Harris, I.

Ian Charles Harris(1952 - 2014)

Ian Charles Harris (born June 17, 1952, died December 23, 2014 ) was an English Orientalist, Sanskrit scholar, and Buddhist. Harris studied at Lancaster University from 1977 to 1982. He earned a master's degree in religious studies at Lancaster University, and then earned a doctorate at Lancaster, with the book The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism (1991). He then graduated from the University of Cambridge, and then became a teacher of religious studies and then head of department for schools in Bradford and Keighley. In 1987, his time began as a lecturer in religious studies at St. Martin's College Lancaster (later part of the University of Cumbria). (Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019)

An online obituary can be found here.

Library Items

Book

The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism

In the past European scholars have tended to treat both Madhyamaka and Yogācāra as separate and fundamentally opposed trends in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought. Drawing heavily on early textual evidence this work questions the validity of such a 'Mahāyāna schools' hypothesis.

By down-playing the late commentorial traditions, the author attempts a general reappraisal of the epistemological and ontological writings of Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga and Vasubandhu. He concludes that the overlap in all areas of doctrine is significant, but particularly with respect to the teachings on the levels of truth, the enlightened and unenlightened states, the status of language and the nature of reality

It is hoped that such investigations may provide the basis for a new theory on the proliferation of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism as an organic process of assimilation to new audiences, and specific contemporary problems, rather than in the more schismatic manner favoured by past researchers. (Source: Brill)

Harris, Ian Charles. The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. Brill's Indological Library 6. Leiden: Brill, 1991. https://archive.org/details/madhyamakacontinuityofmadhyamkaandyogacharainindianbuddhismiancharlesharrisbrill_36_E/mode/2up.

Harris, Ian Charles. The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. Brill's Indological Library 6. Leiden: Brill, 1991. https://archive.org/details/madhyamakacontinuityofmadhyamkaandyogacharainindianbuddhismiancharlesharrisbrill_36_E/mode/2up.;The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism;Two Truths;Madhyamaka;Yogācāra;Ian Charles Harris;The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism

Affiliations & relations

Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at King’s College, London · workplace affiliation