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Dr. Herbert Guenther (1917-2006) was one of the first translators of the Vajrayana and Dzogchen teachings into English. He was well known for his pioneering translations of Gampopa's ''Jewel Ornament of Liberation'' and Longchenpa's ངལ་གསོ་སྐོར་གསུམ་, ''ngal gso skor sgum'', which was published as a trilogy under the title ''Kindly Bent to Ease Us''.
He was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1917. He studied in Munich and Vienna, and then taught at Vienna University from 1943 to 1950. He then lived and taught in India, at Lucknow University from 1950 to 1958, and the Sanskrit University in Varanasi from 1958 to 1963. He then went to the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, where his students included Leslie Kawamura, Kennard Lipman, Steven Goodman and James Valby.
According to Steven Goodman, Guenther used to say that a good translator must do two things: 1) translate Tibetan terms based on the genre and approach in which they are being used, and 2) continually refine one's translation choices.
Guenther had many admirers and although many of his translation choices never caught on, his work did have a clear and undeniable influence on many translators. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Herbert_V._Guenther Source Accessed July 22, 2020])
Also see Steven Goodman's article "[https://www.lionsroar.com/profile-death-of-a-pioneer/ Death of a Pioneer]".
See a list of terms used by Guenther in translation on [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Category:HVG_Glossary Rigpa Wiki here].
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_V._Günther Herbert V. Günther on Wikipedia]
'''QUOTES:'''<br>
"1. To give an example, if someone were to 'translate' the French ''il a le mal de tête'' as 'he has the evil of the earthenware pot,' which is the correct philological rendering and then were to claim that this is what the French understood by that phrase, he would be considered insane, but when someone proclaims such absurdities as 'embryo of Tathāgatha,' 'substantial body', 'eminated incarnation Body,' and so on, which are not even philologically correct but merely reveal utter incomprehension of the subject matter, by a strange volte-face, he is said to be a scholar."
~ "Bodhisattva - The Ethical Phase in Evolution" in [[The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism]], page 123, note 1.
Gungru Gyaltsen Zangpo (Tib. གུང་རུ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་, Wyl. gung ru rgyal mtshan bzang po) (1383–1450) - the third throneholder of Sera Monastery. He was a disciple of Tsongkhapa, Gyaltsab Je, and Khedrup Je. He was a teacher of Ga Rabjampa Kunga Yeshe. His extant writings were recently published in three volumes.
Volume 1<br>
''byams pa'i dgongs rgyan'' - a commentary on Prajnaparamita philosophy.
Volume 2<br>
''dbu ma rtsa ba shes rab kyi don bsdus'' - Short explanation of the meaning of Nagarjuna's ''Mulamadhyamakakarika''.<br>
''dbu ma 'jug pa'i 'grel pa'' - Commentary on the ''Madhyamakavatara'' of Chandrakirti.<br>
''legs bshad bla ma'i man ngag bdud rtsi'i chu rgyun'' - General treatise on Madhyamika philosophy.
Volume 3<br>
''dbu ma bzhi brgya pa'i 'grel pa'' - Commentary on Aryadeva's ''Four Hundred Verses''<br>
''dbu ma'i stong thun'' - Survey of Madhyamika thought in the context of the various philosophical positions.<br>
''mngon rtogs rgyan gyi de kho na nyid gsal bar byed pa mkhas pa'i yid 'phrog'' - A commentary on the ''Abhisamayalankara''. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gungru_Gyaltsen_Zangpo Source Accessed Jan 27, 2023]) +
Indian scholiast and major translator of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese during the Liu Song period (420–479). Born in central India to a brāhmaṇa family, he is said to have studied in his youth the five traditional Indian sciences, as well as astronomy, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine, and magic. He was converted to Buddhism and began systematically to study Buddhist texts, starting with the Abhidharma and proceeding through the most influential Mahāyāna texts, such as the ''Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'' and ''Avataṃsakasūtra''. Around 435, he departed from Sri Lanka for China, arriving in Guangzhou by sea. In China, he devoted himself to teaching and translating Buddhist scriptures, carrying out most of his translations of Mahāyāna and mainstream Buddhist texts while residing in Qiyuansi in Jiankang and Xinsi in Jingzhou. He translated a total of fifty-two scriptures in 134 rolls, including the ''Saṃyuktāgama'' and the ''Prakaranapāda'' [śāstra], both associated with the Sarvāstivāda school, such seminal Mahāyāna texts as the ''[[Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra]]'' and the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra''. In the ''Lengqie shizi ji'', a Chan genealogical history associated with the Northern school (Bei zong) of the early Chan tradition, Guṇabhadra is placed before Bodhidharma in the Chan patriarchal lineage, perhaps because of his role in translating the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school. (Source: "Guṇabhadra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 336. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27) +
Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen is core faculty at Nitartha Institute and recently retired from [https://www.naropa.edu/faculty/acharya-gyaltsen.php Naropa University].
Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen was born in Trakar, Nepal, near the Tibetan border. He completed 10 years of traditional scholastic training at [http://www.rumtek.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=400&Itemid=612&lang=en Karma Shri Nalanda Institute] at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, India, graduating as acharya with honours (graduated in the same class as [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]]). This was followed by traditional yogic training in the first three-year retreat to be conducted at Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche's monastery in Pullahari, Nepal.
Following the advice of [[Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche]], Lama Tenpa taught at various Kagyu centers in Europe (Teksum Tashi Choling in Hamburg, Germany), at Nitartha, and centers in Canada. In 2004 he moved to Boulder, CO and began teaching at Naropa University. He retired from Naropa in 2020.
Learn more about Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen on the [https://nitarthainstitute.org/about/nitartha-faculty/ Nitartha faculty page] and at [https://nalandabodhi.org/teacher/acharya-lama-tenpa-gyaltsen/ Nalandabodhi]. +
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso is a noted scholar and teacher who was born in Eastern Tibet in 1935. After completing this early training, he spent five years wandering throughout Eastern and Central Tibet undertaking extensive solitary retreats in caves. When he reached Tsurphu Monastery, he received instruction from the head of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, the 16th Karmapa, who later named him a khenpo, which is a title of scholastic mastery. In 1977 he came to the West to teach Tibetan language and Buddhism. Known for his highly engaging teaching style, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso has been traveling and teaching in the West ever since, placing an emphasis on the careful training of Westerners. Some of his students include [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]], [[Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen]], [[Shenpen Hookham|Lama Shenpen Hookham]], [[Karl Brunnhölzl]], and [[Elizabeth Callahan]]. ([http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0661/2002152104-b.html Source Accessed July, 21 2020])
Visit his official site at [http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/ ktgrinpoche.org] +
The son of a physician, Luis Gómez was born in Puerto Rico on April 7 1943, growing up in the town of Guayanilla. He received his B.A. degree in 1963 from Universidad de Puerto Rico, enrolling there at age sixteen. He received his Ph.D. degree in Buddhist Studies, Indic Philology, and Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University in 1967. His first academic position was at the University of Washington. After that, he returned to Puerto Rico for four years, serving as chair of the Department of Philosophy at the Universidad de Puerto Rico.
He joined the University of Michigan faculty as an Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies in 1973 and was promoted to full professor in 1979. In 1986, he was named a “Collegiate Professor,” the highest faculty rank in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at Michigan, naming his professorship after his former colleague and mentor, the distinguished Chinese historian Charles Hucker.
Luis Gómez’s contributions to Buddhist Studies during his thirty-five years at Michigan spanned the areas of graduate training, undergraduate teaching, and scholarship. He founded Michigan’s highly regarded Ph.D. program in Buddhist Studies, which has produced several generations of outstanding scholars. That his students specialized in Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Indian, Thai, and Burmese Buddhism testifies to his wide-ranging knowledge, as well as his high level of proficiency in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as Latin, French, German, and Italian (in addition to his native Spanish). His work as a graduate mentor was honored in 1995, when he received the John H. D’Arms Award for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities. In recognition of his outstanding undergraduate teaching, he was named Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in 1997. A dedicated administrator, he chaired the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures for a decade. ([http://iabsinfo.net/2017/09/obituary-tribute-to-luis-oscar-gomez/ Source Accessed May 20, 2020])
H
Yoshito S. Hakeda was an Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. He is the translator of ''The Awakening of Faith'', attributed to Aśvaghosha (1967), and one of the collaborators assisting Wm. Theodore de Bary in preparing ''Buddhist Tradition in India, China, and Japan'' (1969).
According to his obituary in the New York Times, "Professor Hakeda's major volume was a translation and study of the works and thought of Kukai, a ninth-century Japanese Buddhist priest and scholar, published by the Columbia University Press in 1972. He also collaborated on ''Bankei Zen,'' a translation of the works of a 17th-century Zen master." ([https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/01/obituaries/yoshitoshakeda-professor-ofjapaneseatcolumbiadies.html Source Accessed December 4, 2019)] +
Sarah Harding was born in Malibu in 1951 and educated in Los Angeles, California. She studied English literature and anthropology at Prescott College in Arizona and earned a degree in Religious Studies from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Sarah spent three years traveling through Europe, Africa, and Asia, and while abroad, she studied Tibetan language and culture for two years in Darjeeling, India, and in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 1974, Sarah returned to the United States to continue her studies in Tibetan culture and language. Her interests in Tibetan and Buddhist studies culminated in her participation in the first traditional three-year meditation and study retreat for Westerners, which was conducted entirely in Tibetan, under the guidance of Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, near Dijon, France.
Between 1980 and 1992, Sarah served as a resident Dharma teacher and translator in Los Angeles and later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has done extensive oral translation internationally for such renowned teachers as Kalu Rinpoche, Chagdud Tulku, Tenga Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, and Gangteng Rinpoche. Sarah is a founding member of the International Buddhist Translation Committee and a member of the Nalanda Translation Committee. Her prolific career as a translator includes more than thirty-five translations of traditional Buddhist texts, as well as the Tibetan Language Correspondence Course, co-authored with Jeremy Morrelli. From 1992 she was a faculty member in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University and is recently retired. Sarah continues to make her home in Boulder, where she is currently working on her next book. She has been a Tsadra Fellow since 2000. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=eBhgB0Xqr24C&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=Sarah+Harding+was+born+in+Malibu+in+1951+and+educated+in+Los+Angeles,+California.+She+studied+English+literature+and+anthropology+at+Prescott+College+in+Arizona+and+earned+a+degree+in+Religious+Studies+from+Naropa+University+in+Boulder,+Colorado.+Sarah+spent+three+years+traveling+through+Europe,+Africa,+and+Asia,+and+while+abroad,+she+studied+Tibetan+language+and+culture+for+two+years+in+Darjeeling,+India,+and+in+Kathmandu,+Nepal.+In+1974,+Sarah+returned+to+the+United+States+to+continue+her+studies+in+Tibetan+culture+and+language.+Her+interests+in+Tibetan+and+Buddhist+studies+culminated+in+her+participation+in+the+first+traditional+three-year+meditation+and+study+retreat+for+Westerners,+which+was+conducted+entirely+in+Tibetan,+under+the+guidance+of+Venerable+Kalu+Rinpoche,+near+Dijon,+France.&source=bl&ots=aeYb7bOnh-&sig=ACfU3U0wbLUpmQYmQ8kGJrpCPhiuFrEe9g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihnZCTuuHqAhXIbc0KHZQ_AP8Q6AEwAXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sarah%20Harding%20was%20born%20in%20Malibu%20in%201951%20and%20educated%20in%20Los%20Angeles%2C%20California.%20She%20studied%20English%20literature%20and%20anthropology%20at%20Prescott%20College%20in%20Arizona%20and%20earned%20a%20degree%20in%20Religious%20Studies%20from%20Naropa%20University%20in%20Boulder%2C%20Colorado.%20Sarah%20spent%20three%20years%20traveling%20through%20Europe%2C%20Africa%2C%20and%20Asia%2C%20and%20while%20abroad%2C%20she%20studied%20Tibetan%20language%20and%20culture%20for%20two%20years%20in%20Darjeeling%2C%20India%2C%20and%20in%20Kathmandu%2C%20Nepal.%20In%201974%2C%20Sarah%20returned%20to%20the%20United%20States%20to%20continue%20her%20studies%20in%20Tibetan%20culture%20and%20language.%20Her%20interests%20in%20Tibetan%20and%20Buddhist%20studies%20culminated%20in%20her%20participation%20in%20the%20first%20traditional%20three-year%20meditation%20and%20study%20retreat%20for%20Westerners%2C%20which%20was%20conducted%20entirely%20in%20Tibetan%2C%20under%20the%20guidance%20of%20Venerable%20Kalu%20Rinpoche%2C%20near%20Dijon%2C%20France.&f=false Adapted from Source July 22, 2020])
'''Online Publications''':
*[http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/2016/07/13/pha-dampa-sangye-and-the-alphabet-goddess/ Pha Dampa Sangye and the Alphabet Goddess: A Preliminary Study of the Sources of the Zhije Tradition]. Presented by Sarah Harding at the 2016 meeting of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS) in Bergen, Norway
*[http://magazine.naropa.edu/wisdom-traditions-fall-2017/features/glorious-naropa.php Nāropa’s Life of Liberation and Spiritual Song]
*[http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/2014/04/28/did-machik-really-teach-chod/ Did Machik Lapdrön Really Teach Chöd? A Survey of the Early Sources]
Ian Charles Harris (born June 17, 1952, died December 23, 2014 ) was an English Orientalist, Sanskrit scholar, and Buddhist. Harris studied at Lancaster University from 1977 to 1982. He earned a master's degree in religious studies at Lancaster University, and then earned a doctorate at Lancaster, with the book ''The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism'' (1991). He then graduated from the University of Cambridge, and then became a teacher of religious studies and then head of department for schools in Bradford and Keighley. In 1987, his time began as a lecturer in religious studies at St. Martin's College Lancaster (later part of the University of Cumbria). ([https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Charles_Harris Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019])
An online obituary can be found [https://buddhism.arts.ubc.ca/2015/01/06/obituary-professor-ian-charles-harris-june-17th-1952-to-december-23rd-2014/ here.] +
Paul Harrison completed his B.A. and M.A. in Chinese at Auckland University in his native New Zealand and took his Ph.D. in South Asian & Buddhist Studies from Australian National University in 1979. After a short stint at Auckland (1981-1983), he taught Religious Studies at Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand, for 22 years, being responsible for courses on Buddhism. Paul joined the permanent faculty of Stanford's Religious Studies Department in 2007. His research focuses on Buddhist history and literature, on the study of Buddhist manuscripts, and the edition and translation of Buddhist sacred texts in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese. Paul is co-director of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford. ([https://explorecourses.stanford.edu/instructor/paulh1 Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019]) +
Peter Harvey, who gained his doctorate in Buddhist Studies at Lancaster University, under Ninian Smart, is Emeritus Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland, UK. His research focuses on early Buddhist thought and practices, and Buddhist ethics. He edits ''Buddhist Studies Review'', journal of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies, having founded the Association in 1995 with Ian Harris, and from 2002 to 2011 ran an online MA Buddhist Studies program. He is author of ''An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices'' (University of Cambridge Press, 1990, 2nd edn. 2013), ''The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism'' (Curzon Press, 1995), and ''An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Practices'' (University of Cambridge Press, 2000). He has edited an anthology of Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna texts, ''Common Buddhist Text: Guidance and Insight from the Buddha'', to be published for free distribution by Mahachulalongkorn-rajavidyalaya University in Thailand. He is a member of the Samatha Trust and teaches a free online course on Samatha meditation. Retired, he now lives near York. ([https://sunderland.academia.edu/PeterHarvey Source Accessed Dec 5, 2019]) +
Dr. Steven Heine is Professor of Religious Studies and History as well as Director of Asian Studies at Florida International University. He specializes in East Asian and comparative religions, Japanese Buddhism and intellectual history, Buddhist studies, and religion and social sciences. Dr. Heine earned his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and M.A. and Ph.D. at Temple University. Before coming to FIU in 1997, he taught at Pennsylvania State University and directed the East Asian Studies center there. Professor Heine teaches a variety of courses including Modern Asia and Methods in Asian Studies at graduate and undergraduate levels as well as Japanese culture and religion, Zen Buddhism, Ghosts, spirits and folk religions, religions of the Silk Road, and other aspects of Asian society.
Dr. Heine was a Fulbright Senior Researcher in Japan and twice won National Endowment for Humanities Fellowships plus funding from the American Academy of Religion and Association for Asian Studies in addition to the US Department of Education, the Japan Foundation and Freeman Foundation. He has conducted research on Zen Buddhism in relation to medieval and modern society primarily at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Heine has lectured there institutions in addition to Brown, Cambridge, Columbia, Emory, Florida, Free University, Harvard, Hawaii, Iowa, London, North Carolina, McGill, Ohio State, Oslo, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Stanford, UCLA, Yale, Zurich and many other conferences and institutions. He was chair of the national Japanese Religions Group and the Sacred Space in Asia Group, and he is editor of Japan Studies Review and a former book review editor for Japan for Philosophy East and West published by the University of Hawaii Press.
Dr. Heine’s research specialty is medieval East Asian religious studies, especially the transition of Zen Buddhism from China to Japan. In addition to 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and outstanding edited volumes, he has published thirty-five books, both monographs and edited volumes. Over a dozen of his books have been reviewed or noted in such publications as CHOICE, Chronical of Higher Education, Booklist, Library Journal, or Times Literary Supplement, in addition to multiple reviews in various academic journals or professional outlets.
The most recent books include ''From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen: A Remarkable Century of Transmission and Transformation'' (Oxford); ''Zen and Material Culture'' (Oxford); ''Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record: Sharpening the Sword at the Dragon's Gate'' (Oxford); ''Zen Koans'' (Hawaii); ''Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Kōan in Zen Buddhism'' (Oxford); ''Dōgen and Sōtō Zen: New Perspectives'' (Oxford); ''Dōgen: Textual and Historical Studies'' (Oxford); and ''Sacred High City, Sacred Low City: A Tale of Sacred Sites in Two Tokyo Neighborhoods'' (Oxford). Three books are forthcoming in 2020: ''Readings of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye'' (Columbia); ''Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree: Giun's Verse Comments on Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō'' (Oxford); ''Creating the World of Chan/ Sǒn /Zen: Chinese Chan Buddhism and its Spread throughout East Asia''.
Other books include ''Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?'' (Oxford); ''Did Dōgen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It'' (Oxford); ''Opening a Mountain: Kōans of Zen Masters'' (Oxford); ''Shifting Shape, Shaping Text: Philosophy and Folklore in the Fox Kōan'' (Hawaii); ''The Zen Poetry of Dōgen: Verses From the Mountain of Eternal Peace'' (Tuttle); ''Dōgen and the Kōan Tradition: A Tale of Two Shōbōgenzō Texts'' (SUNY); ''Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dōgen'' (SUNY); ''The Zen Canon: Studies of Classic Zen Texts'' (Oxford). His book ''White Collar Zen: Using Zen Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Your Career Goals'' (Oxford) was reviewed by the Harvard Business School, USA Today, and the Washington Post. For more detailed information on his books, please see [https://asian.fiu.edu/about/director/books/ here]. ([https://asian.fiu.edu/about/director/ Source Accessed Jan 17, 2020])
A long–term student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Ann joined the Nalanda Translation Committee in 1986. She studied Tibetan at Naropa University, mainly with Dzigar Kongtrul, and she taught Tibetan and Foundations of Buddhism at Naropa from 1991-2004. After 30 years in Boulder, Ann lived as a retreatant for eight years at Padma Samye Ling, the monastery in upstate New York of Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. From 1997 to 2014, she translated primarily with Ringu Tulku and for Dharma Samudra, the Khenpo Brothers’ publication group. In 2014 Ann moved to Portland, Oregon, where she continues her Buddhist practice and study under the guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. ([http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Ann_Helm Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020]) +
Helmut Tauscher is a retired research scholar. He was affiliated with the Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies in the Department of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Vienna University. He is a life-member of the Drepung Loseling Library Society in Mundgod, Karnataka, India and since 1991 has been engaged in a research project entitled "Western Tibetan Manuscripts, 11-14 c." He is the author of numerous articles and book-length works on Madhyamaka, including ''Die Lehre von den Zwei Wirklichkeiten in Tsoń kha pas Madhyamaka-Werken'' (1995) and an edition of Phya pa chos kyi seng ge's ''dBu ma shar gsum gyi stong thun'' (1999). ([https://books.google.com/books?id=tIw1BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA398&lpg=PA398&dq=Helmut+Tauscher+He+is+a+life-member+of+the+Drepung+Loseling+Library+Society+in+Mundgod,+Karnataka,+India&source=bl&ots=M2WVZOYOIe&sig=ACfU3U2hZYk8YIUH416oCkmz58TTSX3EFg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiP_aqhlN_qAhVIQ80KHYpDALoQ6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Helmut%20Tauscher%20He%20is%20a%20life-member%20of%20the%20Drepung%20Loseling%20Library%20Society%20in%20Mundgod%2C%20Karnataka%2C%20India&f=false Adapted from Author's Biography in ''The Svātantrika-Prāsaṇgika Distinction'', Wisdom Publications 2003, 398]) +
Heshang Moheyan [or Hashang Mahāyāna] was the Chinese abbot whom Kamalashila defeated in a famous debate at Samyé. He is said to have been a representative of a form of Ch’an meditation, but in a rather nihilistic form. He taught that meditation consists of not doing anything at all in the mind, and that this can bring about sudden enlightenment, without the need even to practice the six paramitas. Tibetan scholars throughout the centuries have often accused one another of adhering to Hashang’s system, and often put this down to the particular tendrel created when he “left his shoes behind” in Tibet following his defeat. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Hashang Source Accessed Oct 22, 2019]) +
Hideko Wayman was a translator of Buddhist works and the wife of the Buddhist studies scholar Alex Wayman (1921–2004). She was a graduate of Tsuda College of Tokyo in her native Japan and subsequently earned an M.A. at the University of California, Berkeley.
While Alex Wayman was writing his doctoral dissertation, "Analysis of the
''Śrāvakabhūmi'' Manuscript," she studied the ''Śrāvakabhūmi'' in Hsüan-tsang's Chinese translation as well as in the Japanese rendition.
One of the books Hideko Wayman co-authored with her husband was a translation of the third-century Buddhist scripture ''Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā'', published by Columbia Univ. Press under the auspices of the Translation Committee on Asian Classics at Columbia. Hideko's research and translation of Chinese and Japanese sources complemented Wayman's work in Sanskrit and Tibetan sources. As the cotranslator of this work, she added to the introductions and annotations, supplied important data from the Sino-Japanese commentaries, and supervised preparation of the Glossary, Appendix, and Index. (Adapted from ''The Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā'', translators' note, xv) +
Rev. Blayne Higa is the Resident Minister of the Kona Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Kealakekua on the Big Island of Hawaii. He holds a Master of Divinity from the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California with a focus on Shin Buddhist ministry and chaplaincy. He has been a contributor to Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, and Buddhadharma, and is a frequent speaker and seminar leader at Buddhist communities in Hawaii and around the nation.
Rev. Blayne received Tokudo ordination and Kyoshi certification from the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha in Kyoto, Japan. He is the Chair of the Committee on Social Concerns and Ministerial Training Committee for the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. He was also a co-planner for the 2022 Future of American Buddhism Conference.
Prior to entering ministry, he had careers in state government and the non-profit sector for over seventeen-years. He holds a Master of Public Administration and a certificate in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He received a BA from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Committed to civic engagement, Rev. Blayne serves on the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and Vibrant Hawaii. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of The Interfaith Alliance Hawaii. You can learn more about his work at www.blaynehiga.com. ([https://www.blaynehiga.com/about Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
David Higgins received his doctorate from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland in 2012. He subsequently held a position as a Post-doc Research Fellow in the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna where he explored the relationship between Mahāmudrā and Madhyamaka philosophies in Bka’ brgyud scholasticism during the post-classical period (15th to 16th centuries). His research interests include Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and epistemology with a particular focus on Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā and Rnying ma Rdzogs chen doctrines and practices. His PhD thesis was published under the title ''Philosophical Foundations of Classical Rdzogs chen in Tibet: Investigating the Distinction Between Dualistic Mind (sems) and Primordial Knowing (ye shes)'' (Vienna, WSTB no. 78, 2013). His recent publications include ''Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha Nature'' (Vienna, WSTB no. 90, 2016, 2 vols.) and ''Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa’s Middle Path'' (Vienna, WSTB, forthcoming, 2 vols.), both of which were co-authored with Martina Drazczyk. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/2019-vienna-symposium/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020]) +
Born in Toyohashi City in Aichi Prefecture on January 21, 1915, Hirakawa studied as an undergraduate and then graduate student (1939-1945) at the Department of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit Philology, Faculty of Letters, Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo), and became Research Assistant of that department in 1946. He was appointed Associate Professor of the newly established Department of Indian Philosophy at Hokkaido University in 1950. After teaching for four years in Hokkaido University, he returned to Tokyo in 1954 to become Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies at his alma mater. Hirakawa was granted a full professorship in 1962, a position he held until reaching the University of Tokyo’s mandatory retirement age of 60 in 1975, at which time he received the title of Professor Emeritus. After his retirement he taught for 10 years (1975-1985) Buddhist Studies at Waseda University, Department of Oriental Philosophy, School of Literature. Hirakawa also served as Chairman of the Directors of the Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies for eight years (1983-1991), where he made tremendous contributions toward the advancement of the Association. In 1993 he was selected to be a member of the Japan Academy. He went on to become Chairman and Professor at the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies (established in 1996), where in addition to his duties as the director of research and education, he was responsible for the general administration of the College. He held this position until passing away. ([https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/download/8928/2821/ Source Accessed Dec 5, 2019])
[https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/download/8928/2821/ See also, ''In Memoriam'', Professor Akira Hirakawa] +
Dr. Hiromi Habata is a faculty member at the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies in Tokyo, Japan. Before her appointment she was a researcher in Indology at the Institute of Indology and Tibetology at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. Her scholarly interests include Buddhist Sanskrit, manuscripts of Central Asia, and methods of translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese and Tibetan. She is a member of the British Library Sanskrit Fragments Project and is currently working on a critical edition and analysis of the Mahaparinirvana-sutra of the Mahayanists. ([https://www.en.buddhismus-studien.uni-muenchen.de/people_vorlage/index.html Adapted from Source Aug 3, 2020])
Click here for a link to Hiromi Habata's [https://www.indologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/3_privatdoz/habata/publ_habata/index.html publications] +
