Eric Greene

B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Eric Greene is Associate Professor in the department of Religious Studies at Yale University, where he has taught since 2015. He received his B.A. in Mathematics from UC Berkeley in 1998, followed by his M.A. (Asian Studies) and Ph.D. (Buddhist Studies) in 2012. He specializes in the history of medieval Chinese Buddhism, particularly the emergence of Chinese forms of Buddhism from the interaction between Indian Buddhism and indigenous Chinese culture. His recent books Chan Before Chan and The Secrets of Buddhist Meditation study the history of the transmission on Indian meditation practices to China, the development of distinctly Chinese forms of Buddhist meditation, Buddhist rituals of repentance, and the uses of meditative visionary experience as evidence of sanctity. He has also published on the early history of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, Buddhist paintings from the Silk Roads, and the influence of modern psychological terminology on the Western interpretation of Buddhism. His current research focuses on practices of translation and commentary during the first era of Chinese Buddhism, ca. 150-350 AD.