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John R. McRae

John R. McRae, who previously taught at Cornell and Indiana Universities, is now living in Japan and teaching part-time at Komazawa University. As a specialist in East Asian Buddhism, he is especially interested in ideologies of spiritual cultivation and how they interact with their intellectual and cultural environments. He is most known for his work in Chinese Chan, having authored The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chan Buddhism (University of Hawai'i Press, 1986) and more recently Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (University of California Press, 2003). He has been working for a number of years on the important Chan figure Shenhui (684-758), expecting to complete a manuscript on the topic in the near future. He has also completed a number of translations of Chinese Buddhist scriptural texts, and he currently serves as Chair of the Publication Committee for the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Buddhist Text Translation Series.

Prof. McRae has a strong interest in the development of teaching materials for his area, and is presently developing a course textbook for the teaching of East Asian Buddhism. For the DDB Prof. McRae has provided explanations for a number of terms derived from his research in Chinese Chan texts. [2008/03/11]