Dr. Alexander Berzin: Overview of My Life

The scholarly study of Buddhism and the actual implementation of Buddhist teachings in daily life are two different worlds. It has often been said that just studying Buddhism intellectually won’t really benefit your life. Dr. Alexander Berzin, both a scholar and practitioner, talks about his experience of having his feet in both the academic and spiritual worlds.

The Sputnik Generation

I was born in America in 1944, into a very ordinary family. My family didn’t have much money, they were just working people, and they didn’t have much education either. However, from a young age I had a very strong instinctive interest in Asian things. This wasn’t encouraged by my family, but it also wasn’t discouraged, and anyway in those days, not much information about Asia was available. When I was 13, I started doing yoga with a friend, and I read everything I could that was available about Buddhism, Indian thought, Chinese thought and so on.

I was part of what America called the “Sputnik Generation.” When the Sputnik went up into space, America became very, very upset because we felt we were so far behind Russia. All the children at school, including myself, were encouraged to study science so that we could catch up with Russia. So, at the age of 16, I went off to Rutgers University to study chemistry. Rutgers University is in New Jersey, where I grew up, and although Geshe Wangyal, a Kalmyk Mongol Buddhist master, lived perhaps just 50 kilometers away, I had no idea of his existence.

As part of my studies I took an extra course in Asian Studies, which spoke about how Buddhism went from one civilization to another, and how each civilization understood it in a different way. Although I was only 17, it made such a strong impression on me that I said, “This is what I want to be involved with, the whole process of Buddhism going from one civilization to another.” And this is what I have followed for the rest of my life without any deviation or change.

Original Audio from the Seminar

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