Sam van Schaik
Sam Julius van Schaik is an English Tibetologist. He obtained a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist literature at the University of Manchester in 2000, with a dissertation on the translations of Dzogchen texts by Jigme Lingpa. Since 1999 he has worked at the British Library in London, and is currently a project manager for the International Dunhuang Project, specialising in the study of Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang. He has also taught occasional courses at SOAS, University of London.
From 2003 to 2005 van Schaik worked on a project to catalogue Tibetan Tantric manuscripts in the Stein Collection of the British Library, and from 2005 to 2008 he worked on a project to study the palaeography of Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang, in an attempt to identify individual scribes.
In February 2019 van Schaik was appointed as the head of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library. (Source Accessed Aug 5, 2020)
Library Items
Approaching the Great Perfection
A study and translation of ten Dzogchen texts from Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtik revelations.
Schaik, Sam van. Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to Dzogchen Practice in Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtig. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004.
Schaik, Sam van. Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to Dzogchen Practice in Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtig. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004.;Approaching the Great Perfection;Dzogchen;Nyingma;Terma Traditions and Buddha-Nature;Sam van Schaik; Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to Dzogchen Practice in Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtig;'jigs med gling pa
The Spirit of Zen
Leading Buddhist scholar Sam van Schaik explores the history and essence of Zen, based on a new translation of one of the earliest surviving collections of teachings by Zen masters. These teachings, titled The Masters and Students of the Lanka, were discovered in a sealed cave on the old Silk Road, in modern Gansu, China, in the early twentieth century. All more than a thousand years old, the manuscripts have sometimes been called the Buddhist Dead Sea Scrolls, and their translation has opened a new window onto the history of Buddhism.
Both accessible and illuminating, this book explores the continuities between the ways in which Zen was practiced in ancient times, and how it is practiced today in East Asian countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as in the emerging Western Zen tradition. (Source: Yale University Press)
Schaik, Sam van. The Spirit of Zen. The Sacred Literature Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018.
Schaik, Sam van. The Spirit of Zen. The Sacred Literature Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018.;The Spirit of Zen;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Japanese Buddhism;Zen - Chan;History;Sam van Schaik;The Spirit of Zen;Jìngjué
Tibetan Zen
Until the early twentieth century, hardly any traces of the Tibetan tradition of Chinese Chan Buddhism, or Zen, remained. Then the discovery of a sealed cave in Dunhuang, full of manuscripts in various languages dating from the first millennium CE, transformed our understanding of early Zen. This book translates some of the earliest surviving Tibetan Zen manuscripts preserved in Dunhuang. The translations illuminate different aspects of the Zen tradition, with brief introductions that not only discuss the roles of ritual, debate, lineage, and meditation in the early Zen tradition but also explain how these texts were embedded in actual practices. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Schaik, Sam van. Tibetan Zen: Discovering A Lost Tradition. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2015.
Schaik, Sam van. Tibetan Zen: Discovering A Lost Tradition. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2015.;Tibetan Zen;Zen - Chan;Sam van Schaik; Tibetan Zen: Discovering A Lost Tradition
On the topic of this person
Buddha-Nature in Early Chan and Japanese Zen by Rev. Kokyo Henkel: Conversations on Buddha-Nature
In this video, part of the ongoing series entitled "Conversations on Buddha-Nature" produced by the Tsadra Foundation, Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho and Rev. Kokyo Henkel discuss buddha-nature in early Chan and Japanese Zen and comparisons with Tibetan Dzogchen. They also discuss some Koans, Dōgen, and many textual sources from Indian sutras in Tibetan and Chinese translation to sources for key schools of Buddhism in China and Japan up to more modern texts.
Kokyo Henkel has been practicing Zen since 1990 in residence at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (most recently as Head of Practice), Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, No Abode Hermitage in Mill Valley, and Bukkokuji Monastery in Japan. He was ordained as a priest in 1994 by Tenshin Anderson Roshi and received Dharma Transmission from him in 2010. Kokyo is interested in exploring how the original teachings of Buddha-Dharma from ancient India, China, and Japan can still be very much alive and useful in present-day America to bring peace and openness to the minds of this troubled world.
Kokyo has also been practicing with the Tibetan Dzogchen ("Great Completeness") Teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche since 2003, in California, Colorado, and Kathmandu.Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "Buddha-Nature in Early Chan and Japanese Zen." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 1:23:03. https://youtu.be/j_V3v-oqnNU.
Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "Buddha-Nature in Early Chan and Japanese Zen." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 1:23:03. https://youtu.be/j_V3v-oqnNU.;Buddha-Nature in Early Chan and Japanese Zen;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Buddha-nature as Self - Atman;Dzogchen;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Japanese Buddhism;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Tien Tai;Zen - Chan;tathāgatagarbha;ātman;Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra;Dasheng qixin lun;Laṅkāvatārasūtra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;Śrīmālādevīsūtra;Dōgen;Mazu Daoyi;Schaik, S.;Suzuki, S.;Zhaozhou;Zhiyi;Kokyo Henkel;Kokyo Yakai (Luminous Owl, Midnight Liberation 光梟夜解); 
Rev. Kokyo Henkel: On the Connection between Zen and Dzogchen
Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "On the Connection between Zen and Dzogchen." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 7:56. https://youtu.be/3jhWo3MtvxY.
Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "On the Connection between Zen and Dzogchen." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 7:56. https://youtu.be/3jhWo3MtvxY.
Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "On the Connection between Zen and Dzogchen." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 7:56. https://youtu.be/3jhWo3MtvxY.;Rev. Kokyo Henkel: On the Connection between Zen and Dzogchen;Dzogchen;Zen - Chan;Schaik, S.;Terminology;Baizhang Huaihai;tha mal gyi shes pa;Metaphors for buddha-nature;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Yunmen Wenyan; Rev. Kokyo Henkel: On the Connection between Zen and Dzogchen
Rev. Kokyo Henkel: Resource Recommendations for Learning about Buddha-Nature in the Zen Tradition
Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "Resource Recommendations for Learning about Buddha-Nature in the Zen Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 5:25. https://youtu.be/GaTapNdwKRo.
Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "Resource Recommendations for Learning about Buddha-Nature in the Zen Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 5:25. https://youtu.be/GaTapNdwKRo.
Henkel, Rev. Kokyo. "Resource Recommendations for Learning about Buddha-Nature in the Zen Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 26, 2021. Video, 5:25. https://youtu.be/GaTapNdwKRo.;Rev. Kokyo Henkel: Resource Recommendations for Learning about Buddha-Nature in the Zen Tradition;Denkōroku;Fanwang jing;Chien, C.;Cleary, T.;Cook, F.;Dōgen;Keizan;Red Pine;Schaik, S.;Sodargye, Khenpo; Rev. Kokyo Henkel: Resource Recommendations for Learning about Buddha-Nature in the Zen Tradition
Affiliations & relations
- Endangered Archives Programme, British Library · workplace affiliation
- International Dunhuang Project · secondary affiliation
- http://idp.bl.uk // http://earlytibet.com · websites
