Eckel received a B.A. from Harvard University, a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University. While at Oxford, he studied Sanskrit. He received a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard in 1980, focusing on the Buddhist traditions of India, Tibet and Southeast Asia.^[2]

From 1978-1980 he was an Instructor in Religion at Middlebury College.^[3] While studying for his PhD, Eckel taught at Ohio Wesleyan Uni (Delaware). On completion of his doctorate, he taught at Harvard’s Division School for 5 years. He was also the Administrative Director of the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions.^[4]

He then moved on to Boston University, where he received Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence in 1998. By this time he had started to publish.

Eckel returned to Harvard in 1991 to teach at the School of Religion. He served on the Visiting Committee of Harvard Divinity School from 2008-2013. In 2013, he was invited to deliver a series of lectures entitled “Modes of Recognition: Aspects of Theory in Mahayana Buddhist Narrative” as Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia.

His publications include Bhāviveka and His Buddhist Opponents (Harvard); Buddhism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places (Oxford); To See the Buddha: A Philosopher's Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness (Princeton);^[5] Jnanagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction Between the Two Truths: An Eighth-Century Handbook of Madhyamaka Philosophy (State University of New York); and "Is There a Buddhist Philosophy of Nature?" in Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions).^[6] He is the editor of two volumes of essays: India and The West: The Problem of Understanding (Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions) and Deliver Us from Evil (Continuum).^[7]

Dr. Eckel leads educational journeys to India and the Himalayan Kingdoms.^[8]

• Jnanagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction Between the Two Truths (1987)
• To See the Buddha: A Philosopher's Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness (1994)
• Understanding Buddhism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places (2002)
• The Library of Eastern Religions: Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam (2003) (with Matthew S Gordon)
• India and The West: The Problem of Understanding and Selected Essays of J. L. Mehta (editor)
• Bhāviveka and His Buddhist Opponents (2008), Harvard Oriental Series, No. 70
• Buddhism (2009) (part of the Understanding Religion series

• Boston University Core Curriculum