Buddhist Seminaries

Bill Dayson made fascinating reference to the Jodo Shinshu seminary in SF and its accreditation arrangements. Are there other Buddhist seminaries? Is a distinction made between monasteries and what in western (sic)parlance is called a seminary? Is DL offered at all?

 

Janko: Is DL offered at all?

John: The Tibetan Buddhist group for which Marina teaches offers one quite extensive and inexpensive distance learning course, with much text material, video talks by their main lama, Sogyal Rinpoche ("The Tibetan Book of Living 7 Dying"), one-on-one interactions with a teacher. Details at www.rigpa.org

 

Hi, Uncle Janko. I'm not really a Buddhist (certainly not formally), so there will be others here better able to answer your question. (I see John Bear has responded.)

But traditionally, Buddhism has a different sort of institutional structure than Christianity. In general (there are always exceptions), it doesn't have ministers or priests, but instead ordained monks exercise the clerical functions. The center of most Buddhist organization is the Sangha, the order of Buddhist monks originally founded by the Buddha himself. So traditionally, clerics have been trained in and drawn from monasteries.

Particularly in Western Buddhism there is now a much greater emphasis on the laity. Buddhist monastic discipline is less common, and you find monastic functions being taken over by "centers" and by lay teachers who sometimes have sort of a pop-psychology tone. This development is rather controversial within Buddhism (to the extent that anything is controversial), and it gets a lot of discussion by Buddhists. So things are in a sort of a flux right now. (Of course, the Buddhists would say that's inevitable.)

But even among these lay teachers, there is a big monastic-style emphasis on lineage and on personal practice and teaching. It's a hands-on deal, making DL kind of problematic.

But there are exceptions to everything. Jodo Shinshu is kind of a "Protestant" Buddhism that deemphasized the monastic system and placed great emphasis on salvation by something like "faith" and "grace", rather than by works. There's a scholarly literature on the parallels between these medieval developments and Christian Protestant ideas. Shinran has been called the Buddhist Luther.

When it came to America, Jodo Shinshu had a culture shock, that culminated in the World War II internment of west-coast Japanese-Americans. So the Jodo Shinshu mission remade itself in "American" form, trying desparately to fit in. It became a "church" with Christian-style buildings. It had "ministers" who preached sermons to assembled congregations. And it acquired a Christian-style seminary to train its clergymen.

So to get back to Uncle Janco's question, I don't know of very many Christian-style seminaries operated by Buddhists. IBS is really the only one that I'm aware of.

But there are several graduate programs associated with Buddhist monasteries in California. Hsi Lai University in LA is probably best known. It's associated with the huge and ornate Hsi Lai temple, which is a monastic complex (the largest in the US) as well as a place of worship. The clergy-making function is basically a function of the monastery, while Hsi Lai University educates both monks and interested laymen (who needn't be Buddhist) in academic Buddhist studies up to the doctoral level. It's also put in an MBA program, has prominent backing, and is currently in talks with WASC. No DL though, and still just CA-approved.

Another similar outfit is the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. They operate a monastery that ordains monks, as well as a very small masters program. They also operate an Institute for World Religions in Berkeley. They have some competent academics associated with them, one of which will be a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, starting in November. One of my former professors (Ron Epstein of SFSU) is very involved with DRBA. No DL and still just CA-approved.

If you separate the monastic from the academic function entirely, there are quite a few RA programs either in Buddhist studies proper, or in broader religious studies with a Buddhist emphasis. UC Berkeley has a doctoral group in Buddhist studies, and you can specialize in Buddhism in Stanford's religious studies doctoral program. These kind of programs prepare scholars to study and write about Buddhist history, thought and practice, but don't prepare Buddhist clergy. But monks and other practitioners do often enroll in these programs for academic reasons. With perhaps one exception, none that I know of are DL.

The one exception is in the UK. The University of Sunderland has recently rolled out a very interesting 100% DL M.A. in Buddhist Studies.

 

One thing I would throw in, though it's certainly peripheral to the topic question: Naropa University has fired up an M.Div. (yes, an M.Div.) in Engaged Buddhism and, having seen the program's curriculum, I would rate it as equivalent in rigor to a Christian M.Div. It's not ordination-track in any Buddhist tradition as far as I know, but it represents what may become a growing trend in Western Buddhism.


Cheers,

 

Thanks, Bill Dayson & Dr Bear!
Fascinating information and a good refresher on some stuff I'd once known and since forgotten. I did recall the element of personal transmission & figured it would make DL pretty chancy.
When I was in high school I took a course on Zen (yeah, I know--taught by a fellow from Sophia University!) and I recall reading when I was in the ceme- whoops, seminary a book called "How the Swans Came to the Lake," which was a history of Buddhism in America. It was superbly done--in fact, one of the most engaging books of Amer history of religion I had ever read. But that was long ago and far away...

Shinran the Buddhist Luther. Almost a koan, that...

Anyway, many many thanks for the detailed post.

 

Dear uncle janko:

for a detailed list with links of Buddhist DL programmes, please visit:

http://www.za-zen.net

under "University Degrees".

I hope that this is useful for you.
adelheid

 

Tom & Adelheid: Thanks for the information, and for your generosity in sharing it. Janko

 

I confess that I didn't check the university listings at this site but seeing how the site was oriented exclusively towards Soto-Zen I'm taking the chance that they didn't mention the Masters degree program in Budhist Studies offered at the University of Sunderland (UK). This is a new program that is available entirely through DL.
Jack

 

extract from the website at http://www.za-zen.net:

"Distance Learning University Degrees in Buddhist Studies
Note: this list is not complete and za-zen.net does not endorse or recommend any particular university

Komazawa University, Tokyo, Japan: the official Soto-Zen Shu Buddhist University. Accredited programmes, but apparently no English language based DL components:
http://www.komazawa-u.ac.jp

Bukkyo University, Kyoto, Japan: accredited MA in Buddhist Studies (several concentrations) by correspondence to foreign residents in Japan:
http://www.bukkyo-u.ac.jp/

The University of Sunderland, UK: accredited MA, Postgraduate Diploma, and Postgraduate Certificate in Buddhist Studies:
http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/buddhist/

The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto CA, USA: accredited certificate and masters programs:
http://www.itp.edu/programs/global.html

Atlantic University, VA, USA: accredited school offering an MA in transpersonal/Buddhist studies:
http://www.atlanticuniv.edu/

San Diego University of Integrative Studies, CA, USA: CA-approved but not state endorsed programs, up to and including a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology with a Tibetan Buddhist Psychology emphasis:
http://www.sduis.edu/catalogue/"

Hope that this helps.
adelheid