Property:Bio
From Buddha-Nature
This is a property of type Text.
P
Paul Masson-Oursel was a French orientalist and philosopher, a pioneer of 'comparative philosophy'. Masson-Oursel was a student of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Henri Bergson, Emile Durkheim, Pierre Janet, André Lalande, Marcel Mauss. With Sylvain Lévy, Alfred Foucher, Chavannes, Clément Huart, he learned Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, Arab[ic?]. ''La Philosophie Comparée'', his Sorbonne doctoral dissertation, attempted to apply Comtean positivism and a comparative method which identified 'analogies' between the philosophies of Europe, India and China. Masson-Oursel argued that "philosophy cannot achieve positivity so long as its investigations are restricted to the thought of our own civilization", since "no one philosophy has the right to put itself forward as co-extensive with the human mind." ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Masson-Oursel Source Accessed May 13, 2020]) +
Richard Mather was born in Baoding, China and grew up there until he came to United States to go to college, graduating summa cum laude in 1935 from Princeton University. His plans to return to China were interrupted by the war and he instead went on to the University of California, Berkeley to pursue his PhD in Chinese literature, studying with Peter Boodberg and others.<br> Mather came to the University of Minnesota in 1949 to found the study of Chinese language and literature. In the following decades, he was a major force in Chinese studies at the university and across the nation. He was central to establishing the field of early medieval Chinese studies with his monumental translation, ''A New Account of Tales of the World'' (University of Minnesota Press, 1976). Even after his 1984 retirement Mather was very active, publishing ''The Poet Shen Yüeh: The Reticent Marquis'' (Princeton UP, 1988) and the two-volume ''The Age of Eternal Brilliance: Three Lyric Poets of the Yung-ming Era'' (Brill, 2003). His ''New Account'' was reissued in a revised second edition by U of Michigan Press in 2002. ([http://asianlanguages-literatures.blogspot.com/2013/11/professor-richard-b-mather-turns-100.html Source Accessed May 11, 2020]) +
*[http://www.univie.ac.at/cirdis/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=67&lang=en Tibetology at CIRDIS]
'''Bio:'''
:Venerable Yuen Hang Memorial Trust Professor in Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong.
Klaus-Dieter Mathes is a professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Hong Kong. His current research deals with exclusivism, inclusivism, and tolerance in Mahāyāna Buddhism. He obtained his Ph.D. from Marburg University in 1994 with a study of the Yogācāra text Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (published in 1996 in the series Indica et Tibetica). From 1993 to 2001 he served as the director of the Nepal Research Centre and the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project in Kathmandu. Before joining the University of Hong Kong in August 2023 he was the head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, where with his team he hosted the 2014 conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. He has organized and given presentations at many other conferences and symposiums, and has served as the chairman of the board of trustees of the Numata Professional Chair for Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna.
His major publications include A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga (Wisdom, 2008), A Fine Blend of Mahāmudrā and Madhyamaka: Maitrīpa's Collection of Texts on Non-conceptual Realization (Amanasikāra) (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2015), and Maitrīpa: India's Yogi of Nondual Bliss (Shambhala, 2021). He is also a regular contributor to the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, and is the co-editor of the Vienna Series for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.
'''Current Ongoing Research:'''
*[http://www.univie.ac.at/mahamudra/index.php?article_id=11 Emptiness of Other (gzhan stong) in Tibetan Mahamudra Traditions of the 15th and 16th Centuries]
+
Kazunobu Matsuda is a Professor of Buddhist Studies at Bukkyo University in Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of numerous papers on Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts and is particularly known for his work on the Buddhist manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection. He was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (2001-2002). And he received an ACLS grant to work on a collaborative project—The Eighth Century Schøyen fragments of the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya—a project that brings together an international collaborative team with expertise in Buddhist manuscripts, palaeography, and the Mulasarvastivada vinaya (MSV) in order to sort, transcribe, study and catalog a set of unique eighth century birch bark manuscript fragments presently held in the Schøyen Collection in Oslo. +
Matsumoto Shirõ is Professor in the Faculty of Buddhism at Komazawa University. His publications (in Japanese) include ''Pratītyasamutpāda and Emptiness'' (Daizõ Shuppan, 1989), ''The Path to Buddhism'' (Tõkyõ Shoseki, 1993), and ''Critical Studies on Zen Thought'' (Daizõ Shuppan, 1994). Along with Hakamaya Noriaki, he is associated with what has come to be known as "Critical Buddhism." +
Jacques May was born in 1927 in Aigle (Switzerland). He first studied Latin and Greek at the University of Lausanne (1949), where the teaching and personality of the Swiss Hellenist André Bonnard (1888-1959), a noted specialist and translator of ancient Greek tragedy, left a lasting impression on him. His early childhood fascination with Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969) was transformed into a deep interest in "oriental" studies by the great Polish linguist, philologist, and musician Constantin Regamey (1907-1982). In 1949 Jacques May moved to Paris in order to obtain a "certificat d’études indiennes" (1951). At Sorbonne University, the École Pratique des Hautes Études and the Collège de France he studied Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Indian and Buddhist studies under the guidance of extraordinary personalities such as Louis Renou (1896-1966), Marcelle Lalou (1890-1967), Jean Filliozat (1906-1982), Paul Mus (1902-1969) and Paul Demiéville (1894-1979), all of whom impressed him deeply by their impeccable erudition, kindness, and, in the case of Jean Filliozat, administrative, diplomatic, and "political" skills. Of those who studied at the same time in Paris, mention can be made of André Bareau (1921-1993), Paul Horsch (1925-1971), Gerhard Oberhammer (born 1929), and the French Japanologist Bernard Frank (1927-1996). Jacques May could speak endlessly about that "golden age" of French Indology.<br><br>
Returning to Lausanne in 1956, he served as a librarian until 1961 while he prepared his doctoral thesis, which was published in Paris (Adrien Maisonneuve) in 1959 under the title ''Candrakīrti: Prasannapadā Madhyamakavṛtti'' (''Commentaire limpide au Traité du milieu''). This remarkable work consisted of an annotated French translation of the twelve chapters that had been left untranslated by Th. Stcherbatsky, S. Schayer and J.W. de Jong. As noted by P. Demiéville in his foreword, May’s translation was – and remains – a monument of erudition, accuracy and elegance. In 1961 the same Paul Demiéville appointed Jacques May as the editor in chief of the ''Hôbôgirin, Dictionnaire encyclopédique du bouddhisme d’après les sources chinoises et japonaises'', to which he contributed two long articles, ''Chūdō'' ([中道] "Middle Way," together with Katsumi Mimaki) and ''Chūgan'' ([中觀] "Madhyamaka"). Active as a privat-docent, Jacques May taught Sanskrit and Tibetan in Kyoto, where he stayed first as a grantee of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, 1962-1965) and then as a member of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (1965-1968).<br><br>
In 1968 Jacques May was appointed as a "professeur extraordinaire" at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lausanne ("professeur ordinaire" from 1976 to 1992, with a "chaire ad personam" of the Swiss National Science Foundation), directing?/managing? the Department of Oriental Languages and Cultures together with his colleagues Constantin Regamey, Heinz Zimmermann (1929-1986, since 1981), and Johannes Bronkhorst (born 1946, since 1987). Jacques May’s teaching was dedicated, in multi-annual cycles, to diverse topics such as Vasubandhu’s ''Abhidharmakośa'', the ''Mahāyāna Sūtras'', the life of the Buddha, and Sanskrit readings such as the ''Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā'' and the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra'' (the two texts the present writer read with Jacques May in 1991-1992). Besides occasional collaboration with Étienne Lamotte (1903-1983), Jacques May carried on his research on Indian Madhyamaka, which resulted in the French translation of Candrakīrti’s commentary on the ninth chapter of Āryadeva’s ''Catuḥśataka'' ("Āryadeva et Candrakīrti sur la permanence," 1980-1984). Jacques May also supervised the doctoral theses of Tom J.F. Tillemans (his successor in Lausanne, 1992-2011) and Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub (born 1947, professor of Indian Buddhism at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris until 2015). He was involved in the doctoral research of the Geneva-based japanologists Jérôme Ducor and Michel Mohr.<br><br> Wishing to make his retirement a "true retirement," Jacques May published nothing after 1992 but continued to actively supervise the PhD thesis of his Korean student and wife Kim Hyung-Hi, published in 2013 under the title ''La carrière du Bodhisattva dans l'Avatamsaka-sutra ; Matériaux pour l'étude de l'Avataṃsaka-sūtra et ses commentaires chinois'' (Peter Lang). As long as his health allowed, Jacques May kept travelling, notably in Asia and in South America. Those who had the privilege to know him remember an endearing personality with much wit, a touch of cynicism and (often dark) humor. As his impeccable French translations abundantly testify, Jacques May was a very talented writer; he was an expert in eighteenth-century French prose and late nineteenth-century poetry, above all Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) and his famous "aboli bibelot d’inanité sonore." Curious about everything and naturally inquisitive, there was very little Jacques May, who lived among dictionaries, encyclopedias and maps, could not say about nineteenth-century Vienna or the work of Mozart; in his hand-written correspondence (Jacques May never used a computer in his life), he would quote Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna in Sanskrit. Although he was not very fond of Yogācāra Buddhism, his article "La philosophie bouddhique idéaliste" (1971) has become a classic and remains, as Étienne Lamotte said a little less than fifty years ago, the best introduction to the topic. (Source: [http://iabsinfo.net/2018/03/obituary-tribute-to-professor-jacques-may/ Jacques May Obituary by Vincent Eltschinger, published on IABS March 24, 2018])
Mazu Daoyi (709–788) (Chinese: 馬祖道一; pinyin: Mǎzŭ Dàoyī; Wade–Giles: Ma-tsu Tao-yi, Japanese: Baso Dōitsu) was an influential abbot of Chan Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. The earliest recorded use of the term "Chan school" is from his ''Extensive Records''. Master Ma's teaching style of "strange words and extraordinary actions" became paradigmatic Zen lore.
His family name was Ma – Mazu meaning ''Ancestor Ma'' or ''Master Ma''. He was born in 709 northwest of Chengdu in Sichuan. During his years as master, Mazu lived in Jiangxi, from which he took the name "Jiangxi Daoyi".
In the ''Transmission of the Lamp'', compiled in 1004, Mazu is described as follows:
:His appearance was remarkable. He strode along like a bull and glared about him like a tiger. If he stretched out his tongue, it reached up over his nose; on the soles of his feet were imprinted two circular marks.
According to the ''Transmission of the Lamp'', Mazu was a student of Nanyue Huairang (677-744) at Mount Heng in Hunan. A story in the entry on Nanyue Huairang in the ''Transmission of the Lamp'' is regarded as Mazu's enlightenment-account, though the text does not claim it as such. An earlier and more primitive version of this story appears in the ''Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall'' which was transcribed in 952:
:Reverend Ma was sitting in a spot, and Reverend Rang took a tile and sat on the rock facing him, rubbing it. Master Ma asked, "What are you doing?" Master [Huairang] said, "I'm rubbing the tile to make it a mirror." Master Ma said, "How can you make a mirror by rubbing a tile?" Master [Huairang] said, "If I can't make a mirror by rubbing a tile, how can you achieve buddhahood by sitting in meditation?"
This story echoes the ''Vimalakirti Sutra'' and the ''Platform Sutra'' in downgrading purificative and gradualist practices instead of direct insight into the Buddha-nature. . . .
Though regarded as an unconventional teacher, Mazu's teachings emphasise Buddha-nature:
:[L]et each of you see into his own mind. ... However eloquently I may talk about all kinds of things as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges, the Mind shows no increase... . You may talk ever so much about it, and it is still your Mind; you may not at all talk about it, and it is just the same your own Mind. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazu_Daoyi Source Accessed July 15, 2021])
Ingrid McLeod earned a B.A. in Psychology. She completed two three-year retreats at Kagyu Ling France, her first from 1976–1980, and her second from 1980–1983. She was resident lama at Montreal Dharma Center from 1985–1987. She is a founding member and coordinator of Kalu Rinoche's International Translation Group. And she was a Tsadra Foundation fellow from 2001 to 2008.
Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow
* ''The Treasury of Knowledge: Book VI, Part 4; Systems of Buddhist Tantra'', Jamgön Kongtrul (with Elio Guarisco)
* ''The Treasury of Knowledge: Book VIII, Part 3; The Elements of Tantric Practice'', Jamgön Kongtrul (with Elio Guarisco)
Previously Published Translations (with participation of Kalu Rinpoche’s Translation Group)
* ''The Treasury of Knowledge: Book I; Myriad Worlds'', Jamgön Kongtrul
* ''The Treasury of Knowledge: Book V; Buddhist Ethics'', Jamgön Kongtrul +
Melvin McLeod is the editor-in-chief of two of America's leading Buddhist magazines, [https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Category:Buddhadharma:_The_Practitioner%27s_Quarterly Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly] and [https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Category:Lion%27s_Roar Lion's Roar magazine] (formerly Shambhala Sun), and is the editorial director of [https://www.mindful.org/magazine/ Mindful magazine]. McLeod has edited three books of teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh, ''Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place'', and is the series editor for The Best Buddhist Writing series. He lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. ([https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Melvin-McLeod Adapted from Source Aug 4, 2020]) +
John R. McRae was a renowned expert on Chinese Chan who also possessed an extensive knowledge of the field of Buddhism in general. After getting a PhD at Yale University, he taught at Cornell and Indiana Universities before moving to Japan and teaching part-time at Komazawa University. As a specialist in East Asian Buddhism, he was especially interested in ideologies of spiritual cultivation and how they interact with their intellectual and cultural environments. His seminal work on Chinese Chan was ''The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chan Buddhism'', (University of Hawai`i Press, 1986). This was later followed by ''Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism'', (University of California Press, 2003). He spent much of his career studying the life of the important Chan figure Shenhui (684–758), and was expecting to complete a manuscript on the topic before his untimely passing in October of 2011. John also completed a number of translations of Chinese Buddhist scriptural texts for the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai's English translation series and served as Chair of the Publication Committee for the series until his passing.
For the DDB, John provided explanations for a number of terms derived from his research in Chinese Chan texts. ([http://www.buddhism-dict.net/credits/mcrae.html Source Accessed Nov. 27, 2019]) +
Chim Namkha Drak (mchims nam mkha' grags) was born in Mondoi Kau (smon 'gro'i kha'u) in Upper Nyang (myang stod), in U, in 1210, the iron-horse year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle. He was of the Chim (mchims) clan. His parents were named Dargon (dar mgon) and Lhemen (lhas sman); his father's family claimed descent from Chim Dorje Drelching (mchims rdor rje sprel chung), a minister to the Tibetan king, Tri Songdeutsen (khri srong lde'u btsan, 742-797).
He took novice vows and later full monastic ordinations by a lama named Pelden Dromoche (dpal ldan gro mo che), who was possibly the same person as the fourth abbot of Nartang Monastery (snar thang dgon), Droton Dutsi Drakpa (gro ston bdud rtsi grags pa, 1153-1232), one of his main teachers.
He studied the texts of the Kadam tradition with several masters, including the fifth abbot of Nartang, Zhangton Chokyi Lama (zhang ston chos kyi bla ma, 1184-1241); the sixth abbot of Nartang, Sanggye Gompa Sengge Kyab (sangs rgyas sgom pa seng ge skyabs, 1179-1250); Chim Loten Nyamme (mchims blo brtan mnyam med, d.u.); Geshe Tashi Gangpa (dge bshes bkra shis sgang pa, d.u.); Drubtob Maṇi Hūṃbar (grub thob ma Ni hUM 'bar, d.u.). Tashi Gangpa transmitted the Avalokiteśvara teachings passed from Jangsem Dawa Gyeltsen (byang sems zla ba rgyal mtshan, d.u). (Source: [https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Chim-Namkha-Drak/2181 Treasury of Lives]) +
Dr. Peter Michel received his Ph.D. in Comparative Religion and German Literature from the University of Freiburg in Germany. He is sought after, both on German and Austrian television, as an expert on such subjects as the relationships between Christianity and spirituality, reincarnation, karma, and Christian teachings. He has published several books on these topics in English, German, Spanish, and Czech. He is the founder of Aquamarin Verlag, one of the major publishing houses for Wisdom Literature in Germany. ([https://www.amazon.com/His-Holiness-14th-Dalai-Lama/dp/1885394551 Source Accessed Nov 5, 2020]) +
Andrea Miller is the deputy editor of ''Lion's Roar'' magazine (formerly the Shambhala Sun) and the author of two picture books: ''The Day the Buddha Woke Up'' and ''My First Book of Canadian Birds''. She's also the editor of three anthologies, most recently ''All the Rage: Buddhist Wisdom on Anger and Acceptance''. ([https://newbooksnetwork.com/andrea-miller-the-day-the-buddha-woke-up-wisdom-publications-2018/ Source Accessed July 28, 2020]) +
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (born 1975) is a Tibetan teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He has authored two best-selling books and oversees the Tergar Meditation Community, an international network of Buddhist meditation centers.
As the head of the Tergar Meditation Community, Mingyur Rinpoche supports groups of students in more than thirty countries, leading workshops around the world for new and returning students every year. [https://tergar.org/about/mingyur-rinpoche/ Learn more at https://tergar.org/]
Mingyur Rinpoche was born in Nepal in 1975, the youngest of four brothers. His mother is Sönam Chödrön, a descendant of the two Tibetan kings Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Deutsen. His brothers are Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and his nephews are Phakchok Rinpoche and the reincarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, known popularly as Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche. From the age of nine, his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, taught him meditation, passing on to him the most essential instructions of the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions.
At the age of eleven, Mingyur Rinpoche began studies at Sherab Ling Monastery in northern India, the seat of Tai Situ Rinpoche. Two years later, Mingyur Rinpoche began a traditional three-year retreat at Sherab Ling. At age twenty, Mingyur Rinpoche became the functioning abbot of Sherab Ling. At twenty-three, he received full monastic ordination. During this time, Mingyur Rinpoche received important Dzogchen transmissions from Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. At the age of nineteen, he enrolled at Dzongsar Institute, where, under the tutelage of the renowned Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, he studied the primary topics of the Buddhist academic tradition, including Middle Way philosophy and Buddhist logic.
In 2007, Mingyur Rinpoche completed the construction of Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, India, which will serve large numbers of people attending Buddhist events at this sacred pilgrimage site, serve as an annual site for month-long Karma Kagyu scholastic debates, and serve as an international study institute for the Sangha and laity. The institute will also have a medical clinic for local people.
Mingyur Rinpoche has overseen the Kathmandu Tergar Osel Ling Monastery, founded by his father, since 2010. He also opened a shedra (monastic college) at the monastery.
In June 2011, Mingyur Rinpoche left his monastery in Bodhgaya to begin a period of extended retreat. Rinpoche left in the middle of the night, taking nothing with him, but leaving a farewell letter. He spent four years as a wandering yogi... After continuing with his retreat for four years, he later returned to his position as abbot. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongey_Mingyur_Rinpoche Source Accessed June 27, 2022])
Kaie Mochizuki is professor and vice president at Minobusan University in Yamanashi Japan. His areas of specialization include Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, and Tibetan and Indian Buddhism. He is also a translator of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist works into Japanese. He currently teaches in the Nichiren major at Minobusan. His many publications in the field include: '"Are the Madhyamikas Sunyatavadins?" (in ''Three Mountains and Seven Rivers'', Motilal Banarsidass 2004), "A Study on the Basic Idea of Lamrim in Tibetan Buddhism" (Minobusan University 2005), "Teaching of Buddhism" (Nichiren-shu 2005), and ''Knowing Wisdom, Repaying Kindness'' (Minobusan University 2007). His most recent project includes research on the development of the ''Lotus sūtra'' in inner Asia. According to his bio on the Minobusan faculty page, he "specializes in deciphering the classical literature of India and Tibet and analyzing its history of thought, but he is also interested in movies and music. Not only Atisha, but also Aki Kaurisumaki and Neil Young." ([http://www.min.jp/department/teacher.html Source Accessed May, 14 2020]) +
David Molk studied Tibetan language at Venerable Geshe Rabten's Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in Mont-Pelerin, Switzerland. Since 1987 he has interpreted and translated for many Tibetan lamas. He lives in Big Sur, California. +
Morris was born at Bermondsey on 8 September 1833, of Welsh parentage. He was trained as an elementary schoolmaster at St John's College, Battersea, but his education was for the most part self-acquired. In 1869, he was appointed Winchester lecturer on English language and literature in King's College School.<br> In 1871, he was ordained, and served for two years as curate of Christ Church, Camberwell. From 1875 to 1888 he served as headmaster of the Royal Masonic School for Boys at Wood Green, and afterwards for a short time master of the grammar school of Dedham, Essex. His diploma of LL.D. was a Lambeth degree, conferred in 1870 by Archbishop Tait.<br> As early as 1857, Morris showed the bent of his mind by publishing a little book on ''The Etymology of Local Names''. He was one of the first to join as an active member the Chaucer, Early English, and Philological societies, founded by his lifelong friend, Dr F. J. Furnivall. None of his colleagues surpassed him in the devotion which he expended upon editing the oldest remains of our national literature from the original manuscript sources, on the same scientific principles as adopted by classical scholars. Between 1862 and 1880, he brought out no fewer than twelve volumes for the Early English Text Society, including three series of ''Homilies'' (1868 onwards) and two of ''Alliterative Poems'' (1864). In 1866, he edited Chaucer for the ''Aldine Poets'' (2nd ed. 1891). This was the first edition to be based upon manuscripts since that of Thomas Tyrwhitt, and remained the standard one until it was superseded by W. W. Skeat's edition of 1894–7. In 1869, he edited Edmund Spenser for Macmillan's ''Globe'' edition, again using manuscripts as well as the original editions. In 1867, he published ''Specimens of Early English'' for the Clarendon Press, Oxford, which was augmented by Skeat in later editions.<br> Morris's long experience as a schoolmaster also prompted him to undertake a series of successful educational works. The first was ''Historical Outlines of English Accidence'' (1872), which went through some twenty editions, before being thoroughly revised after the author's death by Henry Bradley and Leon Kellner. In 1874 he brought out ''Elementary Lessons in Historical English Grammar''; and in the same year a primer of ''English Grammar''.<br> Scarcely had he struck out on this remunerative line of authorship than he turned aside to devote the remainder of his life to the study of Pāli, the sacred language of Buddhism. The stimulus came from his friendship with Professor Thomas Rhys Davids, founder of the Pāli Text Society. For the PTS he edited four texts between 1882 and 1888, more than any other contributor up to that point. But he did not confine himself to editing: his familiarity with the development of early English caused him to take a special interest in the corresponding position of Pāli, as standing midway between the ancient Sanskrit and the modern vernaculars, and as branching out into various dialects known as Prakrits. These relations of Pāli he expounded in a series of letters to the Academy, which were valuable not only for their lexicographical facts, but also as illustrating the historical growth of the languages of India. The last work he was able to complete was a paper on this subject, read before the International Congress of Orientalists in London in September 1892. He was not personably able to correct the proofs of this paper for publication in the ''Transactions''. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Morris_(philology) Source Accessed June 15, 2020])
A. Charles Muller (born September 19, 1953) is an academic specializing in Korean Buddhism and East Asian Yogacara, having published numerous books and articles on these topics. He is a resident of Japan, currently teaching at Musashino University. He is one of the earliest and most prolific developers of online research resources for the field of Buddhist Studies, being the founder and managing editor of the online Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, the CJKV-English Dictionary, and the H-Buddhism Scholars Information Network, along with having digitized and published numerous reference works.
Muller's academic study of Buddhism began as an undergraduate at Stony Brook University, where he majored in Religious Studies under the guidance of Sung Bae Park, a specialist in Seon and Korean Buddhism. After graduating, he spent two years studying in Japan, after which he spent one year in the graduate program in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. In 1988, he left UVa to return to Stony Brook, where he completed a PhD in Comparative literature, once again with Sung Bae Park as his principal advisor. He also studied Christian Theology with Peter Manchester, Islam with William Chittick, and Postmodern literary criticism with Michael Sprinker and Hugh Silverman. His dissertation, "Hamhŏ Kihwa: A Study of His Major Works," was accepted in 1993, after which he spent six months in Korea as a research associate at the Academy of Korean Studies, before taking up an academic position in Japan, at Toyo Gakuen University.
From 1994 to 2008, Muller taught courses in philosophy and religion at Toyo Gakuen University, during which time he published numerous books and articles on Korean Buddhism, Zen, East Asian Yogacara, and Confucianism. While active in numerous academic organizations such as the American Academy of Religion and the Japanese Association for Indian and Buddhist Studies, he also became known as one of leading figures in the creation of online research resources. In 1995, he set up his web site called Resources for East Asian Language and Thought (still in active service today), featuring online lexicons, indexes, bibliographies, and translations of classical texts. In 1996, he started the Budschol listserv for the academic study of Buddhism, which would, in 2000, become part of H-Net, under the name of H-Buddhism, the central internet organ for communication among scholars of Buddhism. He also initiated two major dictionary projects, the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism and the CJKV-E Dictionary, which have become basic reference works for the field of Buddhist and East Asian studies, subscribed to by universities around the world. His work in the area of online reference works and digitization led him into the field of Digital Humanities, with his principal area of expertise lying in the handling of literary documents using XML and XSLT. In 2008, Muller was invited to join the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Tokyo, where he taught courses in Digital Humanities, Chinese Philosophy, and Korean Philosophy and Religion. He retired from UTokyo in March 2019 and moved to Musashino University, where he is director of the Institute of Buddhist culture and teaches courses in Buddhist Studies. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Charles_Muller Source Accessed July 21, 2021])
After graduating from Humboldt University Berlin and following (post-)doctoral research in Munich, Zurich and Kyoto, I am currently a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy at Hildesheim University (Germany), which specializes in Asian and World philosophy.
My research focuses on the philosophy of language and culture, particularly based on the works of Ernst Cassirer and Wilhelm von Humboldt. My interests also encompass regional philosophies including pre-modern Buddhist and modern Japanese philosophy. I have published widely in various languages and translated seminal philosophical works from Japanese into German and English.
Throughout my career, I have been engaged in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research activities inside and outside of academia. I am the founding member of the research network »Morphology as Scientific Paradigm« (funded by the German Research Council, DFG) and have co-curated (as »Konzeptbegleiter«) the new permanent exhibit »Play of culture/s« (»Spiel der Kultur/en«) at Historisches und Völkerkundemuseum in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. ([http://ralfmueller.eu Source Accessed May 14, 2020]) +
Reverend Master Hubert was a senior disciple of Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett. He was ordained a monk in 1988 and was transmitted by Rev. Master Jiyu in 1992. He translated the ''Shobogenzo'', as well as numerous scriptures and religious texts. He was a resident of [Shasta] Abbey from the time of his ordination. ([https://www.facebook.com/olympiazencenter/posts/remembering-rev-hubert-nearmanrev-hubert-nearman-obc-died-at-shasta-abbey-on-the/10153432879308214/ Source Accessed June 28, 2021]) +
