Property:Bio
From Buddha-Nature
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Rigdzin Shikpo grew up in Dalston in East London, and at an early age he took a keen interest in Buddhism, which he has now studied for over 65 years. As a young man, he previously worked as a physicist, mathematician and a computer consultant and practised for nine years under the instruction of Theravadin monks while becoming closely associated with the Buddhist Society in London.
In 1965, he met his root guru Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who was studying in Oxford at the time. Trungpa Rinpoche entrusted Rigdzin Shikpo at a very early stage with some of most profound Nyingma Dzogchen teachings and together they translated seminal Dzogchen texts and Sutras from Tibetan into English. Trungpa Rinpoche also encouraged him to take teachings and guidance from his own teacher HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 1975 Trungpa Rinpoche established the Longchen Foundation in consultation with HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, appointing Rigdzin Shikpo as spiritual director.
When Chögyam Trungpa left to teach in the United States, Rigdzin Shikpo continued to follow his instruction, from time to time travelling to America to see him to receive further teachings. Khyentse Rinpoche also told him to take further Dzogchen instruction from Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, an eminent yogin and scholar who was also a student of HH Khyentse Rinpoche. Since the deaths of Trungpa Rinpoche and Khyentse Rinpoche, Khenpo Rinpoche has been Rigdzin Shikpo’s main source of guidance.
In 1990, Rigdzin Shikpo went into a traditional three year retreat under the supervision of Khenpo Rinpoche in a semi-detached house in Marston, Oxford. On finishing his retreat in 1993, as a sign of his accomplishment, he was given the title ‘Rigdzin Shikpo’. ‘Rigdzin’ (Skt. ''vidyādhara'', ) means ‘awareness holder’ and ‘Shikpo’ means ‘beyond conepts’. Rigdzin Shikpo teaches his students the whole of the path according to the lineage transmissions he received from his own teachers. They encouraged him to transmit the teachings according to his inspiration in response to the needs of his students.
Khenpo Rinpoche emphasises that the Longchen Foundation lineage is more than simply an organisation—it is a Buddhist school in its own right. It is the living embodiment of the Mahayana and Maha Ati (Dzogchen) teachings and as such has a particular significance for the expression of the Buddha’s teachings in the West. ([https://www.longchenfoundation.org/rigdzin-shikpo-rinpoche/ Source Accessed August 8, 2022])
Prof. Shimoda specializes in the history of the formation of the scriptures of Indian Buddhism, as well as Digital Humanities. Concerning the former, he focuses on the clarification of the background of history of thought and social history from early Buddhism to Mahāyāna Buddhism through the formation process clarified in the sutras and vinayas. During the past two years he has proposed a new theory regarding the origins of Mahāyāna Buddhism generated by the change of the medium of the received tradition. The topics he has researched up to the present are: (1) a revised approach to prior research regarding the formation of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its prominent characteristics; (2) a re-questioning of the methods of research of Buddhism in the modern age that support Buddhist studies; (3) an investigation of relations between Buddhism and various modern problems, as well as (4) consolidating these four points in research on Mahāyāna Buddhism. He is seeking to lay hold of the future trajectory of Buddhist studies by focusing on examining the field of Buddhist studies that originated in the West during modernity, having a 200-year history, oriented around the above four points.
Concerning his second major area, Digital Humanities, starting from seven years ago, he entered into full scale efforts toward the process of advancing the digitization of the Buddhist canonical works. These works were supported by A-level Grant-in-aid from the JSPS under the topic of "Formation of a Buddhist studies Knowledge Base through International Cooperation." The creation of an international knowledge base of Buddhist studies for the next generation was developed around this project, serving as a model case for the advancement of Digital Humanities in Japan. ([http://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/DHI/index.php?English%20shimoda Source Accessed October 9, 2019]) +
Shinran (1173–1263) lived during the late-Heian early-Kamakura period (1185–1333), a time of turmoil for Japan when the emperor was stripped of political power by the shōguns. Shinran's family had a high rank at the Imperial court in Kyoto, but given the times, many aristocratic families were sending sons off to be Buddhist monks instead of having them participate in the Imperial government. When Shinran was nine (1181), he was sent by his uncle to Mount Hiei, where he was ordained as a śrāmaṇera in the Tendai sect. Over time, Shinran became disillusioned with how Buddhism was practiced, foreseeing a decline in the potency and practicality of the teachings espoused.
Shinran left his role as a dosō ("practice-hall monk") at Mount Hiei and undertook a 100-day retreat at Rokkaku-dō in Kyoto, where he had a dream on the 95th day. In this dream, Prince Shōtoku appeared to him, espousing a pathway to enlightenment through verse. Following the retreat, in 1201, Shinran left Mount Hiei to study under Hōnen for the next six years. Hōnen (1133–1212) another ex-Tendai monk, left the tradition in 1175 to found his own sect, the Jōdo-shū or "Pure Land School". From that time on, Shinran considered himself, even after exile, a devout disciple of Hōnen rather than a founder establishing his own, distinct Pure Land school. ([https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Jodo_Shinshu Source Accessed October 16, 2019]) +
Dr. Henry Shiu is the Shi Wu De Professor in Chinese Buddhist Studies at Emmanuel College on Toronto, Canada. Dr. Shiu holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (2006). He is currently a Sessional Lecturer in the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health Program at New College; and Emmanuel College. Dr. Shiu’s teaching of Buddhist Contemplative Care represents a development of the principles of Engaged Buddhism. He brings expertise in the foundational areas that contribute to the Buddhist focus within Emmanuel’s Master of Pastoral Studies Program, including the foundational tenets and practices of Buddhism, Buddhist ethics, and Buddhist meditative traditions. As the coordinator of the Applied Buddhist Studies Initiative at Emmanuel College, he facilitated connections with the local and international Buddhist communities. His published research focuses on early Mahayana Buddhism and the transmission of Buddhism to China. He has recently completed articles about Buddhist women in the Chinese diaspora and about the construction of Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Canada. He is also the author of numerous scholarly works in Chinese, including his forthcoming book with Oxford University Press, ''The Cultural Interpretation of the Heart Sutra in India, China, and Tibet''. ([https://emmanuel.utoronto.ca/home/henry-shui/ Source Accessed June 1, 2020]) +
Mark Siderits was trained in Asian and Western philosophy at the University of Hawaii and Yale University. He has taught both Asian and Western philosophy, for many years at Illinois State University, and most recently as Professor of philosophy at Seoul National University, from which he retired in 2012. He is the author or editor of five books and has published numerous articles on a wide variety of subjects in Indian Buddhist philosophy and comparative philosophy. Much of his work aims at building bridges between the classical Indian tradition and contemporary philosophy, by using insights from one tradition to cast light on problems arising in the other. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/mark-siderits/ Wisdom Experience]) +
Silk (1960-) studied East Asian Studies at the Oberlin College in Ohio and subsequently Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan. At the latter university he obtained his PhD in 1994 with the thesis: ''The Origins and Early History of the Mahāratnakūţa Tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism, With a Study of the Ratnarāśisūtra and Related Materials''.
During his studies, Silk spent several years in Japan. After his PhD, he became Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Grinnell College in Iowa and in 1995 at the Department of Comparative Religion of the Western Michigan University. From 1998 until 2002 he taught in the Department of Religious Studies at Yale University, and from 2002 in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Since 2007 he has been Professor in the study of Buddhism at Leiden. In 2010 he was awarded a VICI grant from the NWO (Dutch National Science Foundation) for project: “Buddhism and Social Justice.” In 2016 he was elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen [KNAW]).
Currently, Silk is Professor of Buddhist Studies at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. He specializes in Buddhism in its Asian contexts, primarily from a historical point of view. He has a special interest in Buddhist scriptures.
Research:
Silk’s scientific orientation on Buddhism is very broad, in time as well as geographically: his interest covers the oldest primary sources and the rise of Buddhist communities all over Asia, but he is equally interested in the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia. Silk reads Sanskrit, Pāli, , Classic Tibetan, Classic Chinese, and Japanese.
Recent publications:
2016 - ''Materials Toward the Study of Vasubandhu’s Viṁśikā (I): Sanskrit and Tibetan Critical Editions of the Verses and Autocommentary; An English Translation and Annotations''. Harvard Oriental Series 81 (Cambridge MA: Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University).
2015 - ''Buddhist Cosmic Unity: An Edition, Translation and Study of the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta''. Hamburg Buddhist Studies 4 (Hamburg: Hamburg University Press). Indian Buddhist Monasticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
2015 - ''Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Volume I: Literature and Languages''. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section Two, India, 29/1. Leiden: Brill. (editor)
2013 - ''Buddhism in China: Collected Papers of Erik Zürcher''. Sinica Leidensia 112 (Leiden: Brill). (co-editor) ([https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/jonathan-silk/publications#tab-2 Source Accessed Aug 5, 2020])
Peter Skilling is a Fellow of the Lumbini International Research Institute (Lumbini, Nepal) and a Special Lecturer at Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand). He is founder of the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation (Bangkok), a project dedicated to the preservation, study and publication of the Buddhist literature of Southeast Asia. He is a founding member of the International Centre for Buddhist Studies (Bangkok). Peter Skilling has lived in Thailand for over thirty years, and has travelled extensively in Asia. His interests include the early history of religion in Southeast Asia as known through inscriptions and archaeological remains; the history of Indian Buddhism and the development of Mahayana sutras; and the Pali and vernacular literature of pre-modern Siam, including jataka and sermon genres. He has also written about the history of the Buddhist order of nuns in India and Siam and the development of the Tibetan canonical collections (Kanjur). His publications include Mahasutras, a critical edition and study of ten Sarvastivadin texts preserved in Tibetan translation in the Kanjur compared with their Pali counterparts (Vols. I and II, Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 1994, 1997; Vol. III, translations, forthcoming). Skilling is reported to be overly fond of durian. He lives in Nandapuri on the outskirts of Bangkok with a turtle rescued from the streets after a flood some years ago.
Translation & Transmission Conference Bio: Professor Skilling is a Fellow of the Lumbini
International Research Institute (Lumbini, Nepal) and a Special Lecturer at Chulalongkorn
University (Bangkok, Thailand). At present he is Maître de Conférences with the École
française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and Head of the Buddhist Studies Group of the EFEO.
He is founder of the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation (Bangkok), a project dedicated to the
preservation, study and publication of the Buddhist literature of Southeast Asia. He received a PhD with honours and a Habilitation in Paris (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes). Peter’s publications include numerous articles and several books, the most recent being ''How Theravada is Theravada?'' (University of Washington Press, 2012) and ''Mahāsātras: Great Discourses of the Buddha'' (2 vols., Oxford, The Pali Text Society, 1994 and 1997) and the edited volume ''Wat Si Chum, Sukhothai: Art, Architecture and Inscriptions'' (River Books, Bangkok, 2008).
Tadeusz Skorupski is Senior Lecturer in Buddhist Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He received his Ph.D. in Indo-Tibetan Studies from the University of London in 1978. His publications include ''The Sarvadurgatipariśodhana'' and ''The Cultural Heritage of Ladakh''. +
Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim, the abbot who led Narthang monastery at the peak of its history, was an illustrious figure of his time in Central Tibet. A resolute monk, a meditation master, a learned scholar, author, and public figure, he epitomized the high ideals, practices, and approaches of the Kadam school and championed its traditions of scriptural exegesis and meditation instructions. A Kadam luminary, he also left behind religious writings which hold great significance for Tibetan Buddhist scholarship and practice today.
(Source: Karma Phuntsho, ''The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim'', iii) +
David Llewellyn Snellgrove (29 June 1920 – 25 March 2016) was a British Tibetologist noted for his pioneering work on Buddhism in Tibet as well as his many travelogues. Snellgrove was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and educated at Christ's Hospital near Horsham in West Sussex. He went on to study German and French at Southampton University. In 1941 he was called up to do his military service as a member of the Royal Engineers. He attended the Officers Cadet Training Unit in the Scottish seaside town of Dunbar, and was commissioned as an infantry officer. Thereafter he attended various intelligence courses and further training at the War Office in London, from where he requested a posting to India.
Snellgrove arrived in Bombay in June 1943, and travelled cross-country to Calcutta. He was stationed at Barrackpore, some way up the Hooghly River. A few months after beginning his posting he contracted malaria and was sent to the military hospital at Lebong, just north of Darjeeling. It was while he was at Lebong that he began his future life's calling by purchasing some books about Tibet by Charles Bell as well as a Tibetan Grammar and Reader.
Snellgrove returned to Darjeeling, from where he sometimes went on leave to Kalimpong. On one of these visits he took a young Tibetan into his personal employ in order to have someone with whom to practice speaking Tibetan. He also travelled in the small Himalayan state of Sikkim, and on one such visit he met Sir Basil Gould, who was then the British Representative for Tibet.[2] Inspired to work in Tibet, in 1946 after he left the Army he sat the entrance exams for the Indian Civil Service. This was the first time the exams had been held since the start of the war, and the last time they were ever held. Although he passed the exams, he was not able to take up an appointment in India. Having already begun to study Tibetan, he resolved to find a university where he could further his studies. However, as no university offered courses in Tibetan at that time he was convinced by Sir Harold Bailey that a sound knowledge of Sanskrit and Pali would be beneficial, so he gained entry to Queens' College, Cambridge in October 1946. While at Cambridge, he converted to Roman Catholicism, in part through the influence of his friend Bede Griffiths.
In 1950, after having completed his studies at Cambridge, he was invited to teach a course in elementary Tibetan at the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London.[3] He was Professor of Tibetan at SOAS until his retirement in 1982.
Snellgrove's research subsequent to his retirement was focused increasingly upon the art history of South East Asia. He died on 25 March 2016 in Pinerolo, Italy. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Snellgrove Source Accessed Feb 14, 2020])
Associate Professor Judith Snodgrass writes, researches and teaches in the areas of Buddhism in the West, Buddhism and Asian modernity, Buddhist nationalism, and Western knowledge of Asia. She is the author of ''Presenting Japanese Buddhism to the West: Orientalism, Occidentalism and the Columbian Exposition'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2003). Associate Professor Snodgrass was editor of the internationally refereed professional journal ''Japanese Studies'' (Taylor and Francis) from 1997 through 2011.
In 1991, Judith was a founding member of TAASA (The Asian Art Society of Australia) and was an active member of the Executive for the first decade of its activities. She is currently President of AABS (Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies). In 2012, she chaired the organising committee of the biennial conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia. ([https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/staff_profiles/uws_profiles/associate_professor_judith_snodgrass Source Accessed June 16, 2020]) +
Jan Sobisch studied Tibetology as main subject at Hamburg University (1985-1992, Prof. Seyfort Ruegg), and the minor subjects Classical Indology (1986-1992, Profs. Schmithausen and Wezler), and Philosophy (1990-1992, Prof. Schnädelbach). During his dissertation (Prof. David Jackson), he worked on a genre of Tibetan literature that debates theories of simultaneously practising without conflicts and within a single mental continuum the ethics and vows of sravakas, bodhisattvas and mantra adepts. During these years (1994-1999) he also worked half time in the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project for Prof. Wezler. While working for the project, he discovered among microfilms made available to us the 30 volumes of the complete works of A mes zhabs (1597-1659), one of the most prolific Tibetan writers on history and mantra.
This enabled him to obtain two stipends from the German Research Council (DFG) for studying the manuscripts of A mes zhabs' works (leading to the publication of a catalogue and study) and his documents of transmission (gsan yig or thob yig). The latter project Sobisch passed on to a successor when he accepted the position of an assistant professor in Copenhagen. Within A mes zhabs' works he found numerous writings on the Hevajra Tantra and the connected Path with Its Fruits cycle (lam 'bras). These he researched in his early years in Copenhagen, leading to the publication of a study of the Indian and Tibetan literatures of these teachings. In 2006, he received tenure in Copenhagen and put much effort into building a study program for Tibetan that included classical, Buddhist, and modern studies. His research in the past ten years focussed on the early 'Bri gung bKa' brgyud pas and their unique dGongs gcig, a text that had a tremendous impact on the formation of the bKa' brgyud pas from the 13th c. onwards. His monograph on this work is accepted for publication in the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Studies Series of Wisdom Publications.
Unfortunately, the Danish government began a series of dramatic budget cuts that resulted in the dismissal of over 500 persons at the University of Copenhagen. In order to save the larger programs like Chinese and Religious Studies, his institute leadership decided to sacrifice the smaller subjects like Tibetan, Sanskrit and Thai Studies, and Sobisch was laid-off with six months notice in February, 2016. In the same year he was granted the Humboldt Research Award in recognition of his entire achievements in research to date.
([https://ceres.rub.de/de/personen/jsobisch/ Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020])
After being ordained at Larung Gar Serthar Buddhist Institute in 1985, Khenpo Sodargye relied on Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche as his root guru.
After intensive study of the five principle treatises on Madhyamaka, Prajnaparamita, Abhidharma, Vinaya, and Buddhist logic, Khenpo received direct transmissions of tantric teachings such as the Dzogchen, Kalachakra, and the Web of Magical Illusion from Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and gained unshakable faith in the Omniscient Longchenpa and Mipham Rinpoche. Through his practice, he obtained supreme realization of these teachings.
After engaging in classic Tibetan Buddhist debate and undergoing oral and written examination, he obtained his khenpo degree. Khenpo Sodargye was then placed in charge of the institute by Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and became Kyabje’s chief translator for Chinese disciples. +
Ruth Sonam was born and grew up in Ireland and graduated from Oxford University with an MA in Modern Languages. She began studying with Geshe Sonam Rinchen in 1978 and started working as his interpreter in 1983. She was his interpreter at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives from 1989 to 2012. ([https://www.shambhala.com/authors/o-t/ruth-sonam.html Source Accessed Aug 6, 2020]) +
Khenpo Tshewang Sonam is the Lama of Tharpaling Monastery, the most well-known center founded by Longchenpa in Bhutan. Prior to becoming the Lama of Tharpaling, he spent many years as a hermit in the mountains of Bhutan while also giving mass teachings on Amitabha and Sukhavati practice in many parts of Bhutan. At the turn of the century, he served as the head of Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in Namdrolling, Mysore, India and as the head of Palyul Shedra, Sichuan in Tibet after he finished his Khenpo degree in Namdrolling in 1998. Khenpo Tshewang received his early education under Wangthang Rinpoche Yeshi Dorji, Lama Gyalwang Nyima, and Lopen Norbu Wangchuk before he moved to study in Namdrolling in Mysore. Since then, he trained under His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khenpo in India and Bhutan, and Khenpo Achoe and Trulku Thubzang in Tibet, receiving oral teachings on Dzogchen. He is the author of commentaries on ''Madhyamakāvatāra'' and ''Abhisamayālaṇkāra'' and many other minor writings. (Source: Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho) +
Born in the Tsang region of Tibet in 1923, Geshe Lhundub Sopa was both a spiritual master and a respected academic. He rose from a humble background to complete his geshe studies at Sera Je Monastic University in Lhasa with highest honors and was privileged to serve as a debate opponent for the Dalai Lama’s own geshe examination in 1959. He moved to New Jersey in the United States in 1963 and in 1967 began teaching in the Buddhist Studies Program at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he professor emeritus. In 1975, he founded the Deer Park Buddhist Center in Oregon, Wisconsin, site of the Dalai Lama’s first Kalachakra initiation granted in the West. He is the author of several books in English, including the five-volume comprehensive teaching, ''Steps on the Path to Enlightenment''. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/geshe-lhundub-sopa/ Source Accessed April 10, 2020]) +
Joan Stambaugh was an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at City University of New York. She was an interpreter and translator of Martin Heidegger's writings, specifically known for her translation of ''Being and Time'' into English. She is the author of several works dealing with Buddhist and Existentialist topics, including ''Impermanence is Buddha-Nature: Dogen’s Understanding of Temporality'' (1990), ''The Other Nietzsche'' (1994), and ''The Formless Self'' (1999). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Stambaugh Source Accessed April 1, 2020]) +
Gabriele Staron is a translator who took part in the Translator Training Program 2006-2008 initiated by Venerable Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche from the Drikung Kagyu Institute, Dehradun. She has translated Ayang Thubten Rinpoche’s ''Rays of Sunlight'', a commentary on Zhedang Dorje's ''The Heart of the Mahāyāna Teachings'', a detailed guide to the stages of the path to awakening. +
Fyodor Ippolitovich Shcherbatskoy or Stcherbatsky (30 August 1866–18 March 1942), often referred to in the literature as F. Th. Stcherbatsky, was a Russian Indologist who, in large part, was responsible for laying the foundations in the Western world for the scholarly study of Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy. He was born in Kielce, Poland (Russian Empire), and died at the Borovoye Resort in northern Kazakhstan.
Stcherbatsky studied in the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (graduating in 1884), and later in the Historico-Philological Faculty of Saint Petersburg University (graduating in 1889), where Ivan Minayeff and Serge Oldenburg were his teachers. Subsequently, sent abroad, he studied Indian poetry with Georg Bühler in Vienna, and Buddhist philosophy with Hermann Jacobi in Bonn. In 1897, he and Oldenburg inaugurated ''Bibliotheca Buddhica'', a library of rare Buddhist texts.
Returning from a trip to India and Mongolia, in 1903 Stcherbatsky published (in Russian) the first volume of ''Theory of Knowledge and Logic of the Doctrine of Later Buddhists'' ( 2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1903-1909 ). In 1928 he established the Institute of Buddhist Culture in Leningrad. His ''The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana'' (Leningrad, 1927), written in English, caused a sensation in the West. He followed suit with his main work in English, ''Buddhist Logic'' (2 vols., 1930–32), which has exerted an immense influence on Buddhology.
Although Stcherbatsky remained less well known in his own country, his extraordinary fluency in Sanskrit and Tibetan languages won him the admiration of Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore. According to Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, "Stcherbatsky did help us – the Indians – to discover our own past and to restore the right perspective of our own philosophical heritage." The Encyclopædia Britannica (2004 edition) acclaimed Stcherbatsky as "the foremost Western authority on Buddhist philosophy". ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_ShcherbatskoySource Accessed Sept 25, 2020])
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''
([http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/translators/cyrus-stearns/ Source Accessed March 29, 2019])
