Lance Selwyn Cousins (7 April 194214 March 2015) was a British scholar who specialised in the field of

Buddhist Studies Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the nature of the Budd ...

Biography

Born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, he studied history and oriental studies at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

, and took up a post in the Department of

Comparative Religion Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study of religion yie ...

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

as lecturer and then senior lecturer. After early retirement in the 1990s he settled in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and continued to publish scholarly papers and reviews including a widely cited historical summary such as "The Dating of the Historical Buddha: A Review article," which was published in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

at Wolfson College University of Oxford and part of the faculty at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. Prior to this, he was briefly President (2002/3) of the

Pali Text Society The Pali Text Society is a text publication society founded in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pāli texts". Pāli is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism are preserved. The ...

(PTS). Professor

Richard Gombrich Richard Francis Gombrich (; born 17 July 1937) is a British Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, and Buddhist studies. He was the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1976 to 2004. He is currently Founder-Presiden ...

once described him as the leading authority in the West in the field of abhidhamma. Cousins helped establish the

Pali Canon The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During t ...

on the web and assisted many publications being involved with a breadth of translations from

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

to English himself. He had completed two books by the time of his death that are likely to be published soon. He received several awards including honorary professorships incorporating recognition of his contributions from among other places the

Mahamakut Buddhist University Mahamakut Buddhist University or MBU ( th, มหาวิทยาลัยมหามกุฏราชวิทยาลัย; ) is one of the two public Buddhist universities in Thailand. History Founded in 1893 as an educational instit ...

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

in 2013. In addition to his academic work, he was also a teacher of

Buddhist meditation Buddhist meditation is the practice of meditation in Buddhism. The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are ''bhāvanā'' ("mental development") and '' jhāna/dhyāna'' (mental training resulting in a calm and ...

in a Thai

samatha ''Samatha'' (Pāli; sa, शमथ ''śamatha''; ), "calm," "serenity," "tranquillity of awareness," and ''vipassanā'' (Pāli; Sanskrit ''vipaśyanā''), literally "special, super (''vi-''), seeing (''-passanā'')", are two qualities of the ...

tradition being a founder member of th
Samatha Trust
and the Samatha Association. He commenced samatha classes under Nai Boonman in 1963 at Hampstead. He was instrumental in founding the

Buddhist Society and its samatha class in the 1960s. When he moved to Manchester in 1967, he started the Manchester University Buddhist Society and the class there that lead to the beginning of several similar classes in the rest of the UK and the eventual establishment of the Manchester Centre for Buddhist Meditation in Chorlton. He was an influential teacher and conducted several retreats incorporating the UK, particularly at the Samatha Centre, Greenstreete farm in Wales, The USA, Ireland and Sri Lanka.Renowned Buddhist Scholar returns to hold meditation retreat: The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, 15 Jan 201

/ref> He worked in the early 2000s with

Somadeva Vasudeva Somadeva Bhatta was an 11th century writer from Kashmir, and author of the ''Kathasaritsagara''. Not much is known about him except that his father's name was Rama and he composed his work (probably during the years 1063–1081 CE) for the enter ...

, a visiting scholar from Kyoto University, on transliterating a number of ''sūtra''s of a newly discovered ''Dīrgha Āgama'', including a fragment on when the consumption of meat is not appropriate for a monk. At the time of his death, he was preparing for publication a collection of lectures relating to meditation, to be edited by Sarah Shaw, and a translation of the ''Yamaka'' commentary and, with Charles Shaw, of the ''Yamaka''. The first third of the latter has now been published: ''The Book of Pairs and its Commentary: A translation of the Yamaka and Yamakappakaraṇaṭṭhakathā, Vol I (2018), tr. C.M.M. Shaw and L.S. Cousins''. It includes Lance's translation of the relevant portion of the ancient commentary, the ''Pañcappakaraṇa-aṭṭhakathā'' and is intended as the first of a planned three-volume translation of the whole ''Yamaka'' and its commentary.

Publications

Book-length publications

* 1974. ''Buddhist Studies in Honour of I.B. Horner'', ed. L .Cousins, A. Kunst and K.R. Norman. Dordrecht, Holland, D. Reidel Publishing Co. * 1992. Special Issue in honour of K.R. Norman, ''Indo-Iranian Journal'', ed. Cousins et al., 35 (2 & 3). * 1995. ''Mahāniddesa Part III'' (index volume). Oxford, Pali Text Society. * 1996. ''The Dispeller of Delusion (Sammohavinodanī)'', 2 vols, trans.

Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...

, extensively revised for publication, with annotations and index, by L.S. Cousins,

Nyanaponika Nyanaponika Thera or Nyanaponika Mahathera (July 21, 1901 – 19 October 1994) was a German-born Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar who, after ordaining in Sri Lanka, later became the co-founder of the Buddhist Publication Society and auth ...

Mahāthera and C.M.M. Shaw. Oxford, Pali Text Society. * 1999. ''Reverse Index to the Mahāniddesa'', with Y. Ousaka and M. Yamazaki, digital edition: http://hirose.sendai-nct.ac.jp/~ousaka/EngH.html

External links

Lance Cousins: An Obituary, Appreciation and Bibliography
''Buddhist Studies Review'' vol.32, no.1, 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cousins, L. S. 1942 births 2015 deaths British scholars of Buddhism British Buddhist spiritual teachers Linguists of Pali Theravada Buddhism writers