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Institutional Information

University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Department of Philosophy

Education

Ph.D., M.A., Philosophy, University of Hawaii at Manoa
M.A., South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Regional and Thematic Interests

South Asia; Southeast Asia
Religion

Profile

Geoff Ashton has studied Sanskrit and Thai and conducted research at numerous institutions of higher learning in Asia, including Deccan College (Pune, India), the Jñāna-Pravaha Institute (Varanasi, India), Chiang Mai University (Chiang Mai, Thailand), and Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand). His areas of specialization include Indian philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. Geoff is currently working on a book that examines Indian models of soteriology through developments in philosophical aesthetics. A separate project of his explores the interrelation between Buddhist meditation practices and social engagement in the writings of Buddhadāsa, the 20th century Thai Buddhist philosopher.

Selected Publications

2014. “Imagining Oneself as the Avatāra: An Elaboration on Antonio de Nicolás’s Interpretation of the Bhagavad Gītā,” Chapter in Antonio de Nicolás: A Journey of Eternal Return, Christopher Chapple, ed., Ahmedabad, India: Sriyogi Publications.

2014. “Role-Ethics or Ethics of Role-Play? A Comparative Critical Analysis of the Ethics of Confucianism and the Bhagavad Gītā,” in Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy (January).

2013. “The Role of Mindfulness Meditation and Aesthetic Virtue in the Transition from the Emptiness of Self to Social Engagement: Buddhadāsa’s Appropriation of D. T. Suzuki’s Theory of Buddhist Enlightenment,” in Rian Thai, vol. 6.

2013. “Losing my Mind and Loving Mosquitoes, Crickets, and other Jungle Inhabitants: Reflections on Field Research and its Frustrations at a Buddhist Meditation Retreat in Southern Thailand,” Chapter in “Tweets from the Field”: Ethnographic Updates from Asia and the Pacific, Forest Young, Mary Conran, Guido Pigliasco, and Suzanne Finney, eds., Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.

2013. “The Soteriology of Role-Play in the Bhagavad Gītā,” in Asian Philosophy: An International Journal of the Philosophical Traditions of the East, 23: 1—23 (January).

2009. Cross-Currents 2007: Comparative Philosophy Today and Tomorrow, Sarah A. Mattice, Geoff Ashton, and Joshua P. Kimber, eds., Newcastle, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
* I am co-editor, co-author of Introduction to the book, co-author of Introduction to Chapter 6, and author of Introductions to Chapters 4 & 5.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

The Aesthetics of Liberation in the Bhagavad Gītā and Classical Indian Philosophies, sole-authored book in progress.