Last Updated on March 8, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org
Bruce[1] Alan Wallace (born 1950) is an American author and expert on Tibetan Buddhism. His books discuss Eastern and Western scientific, philosophical, and contemplative modes of inquiry, often focusing on the relationships between science and Buddhism.[2]
He is founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.[3]
Early life and education
- Wallace was born into a family of devout Christians.
- His father was a Baptist Theologian.
- At 13 he developed a passion for science, specifically in ecology, inspired by a science teacher. At 18 he matriculated at the University of California, San Diego.
-Wallace began his studies of the Tibetan language and Buddhism in 1970 at the University of Göttingen in Germany,
- He was continuing his studies in Dharamsala, India, where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama in 1975.[4]
Career
Wallace continued his studies and began teaching at the Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in Mont Pèlerin, Switzerland from 1975 to 1979 and then devoted four years to full-time meditation.[4]
-He was a participant and interpreter at the first Mind and Life Institute in 1987 and continued in this capacity through 2009.[5]
In 1987, Wallace obtained a B.A. in physics, philosophy of science and Sanskrit from Amherst College,
- followed in 1995 by a Ph.D. in religious studies from Stanford University.[6]
- His doctoral dissertation was on The Cultivation of Sustained Voluntary Attention in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. He taught for four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.[7]
- B. Alan Wallace, Padma Samten, Marlene Rossi Severino Nobre, and Roberto Lúcio Vieira de Souza, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 2009
- Wallace founded the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies in 2003, designed to integrate scientific and contemplative exploration of consciousness.
- And is eventually funded from private funds.