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From Buddha-Nature
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Floring Giripescu Sutton was Assistant Professor of Oriental Philosophy at Rutgers University. +
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (鈴木 大拙 貞太郎 ''Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō''; he rendered his name "Daisetz" in 1894; 18 October 1870 – 12 July 1966) was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin (and Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities, and devoted many years to a professorship at Ōtani University, a Japanese Buddhist school. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.T._Suzuki Source Accessed July 30, 2020]) +
Shunryu Suzuki (鈴木 俊隆 Suzuki Shunryū, dharma name Shōgaku Shunryū 祥岳俊隆) (May 18, 1904–December 4, 1971) was a Sōtō Zen roshi (priest) who popularized Zen Buddhism in the United States, particularly around San Francisco. Born in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, Suzuki was occasionally mistaken for the Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki, to which Suzuki would reply, "No, he's the big Suzuki, I'm the little Suzuki."
In 1924 Shunryu enrolled in a Soto preparatory school in Tokyo not far from Shogan-ji, where he lived on the school grounds in the dorm. From 1925 to 1926 Suzuki did Zen training with Dojun Kato in Shizuoka at Kenko-in. He continued his schooling during this period. Here Shunryu became head monk for a 100 day retreat, after which he was no longer merely considered a novice. He had completed his training as a head monk.
In April 1926 Shunryu graduated from preparatory school and entered Komazawa Daigakurin, a university which also taught Soto Zen. During this period he continued his connections with So-on in Zoun-in, going back and forth whenever possible.
Some of his teachers here were discussing how Soto Zen might reach a bigger audience with students and, while Shunryu couldn't comprehend how Western cultures could ever understand Zen, he was intrigued.
On August 26, 1926, at age 22, So-on gave Dharma transmission to Suzuki. Shunryu's father also retired as abbot at Shogan-ji this same year, and moved the family onto the grounds of Zoun-in where he served as inkyo (retired abbot).
Later that year Suzuki spent a short time in the hospital with tuberculosis, but soon recovered. In 1927 an important chapter in Suzuki's life was turned. He went to visit a professor in English he had at Komazawa named Miss Nona Ransom, a woman who had taught English to such people as Jiro Kano and the children of Chinese president Li Yuanhong. She hired him that day to be a translator with others and to help with errands. Through this period he realized she was very ignorant of Japanese culture and the religion of Buddhism. She respected it very little and saw it as idol worship. But one day, when there were no chores to be done, the two had a conversation on Buddhism that changed her mind. She even let Suzuki teach her zazen meditation. This experience is significant in that Suzuki realized that Western ignorance of Buddhism could be transformed if they were educated on exactly what it is.
On January 22, 1929, So-on retired as abbot of Zoun-in and installed Shunryu as its 28th abbot. Sogaku would run the temple for Shunryu. In January 1930 a ceremony called ten'e was held at Zoun-in for Shunryu acknowledging So-on's Dharma transmission to him. A way for the Soto heads to grant him permission to teach as a priest. On April 10, 1930, at age 25, Suzuki graduated from Komazawa Daigakurin with a major in Zen and Buddhist philosophy, and a minor in English.
Suzuki mentioned to So-on during this period that he might be interested in going to America to teach Zen Buddhism. So-on was adamantly opposed to the idea. Suzuki realized that his teacher felt very close to him and that he would take such a departure as an insult. He did not mention it to him again. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunryu_Suzuki Source Accessed Nov 18 2019])
Takayasu Suzuki is member of the Faculty of International Culture at Yamaguchi Prefectural University in Japan. His areas of specialization include Chinese philosophy, Indian philosophy and Buddhist Studies. His areas of interest include the history of thought on Nyorai's Externality and Internality; the relationship and empathy between self and others (others/world); and modern and independent understandings of Buddhism. ([https://www.yamaguchi-pu.ac.jp/ic/ic/teachers-new/suzuki/?c=page&q=Takayasu Source Accessed June 22, 2020]) +
Paul L. Swanson is a Permanent Research Fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, and Professor in the Faculty of Arts & Letters of Nanzan University, in Nagoya, Japan. He is editor of the ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' and has published on Tiantai/Tendai Buddhism and other aspects of East Asian Buddhism and religion. ([https://www.society-buddhist-christian-studies.org/paul-swanson Source Accessed June 13, 2019])
[https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/2012/11/Swanson-CV-ALL-2012.pdf Click here for full CV and Publications list] +
Michael Sweet received a PhD in Buddhist Studies in 1977 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison under the direction of Geshe Lhundub Sopa. From 1977–78 he taught and did research at the American Institute of Buddhist Studies. After later graduate studies, he was a psychotherapist in public and private practice (1980–2004) and a sometime lecturer at UW Madison, where he has been an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry. He has written extensively on the history of sexuality in South Asia and on Buddhist Studies. Since 2001 his research has focused on Ippolito Desideri and the Catholic missions in Tibet. Current research focuses on the first mission to Tibet, led by the Portuguese Jesuit Antonio de Andrade. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/michael-j-sweet/ Source Accessed May 12, 2020]) +
Nguyen Dac Sy received his PhD from the Department of Buddhist Studies at the University of Delhi in 2012. His doctoral research on buddha-nature and the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'' was supervised Dr. Ram Kumar Rana and co-supervised by Dr. T. R. Sharma. +
Rahul Sāṅkṛityāyana is called the Father of Indian Travelogue Travel literature. He played a pivotal role in giving travelogue a "literature form" and was one of the most widely travelled scholars of India, spending forty-five years of his life on travels away from his home.
He traveled to many places and wrote many travelogues, approximately in the same ratio. He is also famously known for his authentic description about his travel experiences. For instance, in his travelogue "Meri Laddakh Yatra," he presents overall regional, historical, and cultural specificity of that region judiciously. He became a Buddhist monk (Bauddha Bhikkhu) and eventually took up Marxist Socialism. Sāṅkṛityāyana was also an Indian nationalist, having been arrested and jailed for three years for creating anti-British writings and speeches. He is referred to as the "Greatest Scholar" (Mahapandit) for his scholarship. He was both a polymath as well as a polyglot. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the Padma Bhushan in 1963. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahul_Sankrityayan Source Accessed Jan 13, 2020]) +
Taehyǒn. [alt. T ’aehyǒn] (C. Daxian/Taixian; J. Daiken/Taigen XS/XS) (d.u.; fl. c. mid-eighth Century). In Korean, "Great/Grand Sagacity"; Silla-dynasty monk during the reign of king Kyǒngdǒk (r. 742-765) and reputed founder of the Yuga (Yogācāra) tradition in Korea; also known as Ch’ǒnggu Samun ("Green Hill [viz., Korea] śramaṇa" ) and often referred to as Yuga cho, "Patriarch of Yogācāra," due to his mastery of that school's complex doctrine. As one of the three most productive scholars of the Silla Buddhist tradition, Taehyǒn is matched in his output only by Wǒnhyo (617-686) and Kyǒnghǔng (fl. c. eighth century). Although renowned for his mastery of Yogācāra doctrine, his fifty-two works, in over one hundred rolls, cover a broad range of Buddhist doctrinal material, including Yogācāra, Madhyamaka, Hwaǒm (C. Huayan zong), and bodhisattva-precept texts. It is presumed that Taehyǒn was a disciple of Wǒnch’cūk's (613-696) student Tojǔng (d.u.), and that his scholastic positions were therefore close to those of the Ximing school, a lineage of Faxiang zong thought that derived from Wǒnch’ūk; their connection remains, however, a matter of debate. Taehyǒn’s ''Sǒng yusik non hakki'' ("Study Notes to the Cheng weishi lun [*''Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi-śāstra'']") (six rolls), the only complete Korean commentary on the ''Cheng weishi lun'' that is still extant, is particularly important because of its copious citation of the works of contemporary Yogācāra exegetes, such as Kuiji (632-682) and Wǒnch’ǔk. Taehyǒn appears to have been influenced by the preeminent Silla scholiast Wǒnhyo, since Taehyǒn accepts in his ''Taesǔng kisin non naeǔi yak tamgi'' ("Brief Investigation of the Inner Meaning of the Dasheng qixin lun") Wǒnhyo's ecumenical (Hwajaeng) perspective on the "Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna." Although Taehyǒn never traveled abroad, his works circulated throughout East Asia and were commented upon by both Chinese and Japanese exegetes. His ''Pǒmmang kyǒng kojǒkki'' ("Record of Old Traces of the Fanwang jing" ), for example, was widely consulted in Japan and more than twenty commentaries on Taehyǒn’s text were composed by Japanese monks, including Eison (1201-1290) and Gyōnen (1240-1321). Unfortunately, only five of Taehyǒn's works are extant; in addition to the above three texts, these are his ''Yaksa ponwǒn kyǒng kojǒkki'' ("Record of Old Traces of the Bhaiṣajyagurusūtra" ) and ''Pǒmmang kyǒng posalgyebon chongyo'' ("Doctrinal Essentials of the Bodhisattva's Code of Morality from the ‘Sūtra of Brahmā's Net'"). (Source: "Taehyǒn." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 886–87. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Tai Situ Rinpoche, the Twelfth Tai Situpa, Pema Donyö Nyinché (Tib. པདྨ་དོན་ཡོད་ཉིན་བྱེད་, Wyl. pad+ma don yod nyin byed) was born in 1954, in Dergé, Eastern Tibet, and recognized as the reincarnation of the previous Tai Situpa, Pema Wangchok Gyalpo, by the Sixteenth Karmapa. At the age of eighteen months he was brought to his monastic seat, Palpung Monastery, and enthroned there by the Karmapa according to tradition.
Due to the changing political situation in Eastern Tibet, he was taken to Tsurphu Monastery in Central Tibet, at the age of five. It was there that he performed his first Red Crown Ceremony, assisted by Ninth Sangyé Nyenpa Rinpoche. He stayed in Tsurphu Monastery for one year and then left Tibet with his attendants for Bhutan. Later, he went to Sikkim, to Rumtek Monastery, where he remained under the care of the Sixteenth Karmapa and received his formal religious training. He also received important transmissions from many great masters, notably Kalu Rinpoche, the Ninth Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Saljay Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, the late Drikung Khenpo Konchok, and the late Khenpo Khedup.
At the age of twenty-two, Situ Rinpoche assumed responsibility for founding his own new monastic seat, Sherab Ling Monastery, close to the Tibetan community of Bir, in Northern India. In 1980 he made his first tour to Europe, and has since traveled widely in North America, Europe and South-East Asia.
In 1992, Tai Situ Rinpoche recognized the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, and enthroned him at Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet. He has become Orgyen Trinlé Dorje's main teacher in the Mahamudra lineage. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Tai_Situ_Rinpoche Source Accessed April 12, 2020]) +
My teaching and research together reflect my deep commitment to enhancing our curiosities about one another and to honing sensitive instruments of learning which help to make the once “strange” familiar. Religion studies is a multidisciplinary field, making our approaches both challenging and exciting. Whether it is teaching the discovery of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in my course Death and Desire, deconstructing popular understandings of such terms as ‘yoga’ and ‘buddha’ in Buddhist traditions, or networking across departments in planning a Japanese folk and jazz fusion concert for religions of Japan, I hope to facilitate learning in which once comfortably closed stances regarding ‘us’ and ‘them’ begin to open. Material artifacts can bring cultures into clearer view. I bring scrolls, amulets, spirit tablets, devotional paintings and music into my discussions so students can directly touch the manifestations of the abstract ideas they study. My course on Pilgrimage: Rites of Way has instilled in me the importance of journeying together as well, and I have taken students to see Himalayan art collections, talk with monks in a Tibetan monastery, and even to Japan to give them a sense of what it means to study religion in its fullest possible context. ([https://www.muhlenberg.edu/facultysearch/facultyresults/ktakahashi/ Source Accessed June 23, 2020]) +
Yoshio Takanashi is Professor of English and American Literature and Culture at Nagano Prefectural College, Japan. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including ''ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance'' and ''The Japanese Journal of American Studies''. He has also published a Japanese translation of Stephen E. Whicher's ''Freedom and Fate: An Inner Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson''. ([https://www.ebooks.com/en-ad/1661507/emerson-and-neo-confucianism/yoshio-takanashi-lawrence-buell/ Source Accessed Nov 23, 2020]) +
Jikido Takasaki, D. Litt. (1926-2013), was a specialist in Indian Buddhism, especially the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism. After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1950, he studied at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute at Poona, making a special study of the Ratnagotravibhaga, for which he received a Ph.D. degree in 1959 from the University of Poona. He began his teaching career in 1957 at Komazawa University, Tokyo, and after a period of teaching at Osaka University he eventually gained a professorship at the University of Tokyo in 1977, from where he retired in 1987. ([https://www.amazon.com/Study-Ratnagotravibhaga-Uttaratantra-Treatise-Tathagatagarbha/dp/8120836421 Source Accessed Oct 24, 2019]) +
Khenpo Könchog Tamphel was born in 1975 in Ladakh. At the age of nine, he became a novice at Lamayuru Monastery, where he received a basic Dharma education for several years. There he also studied and practiced some of the Drikung Kagyü rituals. In 1987 he joined the Drikung Kagyu Institute in Dehra Dun, India for advanced Buddhist studies. There he spent nine years studying the twelve main commentaries of the Masters of Nalanda and the Drikung Kagyu treatises such as the Gong Chig, 'The Heart of the Mahayana Sutras', etc., under the skillful guidance of Khenpo Togdol Rinpoche, Khenpo Könchog Mönlam, Khenpo Könchog Tashi, and Khenchen Könchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche. After completing his studies in 1996, he traveled to Europe and Southeast Asia as a translator for SH Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang. He also taught at Drikung Kagyü Centers in Malaysia, Singapore, North America, Estonia, and Latvia.
In the meantime, he took part in a one-year translation course English-Tibetan in Dharamsala and then spent a year studying works by Maitreya at the Dzongsar Institute. For several years he was the resident Khenpo in the Songtsen Library in Dehra Dun. In addition to his teachings in the library, he has translated some rare Drikung Kagyü texts into English and has published some English-language books. Since 2015 he lives in Vienna and works at the University of Vienna. Incidentally, he continues to translate texts from Tibetan into English. ([https://drikung.de/die-drikung-kagyue-linie/biographien/khenpo-koenchog-tamphel/ Source Accessed Sept 23, 2020]) +
Yoshiro Tamura (1921-1989) was a well-regarded scholar of Japanese Buddhism, known particularly for his study of the Lotus Sūtra and the traditions that developed around it and the person of Nichiren in Japan. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/yoshiro-tamura/ Source Accessed October 17, 2019]) +
Piya Tan, who works on the Sutta Discovery Project . . . was a former Theravada monk for 20 years. Today he is a full time lay Dharma teacher specializing in early Buddhism. He was consultant and regular lecturer to the Buddhist Studies Team (BUDS) that successfully introduced Buddhist Studies in Singapore Secondary Schools in the 1980s. After that, he was invited as a visiting scholar to the University of California at Berkeley, USA. He has written many ground-breaking and educational books on Buddhism (such as ''Total Buddhist Work'') and social surveys (such as ''Buddhist Currents and Charisma in Buddhism'').
As a full-time Dharma teacher, he runs Buddhist, Sutta and Pali classes like the basic Pali course series, the Sutta Study Group (NUSBS), Dharma courses (the Singapore Buddhist Federation), Sutta Discovery classes (Buddhist Fellowship and elsewhere), and Sutta-based (including meditation) courses (Brahm Education Centre), besides his own full-time Pali translation and research project, the Pali House, and doing a comparative study of the Pali Nikayas and the Chinese Agamas. As a Theravada monk, he learned insight meditation from Mahasi Sayadaw himself in the 1980s. As a lay teacher, he learned forest meditation from the Ajahn Brahmavamso. He has run numerous meditation courses and retreats for students and adults (including non-Buddhists) since 1980s. In 1992, he taught meditation at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and also to BP, JPMorgan, the Defence Science Organization, GMO, HP and SIA. He is doing all this for the love of Dharma and of Ratna and their two children. ([http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/piyatan Source Accessed Nov 10 2020]) +
Kenneth Ken'ichi Tanaka (born 1947), also known as Kenshin Tanaka or Ken'ichi Tanaka is a scholar, author, translator and ordained Jōdo Shinshū priest. He is author and editor of many articles and books on modern Buddhism.
Tanaka was born in 1947 in Japan but grew up in Mountain View, California. He received his B.A in Anthropology from Stanford University in 1970. He then received his masters in Philosophy and Indian Studies and his Ph.D. through the Graduate School of Humanities Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1991 Tanaka was appointed the Rev. Yoshitaka Tamai Professor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, an affiliate of the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, California. He was president of the Buddhist Council of Northern California and served as editor of ''Pacific World: The Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies''. In 1995 he became the pastor of the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church.
Tanaka is the author of numerous articles and books on the subject of Buddhism. He was interviewed as part of the PBS report Tensions in American Buddhism in 2001and Talk of the Nation program of National Public Radio. In 1998 he became professor of Buddhist Studies at Musashino University in Tokyo, Japan. He produced and appeared in a television series sponsored by the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai foundation that aired in 2005, with DVDs later distributed. He gave the keynote address at the 750th memorial observance of Shinran in February 2010. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_K._Tanaka Source Accessed July 21, 2021]) +
Buddhist monk, writer of Northern Zhou and Sui. Tanyan’s secular surname was Wang 王. His ancestral home was Sangquan 桑泉 in Puzhou 蒲州 (modern Linjin 臨晉, Shanxi). At the age of sixteen, Tanyan visited a monastery and listened to a monk lecturing on the Niepan jing 涅槃經 (Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra). At that moment he decided to become a Buddhist monk. Tanyan lived in seclusion in the Taihang 太行 Mountains. Yuwen Tai 宇文泰 (505–556) showed great respect to Tanyan while he served in the Western Wei court. During the Jiande period (572–578) of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou, Tanyan went to Chang’an where he was selected to debate with Zhou Hongzheng 周弘正 (496–574), an envoy from the southern Chen court. Tanyan lost the competiton, but Zhou Hongzheng regarded Tanyan as his master. Before Zhou Hongzheng returned to the south, he composed forty poems “Feng yun shan hai shi” 風雲山海詩 (Poems on wind, cloud, mountain and ocean) and sent them to Tanyan, who replied with poems on the same subject.
Tanyan again became a recluse in the Taihang Mountains when Emperor Wu undertook his proscription of Buddhism. He returned to Chang’an after Emperor Xuan 宣 (r. 579–579) lifted the ban on Buddhism. He died at the age of seventy-three.
Tanyan has only one extant poem which is preserved in the Xu Gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳, Shi ji of Feng Weine, and Lu Qinli’s Xian Qin Han Wei Jin Nanbeichao shi. His only extant prose piece, “Lin zhong yi qi” 臨終遺啟 (Last testament), is preserved in Yan Kejun’s Quan shangguo Sandai Qin Han Sanguo Liuchao wen. (Source: Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang. ''Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part Two''. Leiden: Brill, 2014, p. 1076–77. https://brill.com/display/title/19546) +
Francesca Tarocco is Visiting Associate Professor of Buddhist Cultures at NYU Shanghai. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai she was Lecturer in Buddhist Studies and Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow in Chinese History at the University of Manchester, UK.
Tarocco’s research interests are in the cultural history of China, Chinese Buddhism, visual culture and urban Asia. Her books include ''The Cultural Practices of Modern Chinese Buddhism: Attuning the Dharma'' (Routledge, 2007 and 2011) and ''The Re-enchantment of Modernity: Buddhism, Photography and Chinese History'' (2018). Her scholarly articles include “The City and the Pagoda: Buddhist Spatial Tactics in Shanghai” (2015), “Terminology and Religious Identity: The Genealogy of the Term Zongjiao,” (2012) and “On the Market: Consumption and Material Culture in Modern Chinese Buddhism” (Religion, 2011).
Tarocco is the co-founder and director of the international research initiative Shanghai Studies Society and a fellow of the Critical Collaborations network at the Institute for Advanced Study (NYU). She is the recipient of awards from the Leverhulme Trust, the Sutasoma Foundation and the Chinese Ministry of Education, among many others. Tarocco is a regular contributor of the contemporary visual culture journals ''Parkett'', ''Flash Art International'' and ''Frieze''.
===Research Interests===
History of Religion in China<br>
Shanghai Buddhism<br>
Buddhist Visual Culture<br>
Chinese Photography<br>
Chinese Diasporic Art<br>
Global Visual Culture
===Education===
PhD, Chinese History, University of London<br>
MA, Chinese Studies, University of London<br>
MA, Chinese and Buddhist Studies, Venice University<br>
([https://shanghai.nyu.edu/academics/faculty/directory/francesca-tarocco Source Accessed Jan 10, 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]) +
