Stearns, C.

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Cyrus Stearns

Cyrus Stearns has twenty-seven years of experience in the study of Tibetan language, literature, and religion. He has extensive experience in the translation of Tibetan Buddhist texts into English. From 1973 until 1987 he studied with the late Dezhung Tulku Rinpoche, and from 1985 until 1991 he studied with Chogye Trichen Rinpoche. During most of these years he was the principal translator for both teachers. Cyrus lived for about eight years Nepal, India, and Southeast Asia. He has often translated for Tibetan teachers of all traditions during public talks and seminars in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

Cyrus was educated at the University of Alabama and received his PhD from the University of Washington in 1996. In 1985 Cyrus was the leader of the Smithsonian Institute's Associates Tour to Tibet and China, one of the first groups allowed into Tibet after many years of travel restriction by the Chinese government. He was a Tsadra Foundation fellow from 2003–2015. He is currently an independent scholar and translator and lives in the woods on Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington.


Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:

  • King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo, Lochen Gyurmé Dechen
  • Treasury of Esoteric Instructions: A Commentary on Virupa’s "Vajra Lines," Lama Dampa Sönam Gyaltsen
  • The Buddha from Dölpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, rev. ed.
  • Treasury of Esoteric Instructions, Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen, Virupa
  • Song of the Road, The Poetic Travel Journal of Tsarchen Losal Gyatso, Tsarchen Losel Gyatso


Previously Published Books:

  • The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen
  • Luminous Lives: The Story of the Early Masters of the Lam ’Bras Tradition in Tibet
  • Hermit of Go Cliffs: Timeless Instructions from a Tibetan Mystic, Godrakpa
  • Taking the Result as the Path: Core Teachings of the Sakya Lamdré Tradition

(Source Accessed March 29, 2019)

Library Items

Book
Le Bouddha du Dolpo
This book is a French translation of Cyrus Stearns's The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen.
Stearns, Cyrus. Le Bouddha du Dolpo: Vie et pensée d'un maître tibétain atypique du XIVe siècle initiateur du shèngtong. Traduit de l'anglais par Sylvie Carteron. Saint-Cannat, France: Claire Lumière, 2005.
Book
The Buddha from Dolpo (2010)
The Buddha from Dölpo is a revised and enlarged edition of the only book about the most controversial Buddhist master in the history of Tibet, Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292-1361), who became perhaps the greatest Tibetan expert of the Kālacakra, or Wheel of Time, a vast system of tantric teachings. Based largely on esoteric Buddhist knowledge from the legendary land of Shambhala, Dölpopa's insights have profoundly influenced the development of Tibetan Buddhism for more than 650 years.

Dölpopa emphasized two contrasting definitions of the Buddhist theory of emptiness. He described relative phenomena as "empty of self-nature," but absolute reality as only "empty of other," i.e., relative phenomena. He further identified absolute reality as the buddha nature, or eternal essence, present in all living beings. This view of an "emptiness of other," know in Tibetan as shentong, is Dölpopa's enduring legacy.

The Buddha from Dölpo contains the only English translation of three of Dölpopa's crucial works. A General Commentary on the Doctrine is one of the earliest texts in which he systematically presented his view of the entire Buddhist path to enlightenment. The Fourth Council and its Autocommentary (which was not in the first edition of this book) were written at the end of his life and represent a final summation of his teachings. These translations are preceded by a detailed discussion of Dölpopa's life, his revolutionary ideas, earlier precedents for the shentongview, his unique use of language, and the influence of his theories. The fate of his Jonang tradition, which was censored by the central Tibetan government in the seventeenth century but still survives, is also examined. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Stearns, Cyrus. The Buddha From Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. Tsadra Foundation Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2010. First published 1999 by State University of New York Press.

Affiliations & relations

  • Tsadra Foundation · workplace affiliation
  • Sakya · religious affiliation
  • Dezhung Rinpoche · teacher
  • Chogye Tritsen Rinpoche · teacher
  • Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche · teacher
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