Dharma Realm Buddhist University is a small private school focusing on education deeply rooted in a timeless Buddhist tradition that remains closely engaged in the modern world. The curriculum, the discussions, the overall thrust of every program is to creatively and honestly infuse ancient wisdom into contemporary life. Faculty and students alike strive to exemplify scholarship and character, serious study and solid practice. Intellectual inquiry proceeds side-by-side with spiritual self-cultivation so that the ‘classroom’ is inspired by the contemplative life, and the contemplative life informed by the ‘classroom.’ The Mission of DRBU is to educate individuals who embody sound scholarship and exemplary character—individuals attuned their individual and civic responsibility as world citizens, who understand and appreciate a diversity of cultural traditions, and who will, by the example of their lives, make the world a far better place.

DRBU was established in 1976 by the Buddhist teacher, Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, and now has campuses at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas [Ukiah, CA], and in Berkeley, CA. The curriculum from the very beginning embraced pedagogies and philosophies both East and West. The common denominator was and remains: the liberation of human potential through the cultivation of virtue, contemplation, and insight. Master Hua believed ‘Buddhist education’ should aim to activate an intrinsic wisdom possessed by all individuals, and as such must be dialogical, interactive, probing, and deeply self-transformative. His goal and teaching style was less to dictate established truths without than to kindle abiding truths within. He called this method “developing inherent wisdom.” This concept and approach to learning continues as the defining spirit of the university, and characterizes all of its programs.