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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]) +
He was born in Adrong in the Gojo region of Kham and became a monk at young age at Goego Monastery, where he studied prayers and rituals. In 2004, he arrived in South India via Nepal and joined Namdrolling Monastery, where he began his study in grammar and language. In 2005, he joined Ngagyur Nyingma Institute and finished the nine-year program of study in general sciences and sūtra and tantric forms of Buddhism. Since the eighth grade, he served as assistant lecturer and manager of the summer retreat. He finished his education in 2015 and served as lecturer for eight years until 2022 and also as the treasurer for the Institute. He was conferred the title of Khenpo in 2023 by Karma Kuchen Rinpoche during the enthronement of the 8th cohort of Khenpos in Ngagyur Nyingma Institute. Currently, he is teaching at Tshogyal Shedrupling Nunnery. +
Venerable Khenpo Tenzin was born near Gargon Monastery in the Nagchen Tibet, 1990. Coming from a very large family, Khenpo had a very strong inclination to study Dharma. His wish to enter the spiritual life was so strong that he taught himself to play the trumpet and learned many of the Lamas dances himself simply by observing and acting them out.
When Khenpo turned 9 years of age his family honored his wishes and allowed him to enter Gargon Monastery. During this time he attended the general courses of study for new monastics and completed his 5 fold path Mahamudra Ngondro practice.
Khenpo received recognition for his studies and his ability to quickly memorize long dharma text, and he was one of eight promising monks to travel to Sertar Monastery (Jigme Phuntsok’s massive learning center in Sichuan, housing at times over 10,000 monks and nuns) and continue their studies at this prestigious place of learning.
Subsequently Khenpo Tenzin studied at Dzongsar Shedra in Sichuan and when he finally arrived in India he studied at the famous Gelug center, Sera Jey Monastic Universtiy.
In 2015 at the urging of Garchen Rinpoche, arrangements were made to have Khenpo Tenzin come to the U.S. and in early 2016 Khenpo was made the resident teacher at the Garchen Buddhist Institute.
Khenpo Tenzin has also studied and completed certified courses in English as a Second Language & American Culture at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
In front of a large assembly during the recent visit of H.H. Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche for the 4th annual Drikung Kagyu Monlam, Lama Tenzin was recognized and awarded the title Khenpo, by both H.H. Chetsang Rinpoche and by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche. ([https://garchen.net/teachers-2/ Source Accessed Sep 27, 2024]) +
Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin took his monk’s vows at the age of 14. He studied the Thirteen Major Texts with Khenchen Nawang Gyalpo Rinpoché and other khenpos. He also received the entire Lamdré-cycle of empowerments of the Ngor-Sakya lineage from Khensur Khenchen Rinpoché and from Amdo Lama Togden Rinpoché and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoché he received many Nyingma empowerments and teachings. Later, Khenpo Rinpoché joined Drikung Kagyu Institute at Jangchub Ling in Dehra Dun and there met His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoché. The spontaneous devotion he felt for His Holiness resulted in his request to His Holiness to join the monastery there and continue his education.
Having already completed the first four years of his studies at other monasteries, Khenpo Rinpoché quickly completed his education at Jangchub Ling. After three years teaching lower classes in the monastic college, he was enthroned by His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoché as a “Khenpo” in 1998 and spent three more years teaching Buddhist philosophy at the Institute. In between his busy schedule first as student and later as instructor, Khenpo Rinpoché completed the Ngondro, Chakrasamvara and other practices while in retreat. In April 2001, Khenpo Rinpoché arrived at the TMC to assist Khenchen Rinpoché and also to improve his mastery of the English language so that he can be of more benefit to the spread of Dharma. He began teaching at TMC in August of that year and was subsequently appointed as co spiritual director of TMC by Khenchen Rinpoché. Khenpo Rinpoché is known and loved for his engaging teaching style as well as his complete lack of pretensions. ([http://drikungtmc.com/about/khenpo-tsultrim-tenzin/ Source Accessed Nov 18, 2020]) +
Lea Terhune is a professional writer and journalist based in India, where she has lived since 1982. Currently editor of SPAN (a magazine of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi), she has also worked as a correspondent and producer for CNN International, ABC News Radio, and Voice of America. Her work has appeared in The Far-Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek, International Herald Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Yoga Journal, and ABCNews.com. She lives in New Delhi. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/lea-terhune/ Wisdom Experience]) +
Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) is an American Buddhist monk of the Kammatthana (Thai Forest) Tradition. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1971 with a degree in European Intellectual History, he traveled to Thailand, where he studied meditation under Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, himself a student of the late Ajaan Lee. He ordained in 1976 and lived at Wat Dhammasathit, where he remained following his teacher's death in 1986. In 1991 he traveled to the hills of San Diego County, USA, where he helped Ajaan Suwat Suvaco establish Metta Forest Monastery (Wat Mettavanaram). He was made abbot of the Monastery in 1993. ([https://www.dhammatalks.org/index.html Source Accessed Aug 7, 2020]) +
Lama Tharchin Rinpoche was a Dzogchen (Great Perfection) master of Vajrayana Buddhism. He was the tenth lineage holder of the Repkong Ngakpas. This is a family lineage of yogis, or householders, and was the largest community of non-monastic practitioners in Tibet. Rinpoche was trained in His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche's monastery, engaged in five years of solitary retreat and then completed the three year retreat with three others under Dudjom Rinpoche.
In addition to Dudjom Rinpoche, his main teachers were Chatral Rinpoche, Lama Sherab Dorje Rinpoche, and Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche. Rinpoche left Tibet by foot with his family in 1960. He lived in Orissa, India and Kathmandu, Nepal before coming to America in 1984 for health reasons. While in America, Dudjom Rinpoche asked Lama Tharchin Rinpoche to turn the third wheel of Dharma, the teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism.
As a householder with two sons, Rinpoche had a wonderfully kind and wise approach to working with Western students. His gentleness and jewel-like qualities embodied a living expression of the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhadharma. He was so rare and precious, not only because of his great realization, but also for his vast knowledge of Tibetan ritual arts, music, and dance, as well as the philosophical basis of the Vajrayana teachings. ([http://www.vajrayana.org/teachers/#hide1 Source Accessed Oct 14, 2015]) +
Now 60 years old, Venerable Dhammadipa (lay name Thomas Peter Gutman) was born in Czechoslovakia in 1949. He studied Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Prague University, graduating in 1969, and then studied Russian literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received a degree in 1973.<br> In the late seventies Venerable began his Buddhist studies in Berlin, where he had immigrated as a refugee after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1977 he received a master's degree in Chinese literature and philosophy at the University of Paris. In 1979, he enrolled at Nalanda University in India (where he also taught French and German) to study Sanskrit and Buddhist Philosophy. After receiving a degree at Nalanda in 1984, he returned to serve as the Associate Librarian at Berlin University.<br> In 1986, Venerable Dhammadipa went to Japan and studied under Zen Master Harada Serrei Roshi of the S t school (Caodong in Chinese) practice. He was given a Dharma name as Xing-Kong (meaning Nature of Emptiness).<br> In 1987, with the encouragement of Venerable Athurugiriye Nyanavimala Mahathera, Venerable Wijayasoma Mahathera, and Venerable Dikwelle Mahinda, he ordained as a monk in Meetirigala and was given a Dharma name as Dhammadipa (island of Buddhism or Dharma). He received the full Theravada Bhiksu ordination in Sri Lanka where he practiced meditation under the guidance of his preceptor, Venerable Nanarama Mahathera. In 1989, he received the Three Fold ordination as a Mahayana Monk in Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles and began Dharma teaching in US, Germany and Taiwan. ([http://dhammadipa.info/Bio.htm Source Accessed Aug 13, 2020]) +
Short Biography of the Ninth Khenchen Thrangu Tulku, Karma Lodrö Lungrik Maway Senge:
The Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche was born in Kham, Tibet, in 1933. At the age of five, he was formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku. He entered Thrangu monastery, where, from the ages of seven to sixteen, he studied reading, writing, grammar, poetry, and astrology, memorized ritual texts, and completed two preliminary retreats. At sixteen, under the direction of Khenpo Lodro Rabsel, he began the study of the three vehicles of Buddhism while in retreat. At twenty-three he received full ordination from the Karmapa.
Because of the Chinese military takeover of Tibet, Thrangu Rinpoche, then twenty-seven, was forced to flee to India in 1959. He was called to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, where the Karmapa has his seat in exile. Because of his great scholarship and unending diligence, he was given the task of preserving the teachings of the Kagyu lineage; the lineage of Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa, so that one thousand years of profound Buddhist teachings would not be lost.
He continued his studies in exile, and at the age of thirty-five he took the geshe examination before 1500 monks at Buxador monastic refugee camp in Bengal and was awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa. Upon his return to Rumtek, he was awarded the highest Khenchen degree. Because many of the Buddhist texts in Tibet were destroyed, Thrangu Rinpoche helped in beginning the recovery of these texts from Tibetan monasteries outside of Tibet. He was named Abbot of Rumtek monastery and the Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies at Rumtek. Thrangu Rinpoche, along with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, was one of the principal teachers at the Institute, training all the younger tulkus of the lineage, including The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who was in the first class. He was also the personal tutor of the four principal Karma Kagyu tulkus: Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Thrangu Rinpoche established the fundamental curriculum of the Karma Kagyu lineage taught at Rumtek. In addition, he taught with Khenpo Karthar, who had been a teacher at Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery in Tibet before 1959, and who is now head of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York, the seat of His Holiness Karmapa in North America.
After twenty years at Rumtek, in 1976 Thrangu Rinpoche founded the small monastery of Thrangu Tashi Choling in Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal. Since then, he has founded a retreat center and college at Namo Buddha, east of the Kathmandu Valley, and has established a school in Boudhanath for the general education of Tibetan lay children and young monks in Western subjects as well as in Buddhist studies. In Kathmandu, he built Tara Abbey, which offers a full dharma education for Tibetan nuns, training them to become khenpos or teachers. He has also established a free medical clinic in an impoverished area of Nepal.
Thrangu Rinpoche recently completed a large, beautiful monastery in Sarnath, India, overlooking the Deer Park where the Buddha gave his first teaching on the Four Noble Truths. This monastery is named Vajra Vidya after the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, and it is now the seat for the annual Kagyu conference led by His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa. In January of this year, His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to Sarnath to perform a ceremony in the Deer Park with the Karmapa, Thrangu Rinpoche, and other high lamas.
Around 1976, Thrangu Rinpoche began giving authentic Buddhist teachings in the West. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 1984 he spent several months in Tibet where he ordained over one hundred monks and nuns and visited several monasteries. In the United States, Thrangu Rinpoche has centers in Maine and California, and is currently building the Vajra Vidya Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. Highly qualified monks and nuns from Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery will give retreatants instruction in various intensive practices. He often visits and gives teachings in centers in New York, Connecticut, and Seattle, Washington. In Canada, he gives teachings in Vancouver and has a center in Edmonton. He is the Abbot of Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia. He conducts yearly Namo Buddha seminars in the United States, Canada, and Europe, which are also part of a meditation retreat.
Rinpoche has now taught in over twenty-five countries and has seventeen centers in twelve countries. He is especially known for making complex teachings accessible to Western students. Thrangu Rinpoche is a recognized master of Mahamudra meditation.
Because of his vast knowledge of the Dharma and his skill as a teacher, he was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa.
(Source: [http://www.rinpoche.com/bio1.htm Rinpoche.com, Official Site of the 9th Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche])
For ''The Life of Thrangu Rinpoche with Pictures'' [http://www.rinpoche.com/life_of_TR_11_11_2015.pdf Click here]
Robert Thurman is a recognized worldwide authority on mind science and spirituality, Asian history, philosophy, Tibetan Buddhism, and H. H. the Dalai Lama, Robert Thurman is an advocate of the relevance of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist sciences, arts, and practices in our daily lives. He is a leading voice for the value of reason, wisdom, peace and compassion. He was named one of Time magazine's 25 most influential Americans and has been profiled by The New York Times and People Magazine. He recently has been awarded the Padma Shri Award, the President of India’s fourth highest civilian honor for achievement in enriching Indian education and literature. An author and Jey Tsong Khapa Professor Emeritus of Indo-Tibetan Buddhology at Columbia University, Thurman lectures internationally at universities, companies, conferences and think-tanks. His many books include ''Inner Revolution'', a ground-breaking history of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism and a call for an enlightened ethics and politics; ''The Central Philosophy of Tibet'', on Buddhist science; ''Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet'', on Buddhist art; ''Essential Tibetan Buddhism'', an anthology of key works of Tibetan authors; ''Infinite Life'', a yogic commentary on Shantideva’s Bodhisattva Career; and ''The Tibetan Book of the Dead'', a study of the Tibetan science and art of dying and navigating the rebirth process; ''Why the Dalai Lama Matters'', a win-win plan to solve China’s Tibet catastrophe; ''Man of Peace'', a 300 page fully-illustrated graphic novel of the XIV Dalai Lama’s life and the true story of the invasion of Tibet; ''The Brilliantly Illuminating Lamp'', a study and translation of Tsong Khapa’s masterwork on the most advanced yogas for mastering the process of conscious evolution; and his latest, forthcoming, ''The Esoteric Community Tantra'' with its ''Illuminating Lamp Commentary'', an introduction with translations to the unexcelled yoga tantras; and ''Buddha Bliss'', a study of the eightfold path as an evolutionary core curriculum. At the request of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Thurman co-founded Tibet House US in 1987 with Tenzin Namgyal Tethong and Philip Glass, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and renaissance of Tibetan civilization. It maintains a lively museum and cultural center in New York city, affiliates with Tibet Houses in New Delhi and other national capitals around the world. In 2002 he founded Menla Retreat & Dewa Healing Spa in the Catskill Mountains to advance the practical wisdom and healing arts of Tibetan medicine traditions. Working with the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, an international network of universities, and Indian Buddhist partners, he is currently engaged in establishing the Dharmachakra Buddhist Classics Translation Center in Andhra Pradesh, to complete the multi-generational task of translating from the Tibetan Tengyur the 5000+ originally Sanskrit works from India’s long lost "Library of Alexandria," the Ratnodadhi Library of Nālandā University, into English and other modern Indian and world languages, creating a necessary database for the 21st century collaboration of the Indian and Tibetan Inner Sciences (''adhyātmavidyā'') with modern, "outer," materialist sciences. Inspired by H. H. the Dalai Lama, Thurman's public presentations take a stand on Buddhism's open ground and thence transport audiences into an expanded vision of the world—the sweep of history, the subtleties of the inner science of the psyche, or the depths of the life of the heart. They help clear away shrouds of confusion and tend to evoke the cheerfulness of an enriched present, with the realistic hope for a peaceful future. (Source: [https://menla.org/teachers/robert-a-f-thurman/ Menla.org])
Tilopa. (T. Ti lo pa) (988–1069). An Indian tantric adept counted among the eighty-four mahāsiddhas and venerated in Tibet as an important source of tantric instruction and a founder of the Bka' brgyud sect. Little historical information exists regarding Tilopa's life. According to his traditional biographies, Tilopa was born a brāhmaṇa in northeast India. As a young man he took the vows of a Buddhist monk, but later was compelled by the prophecies of a ḍākinī messenger to study with a host of tantric masters. He lived as a wandering yogin, practicing tantra in secret while outwardly leading a life of transgressive behavior. For many years Tilopa acted as the servant for the prostitute Barima (in truth a wisdom ḍākinī in disguise) by night while grinding sesame seeds for oil by day. The name Tilopa, literally "Sesame Man," derives from the Sanskrit word for sesamum. Finally, Tilopa is said to have received instructions in the form of a direct transmission from the primordial buddha Vajradhara. Tilopa instructed numerous disciples, including the renowned Bengali master Nāropa, who is said to have abandoned his prestigious monastic position to become Tilopa's disciple, undergoing many difficult trials before receiving his teachings. Those teachings were later received by Marpa Chos kyi blo gros, who brought Tilopa's teachings to Tibet. As with many Indian siddhas, Tilopa's main instructions are found in the form of dohā, or songs of realization. Many of his songs, together with several tantric commentaries and liturgical texts, are included in the Tibetan canon. Among the teachings attributed to him are the bka’ ’babs bzhi ("four transmissions"), the lus med mkha’ ’gro snyan rgyud chos skor dgu ("nine aural lineage cycles of the formless ḍākinīs"), and the Mahāmudropadeśa. (Source: "Tilopa." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 914. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
