Background

B. Alan Wallace was born on April 17, 1950, in Pasadena, California, United States. He is a son of David H. Wallace, a theologian, and Barbara N. Wallace.

Education

During the period from 1968 till 1971, Wallace attended the University of California, San Diego. Between 1970 and 1971, he participated in an overseas study program at the University of Gottingen, Germany. In 1971, Wallace left his university studies and moved to Dharamsala, India, to study Tibetan Buddhism, medicine and language. He was ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and over fourteen years as a monk he studied with and translated for several of the generation’s greatest lamas.

To be more precise, from 1971 till 1973, Bruce studied Buddhism and Tibetan language at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. Between 1973 and 1974, he studied Buddhism in other locations, including the present-day Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India. In 1977, he continued his studies at the Center for Higher Tibetan Studies in Switzerland, where he also read lectures. Bruce remained at the Сenter until 1979.

Later, Wallace resumed his studies, and in 1987, he graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics, Philosophy of Science and Sanskrit. Then, he continued his education at Stanford University, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies in 1992. Three years later, in 1995, Wallace got a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Religious Studies from the same university.

Career

In 1975, Wallace began his career as a lecturer at the Tibet Institute Rikon in Switzerland, a post he held till 1977, when he began lecturing at the Center for Higher Tibetan Studies in Switzerland. Bruce held this position until 1979. The same year, in 1979, he served as an interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1982, Wallace worked as an interpreter at the University of Washington in Seattle.

During the period from 1984 till 1986, Bruce read lectures at the American Institute of Buddhist Studies in Amherst. In 1987, he also lectured at Amherst College.

In 1990, Bruce was appointed a teaching assistant at Stanford University, a position he held till 1991, when he became a teaching intern. In 1992, Wallace was offered a post of a lecturer in Innovative Academic Courses Program at the same university. Later, in 1994, Bruce was promoted to the position of chief teaching assistant. Between 1995 and 1996, he acted as a visiting scholar in religious studies, still at Stanford University. In 1997, Wallace was made an instructor at the same educational establishment.

Also, in 1990, Wallace served as an organizer and interpreter at Mind and Life III, a meeting between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and western scientists and scholars in Dharamsala, India. In 1991, Bruce became a member of board of directors of Mind and Life Institute. The following year, in 1992, he acted as an interpreter and consultant at Mind and Life IV, also in Dharamsala, India. In 1994, Bruce co-organized and co-interpreted for a symposium with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Stanford Faculty at Stanford Memorial Church.

In 1997, Wallace worked as an instructor at the UCLA Extension in Los Angeles, California. The same year, in 1997, he was appointed a lecturer at the Department of Religious Studies of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he remained until 2001.

In 2003, Wallace founded the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. The same year, he was made a president of the institute, a post he still continues to hold.

Later, together with Clifford Saron, Bruce ran the Shamatha project, which tested the effects of Buddhist meditation on 60 people they selected over 3 months. In 2016, he held a post of a visiting professor at Center of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong. In November 2018, Wallace held a seminar, entitled "A Fourfold Framework for Optimal Mental Health and Balance" in collaboration with United World College Thailand.

During his career, Wallace also worked as an interpreter at various symposiums, lectures, conferences and dialogues. Moreover, he delivered academic presentations on Tibetan studies, Buddhism, religion and spirituality, and did research on Tibetan studies and Buddhism.

In addition, Bruce leads workshops on dream yoga. He is also a chairman of the Thanypura Mind Centre in Thailand, where he leads meditation retreats. Wallace has been holding the post of a chairman since 2010.

Achievements

• B. Alan Wallace is a prominent voice in the emerging discussion between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists, who question the materialist presumptions of their 20th-century paradigms. Along with his scholarly work, Alan is regarded as one of the West’s preeminent meditation teachers and retreat guides. He has edited, translated, authored and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language and culture, and the interface between science and Buddhism. Moreover, since the late-1970's, Wallace has been a frequent interpreter and contributor to meetings between the Dalai Lama and prominent scientists.
  
  He received many awards, including Basset Prize in Physics in 1984-1985, Moseley Prize in Religion in 1986-1987, George Stebbins Moses Memorial Fellowship in 1989-1990 and others.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Four Immeasurables: Practices to Open the Heart

    ("The Four Immeasurables" — the cultivation of loving-kind...)

    2010
  • Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness

    (Bringing his experience as a monk, scientist and contempl...)

    2011
  • Buddhism and Science

    (This work brings together distinguished philosophers, Bud...)

    2003
  • Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence

    (In "Stilling the Mind", the author uses the wisdom of Dzo...)

    2011
  • Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism and Christianity

    (By establishing a dialogue, in which the meditative pract...)

    2009
  • The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness

    (This book takes a bold new look at ways of exploring the ...)

    2000
  • Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind

    (This work shows how Buddhist contemplative methods of inv...)

    1996
  • Worlds in Harmony: Dialogues on Compassionate Action

    (This book offers offer wide-ranging, yet focused exchange...)

    1992
  • Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness

    (Bridging the gap between the world of science and the rea...)

    2007
  • Dreaming Yourself Awake: Lucid Dreaming and Tibetan Dream Yoga for Insight and Transformation

    (Some of the greatest of life’s adventures can happen whil...)

    2012
  • Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice

    (This work represents a radical approach to studying the m...)

    2011
  • Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality

    (In this work, B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel propose a s...)

    2008
  • Samatha Meditation: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Cultivation of Meditative Quiescence

    (Translated by B. Alan Wallace.)

    1992
  • Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Refining Attention

    (B. Alan Wallace explains the methods and experiences of T...)

    2005

Views

Quotations: "We are persons, whose bodies can be objectively studied according to the impersonal laws of physics, but whose minds are subjectively experienced in ways science has not yet been able to fathom. In short, by radically separating science from religion, we are not merely segregating two human institutions; we are fragmenting ourselves as individuals and as a society in ways, that lead to deep, unresolved conflicts in terms of our view of the world, our values and our way of life."

"Life is a flash of lightning in the dark of night. It is a brief time of tremendous potential."

"One of the most persistent of all delusions is the conviction, that the source of our dissatisfaction lies outside ourselves."

"The point of Buddhist meditation is not to stop thinking, for cultivation of insight clearly requires intelligent use of thought and discrimination. What needs to be stopped is conceptualisation, that is compulsive, mechanical and unintelligent, that is, activity, that is always fatiguing, usually pointless and at times seriously harmful."

"Mindfulness was experienced as not holding onto the past, the future, or "nowness", but relaxing into the immediacy of whatever was happening."

"Tibetans look at a person, who holds himself above others, believing he is better than others and knows more, and they say that person is like someone sitting on a mountain top: it is cold there, it is hard and nothing will grow. But if the person puts himself in a lower position, then that person is like a fertile field."

Membership

B. Alan is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

• member

  American Academy of Religion , United States

  1995 - 2001

Connections

B. Allan Wallace married Vesna (Acimovic) Wallace, a scholar, educator and translator, in 1989. He has a stepchild, whose name is Sarah Orbanic.

Father:

David H. Wallace

Mother:

Barbara N. Wallace

Wife:

Vesna Wallace

stepchild:

Sarah Orbanic