Publications - 2022

Atiśa, The Great Middle Way of Mere Appearance

The famous eleventh-century Bengali Atiśa (982–1054) was a master of Madhyamaka (Middle Way thought and practice) who upheld a lineage based on Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti that descended down to Atiśa’s direct teachers Bodhibhadra and Avadhūtipa. Atiśa’s lineage of the Middle Way of Nāgārjuna was contemplative in nature and did not utilize epistemological warrants (pramāṇa) to realize ultimate reality. Atiśa’s Middle Way synthesized the teachings of Bhāviveka and Candrakīrti, bringing together compatible elements of their teachings for soteriological efficacy in progression on the path. The following chapter outlines Atiśa's great middle way (dbu ma chen po) or mere appearance (snang ba tsam).

Love in the Teachings of Ibn ‘Arabī

This book explores the theory of love in the writings of the Andalusian Sufi Ibn ‘Arabī (d. 1240 CE). It begins by examining the nature of divine and human love as enshrined in the writings of many of the Sufi masters who preceded Ibn ‘Arabī, and then turns to the views of the Sufi master himself. Ibn ‘Arabī not only expanded on these earlier Sufi theories, but also provided detailed accounts of his own original insights. He openly declared the primacy of love over all else and argued that love is the dynamic force behind creation. A close textual analysis of selected works on divine love by Ibn ‘Arabī are undertaken. The most important of these are The Interpreter of Longings (1214 CE) (Turjumān al-Ashwāq, 611 AH), The Ringstones of Wisdom (1232 CE) (Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, 630 AH), and The Meccan Openings (1238 CE) (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, 636 AH). In undertaking this task, my hope is that this book will help to inspire further inquiry into Ibn ‘Arabī’s multi-faceted teachings, with its rich and complex conceptualizations of love.

大乗仏教の釈義にみられる「傾き流れる法」という譬喩 [Daijō bukkyō no shakugi ni mi rareru `katamuki nagareru hō' to iu hiyu (“The Tilting Stream of Dharma Metaphor in Mahāyāna Buddhist Exegesis”)