202 | Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification, which will focus on this important Theravada text written by Buddhaghosa in the 5th century and cherished by Buddhists ever since. We discuss Buddhaghosa's theory of the Buddha's speech as endlessly meaningful, and what that means for how we might read Buddhist texts ourselves.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Maria Heim is George Lyman Crosby 1896 & Stanley Warfield Crosby Professor in Religion at Amherst College. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1999, and was honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. She currently chairs the Department of Religion at Amherst.
Heim works on Sanskrit and Pali textual traditions. She has written three books on Buddhaghosa (The Forerunner of All Things: Buddhaghosa on Mind, Intention, and Agency, Oxford, 2014; Voice of the Buddha: Buddhaghosa on the Immeasurable Words, Oxford 2018; and Buddhist Ethics, Cambridge, 2020). She is currently working on emotions in ancient and classical India, and her most recent book, A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is also translating the Milindapañha for the Murty Classical Library of India.
Links

• BSO 202 | Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification

Referenced in the Episode

• The Jewel Discourse Sutta (Ratana Sutta)
• Thomas Dixon, From Passions to Emotions: The Creation of a Secular Psychological Category
• Lisa Feldman Barrett, How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jay L. Garfield about his unconventional path to Buddhist Studies, the importance of multicultural philosophy, how philosophy can enrich Buddhist practice, and preview his upcoming online course, BSO 201 | Bodhicaryāvatāra: How to Lead an Awakened Life, which will focus on this important Mahayana text written by Śāntideva in the 8th century and cherished by Buddhists ever since.

Speaker Bio

Jay L. Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Buddhist Studies, Smith College. He chairs the Philosophy department at Smith College. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies.

Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; metaphysics; the history of modern Indian philosophy; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; the philosophy of the Scottish enlightenment; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.

Garfield’s most recent books are Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse (with the Yakherds, 2021), Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021), What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest, and Robert Sharf, 2021), Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (2015), Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (with the Cowherds, 2015).

He recently finished a book on selves and persons, Losing Yourself: How to Be a Person Without a Self, to be published in February 2022, and is working on several other projects.

Links

• BSO 201 | Bodhicaryāvatāra: How to Lead an Awakened Life
• Website: https://jaygarfield.org/

Referenced in the Episode

• Evan Thompson, Why I am Not a Buddhist
• Maria Heim, Buddhist Ethics
• Jay Garfield and Bryan van Norden, "If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is," editorial in the New York Times
• Jay Garfield, Losing Yourself: How to Be a Person Without a Self, course at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies