Department Vision

“Buddhism neither tells me the false nor the true: It allows me to discover myself.”
—Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche

The Department of Religious Studies offers courses of study that examine the phenomenon of religion as it affects individuals, as it operates in culture and as it addresses questions of life’s ultimate values.

The methods utilized in the programs are drawn from the academic discipline of history of religions—and from a commitment to presenting traditions from perspectives sympathetic to the living religious communities themselves.

This approach honors the distinctive place of contemplative traditions and practices within many of the world’s great religions. Varying some by program, the approach used is also nonsectarian, scholarly and critical, relying on the best of contemporary Western and traditional scholarship, combined with students’ “hands-on” exploration of major meditation traditions and social service, as well as being enriched by contact with living lineages of Asian and Western teachers.

Buddhism is the religion that is most strongly represented in departmental offerings; however, most of the other major world religions are also represented. Sanskrit and Tibetan language study is offered as well.