He received a PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures, with specialization in Buddhist studies, from the University of California, Los Angeles (2000). He has spent extended periods as a visiting researcher at Komazawa University, Japan, Stanford University, and the National University of Singapore, and has received several prestigious fellowships, including a Humboldt Research Fellowship (Germany). Poceski is the author of Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (Oxford UP 2007) and Introducing Chinese Religions (Routledge 2009). His publications also include two other books and a number of articles and chapters on various aspects of Buddhist studies. His latest books are the The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism and The Records of Mazu and the Making of Classical Chan Literature .