Flavio Geisshuesler Explained

Flavio Geisshuesler
Birth Name:Flavio Alessio Geisshüsler
Nationality:Swiss and Italian
Occupation:Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney
Education:University of Lausanne (2008, B.A.)
University of Virginia (2013, M.A.)
HEC Paris (2025, EMBA)
Alma Mater:University of Bern (2018)
University of Virginia (2019)
Thesis Title:Prisons of Freedom: An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemplative Practices in Great Perfection Buddhism
Thesis Url:https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/sb397874p
Thesis Year:2019
Academic Advisors:David Germano
Kurtis Schaeffer
Peter W. Ochs
Discipline:History of Religions
Sub Discipline:Indo-Tibetan Buddhism
Theory in religious studies
European intellectual history
Main Interests:Meditation research
Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

Flavio Alessio Geisshuesler is a Swiss-Italian academic and writer. As historian of religions, he specializes in the study of meditation and other contemplative practices in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism.

Early life and education

Geisshuesler spent his childhood in Zürich, Switzerland. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Lausanne in 2008, where he majored in religious studies, focusing on Judaism and Indian religions, while studying Biblical Hebrew, Hindi, and Tibetan. In 2013, he obtained an received an M.A. from the University of Virginia.[1] [2] Afterwards, he earned two PhDs, one from the University of Bern[3] in 2018 and another from the University of Virginia in 2019.[4]

His 2018 doctoral dissertation, defended at the University of Bern, is titled Crisis and Critique in the History of Religions: Ernesto de Martino (1908-1965) in Italy and Beyond.[5] In 2019, he also defended a second doctoral disseration, Prisons of Freedom: An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemplative Practices in Great Perfection Buddhism, at the University of Virginia.[6] As part of his research, he also spent several years living and studying in various parts of Asia, particularly in the Himalayan regions of India and Nepal.

Career

In 2021, he published a monograph on the life and work of Ernesto de Martino.[7] [8] The research project is based on 18 months of archival work in Rome, which was financed by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation.[8] Geisshuesler also wrote a book on Tibetan sky-gazing meditation in the Dzogchen tradition, which is based on his doctoral dissertation and further expanded during his postdoctoral research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[9] [10] The fieldwork in Nepal was funded by a Fulbright–Hays Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.[11] His postdoctoral position in Israel was funded by fellowships from the Khyentse Foundation (2019-21),[12] the Lady Davis Foundation (2020-21),[13] the Azrieli Foundation (2021-23),[14] [15] and the Mandel Scholion Research Center (2021-24).[16]

Throughout his career, has also taught courses at several universities, including the University of Virginia,[17] [18] the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Bern,[19] the University of Fribourg in 2021,[20] the University of Basel in 2022,[21] and the Sapienza University of Rome in 2023.[22]

Bilingual in German and Italian, he has mastered English, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Tibetan, Nepali, Hindi, Urdu, and Persian. He also reads Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Biblical Hebrew, and Russian.[12] [23]

In 2023, he was appointed as KF-Macready Senior Lecturer in Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Sydney.[24] [12]

Research

Geisshuesler's primary research centers on the contemplative traditions of India, Tibet, and the wider Himalayas, particularly the Dzogchen or Great Perfection tradition. His most recent publication offers the first comprehensive English-speaking introduction to the Tibetan sky-gazing practice. The book's most important argument is that the Great Perfection was originally a pre-Buddhist indigenous Tibetan tradition that emerged in close contact with the early Bön tradition. He argues that Dzogchen once belonged to a shamanic cult centered on the quest for vitality, which involved the worship of the sky as primordial source of life and endorsed the hunting of animals, as they were believed to be endowed with the ability to move in between the divine realm of the heavens and the world of humans. The book also traces the historical development of the Great Perfection, delineating a process of buddhicization that started with the introduction of Buddhism during the time of the Tibetan Empire, intensified with the rise of new schools in the 11th century, and reached its climax in the systematization of the teachings by the great scholar-yogi Longchenpa in the 14th century.[9]

Geisshuesler also published about other subjects, such as the Italian anthropologist and historian of religion Ernesto de Martino,[25] [26] the methodology of the cognitive science of religion, or the connection between collective trauma and the historical development of contemplative traditions.[27] [28] [29]

Bibliography

Books

Articles

Selected articles by Geisshuesler include:[16] [30]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: UVA Tibet Center, Academic Research, Programs, Events & Collaboration, Tibetan Studies in Charlottesville, VA. www.uvatibetcenter.org . 2 October 2023.
  2. Web site: Bio | Flavio A. Geisshuesler. GeisshueslerCopy . 2 October 2023.
  3. Web site: Equipe. February 3, 2022. Institut de sciences des religions . 2 October 2023.
  4. Web site: ORCID. orcid.org. 2 October 2023.
  5. Web site: Dissertationen. April 1, 2015. Institut für Religionswissenschaft . 2 October 2023.
  6. Web site: Prisons of Freedom: An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemplative Practices in Great Perfection Buddhism. Geisshuesler, Flavio, Religious Studies - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of. Virginia. libraetd.lib.virginia.edu . 2 October 2023.
  7. Book: Geisshuesler, Flavio A . The Life and Work of Ernesto de Martino . Numen Book . Leiden Boston (Mass.) . 2021 . 978-90-04-45770-6 . 2 October 2023.
  8. Web site: SNSF Data Portal. data.snf.ch . 2 October 2023.
  9. Book: Geisshuesler, Flavio . Tibetan Sky-Gazing Meditation and the Pre-History of Great Perfection Buddhism . 2024-02-08 . 978-1-350-42881-2 . London . Bloomsbury.
  10. Web site: Flavio Geisshuesler. en.asia.huji.ac.il . 2 October 2023.
  11. Web site: IFLE Grantee Institutions - FY 2015. Google My Maps . 2 October 2023.
  12. Web site: KF News | The University of Sydney Appoints KF-Macready Senior Lecturer in Tibetan Buddhism. July 5, 2023. Khyentse Foundation . 2 October 2023.
  13. Web site: Post-Doc 2020/21. ldft.huji.ac.il . 2 October 2023.
  14. Web site: The Azrieli Foundation is delighted to announce the selection of the 2021-2022 International Postdoctoral Research Fellows. May 3, 2021 . 2 October 2023.
  15. Web site: Postdoc in Israel on LinkedIn: Dr. Flavio Geisshuesler: Become The Monkey! A New Paradigm For Meditation…. www.linkedin.com . 2 October 2023.
  16. Web site: Flavio Geisshuesler. en.scholion.huji.ac.il . 2 October 2023.
  17. Web site: UVa Class Schedule - Schedule for RELB 2054 - Fall 2011 (Unofficial, Lou's List). louslist.org . 2 October 2023.
  18. Web site: Flavio Geisshuesler - theCourseForum. thecourseforum.com . 2 October 2023.
  19. Web site: Conference. experiments-with-experience.org . 2 October 2023.
  20. Web site: Flavio A. Geisshuesler. www.unifr.ch . 2 October 2023.
  21. Web site: Recherche | Vorlesungsverzeichnis Universität Basel. vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch . 2 October 2023.
  22. Web site: Teorie e metodi della ricerca negli studi orientali - Venerdì 28 Aprile 2023 | Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia. web.uniroma1.it . 2 October 2023.
  23. Web site: Flavio A . Geisshuesler | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Academia.edu. huji.academia.edu . 2 October 2023.
  24. Web site: Khyentse Foundation Announces the Appointment of KF-Macready Senior Lecturer in Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Sydney . 2 October 2023.
  25. A Parapsychologist, an Anthropologist, and a Vitalist Walk into a Laboratory: Ernesto de Martino, Mircea Eliade, and a Forgotten Chapter in the Disciplinary History of Religious Studies. Flavio A.. Geisshuesler. May 2, 2019. Religions. 10. 5. 304. 10.3390/rel10050304 . free .
  26. Book: Geisshuesler, Flavio A.. The Life and Work of Ernesto De Martino. The Life and Work of Ernesto de Martino: Italian Perspectives on Apocalypse and Rebirth in the Modern Study of Religion . July 29, 2021. Brill. 9789004457720 . brill.com . 2 October 2023.
  27. Luminous Bodies, Playful Children, and Abusive Grandmothers: Trauma, Dissociation, and Disorganized Attachment in the Early History of Great Perfection (rDzogs Chen) Buddhism. Flavio A.. Geisshuesler. March 2, 2020. Religions. 11. 3. 114. 10.3390/rel11030114 . free .
  28. From Grounded Identity to Receptive Creativity The Mythical-Historical Formation of the Nyingma School and the Potential of Collective Trauma. Flavio A.. Geisshuesler. June 2, 2020. International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture. 30. 1. 233–270. www.dbpia.co.kr. 10.16893/IJBTC.2020.06.30.1.233 . 225752308 . 2 October 2023.
  29. When Buddhas dissociate: A psychological perspective on the origins of great perfection Buddhism (rDzogs Chen). Geisshuesler. Flavio A.. Luca. Cerniglia. January 1, 2019. Cogent Psychology. 6. 1. 10.1080/23311908.2019.1707055 . 210127102 . free.
  30. Web site: Flavio A. Geisshuesler. Google Scholar. 2 October 2023.

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