The Rise and Fall of the Dharma
Scholar Donald S. Lopez Jr. examines the history of Buddhism’s survival—and the predictions surrounding its eventual decline.
Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Donald S. Lopez Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan.
Featured Articles
The Buddha’s Nemesis
What we can learn from the story of Devadatta, the Buddha’s cousin who attempted to assassinate him and split the sangha
Personal ReflectionsMagazine | Feature
Teaching the Dharma in the Plague Year
How a professor of Buddhism used technology and the blues to keep his students engaged
Latest Articles
CultureMagazine | Art, Reviews
Tree and Serpent
Tracing the footsteps of early Buddhist art.
Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE – 400 CE
Tracing the footsteps of early Buddhist art
Unanswered Questions in Buddhist Studies
Four essential questions in the field from one of its leading scholars
Buddhism and the Real World
For most of its history, the dharma has had little to offer in the domain of social action. But that’s OK.
Buddha Takes the Mound
Why the Buddha invented baseball
How to Read the Lotus Sutra
The Lotus Sutra is one of the foremost Buddhist texts, but to the uninitiated reader, it can make little or no sense.
Podcasts
A Journey through Buddhist History
Scholar Donald S. Lopez Jr. discusses the challenges in attempting to tell any single history of Buddhism.
Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud
How to Read the Lotus Sutra
Our guests are two of the foremost scholars in Buddhist studies, Donald Lopez, Jr. and Jacqueline Stone. They have written a chapter-by-chapter guide to the Lotus Sutra called Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side: A Guide to the Lotus Sutra (October 2019, Princeton University Press). Here, Stone and Lopez sit down with Tricycle Editor and Publisher James Shaheen to discuss the issues, such as religious meaning, reinvention, and adaptation, that this book brings to the surface.
Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud
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