Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a Healthy Relationship (2000), Developing Balanced Sensitivity (1998), Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra (1997), Taking the Kalachakra Initiation (1997)
Alexander Berzin (born 1944) is a scholar, translator, and teacher of
Tibetan Buddhism.[1]
Early years
Berzin was born in
Paterson, New Jersey, United States. He received his B.A. degree in 1965 from the Department of Oriental Studies,
Rutgers University; his M.A. in 1967; and, his Ph.D. in 1972 from the Departments of Far Eastern Languages (Chinese) and Sanskrit and Indian Studies,
Harvard University.
Work
His main teacher was
Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, an assistant tutor of the
Dalai Lama.[2] Berzin served as the Dalai Lama's archivist and occasionally his interpreter.[3]
In 1998, Berzin moved back to the West and devotes most of his time to preparing his unpublished materials for his Study Buddhism website. The website was chosen in 2011 to be archived as part of the Bodleian Electronic Archives and Manuscripts collection of the
University of Oxford.[4]
Berzin is on the Board of Advisors of
Tibet House Germany[5] and the International Center for Buddhist-Muslim Understanding of the College of Religious Studies of
Mahidol University, Thailand.[6]
Berzin is the founder and contributing author of Studybuddhism.com, a website containing information on Buddhism, Buddhist texts, Tibetan culture, and other relevant subjects.[7]
"A Buddhist View of Islam" in Islam and Interfaith Relations: The Gerald Weisfeld Lectures 2006 (Perry Schmidt-Leukel and Lloyd Ridgeon, eds.). London: SCM Press, 2007, 187–203.
ISBN9780334041320.
"The Sources of Happiness According to Buddhism" in Glück (Andre Holenstein, Ruth Meyer Schweizer, Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello, Peter Rusterholz, Christian von Zimmermann, Andreas Wagner, Sara Margarita Zwahlen, eds.). Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, Haupt Verlag, 2011, 41–52.
ISBN9783258076898.
^Pettit, John. "Review: Developing Balanced Sensitivity",Tricycle: The Buddhist Review (New York) (winter 1998)
^Marquis, A. (2000). "Book Review: Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a Healthy Relationship by Alexander Berzin", Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 32 (2), 178
^Harrison, Anna (2000). Review of Alexander Berzin, "Relating to a Spiritual Teacher", Publishers’ Weekly