The Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford

Sara McClintock: The Two Truths in Action

Sara McClintock talks about “dharmic omniscience” in the arguments of 8th-century Madhyamaka scholars Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, what happens when Buddhist teachers ada

Rafal Felbur: The Sūrata-sūtra and Forgotten Mahāyāna Scriptures (Part 2)

Rafal Felbur talks about the surviving Chinese and Tibetan versions of the Sūrata-sūtra, their depictions of a charismatic preacher bringing Buddhism to new frontiers, an

Rafal Felbur: From the Chinese Canon to the Large Language Model (Part 1)

Rafal Felbur talks about Chinese and Tibetan texts that preserve Indic sources lost in Sanskrit, the early Chinese exegetes who imposed a restrictive orthodoxy even while

Oriane Lavolé: Revealing Treasures in Tibet

Oriane Lavolé talks about the history of treasure revealers (tertöns) from 11th-century Tibet to contemporary Nepal, how apologists for the treasure tradition (terma) hav

Travelogue: The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, California, we talk to professors, monastics, and laypeople about the acquisition of the historic property and the 600-mile

Christian Luczanits: Mustang Art and the Myth of the Hidden Kingdom

Christian Luczanits talks about the eccentricities of early Buddhist art in the Mustang region of the Himalayas, the intellectual exchange that ran through the region lon

Chiew Hui Ho: The Lives of Sūtras

Chiew Hui Ho talks about parasutraic texts in medieval China that chronicle devotion to specific sūtras, how these histories give us a picture of “Buddhism on the ground”

Joshua Capitanio: The Work of the Scholar-Librarian

Joshua Capitanio talks about his graduate work on medieval Chinese Buddho-Daoism, how translation projects and “second book” arguments are valued inside and outside the p

Book Notes: Meir Shahar, "Kings of Oxen and Horses"

Meir Shahar talks about the cult worship of the “Ox King” and the “Horse King” in China. Working at the intersection of scriptural studies and field research, Shahar conn

Book Notes: Adeana McNicholl, "Of Ancestors and Ghosts"

Adeana McNicholl talks about the misunderstood realm of the “pretas,” typically translated as the home of “hungry ghosts” but in fact host to an entire history of the anc

Travelogue: Gil Fronsdal and the Insight Meditation Center

Gil Fronsdal talks about studying in Buddhist monasteries from Big Sur to Bangkok, founding the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, and creating an integrated Budd

James Gentry: The Bodhisattva’s Body in a Pill

James Gentry talks about the thousand-year history of the Tibetan maṇi pill, back to its medieval origins in an age of Mongol invasions and epidemics, through an infusion

Ralph H. Craig III: Preachers and Teachers, from the Dharmabhāṇakas to Tina Turner

Ralph H. Craig III talks about crafting constructive analogies between Christian and Buddhist liturgies, characterizing the ideal preachers (dharmabhāṇakas) described in

Allan Ding: Chan Ritual and the Zhāi Feast

Allan Ding talks about why the Chan monk Moheyan lost the 8th-century “Samyé Debate” over the future of Tibetan Buddhism, how medieval Chinese Buddhists shifted from “ant

Marcus Bingenheimer: AI and Total Translation

Marcus Bingenheimer talks about why new tools in the Digital Humanities demand new genres of scholarship, what network analysis reveals about the transmission of religiou

Julian Butterfield: Joy in the Lotus Sūtra

Julian Butterfield talks about the winding path to a dissertation topic, overcoming exegetical resistance to emotional affect in religious literature, and the central rol

Pia Brancaccio: Cave Monasteries and the Cotton Road in Western Deccan

Pia Brancaccio talks about the Buddhist cave monasteries of Western Deccan, the inter-continental exchange of "Maritime Buddhism" along the "Cotton Road," and the competi

Stephen Bokenkamp: Daoism and Buddhism in China

Stephen Bokenkamp talks about his fieldwork in China after the Cultural Revolution, how to better understand the original encounter between Daoism and Buddhism in the 2nd

Ven. Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā: Integrating Academic and Monastic Lives

Ven. Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā talks about the journey of her research in relation to the historical transmission of Buddhist texts, the process of integrating her two lives