Property:Bio
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Sam Julius van Schaik is an English Tibetologist. He obtained a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist literature at the University of Manchester in 2000, with a dissertation on the translations of Dzogchen texts by Jigme Lingpa. Since 1999 he has worked at the British Library in London, and is currently a project manager for the International Dunhuang Project, specialising in the study of Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang. He has also taught occasional courses at SOAS, University of London.
From 2003 to 2005 van Schaik worked on a project to catalogue Tibetan Tantric manuscripts in the Stein Collection of the British Library, and from 2005 to 2008 he worked on a project to study the palaeography of Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang, in an attempt to identify individual scribes.
In February 2019 van Schaik was appointed as the head of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_van_Schaik Source Accessed Aug 5, 2020]) +
Prof. Schapiro studied comparative religion as an undergraduate at Columbia University before pursuing a degree in Buddhist Studies at Harvard University, where he earned a PhD in 2012. His scholarship has primarily focused on Tibetan Buddhist ideas about teachers and teaching, as well as on Tibetan forms of advice writing.
Schapiro teaches a range of courses on Asian Religions at Fordham, including classes on Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese Religions and Japanese Religions. His classes incorporate semester-long reflections on a variety of themes, including Ethics & Responsibility (Hindu Literature and Ethics), Literary Rhetoric (Classic Buddhist Texts), Aesthetics (Japanese Religions), Becoming (more) Human (Chinese Religions), the Value of Knowledge (Buddhist Meditation), and American Identity (Buddhism in America). ([https://www.fordham.edu/info/23704/theology_faculty/10615/joshua_schapiro Source Accessed Apr 23, 2020]) +
Arne Schelling studied Western and Chinese medicine in Germany and China and now works as a physician in Berlin. From 1995 to 2001 he worked to develop the Kagyu Centers Theksum Tashi Chöling in Hamburg and Kamalashila-Institute in Langenfeld, Germany. He frequently translates (from English to German) for masters of all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, in Germany and Switzerland. In 2001 Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche appointed Arne as president of Siddhartha’s Intent Europe, and he later became a country representative for Khyentse Foundation in Germany. Since 2002 he has directed the film project "Heart Advice," which aims to preserve the essence of the teachings of Tibetan masters. He also gives instruction at several Buddhist centers in Germany. +
Marcia Binder Schmidt has been an editor and publisher of books on Vajrayana Buddhism for over fifteen years. With her husband, author and translator Erik Pema Kungsang, she founded and currently runs Rangjung Yeshe Publications, an independent publisher of Buddhist texts in English. ([https://www.shambhala.com/authors/o-t/marcia-schmidt.html Source Accessed May 7, 2020]) +
Schmithausen received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna in 1963. He was an associate professor of Indology at the University of Münster from 1970 to 1973, moving to the University of Hamburg from 1973 until his retirement in 2005. His main fields of research are the Yogacara tradition of Indian Buddhism and Buddhist ethics, particularly the ethics of nature. He was elected a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1995. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert_Schmithausen Source Accessed Jan 17, 2020]) +
Kaiji Jeffrey Schneider is a Zen priest who has lived, worked and practiced at San Francisco Zen Center since 1978. The founder of the Zen Center recovery programs, he is currently the Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator. ([https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/kaiji-jeffrey-schneider Source Accessed August 13, 2020]) +
Gregory Schopen's work focuses on Indian Buddhist monastic life and early Mahāyāna movements. By looking beyond the Pali Canon in favor of less commonly used sources such as the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya and Indian Buddhist inscriptions, his numerous scholarly works have shifted the field away from Buddhism as portrayed through its own doctrines toward a more realistic picture of the actual lives of Buddhists, both monastic and lay. In this sense, he has seriously challenged many assumptions and myths about Buddhism that had been long perpetuated in earlier Western scholarship. In 1985 he received the MacArthur Fellowship for his work in the field of History of Religion. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. Four volumes of his collected articles have been published by the University of Hawai'i Press: Buddhist Nuns, Monks, and Other Worldly Matters (2014), Figments and Fragments of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India (2005), Buddhist Monks and Business Matters (2004), and Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks (1999). ([https://www.international.ucla.edu/cisa/person/276 Source Accessed October 21, 2019]) +
Jim Scott, who has been a student and translator for Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche for over 25 years, is well known for both his translation work and his musical compositions of the songs of Milarepa. He lives in Denmark, where he founded a Buddhist society inspired by both the 16th Karmapa and Kalu Rinpoche, and he teaches annually at Pullahari Monastery in Nepal, and in Europe and the USA. ([http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Jim_Scott Source Accessed Sept 17, 2020]) +
C. D. Sebastian (PhD, Banaras Hindu University) is Professor of Indian Philosophy in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai, India. He is an established Indian Buddhist scholar and has expertise in philosophy, theology and religious studies. Among his works are ''Metaphysics and Mysticism in Mahayana Buddhism'' (2005, Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series – 238) and ''Recent Researches in Buddhist Studies'' (2008, Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series – 248). ([https://www.springer.com/us/book/9788132236443?utm_campaign=bookpage_about_buyonpublisherssite&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=springerlink#aboutAuthors Source Accessed May 21, 2020]) +
Tony See is currently teaching in the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests include philosophy, critical theory and media studies. His current research interest is in exploring theories of subjectivity, with a focus on the intersections between Deleuze’s idea of immanence and desire, and its resonances with the idea of Buddha-nature in Mahayana Buddhism. His previous publications include the book ''Community Without Identity: The Ontology and Politics of Heidegger'' (2009), and a number of articles such as "Deleuze and Mahayana Buddhism" (2014), "Deleuze and Ikeda" (2015) and "Deleuze, Religion and Education" (2016). ([https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137567055#aboutAuthors Source Accessed May 22, 2020]) +
I do research on philosophy of education and ethics, drawing from and comparing Japanese philosophy (the Kyoto School of Philosophy), American philosophy (contemplative pedagogy, care ethics, Deweyan philosophy), and continental philosophy (existential education, post-structuralism). I am particularly interested in the ethical, existential, and spiritual aspects of education, and the kind of human relationships involved therein. My Ph.D. research was on Watsuji Tetsurô and the ethics of emptiness, which I completed under Buddhist philosopher Sueki Fumihiko (at the Graduate University of Advanced Studies, based in Nichibunken, Kyoto). I came to Kyushu University just this year (2015), but prior to this I taught in the Department of Philosophy of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines for five years. ([http://asianstudies-kyushu.com/staff/dr-anton-luis-sevilla/ Source Accessed Aug 6, 2020]) +
Born in Rome, Italy, in 1965, Francesco Sferra studied philosophy and Indology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” under the guidance of Prof. Raniero Gnoli, Prof. Raffaele Torella and Prof. Corrado Pensa. He was awarded a Doctorate in Sanskrit by the same University in 1999.
He has a permanent appointment for the teaching of Sanskrit Language and Literature at the University of Naples “L’Orientale.”
His main research areas are: tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna Buddhism; Śaivism; and classical Indian philosophy of language. ([https://www.tantric-studies.uni-hamburg.de/people/prof-francesco-sferra-naples.html Source Accessed Dec 17, 2019])
[http://docenti.unior.it/index2.php?content_id=18425&content_id_start=1 Curriculum Vitae] +
Robert Sharf is D. H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley. He received a B.A. in Religious Studies (1979) and an M.A. in Chinese Studies (1981) from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan (1990). His graduate work included study in Japan; he was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Research into the Humanities (Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūjo) at Kyoto University, and also conducted fieldwork at Kōfukuji in Nara (1985-87).
Before joining the Berkeley faculty he taught in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University (1989-95) and in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan (1995-2003). He works primarily in the area of medieval Chinese Buddhism (especially Chan), but he also dabbles in Japanese Buddhism, Buddhist art, ritual studies, and methodological issues in the study of religion. He is author of Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise (2002), co-editor of Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context (2001), and is currently working on a book tentatively titled "Thinking about Not Thinking: Buddhist Struggles with Mindlessness, Insentience, and Nirvana."
In addition to his appointment in East Asian Languages and Cultures, he is Chair of the Center for Buddhist Studies at UCB. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, the Journal for the Study of Chinese Religions, the Journal of Religion in Japan, and the Kuroda Institute Series published in conjunction with University of Hawai'i Press. ([http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/sharf/ Source Accessed Jun 11, 2019]) +
Michael R. Sheehy is a Research Assistant Professor in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, Director of Scholarship at the Contemplative Sciences Center, and affiliated faculty with the Tibet Center at the University of Virginia. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Tibet, including three years training in a Buddhist monastery in the far eastern cultural domain of Golok. Michael’s research interests include Buddhist philosophy of mind, practices of contemplation, and the history of thought and science in Tibet. His writings and translations have given attention to histories of marginalized lineages in Tibet, most notably the ''zhentong'' (''gzhan stong'') and Kālacakra lineages of the Jonang order of Tibetan Buddhism.
For over a decade, through extensive collaborations with monastic communities, Michael worked on-the-ground to digitally preserve rare Tibetan manuscripts across the plateau. From 2008 to 2016, he was the editor-in-chief and research director at the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (formerly the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, TBRC). He worked closely with the late Tibetologist E. Gene Smith (1936-2010) to digitize Tibetan literature, develop scholarly resources, and architect the encyclopedic digital library. In 2004, together with Jonangpa exemplars, he founded the Jonang Foundation, an international nonprofit that preserves and promotes research on the Jonang order of Tibetan Buddhism.
Michael’s current research focus is contexts and dynamics of Tibetan contemplative practices. Most broadly, his interest lies in questions about how Buddhism, and Tibetan contemplative traditions more specifically, can contribute to discourses in the humanities, cognitive science, and cultural psychology about consciousness and its transformations. He is particularly interested in Tibetan contemplative practices of attention, dream, imagination and visualization, and embodiment as detailed in Tibetan yoga and meditation manuals.
He recently coedited with Klaus-Dieter Mathes (Vienna University) the book, ''The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet'' (SUNY Press 2019), an anthology of scholarship on the history, literature, and philosophy of zhentong in Tibet. With David Germano, he is Series Editor of the ''Traditions and Transformations in Tibetan Buddhism'' and the ''Contemplative Sciences'' book series published by the University of Virginia Press.
Recent publications include:
* "The Philosophical Grounds and Literary History of Zhentong." 2019. Co-authored with Klaus-Dieter Mathes. In ''The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet''. Edited by Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus Dieter-Mathes. State University of New York Press. ([http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/64101.pdf Click here to read])
* "The Dharma of the Perfect Eon: Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsan’s (1292-1361) Hermeneutics of Time and the Jonang Doxography of Zhentong Madhyamaka." 2019. In ''The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet''. Edited by Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus Dieter-Mathes. State University of New York Press.
* "The Zhentong Lion Roars: Dzamthang Khenpo Lodro Drakpa (1920-1975) and the Jonang Scholastic Renaissance." 2019. In ''The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet''. Edited by Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus Dieter-Mathes. State University of New York Press.
* "Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen on Refraining from Meat." 2019. In ''The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Buddhist Writings on Vegetarianism''. Edited by Geoff Barstow. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
* "Traversing the Path of Meditation." 2017. In ''A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from Rimé Masters of Tibet''. Ed. Holly Gayley and Joshua Schapiro. Wisdom Publications: Boston, MA.
Sheng Yen (聖嚴; Pinyin: Shèngyán, birth name Zhang Baokang, 張保康) (January 22, 1931 – February 3, 2009) was a Chinese Buddhist monk, a religious scholar, and one of the mainstream teachers of Chan Buddhism. He was a 57th generational dharma heir of Linji Yixuan in the Linji school (Japanese: Rinzai) and a third-generation dharma heir of Hsu Yun. In the Caodong (Japanese: Sōtō) lineage, Sheng Yen was a 52nd-generation Dharma heir of Dongshan Liangjie (807–869), and a direct Dharma heir of Dongchu (1908–1977).
Sheng Yen was the founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain, a Buddhist organization based in Taiwan. During his time in Taiwan, Sheng Yen was well known as a progressive Buddhist teacher who sought to teach Buddhism in a modern and Western-influenced world. In Taiwan, he was one of four prominent modern Buddhist masters, along with Hsing Yun, Cheng Yen and Wei Chueh, popularly referred to as the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Taiwanese Buddhism. In 2000 he was one of the keynote speakers in the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held in the United Nations. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheng-yen Source Accessed November 12, 2019]) +
Born in Nyeshang Drakar, as a young boy he joined Trangu Tashiling monastery near Bouddha and became a monk. For four years, he learnt prayers, rituals, making of tormas and butter sculpture, and playing musical instruments. In 1996, he joined the Trangu Monastic College in Namo Buddha started by HH Trangu Rinpoche and studied Buddhist texts including the five great treatises, and language and grammar under Khenpo Karma Tashi, Lobzang Tenzin and Jigme. He served as Assistant Lecturer for three years and in 2003 was conferred the Khenpo title. He studied under HH Trangu Rinpoche as the main teacher receiving monastic, Bodhisattva and tantric vows and numerous instructions from him. For 15 years, he served as a lecturer at the Trangu Monastic College and from 2016 for over four years, he undertook retreat in order to carry out meditation at Sekhar Retreat Centre according to the Kamtshang tradition. He currently serves as a lecturer/teacher at Trangu Monastic College and has authored many works including commentaries and synopses on the Middle Way, Perfection of Wisdom, monastic discipline, brief biographies of 17 Karmapa lamas, brief biographies of the founding fathers of Kagyu, and works on Kālacakra and Sarvavid. +
Ven. Khenchen Palden Rinpoche (1942-2010) began his intensive monastic training at the age of six at Gochen Monastery. So strong was his desire to study and learn that he would sneak outdoors after curfew and into the shrubberies to read his books under the moonlight. At age 12, he entered Riwoche Monastery, one of the oldest and largest monastic institutes in eastern Tibet and famous for its philosophers and logicians. There he was trained to become the next Abbot of Gochen. He completed his studies just as the Chinese invasion reached the area. ([http://www.padmasambhava.org/teach.html Source Accessed Jan 29, 2015]) +
Khenchen Pema Sherab (Tib. པདྨ་ཤེས་རབ་, Wyl. pad+ma shes rab) is one of the seniormost khenpos in the Nyingma tradition and one of the three Khenchen or 'great khenpos' of Namdroling Monastery.
Khenpo Pema Sherab was born in 1936, at Riphu, in the Dergé region of Eastern Tibet. He started to study at the age of eight, learning to read and write Tibetan with his uncle, Lama Chözang, while he was herding cattle. At fourteen, he went to Lhasa and studied under masters and scholars of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1953 he received ordination from Shechen Kongtrul Rinpoche. In Lhasa, he also met Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and served as his attendant for about ten years, fleeing with him to Bhutan and then India in 1959. Over the years, he received many teachings from him, including the Guhyagarbha Tantra, and Longchenpa’s Treasury of Pith Instructions. During the 1950s he also stayed for long periods at Nenang Monastery and Tshurphu, the monastery of the Karmapas, which at that time was home to many great Kagyü masters who had escaped from the troubles in East Tibet. While on pilgrimage in Central Tibet, he met Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö at Tsering Jong, the seat of Jikmé Lingpa. While in India, he also studied with Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsöndrü, and from Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche he received the vows of a fully ordained monk, and also various empowerments and teachings.
In 1968, at the request of Kyabjé Penor Rinpoche he went to Namdroling Monastery to teach. Though the shedra was not yet established at that time, Khen Rinpoche taught the monks for several years. The shedra was finally established in 1978 and from then until 2003, for 25 years, Khenpo Pema Sherab taught there tirelessly while also managing the institution.
Among the many books he has written are a biography of Guru Padmasambhava, an exposition of the two truths, lorik and tarik, and an exposition of logic. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenchen_Pema_Sherab Source Accessed June 29, 2022])
James Mark Shields is Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities and Asian Thought at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA), Japan Foundation Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kyoto, Japan), and Research Associate with the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, Harvard University. He was educated at McGill University (Canada), the University of Cambridge (UK), and Kyoto University (Japan). He conducts research on modern Buddhist thought, Japanese philosophy, comparative ethics, and philosophy of religion. He has published articles and translations in ''Asian Philosophy'', ''The Eastern Buddhist'', ''Japan Review'', ''Studies in Religion / Sciences religieuses'', ''Journal of Religion and Society'', ''Kultura i Politkya'', and ''Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions''. He is author of ''Critical Buddhism: Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought'' (Ashgate, 2011) and co-editor (with Victor Sōgen Hori and Richard P. Hayes) of ''Teaching Buddhism in the West: From the Wheel to the Web'' (Routledge, 2003). He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled ''Warp and Woof: Modernism and Progressivism in Japanese Buddhism, 1886–1936''. He is Associate Editor of the ''Journal of Buddhist Ethics'', and is on the editorial board of the ''Journal of Japanese Philosophy''. ([https://bucknell.academia.edu/JamesMarkShields Source Accessed Jan 15, 2020]) +
Professor Venerable Heng-Ching Shih earned a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught in the Department of Philosophy, National Taiwan University. She has worked in Buddhist education at almost all levels in Taiwan throughout the years.
Venerable Heng-Ching helped establish Pumen Buddhist High School and Fakuang Buddhist Graduate Institute. She also founded the Center of Buddhist Studies at National Taiwan University and Taiwan’s first Graduate Students’ Buddhist Forum. She was also active in the early stages of the project to digitize the Chinese tripitaka, known as CBETA (Chinese Buddhist Electronic Texts Association).
Venerable Heng-Ching has retired and now serves as the President of the Bodhi Education Foundation and as Consultant to the Committee of Western Bhiksunis. She is the author of many academic papers and books, including [https://www.amazon.com/Syncretism-Buddhism-Asian-Thought-Culture/dp/0820416819 The Syncretism of Ch’an and Pure Land Buddhism] (English), Buddha Nature (Chinese), and Good Women on the Bodhisattva Path (Chinese).
She continues to work tirelessly in support of fully ordained nuns worldwide.
([https://sravastiabbey.org/guest-teacher/professor-venerable-heng-ching-shih/ Source Accessed March 21, 2019]) +
