Faculty Directory

Richard Payne

Professor Emeritus of Japanese Buddhist Studies

Core Doctoral Faculty
At the GTU since
1995

Teaching Statement: I am concerned that students learn to think critically, and employ their creativity toward the end of enjoying the intellectual project of scholarship.

Degrees and Certifications

PhD, Graduate Theological Union
MA, Nyingma Institute
BA and MA, San Jose State University

Research and Teaching Interests
  • Tantric Buddhist Ritual 
  • History of Tantric Buddhism 
  • Secular Buddhism 
  • Ritual Studies 
  • the Mahāyānasaṃgraha
Selected Publications
  • Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An Anthology (Edited with Georgios Halkias), University of Hawai'i Press, 2019.
  • Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan: Indic Roots of Mantra, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
  • Homa Variations: The Study of Ritual Change Across the Longue Duree, (Edited with Michael Witzel), Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, (Edited with Charles D. Orzech), BRILL, 2011.