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From Buddha-Nature
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Professor Michael Zimmermann studied Classical Indology, Tibetology and Japanology at the University of Hamburg and earned his doctorate with a thesis on the origin of the teaching of buddha-nature in India. He spent several years at universities in Kyoto and Tokyo and later worked for the German Research Foundation in Hamburg and Kathmandu. After four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Stanford, in 2007 he became professor for Indian Buddhism at the Asien-Afrika-Institut of the University of Hamburg, one of Europe’s largest research institutions dealing with Asian languages and cultures.
His research focus is Indian Mahayana Buddhism in all its forms of expression, but in particular its textual history based on the canonical traditions in India, Tibet and China. Another of his interests are the developments regarding contemporary Buddhism in East and West. Zimmermann co-directs the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at Hamburg University, an institutional hub promoting teaching, research, dialogue, academic exchange and public outreach. ([https://slc-events.sydney.edu.au/calendar/ubef-lecture-finding-happiness-in-samsara/ Source Accessed March 5, 2020]) +
Faculty
Mircea Eliade Professor of Chinese Religion, Philosophy, and Comparative Thought; also in the College
PhD (University of Michigan)
Brook A. Ziporyn is a scholar of ancient and medieval Chinese religion and philosophy. Professor Ziporyn received his BA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago, and his PhD from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the Divinity School faculty, he has taught Chinese philosophy and religion at the University of Michigan (Department of East Asian Literature and Cultures), Northwestern University (Department of Religion and Department of Philosophy), Harvard University (Department of East Asian Literature and Civilization) and the National University of Singapore (Department of Philosophy).
Ziporyn is the author of ''Evil And/Or/As the Good: Omnicentric Holism, Intersubjectivity and Value Paradox in Tiantai Buddhist Thought'' (Harvard, 2000), ''The Penumbra Unbound: The Neo-Taoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang'' (SUNY Press, 2003), ''Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments With Tiantai Buddhism'' (Open Court, 2004); ''Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries'' (Hackett, 2009); ''Ironies of Oneness and Difference: Coherence in Early Chinese Thought''; ''Prolegomena to the Study of Li'' (SUNY Press, 2012); and ''Beyond Oneness and Difference: Li and Coherence in Chinese Buddhist Thought and its Antecedents'' (SUNY Press, 2013). His seventh book, ''Emptiness and Omnipresence: The Lotus Sutra and Tiantai Buddhism'', was published by Indiana University Press in 2016. He is currently working on a cross-cultural inquiry into the themes of death, time and perception, tentatively entitled ''Against Being Here Now'', as well as a book-length exposition of atheism as a form of religious and mystical experience in the intellectual histories of Europe, India and China. ''Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings, translated and with introduction and notes by Brook Ziporyn'' will be published in 2020. ([http://divinity.uchicago.edu/directory/brook-ziporyn Source Accessed Sep 17, 2021])
Geshe Tenzin Zopa holds a doctorate in Buddhist Philosophy from Sera Jey Monastic University in South India and is a master in Tibetan Buddhist rituals. He is currently the Resident Teacher at Losang Dragpa Buddhist Society, Malaysia and was for a long time the Director of the Tsum Valley Project (in the Himalayan region), which provides Buddhist study and practice facilities and accommodation for the community in the Valley. Geshe Tenzin
Zopa is the principal and focal point of the award winning film titled "Unmistaken Child" which chronicles the search for the reincarnation of his great master. Geshe Tenzin Zopa has a contemporary style of teaching which he combines with the ancient wisdom derived from his years of philosophical studies and debate, thereby benefitting everyone who has met or heard him teach. Geshe Tenzin Zopa is the face of a dynamic and socially engaged Buddhism in the 21st century. ([http://www.tenzinzopa.com/Ebooks/Cttb_Book_Final_Complete.pdf Source Accessed Jan 14, 2021]) +
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and meditator who for over 30 years has overseen the spiritual activities of the extensive worldwide network of centers, projects and services that form the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) which he founded with Lama Thubten Yeshe. (Source [https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/ FPMT.org]) +
Leonard Zwilling was born in New York City in 1945. He studied Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan language with Geshe Wangyal at Labsum Shedrub Ling in Freewood Acres, New Jersey (1967-1969) and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Indian Studies in 1970, going on to receive a masters degree in Hindu Studies (1972), and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies (1976), also at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His doctoral dissertation, on the theory of apoha in Buddhist logic, was done under the direction of Prof. Geshe Lhundub Sopa. He did pre-doctoral research in Sri Lanka (1973-74) and in Nepal (1975-76), under Ford Foundation and Fulbright-Hayes scholarships respectively.
From 1977-83 Dr. Zwilling taught Asian Religions, Sanskrit and Tibetan at the University of Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee), Gustavus Adolphus College, Western Illinois University, and Beloit College. He received a masters in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985, and from 1986-2009 was General Editor (and Bibliographer until 2004) at the Dictionary of American Regional English in the Department of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is presently Senior Scientist Emeritus.
Dr. Zwilling has published research in a number of fields, including pioneering work on the history of sexuality in ancient India. Since 2005 his research has centered on Ippolito Desideri and the Catholic missions to Tibet, and he is currently working with Michael Sweet on a new and complete English translation of Desideri’s Notizie Istoriche del Tibet. ([http://win.ippolito-desideri.net/doc/biografie/Zwilling-en.pdf Source Accessed May 12, 2020]) +
Śikṣānanda. (C. Shichanantuo; J. Jisshananda; K. Silch'anant'a 實叉難陀) (652-710). A monk from Khotan (C. Yutian), who was an important translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese during the Tang dynasty. The Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690-705) invited Śikṣānanda to the Chinese Capital of Luoyang, asking him to bring from Khotan its Sanskrit recension of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'' (alt. ''Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra''; C. ''Dafangguang Fo huayan jing''), which was longer and more comprehensive than the sixty-roll version then in use in China, which had previously been translated by the Indian monk Buddhabhadra (359-429). Śikṣānanda arrived in Luoyang in 695 and supervised a translation team in rendering this Khotanese recension into Chinese; his team included Bodhiruci (693-727), Yijing (635-713), and Wǒnch'ǔk (613-696). Śikṣānanda and his team finished their translation in 699, after four years of work, in a total of eighty rolls. The translation that Śikṣānanda supervised is typically called within the tradition the "new" (xin) translation, in contrast to Buddhabhadra's "old" translation. (Li Tongxuan's commentary to Śikṣānanda's new rendering of the text is, for example, called the ''Xin Huayan jing lun''; see ''Huayan jing helun''.) Śikṣānanda continued with his translation projects until 705, when he returned to Khotan to care for his aged mother. Some thirteen other translations are attributed to him, including the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'' and several shorter dhāraṇī sūtras, as well as a version of the ''Dasheng qixin lun'' ("Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna"). Emperor Zhongzong (r. 705-710) invited Śikṣānanda to return once again to China in 708, but he died of illness in 710 at the age of fifty-nine without beginning any new translation work. It is reported that after his cremation, his tongue remained untouched by flames—an indication of his remarkable erudition. (Source: "Śikṣānanda." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 820. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Śraddhākaravarman was a Kashmiri paṇḍita who was a student of Ratnakaraśānti (late 10th century – early 11th century) and teacher of Rinchen Zangpo. According to Jean Naudou, Śraddhākaravarman, with Padmākaravarman, was "one of the most productive Indian translators of his generation." Furthermore, describing his collaborations with Rinchen Zangpo, he writes, "The Kaśmīri origin of one of the two most fruitful collaborators of the ''Lo-chen'' [i.e. Rinchen Zangpo] is specified on several occasions: Śraddhākaravarman, introduced to the system of Buddhajñāna by Śāntipāda, taught it to Rin-chen bzaṅ-po at the same time as Padmākaravarman. He had also received from Vāgīśvara instructions about the propitiation of Tārā according to the method of Ravigupta, and he transmitted it to Tathāgatarakṣita. He is the author of a certain number of very short texts, of which the longest is ''Yogānattaratantrārthāvatārasaṃgraha'' (''Rg''. LXXII, 9) (24 p.)." (Jean Naudou, ''Buddhists of Kaśmīr'' [Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1980], 191–92). The most important of Śraddhākaravarman's translations, according to Naudou, were carried out in cooperation with Rinchen Zangpo. +
Śākyasiṁha was an Indian paṇdita primarily known for the Tibetan translation of the ''Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā'' that he completed with Kawa Paltsek (ska ba dpal brtsegs). According to the introduction to ''The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra)'' (American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University's Center for Buddhist Studies, and Tibet House US, 2004), both the verses in the ''Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā'' (Peking 5521) and the work which contains the verses and commentary together under the title ''Sūtrālaṁkāra-bhāṣya'' (Peking 5527) were prepared by Śākyasiṁha and Kawa Paltsek during the royal translation project at Samye monastery in the 8th-9th century. (xxxiv) +
Bu ston’s ''History'' (Obermiller, ''The History of Buddhism'', 217, 218; and Szerb, ''Bu Ston's History'', 94, 95) lists Śāntibhadra as an Indian teacher of Gö Khukpa Lhatsé and Marpa Lotsawa. See also Cyrus Stearns, ''Luminous Lives: The Story of the Early Masters of the Lam ’bras Tradition in Tibet'' (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001), 85, 206-207, 210-211, where his aliases are given as Badantabarma, Bharohamtung, Chiterwa, Hangdu Karpo, Mahākarunika, Chiterwa, and Tsaham Pandita Zhiwa Zangpo. Śāntibhadra was a disciple of Nāropa and the Tibetan translator ’Brog mi studied under him in Nepal. ([http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#!jiats=/05/apple/b5/ Source Accessed Aug 20, 2020. See note 47]) +
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The 14th Shamarpa, Mipham Chokyi Lodro, passed away aged 61 on 11th June 2014.<br>
'''February 15, 2020: Karmapas Work Together to Identify Reincarnated Lama: <br>[https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/karmapas-work-together/ Tricycle Magazine Reports]'''
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Mipham Chökyi Lodrö was born in Derge, Tibet. At the age of four he was recognized by the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpei Dorje as the 14th Shamarpa reincarnation. Upon the Karmapa's request the Tibetan Government withdrew its one hundred and fifty nine year old ban of the Shamarpas.
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Shamar Rimpoche remained with the 16th Karmapa until his death in 1981. He received the entire cycle of Kagyu teachings from the 16th Karmapa. Since the 16th Karmapa’s death in 1981, Shamar Rimpoche has devoted his efforts to the many projects initiated by the late 16th Karmapa. He has completed the reprinting of the “Tengyur” a body of two hundred and fourteen volumes in which prominent Indian and Tibetan masters elucidate the teachings given by the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. Shamar Rimpoche also supports and offers guidance to Rumtek Monastery, the seat of H. H. the sixteenth Karmapa. He co-founded and brought into being the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute, New Delhi, India. The Institute currently offers courses in Buddhist studies for both monastic and lay students.<br>
([https://shamarpa.org/history/mipham-chokyi-lodro/ Source Accessed Dec 19, 2019])
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The Shamarpa and the Karmapa are spiritually inseparable, and are fellow holders of the 900 year old Karma Kagyu lineage, a tradition that precedes the Dalai Lama’s lineage by over 200 years. ([https://www.karmapa.org/karmapa-thaye-dorje-find-reincarnation-of-shamarpa/ Source Accessed May 2, 2020]) +
