
Douglas Duckworth: The Great Hūṃ (#206)
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In this Wisdom Podcast episode host Daniel Aitken joins Douglas Duckworth as they discuss Douglas’s translation The Great Hūṃ. Douglas Duckworth is a professor of religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. He received his PhD in religious studies (Indo-Tibetan Buddhism) from the University of Virginia in 2005, and he previously taught at Kathmandu University. In this episode, Douglas shares his journey of becoming interested in the text during his studies in India and Nepal, and he shares the challenges and rewards of working on such a monumental text.
You’ll hear Daniel and Douglas discuss:
- the text’s structure, its thematic elements, the profound philosophical implications of bodhicitta;
- the structure and significance of the Bodhicaryāvatāra;
- the ninth chapter’s unique challenges; and
- much more!
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About the Interviewee

Douglas Duckworth is a professor of religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. He received his PhD in religious studies (Indo-Tibetan Buddhism) from the University of Virginia in 2005, and he previously taught at Kathmandu University. He is the author of Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition (SUNY 2008), Jamgon Mipam: His Life and Teachings (Shambhala 2011), and Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature (Oxford 2019). He has translated Kunzang Sonam’s overview of the ninth chapter of Shantideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva, entitled The Profound Reality of Interdependence (Oxford 2019), and Botrul’s Distinguishing the Views and Philosophies: Illuminating Emptiness in a Twentieth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Classic (SUNY 2011).