Thurman, Robert A(lexander) F(arrar) 1941-

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THURMAN, Robert A(lexander) F(arrar) 1941-

(Robert Thurman)

PERSONAL: Born August 3, 1941, in New York, NY; son of Beverley Thurman (a newspaper editor) and Elizabeth Farrar (an actor); married Christophe de Menil, 1959 (divorced, 1961); married Nena von Schlebrugge (a model), 1967; children: (first marriage) Taya; (second marriage) Ganden, Uma, Dechen, Mipam. Education: Attended Phillips Exeter Academy, 1954-58; Harvard University, A.B., 1962, A.M., 1969, Ph.D. (Sanskrit Indian studies), 1972; studied Buddhism under fourteenth Dalai Lama. Politics: "Hard-nosed Liberal." Religion: Buddhist. Hobbies and other interests: Carpentry, travel.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Center for Buddhist Studies, Department of Religion, Kent Hall 623, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027; Tibet House New York, 22 West 15th St., New York, NY 10013. Agent—c/o Janklow & Nesbit, 200 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Traveled in the Middle East and Asia, 1961-66, taught English to Tibetan monks; ordained Buddhist monk, 1964-66; founder (with others), American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1972, president, 1976—; Institute for the Advancement of Studies of World Religion, assistant director of research, 1973-76; Amherst College, Amherst, MA, professor of religion, 1973-88; Tibet House New York, New York, NY, founder (with others), 1987, president, beginning in 1992; Columbia University, Jey Tsong Khapa professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies, 1988—, founder and director of Center for Buddhist Studies, 1989—, chair of department of religion, 1991-95, 2004—. Lecturer at colleges and universities, including Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan; Smith College, Northampton, MA; Williams College, Williamstown, MA; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Boston University, Boston, MA; Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sciences Sociales, Paris, France; and St. Petersburg University, Russia.

MEMBER: American Academy of Religion, American Oriental Society, Association for Asian Studies, International Association for Tibetan Studies, International Association for Buddhist Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS: Research fellow in Buddhism, Institute for the Advancement of Studies of World Religion, 1972-73; Tricycle prize for best nonfiction of the year, 1997, for Essential Tibetan Buddhism.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor) The Life and Teachings of Tsong-khapa, translation by Sherpa Tulku, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Dharamsala, Kangra, India), 1982.

(Editor, with Daniel Goleman) The Fourteenth Dalai Lama and others, MindScience: An East-West Dialogue, Wisdom Publications (Boston, MA), 1991.

(With Marylin M. Rhie) Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, photographs by John Bigelow Taylor, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA), 1991.

Essential Tibetan Buddhism, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

Inside Tibetan Buddhism: Rituals and Symbols Revealed, Collins Publishers San Francisco (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

(Author of introduction) Frank Olinsky, Buddha Book: A Meeting of Images, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 1997.

(Author of introduction) Kazuyoshi Nomachi, Tibet, foreword by Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Shambhala Publications (Boston, MA), 1997.

(Author of preface) Alexander Eliot, The Timeless Myths: How Ancient Legends Influence the Modern World, Truman Talley Books/Meridian (New York, NY), 1997.

Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Tad Wise; as Robert Thurman) Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure through the Himalayas, Bantam (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Marylin M. Rhie) Worlds of Transformation, Tibet House New York (New York, NY), 1999.

(Author of introduction) The Tibetans: Photographs, Art Perry, Viking Studio, (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor) Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well, Riverhead Publications, 2004.

(Editor) The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism, Free Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to books, including On Nature, edited by Leroy S. Rouner, University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1984, and Inner Peace, WorldPeace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence, edited by Kenneth Kraft, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1992. Contributor to periodicals, including Tricycle. Contributed to sound recordings Culture as Mandala, Female Deities, and Fierce Deities, all released by Snow Lion (Ithaca, NY).

TRANSLATOR

The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 1976.

(And author of introduction) Tsong-khapa's Speech of Gold in the Essence of True Eloquence: Reason and Enlightenment in the Central Philosophy of Tibet, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1984.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation through Understanding in the Between, Bantam, 1993.

Also translator of The Wisdom of Nagarjuna, Mulamadhyamika-karika, 1978.

SIDELIGHTS: Robert A. F. Thurman was the first American to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk and studied with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Though no longer a monk, Thurman is still an influential Buddhist who has chaired the department of religion at Columbia University. In addition to teaching and lecturing about Buddhism and Tibet, he founded and directs the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. He also founded Tibet House New York, an organization dedicated to preserving Tibetan culture, and serves as its president. Thurman has written, edited, and translated books about Buddhism and is active in efforts to free Tibet from Communist China's rule. He has written Essential Tibetan Buddhism and Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness. Thurman's translations include The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture and The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation through Understanding in the Between. He is also famous as the father of actor Uma Thurman.

Thurman's parents mingled with the cultural elite of New York City, and after graduating from Harvard University, he married an heiress named Christophe de Menil. The couple had one child, but then, in 1961, Thurman's life changed forever when he lost an eye in an accident. The incident made him think about what he wanted in life, and he began reading Buddhist texts as well as the writings of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He decided to leave his wife and child to go on a spiritual quest in the Middle East and Asia. Although his wife and his mother opposed this trip, his father gave him emotional support. To support himself financially during this time, Thurman taught English to exiled Tibetan monks in India. Recalling that period in his life in an interview with New York Times Magazine contributor Rodger Kamenetz, Thurman commented: "I was in heaven, because the minute I met the Tibetans, I knew they had the knowledge I wanted."

Thurman returned to the United States when his father died. After the funeral, he traveled to a Buddhist monastery in New Jersey, where he studied under monk Geshe Ngawang Wangyal. Thurman learned about Tibet, spent a great deal of time in meditation, and helped his mentor build a temple. Though Wangyal did not necessarily agree with Thurman's declared ambition to become a monk, he agreed to take the young man to Dharamsala, India, to meet the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

"You don't really study with the Dalai Lama," explained Thurman to Kamenetz. "He assigns this or that teacher." Yet Thurman spent a great deal of time with the Dalai Lama, who was then twenty-nine years old, because Thurman spoke Tibetan and the Buddhist spiritual leader was curious about the Western world. "Basically he downloaded my Exeter and Harvard education over that year and a half," revealed Thurman. "Every talk I'd say, 'What about this problem in madhyamika thought?' And he'd say: 'Oh, talk to Master So-and-So about that. Now what about [pioneering Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund] Freud? What about physics? What about the history of World War II?'"

The Dalai Lama ordained Thurman as a monk in 1964, but a few years later Thurman resigned his vow of celibacy to marry his second wife, a former model named Nena von Schlebrugge. (Thurman and Christophe had divorced in 1961.) Thurman and von Schlebrugge had four children: Ganden, Uma, Dechen, and Mipam. Thurman returned to Harvard University, where he resumed his studies. He then served as a professor of religion for fifteen years at Amherst College before moving to Columbia University in 1988.

Collaborating with Marylin M. Rhie and photographer John Bigelow Taylor, Thurman produced Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. This book is really a catalog for a traveling exhibition of Buddhist art, and features photographs of such items as colored sand mandalas with accompanying essays by Rhie and Thurman. According to a Publishers Weekly contributor, Wisdom and Compassion is "breathtakingly beautiful" and "fills a major gap in documenting Tibetan art." Like Wisdom and Compassion, Inside Tibetan Buddhism: Rituals and Symbols Revealed includes many pictures meant to illustrate the symbolic meaning of much of Tibetan Buddhism's imagery. Thurman's translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation through Understanding in the Between documents Tibetan Buddhist beliefs about the transition between death and the rebirth of reincarnation. Library Journal contributor Dara Eklund questioned some of Thurman's diction, but concluded that the volume is "a colorful, awesome journey."

Essential Tibetan Buddhism is a collection of excerpts and selections from many sacred Buddhist writings, as well as the Dalai Lama's acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, the Dalai Lama permitted Thurman to include translated portions of the Guhyasamaja, a religious text little known to Westerners. Thurman provides commentary and notes on all of the selections and gives a historical introduction to developments within Tibetan Buddhism. In another piece published in the Library Journal, Dara Eklund commented on the volume's "astute organization." Booklist contributor Donna Seaman lauded the author as "a mentor in print as well as in spirit." Digby Anderson in the National Review conceded that Essential Tibetan Buddhism may be difficult to comprehend for non-Buddhists, but "unreservedly" recommended it to Buddhists. Essential Tibetan Buddhism received the 1997 prize for best nonfiction from the Buddhist journal Tricycle.

Inner Revolution is Thurman's 1998 attempt to reconcile the beliefs and principles of Buddhism with contemporary American society. In Inner Revolution he maintains that Americans can solve many of society's problems by embracing the Buddhist ideals of mindfulness and interconnectedness, and urges readers to avoid the materialism so prevalent in American life. Thurman argues that Buddhist ideals are not only consistent with, but also essential to, building what a Publishers Weekly reviewer labeled "the free society dreamed of by [Thomas] Jefferson and others." That reviewer hailed Inner Revolution as "a passionate declaration of the possibilities of renewing the world." According to New York Times Book Review contributor Peter J. Gomes, Inner Revolution advances "a compelling if at times relentlessly optimistic argument" that addresses "the palpable desires of an exhausted culture eager to go on pilgrimage from 'me' to meaning." Although a reviewer in Kirkus Reviews wrote that Thurman "generalizes unfairly" about Western religion and fails to mention events in the history of Buddhism in Inner Revolution, the reviewer concluded that "for readers new to Tibetan Buddhism, Thurman makes an impassioned and engaging guide."

Thurman told CA: "Nowadays, in addition to my teaching and research in Buddhist studies, I enjoy my work for the Tibetan people by developing Tibet House New York, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving their precious Buddhist culture. We hope to see it thrive again in Tibet, when the long nightmare of Chinese occupation is finally over. After that, I hope to get back to my intellectual task, to translate Tibetan Inner Science texts into English, sources that can provoke creative dialogues with modern sciences and philosophies."