UNIVERSITY IS OFTEN associated with big campuses, competitive grades, and an individual drive to succeed. Yet there are other universities—ones grounded in the dharma—that have an additional priority: wisdom and compassion.
“Every institution provides the academic aspect, but at a Buddhist university, we also want students to harbor a sense of kindness, character, and who they are as a human being,” explains Minh-Hoa Ta, president of University of the West in Rosemead, California. “Students need to see that we’re living in a community where we’re connected to one another and what we do affects other people.”
Currently, there are three accredited Buddhist or Buddhist-inspired universities in the United States—University of the West (UWest), Naropa University, and the Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS).
The students, staff, and faculty at these three institutions believe that there’s value in braiding Buddhist wisdom into the curriculum. As David Matsumoto, president of IBS puts it, “We live in a world of strife, division, and oppression. Buddhism offers a point of view that’s not entrenched in these conflicts, but seeks to see through them into the very cause of why we continue to have strife and division, and to transcend and transform them.”
on a hill overlooking the San Gabriel Valley. The campus is lush with roses and birds-of-paradise, loquat trees and Italian cypress. In pride of