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From Buddha-Nature
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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]) +
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Aaron K. Koseki received his PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977 under the supervision of Minoru Kiyota. His dissertation is entitled "Chi-tsang's Ta-ch'eng-hsüan-lun: The Two Truths and the Buddha-Nature." Some of his articles include: "Prajñāpāramitā and the Buddhahood of the Non-Sentient World: The San-Lun Assimilation of Buddha-Nature and Middle Path Doctrine," ''Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies'' 3/1 (1980), "Later Mādhyamika in China: Some Current Perspectives on the History of Chinese Prajñāpāramitā Thought," ''Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies'' 5/2 (1982), "Chi-tsang's ''Sheng-man pao-k'u'': The True Dharma Doctrine and the Bodhisattva Ideal," ''Philosophy East and West'' 34, no. 1, (1984), "The concept of practice in San Lun thought: Chi-tsang and the 'concurrent insight' of the Two Truths," ''Philosophy East and West'' 31, no. 4, (1981), and a review of Minoru Kiyota's book ''Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice'', ''Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies'' 1/2 (1979). +
Masao Abe is a leading Buddhist thinker who has spent many years furthering the work begun by D. T. Suzuki. He received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University after postgraduate studies at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. Abe has been a visiting professor at several major universities in the United States and has traveled widely in Europe and Asia as well. Author of ''Zen and Western Thought'', he has also contributed to the Macmillan Library of Philosophy and Religion series. ([https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/masao-abe.html Source Accessed Nov 22, 2019]) +
Adam S. Pearcey is the founder-director of Lotsāwa House, a virtual library of translations from Tibetan. His publications include (as co-translator) Mind in Comfort and Ease by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Wisdom Publications, 2007); Ga Rabjampa’s ''To Dispel the Misery of the World'' (Wisdom Publications, 2012), which he translated at the suggestion of the late Khenchen Appey Rinpoche; and ''Beyond the Ordinary Mind: Dzogchen Advice from Rimé Masters'' (Snow Lion, 2018). A partial list of the many translations he has published online can be found [https://adamspearcey.com/translations/ here].
Adam first encountered Tibetan Buddhism in 1994 when he taught English at two monasteries near Darjeeling in India. He went on to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London; the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, where he also taught Tibetan and served as an interpreter; the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala; Oxford University, where he earned a Master’s degree in Oriental Studies; and again at SOAS, where he completed his PhD with a thesis entitled ''A Greater Perfection? Scholasticism, Comparativism and Issues of Sectarian Identity in Early 20th Century Writings on rDzogs-chen''.
In 2018 he was a senior teaching fellow at SOAS, lecturing on Buddhist philosophy and critical approaches to Buddhist Studies. ([https://adamspearcey.com/ Source Accessed Feb 10, 2020]) +
Marc Agate holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech, Atlanta (GA) and graduated from the École des Mines de Nantes in Computer Sciences. After working for a web services company for five years in Atlanta, he returned to France and joined the Dashang Rimay Community where he learned Tibetan and started to develop several multilingual lexicographic projects.
With his wife, he published a practical guide on Tibetan Kunye Massage. He also translated several sutras from Tibetan to French, as well as the ''Uttaratantra'' and its commentary by Asanga, and books 2, 3 and 4 of the ''Treasury of Knowledge'' by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye. Marc has joined BDRC to offer his expertise, and help preserve and spread Buddhist teachings around the world. ([https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/community/people Source Accessed Oct 4, 2019]) +
Zahiruddln Ahmad was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia. He is the author of several books on Tibetan history, including ''China and Tibet, 1708-1959'' (Oxford University Press, 1960); ''Tibet and Ladakh: A History'' (Chatto & Windus, 1963); ''Sino-Tibetan Relations in the 17th Century'' (Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1970); ''Life of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Vol. IV, Part I'' (International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 1999); ''An introduction to Buddhist Philosophy in India and Tibet'' (International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 2007); ''The Song of the Queen of Spring'' (International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 2008); and ''The Historical Status of China in Tibet'' (Aditya Prakashan, 2012). He is also the author of numerous articles on Tibetan history and related subjects. +
Prof. Akira Saito is a faculty member at the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies in Tokyo Japan. He holds an M.A. from the University of Tokyo (1979) and received his Ph.D. from Australian National University (1985). His primary area of specialization is the History of Indian Buddhist Philosophy and Madhyamaka Studies. His teaching activities at ICPBC include: Reading Buddhist Studies in Foreign Languages; Inner Asian Buddhist Philology; Ph.D. Tutorials; and Special topics in Buddhist Studies. ([http://www.icabs.ac.jp/en/research/faculty/saito Adapted from Source Aug 3, 2020]) +
Lama Tsultrim Allione is founder and resident lama of Tara Mandala. She is author of ''Women of Wisdom'', ''Feeding Your Demons'', and ''Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine''. Born in New England to an academic/publishing family, she traveled to India in her late teens and was ordained as a Buddhist nun at the age of 22 by H.H. the 16th Karmapa. She was the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun in the Karma Kagyu lineage. After living in the Himalayan region for several years she returned her vows and became the mother of three, while continuing to study and practice Buddhism, particularly focusing on the lineage of Machig Labdron and Dzogchen teachings. In 1993, Lama Tsultrim founded Tara Mandala, a 700-acre center in southwest Colorado where an extraordinary three-story temple in the form of a mandala, dedicated to the sacred feminine in Buddhism has been constructed and consecrated. In 2007 while traveling in Tibet she was recognized as an emanation of Machig Labdron at the historic seat of Machig Zangri Khangmar by the resident lama. This recognition was confirmed by several other lamas, and in 2012 she was given the Machig Labdron empowerment by HH the 17th Karmapa. ([https://taramandala.secure.retreat.guru/teacher/tsultrim-allione/ Source Accessed July 15, 2020]) +
Orna Almogi studied Tibetology (major) and Religious Studies and Psychology (minors) at the University of Hamburg (MA 1998). She received her PhD in Tibetology from the same University in 2006 (doctoral thesis: “Rong-zom-pa’s Discourses on Traditional Buddhology: A Study on the Development of the Concept of Buddhahood with Special Reference to the Controversy Surrounding the Existence of Gnosis (ye shes: jñāna) at the Stage of a Buddha”). From 1999 until 2004 she had been working for the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) and the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP), where she had been responsible for the Tibetan materials. From 2008 to 2011 she has been a member of the Researcher Group “Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa” with the subproject “The Manuscript Collections of the Ancient Tantras (rNying ma rgyud ’bum): An Examination of Variance.” From 2011 to 2015 she has been working at the “Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures” as the leader of the subproject “Doxographical Organisational Schemes in Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Collection of the Ancient Tantras.”<br> Since 2015 she has been involved in the “Academic Research Program Initiative” (ARPI). Since 2016 she is leading the project “A Canon in the Making: The History of the Formation, Production, and Transmission of the ''bsTan 'gyur'', the Corpus of Treatises in Tibetan Translation.” Her research interests extend to a number of areas connected with the Tibetan religio-philosophical traditions and Tibetan Buddhist literature, particularly that of the rNying-ma school. The primary focus of her research the past years has been the concept of Buddhahood in traditional Buddhist sources, early subclassifications of Madhyamaka, the ''rNying ma rgyud ’bum'', and the ''bsTan ʼgyur''. Another interest of her is the culture of the book in Tibet in all its variety, specifically in connection with the compilation and transmission of Buddhist literary collections, both in manuscripts and xylographs forms. ([https://www.kc-tbts.uni-hamburg.de/en/people/almogi.html Source Accessed Jul 14, 2020])
Buddhist émigré ācarya who played a major role in the introduction and translation of seminal Buddhist texts belonging to the esoteric tradition or mijiao. His birthplace is uncertain, but many sources allude to his ties to Central Asia. Accompanying his teacher Vajrabodhi, Amoghavajra arrived in the Chinese capital of Chang'an in 720–1 and spent most of his career in that cosmopolitan city. In 741, following the death of his mentor, Amoghavajra made an excursion to India and Sri Lanka with the permission of the Tang-dynasty emperor and returned in 746 with new Buddhist texts, many of them esoteric scriptures. Amoghavajra's influence on the Tang court reached its peak when he was summoned by the emperor to construct an abhiṣeka, or consecration, altar on his behalf. Amoghavajra's activities in Chang'an were interrupted by the An Lushan rebellion (655–763), but after the rebellion was quelled, he returned to his work at the capital and established an inner chapel for homa rituals and abhiṣeka in the imperial palace. He was later honored by the emperor with the purple robe, the highest honor for a Buddhist monk and the rank of third degree. Along with Xuanzang, Amoghavajra was one of the most prolific translators and writers in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Among the many texts he translated into Chinese, especially important are the ''Sarvatathāgatasaṃgraha'' and the ''Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna''. (Source: "Amoghavajra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 36. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Anders holds a Bachelors degree from Naropa University and joined the Centre for Buddhist Studies in 2006. At CBS Anders graduated with a BA in Buddhist Studies in 2010 and afterwards joined the MA program.
His thesis supervisor was Dr. Karin Meyers and the external reader was Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes from the University of Vienna, Austria.
Anders also secured a Tsadra foundation scholarship for his MA studies and recently took ordination. ([http://ryi-student-blog.blogspot.com/2012/12/congratulations-anders-bjonback.html Source Accessed Aug 12, 2020]) +
Ari Goldfield is a Buddhist teacher. He had the unique experience of being continuously in the training and service of his own teacher, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, for eleven years. From 1998-2009, Ari served as Khenpo Rinpoche’s translator and secretary, accompanying Rinpoche on seven round-the-world teaching tours. Ari received extensive instruction from Rinpoche in Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and teaching methods, and meditated under Rinpoche’s guidance in numerous retreats. In 2006, Khenpo Rinpoche sent Ari on his own tour to teach philosophy, meditation, and yogic exercise in Europe, North America, and Asia. In 2007, Ari moved with Rinpoche to Seattle, where he served and helped care for him until Rinpoche moved back to Nepal in 2009. Ari now teaches in Rinpoche’s Karma Kagyu lineage, with the blessings of the head of the lineage, H.H. the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and of Khenpo Rinpoche.
Ari is also a published translator and author of books, articles, and numerous songs of realization and texts on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. These include Khenpo Rinpoche’s books ''Stars of Wisdom'', ''The Sun of Wisdom'', and Rinpoche’s ''Song of the Eight Flashing Lances'' teaching, which appeared in ''The Best Buddhist Writing'' 2007. He is a contributing author of ''Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connections Between Yoga and Buddhism''.
Ari studied Buddhist texts in Tibetan and Sanskrit at Buddhist monasteries in Nepal and India, and at the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in India. In addition to translating for Khenpo Rinpoche, he has also served as translator for H.H. Karmapa, Tenga Rinpoche, and many other Tibetan teachers. From 2007–11, Ari served as president of the Marpa Foundation, a nonprofit organization initiated by Khenpo Rinpoche that supports Buddhist translation, nunneries in Bhutan and Nepal, and other Buddhist activities. Ari holds a BA from Harvard College and a JD from Harvard Law School, both with honors. ([https://insightla.org/teacher/ari-goldfield-2/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020])
Arne Schelling studied Western and Chinese medicine in Germany and China and now works as a physician in Berlin. From 1995 to 2001 he worked to develop the Kagyu Centers Theksum Tashi Chöling in Hamburg and Kamalashila-Institute in Langenfeld, Germany. He frequently translates (from English to German) for masters of all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, in Germany and Switzerland. In 2001 Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche appointed Arne as president of Siddhartha’s Intent Europe, and he later became a country representative for Khyentse Foundation in Germany. Since 2002 he has directed the film project "Heart Advice," which aims to preserve the essence of the teachings of Tibetan masters. He also gives instruction at several Buddhist centers in Germany. +
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold is the abbot and resident teacher of Zen Mountain Monastery and abbot of the Zen Center of New York City. He received dharma transmission from John Daido Loori Roshi in 1997. ([https://www.lionsroar.com/mind-is-buddha/ Source Accessed Nov 18, 2019]) +
Dan Arnold is a scholar of Indian Buddhist philosophy, which he engages in a constructive and comparative way. Considering Indian Buddhist philosophy as integral to the broader tradition of Indian philosophy, he has particularly focused on topics at issue among Buddhist schools of thought (chiefly, those centering on the works of Nāgārjuna and of Dharmakīrti), often considering these in conversation with critics from the orthodox Brahmanical school of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā. His first book – ''Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion'' (Columbia University Press, 2005) – won an American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion. His second book – ''Brains, Buddhas, and Believing: The Problem of Intentionality in Classical Buddhist and Cognitive-Scientific Philosophy of Mind'' (Columbia University Press, 2012) – centers on the contemporary philosophical category of intentionality, taken as useful in thinking through central issues in classical Buddhist epistemology and philosophy of mind. This book received the Toshihide Numata Book Prize in Buddhism, awarded by the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is presently working on an anthology of Madhyamaka texts in translation, to appear in the series "Historical Sourcebooks in Classical Indian Thought." His essays have appeared in such journals as ''Philosophy East and West'', the ''Journal of Indian Philosophy'', ''Asian Philosophy'', the ''Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies'', the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', and ''Revue Internationale de Philosophie''. ([https://salc.uchicago.edu/daniel-arnold Source Accessed Jul 13, 2020]) +
Gyurme Avertin began his study of the Tibetan language in 1997. He spent two years following the Tibetan program at Langues’O University in Paris. He then went to Nepal in 1999 to study at the [[Rangjung Yeshe Institute]], before making his way to Bir in northern India, where he studied at Dzongsar Shedra. He regularly interprets for teachers visiting Rigpa centres and at the Rigpa Shedra East. (2014 Translation & Transmission Conference Program) +
Dr. Aviv is interested in Buddhist philosophy and intellectual history. He studies topics of intersections between early Buddhist Philosophy, especially of the Abhidharma and the Yogacara traditions, and contemporary philosophy. His interest includes topics such as philosophy of mind, cognitive science, ethics and contemplative practices. His intellectual history research focuses on religion in the modern period, especially the Buddhist renaissance in modern China. In addition, he is also interested in the way the Yogacara school was received and developed in pre-modern China. His current book project explores the role of Indian Buddhist philosophy in the formation of modern Chinese Buddhist thought. ([https://religion.columbian.gwu.edu/eyal-aviv Source Accessed June 8, 2023]) +
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Prabodh Chandra Bagchi (18 November 1898 – 19 January 1956) was one of the most notable Sino-Indologists of the 20th century. He was the third Upacharya (Vice-Chancellor) of Visva-Bharati University. He published a large number of books in English, French, and Bengali. His best known work that is still acclaimed as a classical work even today is ''India and China'', which was first published in 1944. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabodh_Chandra_Bagchi Source Accessed Jun 4, 2019]) +
Sir Harold Walter Bailey, FBA (16 December 1899–11 January 1996), who published as H. W. Bailey, was an eminent English scholar of Khotanese, Sanskrit, and the comparative study of Iranian languages.
Bailey has been described as one of the greatest Orientalists of the twentieth century. He was said to read more than 50 languages.
In 1929 Bailey began his doctoral dissertation, a translation with notes of the ''Greater Bundahishn'', a compendium of Zoroastrian writings in Middle Persian recorded in the Pahlavi scripts. He became the world's leading expert in the Khotanese dialect of the Saka language, the mediaeval Iranian language of the Kingdom of Khotan (modern Xinjiang). His initial motivation for the study of Khotanese was an interest in the possible connection with the ''Bundahishn''. He later passed his material on that work to Kaj Barr.
He was known for his immensely erudite lectures, and once confessed: "I have talked for ten and a half hours on the problem of one word without approaching the further problem of its meaning."
Bailey was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1944, and subsequently a member of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Academies. He received honorary degrees from four universities including Oxford; served as president of Philological Society, the Royal Asiatic Society, the Society for Afghan Studies, and the Society of Mithraic Studies; and chaired the Anglo-Iranian Society and Ancient India and Iran Trust. He was knighted for services to Oriental studies in 1960. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Walter_Bailey Source Accessed Dec 6, 2019])
See complete biography in [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bailey-harold-walter-1 Encyclopædia Iranica] +
Baizhang Huaihai (Chinese: 百丈懷海; pinyin: Bǎizhàng Huáihái; Wade-Giles: Pai-chang Huai-hai; Japanese: Hyakujō Ekai) (720–814) was a Zen master during the Tang Dynasty. A native of Fuzhou, he was a dharma heir of Mazu Daoyi (Wade-Giles: Ma-tsu Tao-i).[1] Baizhang's students included Huangbo, Linji and Puhua.
Hagiographic depictions of Baizhang depict him as a radical and iconoclastic figure, but these narratives derive from at least a century and a half after his death and were developed and elaborated during the Song dynasty.[2] As Mario Poceski writes, the earliest strata of sources (such as the ''Baizhang guanglu'' 百丈廣錄 ) about this figure provide a "divergent image of Baizhang as a sophisticated teacher of doctrine, who is at ease with both the philosophical and contemplative aspects of Buddhism."[3] Poceski summarizes this figure thus:
:The image of Baizhang conveyed by the Tang-era sources is that of a learned and sagacious monk who is well versed in both the theoretical and contemplative aspects of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Here we encounter Baizhang as a teacher of a particular Chan brand of Buddhist doctrine, formulated in a manner and idiom that are unique to him and to the Hongzhou school as a whole. Nonetheless, he also comes across as someone who is cognizant of major intellectual trends in Tang Buddhism, as well as deeply steeped in canonical texts and traditions. His discourses are filled with scriptural quotations and allusions. He also often resorts to technical Buddhist vocabulary, of the kind one usually finds in the texts of philosophically oriented schools of Chinese Buddhism such as Huayan, Faxiang, and Tiantai. Here the primary mode in which Baizhang communicates his teachings is the public Chan sermon, presented in the ritual framework of “ascending the [Dharma] hall [to preach]” (''shangtang'').[4]
Regarding his teachings, Poceski notes:
:A central idea that infuses most of Baizhang’s sermons is the ineffability or indescribability of reality. Ultimate reality cannot be predicated in terms of conventional conceptual categories, as it transcends the familiar realm of words and ideas. Nonetheless, it can be approached or realized—as it truly is, without any accretions or distortions—as it manifests at all times and in all places. That is done by means of intuitive knowledge, whose cultivation is one of the cornerstones of Chan soteriology. Since the essence of reality cannot be captured or conveyed via the mediums of words and letters, according to Baizhang it is pointless to get stuck in dogmatic assertions, or to attach to a particular doctrine or practice. Like everything else, the various Chan (or more broadly Buddhist) teachings are empty of self-nature. They simply constitute expedient tools in an ongoing process of cultivating detachment and transcendence that supposedly free the mind of mistaken views and distorted ways of perceiving reality; to put it differently, they belong to the well-known Buddhist category of “skillful means” (''fangbian'', or upāya in Sanskrit). Holding on rigidly or fetishizing a particular text, viewpoint, or method of practice—even the most profound and potent ones—can turn out to be counterproductive, as it becomes a source of attachment that impedes spiritual progress. The perfection of the Chan path of practice and realization, therefore, does not involve the attainment of some particular ability or knowledge. Rather, in Baizhang’s text it is depicted as a process of letting go of all views and attachment that interfere with the innate human ability to know reality and experience spiritual freedom.[5]
One of his doctrinal innovations is what are called the “three propositions” (sanju), which are three distinct stages of spiritual realization or progressive ways of knowing:[6]
*Thoroughgoing detachment from all things and affairs
*Nonabiding in the state of detachment
*Letting go of even the subtlest vestiges of self-referential awareness or knowledge of having transcended detachment.
Baizhang's teachings and sayings have been translated by Thomas Cleary in ''Sayings and Doings of Pai-Chang''.[7] The Wild fox koan is attributed to Baizhang. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baizhang_Huaihai Source Accessed July 15, 2021])
Bardor Tulku Rinpoche was born in 1949 in Kham, East Tibet. At a very early age, he was recognized by His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as the third incarnation of Terchen Barway Dorje.
When Rinpoche was a small child, with his family and his Dharma tutor he maintained a nomadic life style. Rinpoche was six when he left East Tibet in the company of his grandparents on a journey that took him first to Lhasa, then Tsurphu, and finally to Drikung where Rinpoche was to remain for a couple of years at the home of his grandparents.
After Rinpoche’s grandparents passed away, his parents and siblings joined him in Drikung. When the political and social conditions in Tibet worsened as a result of the Chinese Communist occupation, Rinpoche and his family—initially a party of thirteen—set out toward India over the Himalayas along with many other Tibetans who were also fleeing the fighting.
They traveled through Kongpo to Pema Ku. In Pema Ku, at the border of Tibet and India, as a result of the arduous journey, all Rinpoche’s family members died. When Rinpoche’s father—the last member of his family—died, Rinpoche left Pema Ku and continued on toward Assam with other refugees.
At the township known as Bomdila, where the borders of Tibet, Bhutan, and India meet, a bombing raid dispersed the group. Rinpoche and a young friend fled the attack and traveled westward, along the border of Bhutan and India, to Siliguri and eventually to Darjeeling. When they arrived in Darjeeling, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa was notified that Rinpoche had safely made his way out of Tibet. Filled with joy at the good news, His Holiness arranged for Rinpoche to be brought to Sikkim, and for Rinpoche’s friend to be taken care of.
Bardor Tulku Rinpoche was enthroned as a tulku at Rumtek Monastery when he was in his teens. It was also at Rumtek Monastery, under the tutelage of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, that Rinpoche’s formal training took place.
After completing many years of study and practice, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche accompanied the 16th Karmapa on his world tours in 1974 and 1976. In 1977, His Holiness asked Rinpoche to remain in Woodstock, New York, at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD). During his first two years at KTD, Rinpoche worked side-by-side with the staff to renovate and winterize the house and prepare for the last visit of His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa to the West. During that last visit, in 1980, His Holiness directed that his monastery and seat in North America be established at KTD, and he performed the formal investiture. After the groundbreaking ceremony in May of 1982, Bardor Rinpoche directed the construction activities and labored each day to build the monastery. When the construction of the shrine building was essentially completed in early 1990s, he assumed responsibilities as a teacher at KTD and its affiliate Karma Thegsum Chöling centers (KTCs).
In 2000, with a blessing from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa and His Eminence the 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche established Raktrul Foundation in order to help rebuild the Raktrul Monastery in Tibet and provide educational facilities for monks and the lay community. In 2003, Rinpoche established Kunzang Palchen Ling (KPL), a Tibetan Buddhist Center in Red Hook, New York. Based on nonsectarian principles, KPL offers Dharma teachings from all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and serves as a base for preserving and bringing to the West the terma teachings of Terchen Barway Dorje.
After working tirelessly for thirty-one years with the Venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, the abbot of KTD, to firmly establish KTD and its affiliates in the United States, in October 2008, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche resigned from all his responsibilities at KTD. In August 2009, the KTD Board of Trustees issued an appreciation letter acknowledging Bardor Tulku Rinpoche’s role in the establishment KTD and its affiliates in North America.
Since he left KTD, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche has been directing the activities of Kunzang Palchen Ling, guiding Palchen Study Groups nationwide, overseeing translation projects of terma texts of Terchen Barway Dorje and the construction of the new facility at Kunzang Palchen Ling that is an implementation of his vision for KPL. Rinpoche also serves as an adviser for Dharma TV, an online Buddhist television project. [http://www.kunzang.org/biography/ Source Kunzang.org, Accessed January 27, 2022.]
David Landis Barnhill is the former Director of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. He is the translator of ''Basho's Journey: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho'' (2005), ''Basho's Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Basho'' (2004), and the coeditor (with Roger S. Gottlieb) of ''Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Ground'' (2001), all published by SUNY Press. +
Richard Barron is a Canadian-born translator who specializes in the writings of Longchenpa. He has served as an interpreter for many lamas from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, including his first teacher, Kalu Rinpoche. He completed a traditional three-year retreat at Kagyu Ling in France and later became a close disciple of the late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. He was engaged in a long-term project to translate ''The Seven Treasuries'' of Longchenpa.
His other translations include ''Buddhahood Without Meditation'', ''The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul: A Gem of Many Colors'', and ''A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage'' by Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. ''The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul'' was his first translation in the Tsadra Foundation Series published by Snow Lion Publications. +
Christian Bernert (MA) comes from Austria where he studied Tibetology at the University of Vienna until 2009. He embarked on the Buddhist path in 1999 under the guidance of Khenchen Amipa Rinpoche. Since 2001 he has been studying at IBA, where he currently works as language program coordinator and translator. Christian is a founding member of the Chödung Karmo Translation Group. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/the-2014-tt-conference/ Source Accessed Jul 20, 2020])
His dissertation was published as a book-length translation: ''Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature: A Commentary on the Fourth Chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga'' (v v.1.27-95[a]). Kathmandu: Vajra Books, 2018. +
Alexander Berzin (born 1944) grew up in New Jersey, USA. He began his study of Buddhism in 1962 at Rutgers and then Princeton Universities, and received his PhD in 1972 from Harvard University jointly between the Departments of Sanskrit and Indian Studies and Far Eastern Languages (Chinese). Inspired by the process through which Buddhism was transmitted from one Asian civilization to another and how it was translated and adopted, his focus has been, ever since, on bridging traditional Buddhist and modern Western cultures.
Dr. Berzin was resident in India for 29 years, first as a Fulbright Scholar and then with the Translation Bureau, which he helped to found, at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in Dharamsala. While in India, he furthered his studies with masters from all four Tibetan Buddhist traditions; however, his main teachers have been His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. Practicing under their supervision, he completed the major meditation retreats of the Gelug tradition.
For nine years, he was the principal interpreter for Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, accompanying him on his foreign tours and training under him to be a Buddhist teacher in his own right. He has served as occasional interpreter for H.H. the Dalai Lama and has organized several international projects for him. These have included Tibetan medical aid for victims of the Chernobyl radiation disaster; preparation of basic Buddhist texts in colloquial Mongolian to help with the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia; and initiation of a Buddhist-Muslim dialogue in universities in the Islamic world.
Since 1980, Dr. Berzin has traveled the world, lecturing on Buddhism in universities and Buddhist centers in over 70 countries. He was one of the first to teach Buddhism in most of the communist world, throughout Latin America and large parts of Africa. Throughout his travels, he has consistently tried to demystify Buddhism and show the practical application of its teachings in daily life.
A prolific author and translator, Dr. Berzin has published 17 books, including Relating to a Spiritual Teacher, Taking the Kalachakra Initiation, Developing Balanced Sensitivity, and with H.H. the Dalai Lama, The Gelug-Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra.
At the end of 1998, Dr. Berzin returned to the West with about 30,000 pages of unpublished manuscripts of books, articles, and translations he had prepared, transcriptions of teachings of the great masters that he had translated, and notes from all the teachings he had received from these masters. Convinced of the benefit of this material for others and determined that it not be lost, he named it the “Berzin Archives” and settled in Berlin, Germany. There, with the encouragement of H. H. the Dalai Lama, he set out to make this vast material freely available to the world on the Internet, in as many languages as possible.
Thus, the Berzin Archives website went online in December 2001. It has expanded to include Dr. Berzin’s ongoing lectures and is now available in 21 languages. For many of them, especially the six Islamic world languages, it is the pioneering work in the field. The present version of the [https://studybuddhism.com/ website] is the next step in Dr. Berzin’s lifelong commitment to building a bridge between the traditional Buddhist and modern worlds. By guiding the teachings across the bridge and showing their relevance to modern life, his vision has been that they would help to bring emotional balance to the world.
([https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019])
Click here for a list of Alexander Berzin's [https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin/published-works-of-dr-berzin publications]
Bhikkhu Anālayo was born in Germany in 1962 and ordained in Sri Lanka in 1995. In the year 2000 he completed a Ph.D. thesis on the ''Satipatthana-sutta'' at the University of Peradeniya (published by Windhorse in the UK). In the year 2007 he completed a habilitation research at the University of Marburg, in which he compared the ''Majjhima-nikaya'' discourses with their Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan counterparts. At present, he is a member of the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, University of Hamburg, as a professor, and works as a researcher at Dharma Drum Institue of Liberal Arts, Taiwan. Besides his academic activities, he regularly teaches meditation. ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html Source Accessed Nov 22, 2019])
* For a substantial list of Bhikkhu Anālayo's publications, visit his faculty page at the [https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html University of Hamburg] +
Associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University. He is a specialist on early Japanese Zen whose major work to date is Dōgen's Manuals of Zen Meditation, which was corecipient of the 1990 Hiromi Arisawa Memorial Award from the Association of American University Presses with the Japan Foundation. +
Helena Blankleder holds a degree in Modern Languages. She completed two three-year retreats at Chanteloube, France (1980-1985 and 1986-1989). She is a professional translator and a member of the Padmakara Translation Group, Dordogne, France. Helena has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2001. +
Mark Blum, Professor and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, received his M.A. in Japanese Literature from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in Pure Land Buddhism throughout East Asia, with a focus on the Japanese medieval period. He also works in the area of Japanese Buddhist reponses to modernism, Buddhist conceptions of death in China and Japan, historical consciousness in Buddhist thought, and the impact of the Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra) in East Asian Buddhism. He is the author of ''The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism'' (2002), and co-editor of ''Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism'' (2005) and ''Cultivating Spirituality'' (2011), and his translation from Chinese of ''The Nirvana Sutra: Volume 1'' (2013). He is currently working on completing ''Think Buddha, Say Buddha: A History of Nenbutsu Thought, Practice, and Culture''. ([http://ealc.berkeley.edu/faculty/blum-mark Source Accessed May 31, 2019]) +
Born in Los Angeles, Jim grew up in Southern California. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of San Diego and continued to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he finished his MA and PhD under the direction of the Tibetan Buddhist scholar/practitioner Geshe Lhundub Sopa. His graduate studies focused on the work of the Indian teacher Śāntarakṣita.
Both in his career as Associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University and as Professor of Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College, Jim displayed the rare combination of deep commitment to teaching and rigorous engagement as a research scholar. Even more unusually, Jim was able to produce scholarly texts that were valued equally by the academy and by Buddhist communities. He published analytical and translation works on Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism based upon this research, including The Ornament of The Middle Way: A Study of the Madhyamaka Thought of Śāntarakṣita (2004) and Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning (2004). With Geshe Sopa, he completed a translation of the 4th Chapter of the ''Lamrim Chenmo'', and was pursuing the publication of a translation of Śāntarakṣita’s ''Madhyamakālaṃkāravṛtti''.
Jim was a strong advocate for institutions of higher education that strive to integrate the knowledge base of Buddhist philosophy with meditative practice and service to the community. In 2004, Jim invited Yangsi Rinpoche to Portland, Oregon to speak to interested persons. In 2005, Jim began working alongside Yangsi Rinpoche, Namdrol Adams, and Angie Garcia on the founding of Maitripa Institute, soon to become Maitripa College, which seeks to embody those ideals. . . .
His main teachers were His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche, Jangtse Choje Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Yangsi Rinpoche, and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. ([https://maitripa.org/jim-blumenthal/ Source adapted from an obituary written by Namdrol Miranda Adams, Damcho Diana Finnegan, and Jim's wife, Tiffany)]
A renowned Indian translator and monk (to be distinguished from a subsequent Bodhiruci [s.v.] who was active in China two centuries later during the Tang dynasty). Bodhiruci left north India for Luoyang, the Northern Wei capital, in 508. He is said to have been well versed in the Tripiṭaka and talented at incantations. Bodhiruci stayed at the monastery of Yongningsi in Luoyang from 508 to 512 and with the help of Buddhaśānta (d.u.) and others translated over thirty Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises, most of which reflect the latest developments in Indian Mahāyāna, and especially Yogācāra. His translations include the ''Dharmasaṃgīti'', ''Shidijing lun'', ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', ''Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'', and the ''Wuliangshou jing youpotishe yuansheng ji'', attributed to Vasubandhu. Bodhiruci’s translation of the ''Shidijing lun'', otherwise known more simply as the ''Di lun'', fostered the formation of a group of Yogācāra specialists in China that later historians retroactively call the Di lun zong. According to a story in the ''Lidai fabao ji'', a jealous Bodhiruci, assisted by a monk from Shaolinsi on Songshan named Guangtong (also known as Huiguang, 468–537), is said to have attempted on numerous occasions to poison the founder of the Chan school, Bodhidharma, and eventually succeeded. Bodhiruci is also said to have played an instrumental role in converting the Chinese monk Tanluan from Daoist longevity practices to the pure land teachings of the ''Guan Wuliangshou jing''. (Source: "Bodhiruci." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 133. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
William M. Bodiford is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on religion in the cultures of Japan and East Asia, and Buddhist Studies. In addition to UCLA, he also has taught at Davidson College (Davidson, North Carolina), the University of Iowa (Iowa City, Iowa), Meiji Gakuin University (Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan), and ICU (International Christian University; Tokyo, Japan).
He received his Ph.D. from Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut) in the Department of Religious Studies, where he specialized in Buddhist Studies under the direction of Professor Stanley Weinstein. In addition to Yale, he also received graduate training at the Institute of Health and Sport Science (Taiiku Kagaku Kenkyuka), Tsukuba University (Tsukuba, Japan), where he studied the intellectual history of martial arts in Japan under the direction of Professor Watanabe Ichiro, and at the Graduate School of Buddhist Studies, Komazawa University (Tokyo, Japan), where he studied Asian Religions under the direction of Professors Kagamishima Genryu and Ishikawa Rikizan.
His research spans the medieval, early modern, and contemporary periods of Japanese history. Currently he is investigating religion during the Tokugawa period, especially those aspects of Japanese culture associated with manuscripts, printing, secrecy, education, and proselytizing. Although many of his publications focus on Zen Buddhism (especially Soto Zen), he also researches Tendai and Vinaya Buddhist traditions, Shinto, folklore and popular religions, as well as Japanese martial arts and traditional approaches to health and physical culture.
He is a member of the editorial boards of "Cursor Mundi: Viator Studies of the Medieval and Early Modern World" (UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies), "Studies in East Asian Buddhism" and "Classics in East Asian Buddhism" (Kuroda Institute). ([https://www.alc.ucla.edu/person/william-m-bodiford/ Source Accessed June 30, 2021])
(Chokle Namgyal) (1376-1451). The twenty-third abbot of Bo dong E monastery, founded in about 1049 by the Bka' gdams geshe (dge bshes) Mu dra pa chen po, and the founder of the Bo dong tradition. His collected works, said to number thirty-six titles, include his huge encyclopedic work ''De nyid 'dus pa'' ("Compendium of the Principles"); it alone runs to 137 volumes in the incomplete edition published by the Tibet House in Delhi. Phyogs las rnam rgyal (who is sometimes confused with Jo nang pa Phyogs las rnam rgyal who lived some fifty years earlier) was a teacher of Dge 'dun grub (retroactively named the first Dalai Lama) and Mkhas grub Dge legs dpal bzang, both students of Tsong kha pa. Among his disciples was the king of Gung thang, Lha dbang rgyal mtshan (1404–1463), whose daughter Chos kyi sgron me (1422–1455) became a nun after the death of her daughter and then the head of Bsam lding (Samding) monastery, which her father founded for her. The monastery is the only Tibetan monastery whose abbot is traditionally a woman; incarnations are said to be those of the goddess Vajravārāhī (T. Rdo rje phag mo), "Sow-Headed Goddess." (Source: "Bo dong Phyogs las rnam rgyal." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 139. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Tara Brach’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. The result is a distinctive voice in Western Buddhism, one that offers a wise and caring approach to freeing ourselves and society from suffering.
As an undergraduate at Clark University, Tara pursued a double major in psychology and political science. During this time, while working as a grass roots organizer for tenants’ rights, she also began attending yoga classes and exploring Eastern approaches to inner transformation. After college, she lived for ten years in an ashram—a spiritual community—where she practiced and taught both yoga and concentrative meditation. When she left the ashram and attended her first Buddhist Insight Meditation retreat, led by Joseph Goldstein, she realized she was home. “I had found wisdom teachings and practices that train the heart and mind in unconditional and loving presence,” she explains. “I knew that this was a path of true freedom.”
Over the following years, Tara earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Fielding Institute, with a dissertation exploring meditation as a therapeutic modality in treating addiction. She went on to complete a five-year Buddhist teacher training program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Working as both a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher, she found herself naturally blending these two powerful traditions—introducing meditation to her therapy clients and sharing western psychological insights with meditation students. This synthesis has evolved, in more recent years, into Tara’s groundbreaking work in training psychotherapists to integrate mindfulness strategies into their clinical work.
In 1998, Tara founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC (IMCW), which is now one of the largest and most dynamic non-residential meditation centers in the United States. She gives presentations, teaches classes, offers workshops, and leads silent meditation retreats at IMCW and at conferences and retreat centers in the United States and Europe. Tara’s podcast receives over 3 million downloads each month. Her themes reveal the possibility of emotional healing and spiritual awakening through mindful, loving awareness as well as the alleviation of suffering in the larger world by practicing compassion in action. She has fostered efforts to bring principles and practices of mindfulness to issues of racial injustice, equity and inclusivity; peace; environmental sustainability, as well as to prisons and schools.
She and Jack Kornfield lead the Awareness Training Institute (ATI) which offers online courses on mindfulness and compassion, as well as the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP).
In addition to numerous articles, videos, and hundreds of recorded talks, Tara is the author of the books ''Radical Acceptance'' (Bantam, 2003), ''True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart'' (Bantam, 2013), ''Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of R.A.I.N.'' (Viking, 2019) and ''Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness'' (SoundsTrue, 6/2021). She has a son, Narayan, and lives in Great Falls, VA, with her husband, Jonathan Foust and their dog, kd. ([https://www.tarabrach.com/about/ Source Accessed Jan 19, 2022])
Filippo Brambilla is a PhD candidate at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies of the University of Vienna. He is currently writing his dissertation on Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho (1880–1940), a late Jo nang scholar whose philosophical works are characterized by a distinctive approach that reconciles typically rang stong positions with more orthodox Jo nang views. Filippo’s PhD thesis will include a complete edition and translation of Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho’s Illuminating Light (''Rab gsal snang''). Recently, Filippo also started working as a researcher in the FWF funded project “Emptiness of Other (gZhan stong) in the Early Jo nang Tradition.” He holds a BA and an MA in Languages and Cultures of Eastern Asia, with specialization in Chinese language and culture, from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Filippo has also spent long periods of study and research in China and Eastern Tibet. (Source: [https://conference.tsadra.org/session/empty-of-true-existence-yet-full-of-qualities-tshogs-gnyis-rgya-mtsho-1880-1940-on-buddha-nature/ Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia]) +
David R. Brockman, Ph.D., is a nonresident scholar for the Baker Institute’s Religion and Public Policy Program. He is also an adjunct professor at both Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University, where he teaches various courses in religion and religious studies.
From 2010 to 2012, Brockman served as the project director for the World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions. He is the author several books, including “Dialectical Democracy through Christian Thought: Individualism, Relationalism, and American Politics” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013) and “No Longer the Same: Religious Others and the Liberation of Christian Theology” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011). His forthcoming publication, “Educating For Pluralism, or Against It? Lessons from Texas and Quebec on Teaching Religion in Public Schools,” will appear in Religion & Education.
Brockman holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Southern Methodist University. He received a Master of Theological Studies degree from the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University and his bachelor’s degree in English and education from the University of Texas at Arlington. ([https://www.bakerinstitute.org/experts/david-r-brockman/ Source Accessed Nov 25, 2019]) +
Vicky Alvarez Bromley is an artist and illustrator based in the UK and Spain. She is inspired by her own inner world, connection with nature, glimpses of innocence and simplicity, human vulnerability and the mystical.
She loves to paint and draw expressive characters that reflect our feelings and emotions and also likes to add a touch of humour to her artwork! ([https://vickyalvarez.com/about-1 Adapted from Source Jan 19, 2022]) +
Brian Edward Brown was an undergraduate and graduate student of Thomas Berry at Fordham University where he earned his doctorate in the History of Religions, specializing in Buddhist thought. He subsequently earned his doctorate in law from New York University. Currently he is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y. He is the co-founder of The Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue at Iona as well as being one of the founding faculty of the Integral Environmental Studies major at Iona, a joint venture of the departments of biology, political science and religious studies. He is the author of two principal texts: ''The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna'' (Motilal Banarsidass,1991, reprinted 1994, 2003, 2010), and ''Religion, Law and the Land: Native Americans and the Judicial Determination of Sacred Land'' (Westport, Greenwood Press, 1999). He is co-editor of ''Augustine and World Religions'' (Lexington Books, 2008). Among his other publications are articles which have addressed the ecological implications of the Buddhist and Native American tribal traditions, as well as the Earth jurisprudence of Thomas Berry. ([http://thomasberry.org/life-and-thought/past-award-recipients Adapted from Source Jul 20, 2020]) +
Born in Germany, Karl Brunnhölzl, M.D. was trained as a physician in Germany. He studied Tibetology, Buddhology, and Sanskrit at [[Hamburg University]]. He received training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by [[Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto Rinpoche]].
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[[The Foliage of Superior Insight|Ashé Journal Article]]
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[http://www.nalandabodhi.org/teachers/western-teachers/karl-brunnholzl.aspx Nalandabodhi teacher page]
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'''Brief Biography:'''
Karl was originally trained, and worked, as a physician. He took Buddhist refuge vows in 1984 and, in 1990, completed a five-year training in higher Buddhist philosophy at Kamalashila Institute, Germany, receiving the traditional Kagyü title of "dharma tutor" (Tib. skyor dpon). Since 1988, he received his Buddhist and Tibetan language training mainly at Marpa Institute For Translators in Kathmandu, Nepal (director: Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche) and also studied Tibetology, Buddhology, and Sanskrit at Hamburg University, Germany. Since 1989, Karl served as a translator, interpreter, and Buddhist teacher mainly in Europe, India, and Nepal. Since 1999, he has acted as one of the main translators and teachers at Nitartha Institute (director: Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche) in the USA, Canada, and Germany. In addition, he regularly taught at Gampo Abbey's Vidyadhara Institute from 2000-2007. He is the author of several books on Buddhism, such as The Center of the Sunlit Sky, Straight from the Heart, In Praise of Dharmadhātu, and Luminous Heart (all Snow Lion Publications).
Karl met Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche in 1986 during Rinpoche's first teaching tour through Europe, receiving extensive teachings as well as pratimoksha vows from him during the following years in both Europe and Nepal, and later also in Canada and the USA. He served as Rinpoche's personal translator during his teachings tours in Europe (particularly at Nitartha Institute in Germany) from 1999-2005. In 2005, he was appointed as one of five Western Nalandabodhi teachers and given the title "mitra."
In 2006, he moved to Seattle and works as a full-time Tibetan translator for Tsadra Foundation. Since his arrival in Seattle, Karl was instrumental in creating the new introductory NB Buddhism 100 Series, leads NB Study Path classes, presents weekend courses and open house talks at Nalanda West, offers selected teachings to the Vajrasattva and Mahamudra practice communities, and provides personal guidance as a PI. He also teaches weekend seminars and Nitartha Institute courses in NB centers in the US, Canada, and Mexico as well as other locations.
Within the Mitra Council, Karl is the current Dean until 2010 and is mainly supervising and revising the NB Study Path (which includes revising the Hinayana and Mahayana study path and creating a Vajrayana study path). While enthusiastic about all facets of the dharma, his main interests are the teachings on Mahamudra, Yogacara and Buddha Nature, and to make the essential teachings by the Karmapas and other major Kagyu lineage figures available to contemporary Western audiences. [http://www.nalandabodhi.org/teachers/western-teachers/karl-brunnholzl.aspx Source]
Buddhabhadra (佛馱跋陀羅, 359–429) means enlightenment worthy. Born in northern India, he was a descendent of King Amṛtodana, who was the youngest of the three uncles of Śākyamuni Buddha (circa 563–483 BCE). He renounced family life at age seventeen and became a monk. Studying hard, he mastered meditation and the Vinaya.
In 408, the tenth year of the Hongshi (弘始) years of the Later Qin Dynasty (後秦 or 姚秦, 384–417), one of the Sixteen Kingdoms (304–439), he went to its capital, Chang-an. The illustrious translator Kumārajīva (鳩摩羅什, 344–413) had arrived there in 401. However, Buddhabhadra did not like Kumārajīva’s students. Together with his own forty-some students, he went to the Lu Mountain (廬山, in present-day Jiangxi Province) and stayed with Master Huiyuan (慧遠, 334–416), the first patriarch of the Pure Land School of China.
In 415, the eleventh year of the Yixi (義熙) years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (東晉, 317–420), Buddhabhadra went south to its capital, Jiankong (建康), present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He stayed at the Daochang Temple (道場寺) and began his translation work. Altogether, he translated from Sanskrit into Chinese thirteen texts in 125 fascicles. For example, texts 376 and 1425 were translated jointly by him and Faxian (法顯, circa 337–422). Text 376 (T12n0376) in 6 fascicles is the earliest of the three Chinese versions of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra; text 1425 (T22n1425) in 40 fascicles is the Chinese version of the Mahāsaṅghika Vinaya. Texts 278 and 666 were translated by him alone probably between years 418 and 421. Text 278 (T09n0278) is the 60-fascicle Chinese version of the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra of Buddha Adornment (Buddhāvataṁsaka-mahāvaipulya-sūtra); text 666 (T16n0666) in one fascicle is the first of the two extant Chinese versions of the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra of the Tathāgata Store.
In 429, the sixth year of the Yuanjia (元嘉) years of the Liu Song Dynasty (劉宋, 420–79), Buddhabhadra died, at age seventy-one. People called him the Indian Meditation Master. He is one of the eighteen exalted ones of the Lu Mountain. ([http://www.sutrasmantras.info/translators.html#kumarajiva Source Accessed Aug 19, 2021])
Anne Burchardi took refuge with Ven. Kalu Rinpoche in 1976.
In 1978 she became a student of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and started her education as a Tibetan translator with him.
1978–1980 she was the secretary of Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Karma Drub Djy Ling, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1978-1979 she was secretary at The Ethnographical Department of The National Museum, Copenhagen.
In 1980 she became a member of The Translating Board of Kagyu Tekchen Shedra, International Educational Institute of Higher Learning, Bruxelles, Belgium.
She lived in Kathmandu from 1984–1992 and in 1986 she became Teacher at Marpa Institute for Translation, Kathmandu, Nepal. 1988–1991 she was secretary and course coordinator at Marpa Institute for Translation. From 1986 to 2015 she was interpreter for various Tibetan Lamas of the Kagyu, Nyingma, and Gelukpa lineages teaching Buddhism mainly in Europe and Asia, and occasionally in the USA and Canada.
1997–2002 she was Teaching Assistant in Tibetan Language Studies, at The Asian Insitute, University of Copenhagen.
1999–2015 she was Associate Professor in Tibetology, Department of Asian Studies, Institute of Cross Cultural & Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen.
1999-2007 she was Research Librarian and Curator, Tibetan Section, Department of Orientalia & Judaica, The Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen.
2000 She was Consultant for Tibet, International Development Partners, DANIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Lhasa and Denmark.
2001-2015 she was Lecturer on Buddhism and Tibetan Culture at The Public University, Copenhagen & Aarhus.
2002–2010 she was Researcher and Consultant at The Twinning Library Project, between The National Library of Bhutan, Thimphu and The Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen.
2004–2005 she was Visiting Professor at Deparmnet of Religion, Naropa University, Boulder, CO.
2005–2015 she was Lecturer on Buddhism at Pende Ling, Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Copenhagen.
2007–2015 she was Lecturer on Buddhist Studies, The Buddhist University, Pende Ling, Copenhagen.
2010 She was for Consultant for Liason Office of Denmark, Thimphu, Bhutan, DANIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Copenhagen.
2011-2013 She was a Culture Guide in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet for Cramon Travels and for Kipling Travels.
2012–2020 She was a translator for the 84000 project.
(Source: Anne Burchardi Email, Jan 18, 2021.)
Robert E. Buswell Jr., Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies in the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, is the Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Humanities at UCLA, and the founding director of the university’s Center for Buddhist Studies and Center for Korean Studies. From 2009-2011, he served concurrently as founding director of the Dongguk Institute for Buddhist Studies Research (Pulgyo Haksurwon) at Dongguk University in Seoul, Korea.<br> He is widely considered to be the premier Western scholar on Korean Buddhism and one of the top specialists on the East Asian Zen tradition. Buswell also served as editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference, 2004), and coeditor (with Donald S. Lopez, Jr.) of the [now published] one-million word [Princeton] Dictionary of Buddhism. In 2009, Buswell was awarded the Manhae Prize from the Chogye Order in recognition of his pioneering contributions to Korean Buddhist Studies in the West. Buswell was elected president of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) for 2008-2009, the first time a Koreanist or Buddhologist has ever held the position, and served as past-president and past-past-president in subsequent years. ([https://www.alc.ucla.edu/person/robert-e-buswell/ Source Accessed Nov 25 2019]) +
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José Ignacio Cabezón is XIVth Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, and former chair of the Religious Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara. He has published a dozen books and numerous articles related to Tibetan and Buddhist Studies including several translations. His most recent books include [https://wisdomexperience.org/product/sera-monastery/ ''Sera Monastery''] (Wisdom 2019), [https://wisdomexperience.org/product/sexuality-classical-south-asian-buddhism/ ''Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism''] (Wisdom 2017), [https://www.shambhala.com/the-just-king-14972.html ''The Just King''] (Snow Lion 2017), [https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199958603.001.0001/acprof-9780199958603 ''The Buddhist Doctrine and the Nine Vehicles''] (Oxford 2012), and [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/tibetan-ritual-9780195392821?q=Tibetan%20Ritual&lang=en&cc=us ''Tibetan Ritual''] (Oxford 2010). +
Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, stands as a beacon of pioneering spirit, being the first American woman and the first of African Japanese descent to attain full ordination as a Nichiren priest. She holds the esteemed position of bishop for the Nichiren Shu Buddhist Order of North America, the first woman and westerner to do so. Her guidance emanates from Houston, where she leads as the principal teacher of Myoken-ji Temple. She is among the few westerners, specifically one of three, to undertake and complete the rigorous Aragyo [ascetic practice] at Saijo Inari in Okayama, Japan.
Passionate about bringing Buddhism beyond temple walls, Myokei Shonin actively supports three prison sanghas within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system. Her interfaith endeavors have seen her as a Fellow with Interfaith America, championing dialogue between Buddhists and Muslims in incarceration. Her roles extend to being a board member of Lion’s Roar Magazine and Dharma Relief 2: Healing Racial Trauma.
She's actively engaged in programs such as Healing Warrior Hearts, Texas for Heroes, The Gathering, and the International Western Dharma Teachers Gathering. Beyond these, her contributions span across various socio-religious platforms, underlining her commitment to spreading compassionate teachings. As a writer, her voice echoes through publications in Lion’s Roar and Tricycle magazines, and she has made notable contributions to The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women. ([https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/myokei-caine-barrett Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
Elizabeth has been engaged in contemplative training and Tibetan Buddhist studies for more than 35 years. A Tsadra Fellow since 2002, she has engaged in both written translation and oral interpretation including working closely with Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, as well as completing two three-year retreats at Kagyu Thubten Chöling, New York. Elizabeth specializes in translating texts related to mahāmudrā and esoteric tantric commentaries. Her most recent publication is Dakpo Tashi Namgyal’s ''Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā'' (''Phyag chen zla ba’i ‘od zer'') and the Ninth Karmapa’s ''Dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance'' (''Ma rig mun sel''). Elizabeth is also the director of advanced study scholarships at Tsadra Foundation and is the executive director of [http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/marpa-network/marpa-foundation Marpa Foundation].
'''Current Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:'''
*''The Treasury of Precious Instructions: Essential Teachings of the Eight Practice Lineages of the Tibetan Buddhism, Vol. 7 & 8'' – Marpa Kagyu Tradition, various authors collected by Jamgön Kongtrul.
'''Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:'''
*''The Treasury of Knowledge: Book VI, Part 3; Frameworks of Buddhist Philosophy'', Jamgön Kongtrul
*''The Profound Inner Principles'', Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, with commentary by Jamgön Kongtrul
*''Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā'', Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, with ''Dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance'' by Wangchuk Dorje, the Ninth Karmapa
'''Previously Published Translations:'''<br>
*''Mahamudra: Ocean of Definitive Meaning'', the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje [http://www.tsadra.org/translators/elizabeth-callahan/ Source: Tsadra.org] +
Radu Claudiu Canahai was born on January 21, 1971 in Salonta, Bihor County. He graduated from the Faculty of Geography at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, class of 1997, with a bachelor's thesis on traditional occupations in Tei Beiusului. As an amateur, he is concerned with the theoretical and practical aspects of Eastern mystical traditions, Hellenistic astrology and its cultural metamorphoses, the history of the American West, the history of culture and civilization. He worked as a journalist for a local weekly. ([https://www.edituraherald.ro/autori/radu-claudiu-canahai Adapted from Source Dec 10, 2021]) +
John Canti is a Buddhist practitioner, translator, physician and the current Editorial Director of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. John first had contact with Buddhist teachers while studying medicine at Cambridge University in England, and started to practice under their guidance. In 1972, he met Dudjom Rinpoche, who became one of his three principal teachers. The others were Kangyur Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, both of whom he met soon afterwards.
In 1980 John undertook 2 consecutive three-year retreats retreats in the Dordogne, France, practicing under the guidance of Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, and Nyoshul Khenpo. Inspired by their teachers and with the aim of making some of the major works of Tibetan Buddhism available to Western readers, John and some of his fellow retreatants formed the Padmakara Translation Group, of which he is now president. He also had the honor of serving Dudjom Rinpoche as physician during his final years, and subsequently coordinated the medical care of other lamas and practitioners in India, Nepal, and Europe, as well as that of three-year retreatants in the Dordogne.
Still based in the Dordogne, he has continued his translation work with Padmakara, and for many years was also a Tsadra Foundation Fellow. In 2009, John was appointed Editorial Chair of the 84000 project by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. ([https://84000.co/public-talk-sunday-dec-15th-berlin/ Source Accessed Jan 15, 2020]) +
Patrick Carré holds a Masters and Ph.D. in Chinese (honorable mention), Paris VII. He completed a three-year retreat with Pema Wangyal Rinpoché from 1981–1983. He is a poet and author, the former director of the “Trésors du bouddhisme” collection at Éditions Fayard, and a member of Padmakara Translation Group. He has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2002.
'''Current Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:'''
*''Le Trésor de précieuses qualitiés, Book II'', by Jigme Lingpa, commentary Kangyour Rinpoche
'''Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:'''
*''Une Lampe sur la chemin de la libération'', Dudjom Rinpoche
*''Soûtra de l’Entrée dans la dimension absolue, Gandavyuha sûtra''
*''Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule - Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, avec le commentaire de Jamgön Kongtrul Lodreu Thayé L'Incontestable Rugissement du lion''. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019
.
'''Previously Published Translations as a member of l’Association Padmakara, grantee of Tsadra Foundation:'''
*''Petites instructions essentielles'', Dudjom Rinpoche
*''Perles d’ambroisie'', (3 vols.), Kunzang Palden (with Christian Bruyat)
*''Bodhicaryavatara, La Marche vers l’Éveil'', Shantideva (with Christian Bruyat)
*''Les Stances fondamentales de la Voie médiane, Mûlamadhyamakakârikâ'', Nagarjuna
*''Le Trésor de précieuses qualités'', Jigmé Lingpa, commentary by Longchen Yéshé Dorjé Kangyour Rinpoche (with Gwénola le Serrec)
*''Le Lotus blanc, Explication détaillée de la Prière en Sept Vers de Gourou Rinpoche'', Mipham Namgyal (trans. Patrick Carré)
*''Les Cent conseils de Padampa Sangyé'', Dilgo Khyentse (trans. from English)
*''Mahasiddhas, La vie de 84 sages de l’Inde'', Abhayadatta (with Christian Bruyat)
*''Les Larmes du bodhisattva, Enseignements bouddhistes sur la consommation de chair animale'', Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (from the English translation by Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher, trans. with Kim-Anh Lim and Vincent Horeau)
*''Au coeur de la compassion'', Gyalsé Thogmé Zangpo, commentary by Dilgo Khyentse (with Kim-Anh Lim
*Soûtra des Dix Terres: Dashabhûmika. Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2004. ([http://www.tsadra.org/translators/patrick-carre/ Source Accessed Jan 29, 2020])
Sylvie Carteron is a translator of scholarly works into French. She has translated a number of books on the subjects of Buddhism and psychology and Tibetan Buddhism in particular. Her translations include ''Esprit Zen, Esprit Neuf'' by Shunryu Suzuki, ''Le Bouddhisme Tantrique du Tibet'', by John Blofeld, ''Transformation et guérison: Le Sutra des Quatre Établissements de l'attention'' by Thich Nhat Hanh, ''La médecine tibétaine bouddhique et sa psychiatrie'' by Terry Clifford, and ''Le Bouddha du Dolpo'' by Cyrus Stearns. +
An early supporter of Buddhism in America and the proponent of the "religion of science": a faith that claimed to be purified of all superstition and irrationality and that, in harmony with science, would bring about solutions to the world's problems. Carus was born in Ilsenberg in Harz, Germany. He immigrated to America in 1884, settling in LaSalle, Illinois, where he assumed the editorship of the Open Court Publishing Company. He attended the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 and became friends with several of the Buddhist delegates, including Dharmapāla and Shaku Sōen, who were among the first to promote his writing.Later, Shaku Sōen's student, Daisetz Teitaro Susuki, woudld spend eleven years working with and for Carus in LaSalle. In 1894, Carus published ''The Gospel of Buddha according to Old Records'', an anthology of passages from Buddhist texts drawn from contemporary translations in English, French, and German, making particular use of translations from the Pāli by Thomas W. Rhys Davids, as well as translations of the life of the Buddha from Chinese and Tibetan sources. Second only to Edwin Arnold's ''Light of Asia'' in intellectual influence at the time, ''The Gospel'' was arranged like the Bible, with numbered chapters and verses and a table at the end that listed parallel passages from the New Testament. ''The Gospel'' was intended to highlight the many agreements between Buddhism and Christianity, thereby bringing out "that nobler Christianity which aspires to the cosmic religion of universal truth." Carus was free in his manipulation of his sources, writing in the preface that he had rearranged, retranslated, and added emendations and elaborations in order to make them more accessible to a Western audience; for this reason, the translated sources are not always easy to trace back to the original literature. He also makes it clear in the preface that his ultimate goal is to lead his readers to the Religion of Science. He believed that both Buddhism and Christianity, when understood correctly, would point the way to the Religion of Science. Although remembered today for his ''Gospel'', Carus wrote some seventy books and more than a thousand articles. His books include studies of Goethe, Schiller, Kant, and Chinese thought. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 2014, 168)
Honorary Professor, Department of Philosophy, Brock University, Canada +
Garma Chen-Chi Chang was Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the Pennsylvania State University and a renowned Buddhist scholar. His books include ''The Buddhist Teaching of Totality'' and ''The Practice of Zen'', as well as his English translation of the Tibetan classic, ''The 100,000 Songs of Milarepa''. ([https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-00341-3.html Source Accessed May 20, 2021]) +
Christian Charrier holds a Masters degree in English and a diploma in psycholinguistics. He was a translator for Geshe Tengye in France, and he completed a three-year retreat under Lama Gendun Rinpoche in le Bost, France. He has been a translation consultant for Tsadra Foundation from 2002–2003 and has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2004.
'''Current Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:'''<br>
*''Le Voyage et son but'', Jamgön Kongtrul
*''La pratique des tantras bouddhistes'', Jamgön Kongtrul
'''Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:'''<br>
*''Marpa, maître de Milarépa, sa vie, ses chants'', Tsang Nyeun Hérouka
*''Vie de Jamgœun Kongtrul, écrite par lui-même'', Jamgön Kongtrul
*''L’Ondée de sagesse, Chants de la lignée Kagyu'', Karmapa Mikyeu Dorje, Tènpai Nyinjé
*''Rayons de lune, Les étapes de la méditation du Mahamudra'', Dakpo Tashi Namgyal
*''Au Coeur du ciel Vol I and II'', Pawo Rinpoche, the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje (from the English translation by Karl Brunnhölzl – ''The Centre of the Sunlit Sky'')
*''Lumière de diamant'', de Dakpo Tashi Namgyal
*''Mémoires: La Vie et l’œuvre de Jamgön Kongtrul'', by Jamgön Kongtrul, new edition
*''Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule - Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, avec le commentaire de Jamgön Kongtrul Lodreu Thayé L'Incontestable Rugissement du lion''. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.
*''Les Systèmes Philosophiques Bouddhistes'', Éditions Padmakara, 2020.
'''Previously Published Translations:'''<br>
*''Kalachakra'', Dalai Lama
*''La Roue aux lames acérées'', Dharmarakshita, commentary by Geshé Tengyé
*''La Voie progressive vers l’éveil'', Jé Tsong Khapa ([http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/translators/christian-charrier/ Source: Tsadra.org]) +
Shinge-shitsu Roko Sherry Chayat (born 1943) is the current abbot of the Zen Studies Society, based at the International Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji monastery, outside Livingston Manor, NY, and at the New York Zendo Shobo-Ji on the upper east side of Manhattan. She is also the abbot of the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji. Chayat is an advocate for the use of meditation in medical settings, with Hoen-ji running the program ''Well/Being Contemplative Practices for Healing'' for healthcare professionals. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Chayat Source Accessed Nov 15, 2019]) +
Shuman Chen’s primary research is Chinese Tiantai Buddhist philosophy. Her secondary research interests include Chan/Zen Buddhism, Buddhist art, and Daoist philosophy. With a hermeneutic approach, her dissertation explores the idea of the Buddha-nature of insentient beings in the Chinese and Japanese Buddhist traditions, with a focus on the philosophy of Jingxi Zhanran in the Tang dynasty. Her dissertation also covers East Asian art with a discussion on how plants are portrayed as sages and why pagodas and relics might be considered sentient. From an environmental perspective, she also examines how to appreciate the insentient world’s Buddha-nature, hoping to increase our awareness of the mutual relationship between human beings and nature. ([https://sites.northwestern.edu/asgc/graduate-students/ Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Shu-hui Jennifer Chen completed her doctorate in Buddhist studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998. According to her dissertation, her major advisor was Professor Gudrun Biihnemann. She also worked closely with Professor Minoru Kiyota, who introduced her to the topic of tathāgatagarbha. In addition, she also worked with Professor Tsai-fa Cheng, Professor Geshe Sopa, and Professor Muhammad Memon. +
François Chenique is a French essayist and author of studies on esotericism. He was a professor of computer science at Sciences-Po Paris and participated in the creation of one of the first computer management services within the Society of Pont-à-Mousson. He is a specialist in classical and modern logic and has written several books on this subject.
Chenique also held a doctorate in Religious Sciences from the University of Strasbourg. He devoted himself mainly to the study of Christian esotericism in the traditionalist tradition initiated by René Guénon. ([https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Chenique Source Accessed Oct 18, 2019]) +
Mario Poceski received both his MA (1995, Chinese Language and Culture) and PhD (2000, Buddhist Studies) at UCLA. His main research areas include Chinese Buddhist history, literature, and philosophy, with a focus on the Tang period (618–907). He also has research and teaching interests in medieval Chinese history, Chan/Zen Buddhism, Korean and Japanese Buddhism, monastic culture and institutions, religious pluralism, and globalization of Buddhism. He has published extensively, including four books: ''Introducing Chinese Religions'' (2009), ''Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism'' (2007), ''Manifestation of the Tathāgata: Buddhahood According to the Avatamsaka Sūtra'' (1993), and ''Sun-Face Buddha: The Teachings of Ma-tsu and the Hung-chou School of Ch'an'' (1993, 2000) (the latter two of which are published under the name, Cheng Chien Bhikshu). Dr. Poceski is currently Associate Professor in the Religion Department of University of Florida. ([https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/MarioPoceski.html Source Accessed Nov 23, 2020]) +
Ching Keng 耿晴 is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. His field of research is Yogâcāra and Tathāgatagarbha thought in India and China during the medieval period. He has been part of various research projects studying Dharmapāla’s ''Commentary on the Viṃśikā of Vasubandhu'' and Dharmapāla’s ''Commentary on the Ālambanaparīkṣā of Dignāga'', Wŏnch’uk’s ''Commentary on the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra'', and the development of the Three-Nature theory (''trisvabhāva-nirdeśa'') in Yogâcāra. Among his publications are: his PhD dissertation, entitled “Yogâcāra Buddhism Transmitted or Transformed? Paramârtha (499-569 CE) and His Chinese Disciples” (2009); and journal articles such as "A Fundamental Difficulty Embedded in the Soteriology of Tathāgatagarbha Thought? – An Investigation Focusing on the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'' (2013), and "The Dharma-body as the Disclosure of Thusness: On the Characterization of the Dharma-body in the ''Nengduan jin’gang banruo boluomi jing shi''." (2014) (both written in Chinese). (Source: [https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Books/A_Distant_Mirror ''A Distant Mirror''], 530–31) +
Eun-su Cho (趙恩秀) is a professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Seoul National University in Korea. She received her Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of California and was an assistant professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan before she joined SNU in 2004. Her research interests include Indian Abhidharma Buddhism, Korean Buddhist thought, and women in Buddhism. She has written articles and book chapters, including "Wŏnch’ŭk’s Place in the East Asian Buddhist Tradition," "From Buddha’s Speech to Buddha’s Essence: Philosophical Discussions of Buddha-vacana in India and China," "Re-thinking Late 19thCentury Chosŏn Buddhist Society," and "The Uses and Abuses of Wŏnhyo and the ‘T’ong Pulgyo’ Narrative." Recently her article titled “Repentance as a Bodhisattva Practice—Wŏnhyo on Guilt and Moral Responsibility” was published in ''Philosophy East & West'' (2013). She co-translated the Jikji simgyeong into English, and edited a volume ''Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen – Hidden Histories and Enduring Vitality'' (SUNY Press, 2011). She was the founding director of the International Center for Korean Studies at SNU in 2007-2008, had served as the chair of the Editorial Subcommittee of the MOWCAP (Asia/Pacific Regional Committee for the Memory of the World Program) of UNESCO in 2007-2009, and was the elected president of the Korean Society for Buddhist Studies (Bulgyohak yŏn’guhoe) from 2012-2014. ([https://snu-kr.academia.edu/EunsuCho Source Accessed Nov 27, 2019]) +
Khenpo David Karma Choephel studied Buddhist philosophy at the Vajra Vidya Institute in Namo Buddha, Nepal, and Sarnath, India. He currently serves as Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s main English-language translator, and also translates for the Gyalwang Karmapa and the Kagyu Monlam.
His published translations include ''Ngondro for Our Current Day'' by the Gyalwang Karmapa, ''Heart of the Dharma'' by Khenchen Trangu Rinpoche, ''Jewels from the Treasury, Vasubandhu’s Verses on the Treasury of Abhidharma'', with commentary by the Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, all published by KTD Publications; and ''Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar'' by Thrangu Rinpoche, published by Shambhala Publications. His most recent translation, ''The Torch of True Meaning: Instructions and the Practice Text for the Mahamudra Preliminaries'' by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye and the Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, was taught by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, ''A Collection of Commentaries on The Four-Session Guru Yoga'', Compiled by the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, both published by KTD Publications. ([http://www.ktdpublications.com/david-karma-choephel/ Source Accessed Feb 12, 2020]) +
Potprecha Cholvijarn, also known as Achan Jak, holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Bristol, in the UK. He is the author of '''Nibbana as Self or not-Self: Some Contemporary Thai Discussions''', ‘Meditation Manual of King Taksin of Thonburi’ and ‘Ayutthaya period meditation manual from Wat Pradusongtham’. He is currently a special lecturer at the Thai Studies Centre, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. (Personal Communication, March 28, 2022.) +
Ann Chávez is a long-time student of Geshe Lhundub Sopa. She helped translate ''The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems'' by Nyima Chökyi Thuken, an extensive survey of Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical system found in Asia. ([https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-for-2013/january/like-a-waking-dream/ann-chavez/ Source Accessed June 19, 2020]) +
Khenmo Trinlay Chödron is a senior student of Khenchen Rinpoche. She teaches at the Tibetan Meditation Center in Fredrick, Maryland, as well as at affiliated centers in the United States and Sweden. ([https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/khenmo-trinlay-chodron.html Source Accessed Sept 4 2020]) +
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche is a world-renowned teacher and meditation master in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Tibet in 1951 as the oldest son of his mother Kunsang Dechen, a devoted Buddhist practitioner, and his father Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, an accomplished master of Buddhist meditation. As a young child, Chokyi Nyima—"Sun of the Dharma"—was recognized as the 7th incarnation of the Tibetan meditation master Gar Drubchen.
In 1959, following the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Rinpoche's family fled to India where Rinpoche spent his youth studying under some of Tibetan Buddhism’s most illustrious masters, such as His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, and his father, Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.
In 1974, Rinpoche left India to join his parents in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he assisted them in establishing Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. Upon its completion in 1976, H.H. the Karmapa enthroned Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche as the monastery's abbot. To this day, Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling remains the heart of Rinpoche’s ever-growing mandala of activity. (Source: [https://shedrub.org/about-us/ Shedrub.org]) +
Thomas Cleary passed away on June 20, 2021. https://www.shambhala.com/remembering-thomas-cleary
:Of his passing, renowned Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman wrote on Facebook:
::“There is no doubt in my mind that Thomas Cleary is the greatest translator of Buddhist texts from Chinese or Japanese into English of our generation, and that he will be so known by grateful Buddhist practitioners and scholars in future centuries. Single-handedly he has gone a long way toward building the beginnings of a Buddhist canon in English.”
Cleary became interested in Buddhism when he was a teenager; his researches into Buddhist thought began with a desire to learn during this time of his life. When he began translating, he chose either untranslated works or—as in the case of Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War''—books whose extant translations were "too limited".
Cleary earned a Ph.D in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Since completing his doctoral studies, Cleary has had little involvement with the academic world. In a rare interview, Cleary stated: "There is too much oppression in a university setting . . . I want to stay independent and reach those who want to learn directly through my books."
Cleary's brother Jonathon also completed his doctoral work in EALC at Harvard. The two brothers worked together to translate the koan collection ''The Blue Cliff Record''; Shambhala published the translation in 1977.
Thomas Cleary's most widely disseminated translation has been of Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' (''Sunzi Bingfa'').
He also translated the monumental ''Avatamsaka Sutra'' (also called ''Huayan Jing'', or the ''Flower Ornament Scripture'').
Another major translation was of the commentaries of the 18th century Taoist sage Liu Yiming, who explains the metaphoric coding of the main Taoist texts dealing with the transformation of consciousness, and the fusion of the human mind with the mind of Tao.
In 2000, Cleary's various translations of Taoist texts were collected into four volumes by Shambhala Publications as ''The Taoist Classics''. Following the success of these publications, a five-volume collection of Buddhist translations was collected as ''Classics of Buddhism and Zen''. Another translation from the Muslim wisdom tradition is ''Living and Dying with Grace''. In 1993 Cleary published a translation of Miyamoto Musashi's ''Book of Five Rings''. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cleary Source Accessed Sept 18, 2020])
Alan Cole is the author of a number of books in the field of Religious/Buddhist Studies, including ''Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism'' (Stanford University Press 1998), ''Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature'' (University of California Press 2005), ''Fathering Your Father: The Zen of Fabrication in Tang Buddhism'' (University of California Press 2009), ''Fetishizing Tradition: Desire and Reinvention in Buddhist and Christian Narratives'' (SUNY Press, 2015), and, most recently, ''Patriarchs on Paper: A Critical History of Medieval Chan Literature'' (University of California Press, 2016). He was Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis & Clark College from 2006–2012 and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at National University of Singapore from 2013–2014. ([https://independent.academia.edu/ColeAlan/CurriculumVitae Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Dr. James William Coleman was born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal State Northridge (then called San Fernando Valley State College) and his master's and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His areas of specialization were criminology and the sociology of religion. . . .
His dissertation was an attempt to explain the process by which heroin addicts were able to give up drugs and change their lives, but his interest in criminology soon shifted to white collar crime. He first published ''The Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White Collar Crime'' in 1985, and it eventually went to six editions. His textbook, ''Social Problems'', which he originally co-authored with his dissertation advisor, Donald R. Cressey, and later with Harold R. Kerbo, Professor Emeritus, first came out in 1980 and had a total of 10 editions.
Later in his career, Coleman's interest turned back to the sociology of religion, and more specifically, to the amazing growth of Buddhism in the west. He published ''The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition'' in 1991, and continues to be involved with Buddhist theory and practice. He edited the talks of Reb Anderson Roshi into a booked entitled ''The Third Turning of the Wheel: The Wisdom of the Samdhnirmocana Sutra'', which was published in 2012. His latest book, ''The Buddha’s Dream of Liberation: Freedom, Emptiness and Awakened Nature'' came out in June 2017. ([https://socialsciences.calpoly.edu/newsletter-2017/coleman-retires Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Steven Collins (1951-2018) was Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities in the University of Chicago’s Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and in the Divinity School’s History of Religions program. A world-renowned scholar of the Pali Buddhist traditions of south and southeast Asia, he contributed greatly to the University of Chicago’s unusual strength in Buddhist studies. ([https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/memory-steven-collins Source Accessed Jan 17, 2020]) +
Paul Condon is an associate professor of psychology at Southern Oregon University. He has also served as a visiting lecturer for the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, and is a fellow of the Mind & Life Institute. His research examines the relational basis for empathy, compassion, wellbeing, and prosocial action, and the influence of compassion and mindfulness training on those capacities. His writing and teaching also explore the use of diverse scientific theories in dialogue with contemplative traditions to inform meditation practices of compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom. Paul teaches meditation practices adapted from the Tibetan Nyingma and Kagyu traditions for multi-faith and secular application. ([https://paulcondon.org/ Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
Edward Conze (1904-1979) was born in London and educated in Germany. He gained his Ph.D from Cologne University in 1928, and then studied Indian and European comparative philosophy at the Universities of Bonn and Hamburg. From 1933 until 1960 he lectured in psychology, philosophy and comparative religion at London and Oxford Universities. Between 1963 and 1973 he held a number of academic appointments in England, Germany and the USA, and was also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster, as well as Vice-President of the Buddhist Society. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Edward_Conze Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Francis Dojun Cook was born and raised in a very small town in upstate New York in 1930. He was lucky to be an ordinary kid with ordinary parents. By means of true grit and luck, he managed to acquire several academic degrees and learn something about Buddhism. More luck in the form of a Fulbright Fellowship enabled him to study in Kyoto, Japan, for a year and a half, where he would have learned more had he not spent so much time admiring temple gardens. He now teaches Buddhism at the University of California, Riverside, and is director of translations at the Institute for Transcultural Studies in Los Angeles. He remains ordinary, but to his credit it can be said that he raised four good kids, has a great love for animals, and cooks pretty well. A sign that at last he is becoming more intelligent is that he became a student of Maezumi Roshi several years ago, the best thing he ever did. He is also the author of ''Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra'', and of various articles on Buddhism in scholarly journals. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/francis-dojun-cook/ Source Accessed Mar 18, 2021]) +
Philippe Cornu (b. 1957) began studying Tibetan at the age of 18 and became a Buddhist in 1978. He was one of the first Rigpa students in France and has studied and practised Tibetan Buddhism with Dudjom Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and other teachers of the Nyingma tradition.
Philippe is an author and translator from Tibetan into French of several books on the Nyingma school and Dzogchen. He has also devoted a large part of his career to teaching and transmitting Buddhist philosophy in French speaking universities such as the French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), and at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), as well as in different Buddhist centres. He joined Rigpa's new Vision Board in 2019. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Philippe_Cornu Source Accessed June 10, 2021]) +
Jamie is a graduate student in Tibetan Studies at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, where he is currently completing his MA thesis on the life of Gö Lotsawa Shönu Pal. Jamie provides administrative support for the Translation Teams and is our source text researcher and catalogue curator.
Jamie’s research focuses mainly on the philosophical literature of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the different Tibetan Madhyamaka interpretations, Tibetan biography writing, the Kadam teachings on mind training (blo sbyong), and experiential songs (mgur). He has also contributed to several translation projects, such as Study Buddhism (Berzin Archives) and 84000.
Jamie currently lives in Vienna, where he has found the ideal environment to spend his free time pursuing his interest in classical music and playing the double bass. ([https://www.khyentsevision.org/team/jamie-creek/ Source Accessed Sep 7, 2021]) +
Cuong Tu Nguyen received his PhD from Harvard University (specializing in Indian Buddhism). His works on Vietnamese Buddhism include "Rethinking Vietnamese Buddhist History: Is the ''Then Uyen Tap Anh'' a 'Transmission of the Lamp Text'?" "Tran Thai Tong and Khoa Hu Lue: A Study of Syncretic Ch'an in 13th Century Vietnam," and ''Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study and Translation of the Thien Uyen Tap Anh.'' With A. Charles Muller he co-edited ''Wonhyo's Philosophy of Mind'', Volume II, (University of Hawai'i Press). He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at George Mason University. +
D
Daehaeng Kun Sunim (대행, 大行; 1927–2012) was a Korean Buddhist nun and Seon (禪) master. She taught monks as well as nuns, and helped to increase the participation of young people and men in Korean Buddhism. She made laypeople a particular focus of her efforts, and broke out of traditional models of spiritual practice, teaching so that anyone could practice, regardless of monastic status or gender. She was also a major force for the advancement of Bhikkunis (nuns), heavily supporting traditional nuns’ colleges as well as the modern Bhikkuni Council of Korea. The temple she founded, Hanmaum Seon Center, grew to have 15 branches in Korea, with another 10 branches in other countries. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daehaeng Source Accessed Nov 24, 2020]) +
Cortland J. Dahl received a Ph.D. in Mind, Brain and Contemplative Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also completed an MA degree in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language at Naropa University. He has worked as an instructor at Kathmandu University's Center for Buddhist Studies, located in Kathmandu, as well as an interpreter for various lamas, including Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. He currently serves as president of Tergar International and as a senior instructor in the Tergar Meditation Community. He lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin. +
Born in 1974, he joined the main Sakya Monastery in North India as a young boy and learned prayers and rituals. He also received empowerments, teachings, and training in the sūtra and tantric teachings in the Sakya tradition. In 1991, he joined Sakya College in Dehradun and pursued higher education in Buddhist Studies, after which he taught in the same college for some years. In 2002, according to the wishes of H.H. Sakya Trichen Rinpoche, he was appointed as the Sakya lecturer in the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. He has served there as a lecturer for over 22 years and was conferred the Khenpo title by H.H. Sakya Trichen and his sons. He has regularly participated in conferences and seminars and has written articles on the wheel of Dharma, Sakya meditation practice, store consciousness, the luminous nature of the mind, the two truths, the view and Middle Way theory in the Sakya tradition, lower and higher abhidharma, bodhicitta, the twelve links of dependent origination, the four tenet systems, etc. +
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He is the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, the child, then named Lhamo Dhondup, was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.
The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are realized beings inspired by a wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings, who have vowed to be reborn in the world to help humanity. ([https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/brief-biography Read more here . . .]) +
Born in Gasa in northern Bhutan, he became a monk at the age of 10 in a local Drukpa Kagyu monastery and learned prayers and rituals in the Drukpa Kagyu tradition. At 15, he joined Lekshey Jungney College in Punakha, and studied language, grammar, poetics, Middle Way, Perfection Studies, etc. under Dralop Lekshey Gyatso and others. In 2010, he entered Tago Buddhist University and finished years of higher Buddhist studies and went to India for further study. He spent five years in Sera Je Khenyen Monastery undertaking rigorous study and returned to Bhutan to continue his study for five more years at Tago Buddhist University. In 2021, he finished his studies and he currently serves as a lecturer at Tago Dorden Buddhist University. +
Dan Smyer Yü is Kuige Professor of Ethnology, School of Ethnology and Sociology and the National Centre for Borderlands Ethnic Studies in Southwest China at Yunnan University. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Davis in 2006. Prior to his current faculty appointment, he was the Founding Director of the Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies at Yunnan Minzu University, a Senior Researcher/Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, a core member of the Transregional Research Network (CETREN) at University of Göttingen, and a New Millennium Scholar at Minzu University of China, Beijing. He is the author of ''The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China: Charisma, Money, Enlightenment'' (Routledge 2011) and ''Mindscaping the Landscape of Tibet: Place, Memorability, Eco-aesthetics'' (De Gruyter 2015), and the co-editor of ''Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China'' (Routledge 2014) and ''Trans-Himalayan Borderlands: Livelihoods, Territorialities, Modernities'' (Amsterdam University Press 2017). His research interests are religion and ecology, environmental humanities, trans-Himalayan studies, sacred landscapes, climate change and mass migration, modern Tibetan studies, and comparative studies of Eurasian secularisms. His externally funded projects are "Trans-Himalayan Environmental Humanities" (ICIMOD), "India-China Corridor Project" (the Swedish Research Council), "Cultural and Ecological Diversity of the Trans-Himalayas in the Context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative" (National Social Sciences Foundation of China), and "Sustainable Lives in Scarred Landscapes: Heritage, Environment, and Violence in the China-Myanmar Jade Trade" (The British Academy Sustainable Development Program). ([https://www.issrnc.org/2020/06/04/meet-issrnc-board-member-dan-smyer-yu/ Source Accessed Aug 10, 2020]) +
Daosheng (Chinese: 道生; pinyin: Dàoshēng; Wade–Giles: Tao Sheng), or Zhu Daosheng (Chinese: 竺道生; Wade–Giles: Chu Tao-sheng), was an eminent Six Dynasties era Chinese Buddhist scholar. He is known for advocating the concepts of sudden enlightenment and the universality of the Buddha nature.
Born in Pengcheng, Daosheng left home to become a monk at eleven. He studied in Jiankang under Zhu Fatai, and later at Lushan (Mount Lu) monastery with Huiyuan, and from 405 or 406 under Kumārajīva in Chang'an, where he stayed for some two years perfecting his education. He became one of the foremost scholars of his time, counted among the "fifteen great disciples" of Kumārajīva.
Sengzhao reports that Daosheng assisted Kumārajīva in his translation of the ''Lotus Sutra'', Daosheng wrote commentaries on the ''Lotus Sutra'', the ''Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra'' and the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra'' (the last of which has been lost). In 408, he returned to Lushan, and in 409 back to Jiankang, where he remained for some twenty years, staying at the Qingyuan Monastery (青园寺) from 419.
Daosheng controversially ascribed Buddha-nature to the icchantikas, based on his reading on a short version of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'', which in that short form appears to deny the Buddha-nature to icchantikas; the long version of the ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'', however (not yet known to Daosheng), explicitly includes the icchantikas in the universality of the Buddha-nature. Daosheng's bold doctrine of including icchantikas within the purview of the Buddha-nature, even before that explicit teaching had actually been found in the long ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'', led to the expulsion of Daosheng from the Buddhist community in 428 or 429, and he retreated to Lushan in 430.
With the availability of the long ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'' after 430, through the translation of Dharmakshema, Daosheng was vindicated and praised for his insight. He remained in Lushan, composing his commentary on the ''Lotus Sūtra'' in 432, until his death in 434.
Daosheng's exegesis of the ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'' had an enormous influence on interpretations of the Buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism that prepared the ground for the Chán school emerging in the 6th century.<br>([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daosheng Source Accessed Sept. 2 2020])
''Dates from The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton University Press, 2014)''
The late Geshe Lobsang Dargyay was trained at Drepung Monastery in Tibet. He got his doctorate in Buddhist and Tibetan Studies from the Ludwig Maximilians Universität and held teaching and research positions in Vienna, Hamburg, and Calgary. Geshe-la was the first Tibetan to receive a doctorate from a Western university. He passed away in 1994. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/geshe-lobsang-dargyay/ Source Accessed Sept 23, 2020])
For a more complete biography, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=Xzc6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=Freedom+From+Extremes/In+Memoriam:+Geshe+Lobsang+Dargyay+(1935-94)by+Eva+Neumaier&source=bl&ots=a2vMqwcDeb&sig=ACfU3U1uAhLezrS11HGmbnKtWcEX30VAsQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4m_PKy4jnAhUJGc0KHXxeDagQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Freedom%20From%20Extremes%2FIn%20Memoriam%3A%20Geshe%20Lobsang%20Dargyay%20(1935-94)by%20Eva%20Neumaier&f=false "In Memoriam: Geshe Lobsang Dargyay (1935–94)"] by Eva Neumaier, in ''Freedom from Extremes: Gorampa's "Distinguishing the Views" and the Polemics of Emptiness'' (Wisdom Publications, 2007), xi–xiv. +
Bret W. Davis is Professor and Thomas J. Higgins, S.J. Chair in Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland, where he teaches courses on Western, Asian, and cross-cultural philosophy. His research focuses on Japanese philosophy (esp. the Kyoto School and Zen Buddhism), on Continental philosophy (esp. Heidegger, phenomenology, and hermeneutics), and on issues in cross-cultural philosophy and comparative philosophy of religion.
Along with earning a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University, he has studied and taught for more than a year in Germany and for more than a dozen years in Japan. In Japan, he studied Buddhist thought at Otani University, completed the coursework for a second Ph.D. in Japanese philosophy at Kyoto University, taught philosophy and related courses in Japanese at various universities, and practiced Zen Buddhism at Shōkokuji, one of the main Rinzai Zen training monasteries in Kyoto.
In addition to authoring more than 75 articles in English and Japanese, as well as translating many articles from Japanese and German, he is author of Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit (Northwestern University Press, 2007); translator of Martin Heidegger’s Country Path Conversations (Indiana University Press, 2010, paperback edition 2016); editor of The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2020) and of Martin Heidegger: Key Concepts (Acumen, 2010, Routledge, 2014); coeditor with Fujita Masakatsu of Sekai no naka no Nihon no tetsugaku (Japanese Philosophy in the World) (Shōwadō, 2005); and coeditor with Brian Schroeder and Jason Wirth of Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School (Indiana University Press, 2011) and of Engaging Dōgen’s Zen: The Philosophy of Practice as Awakening (Wisdom Publishing, 2017).
His current projects include a book manuscript on Zen Buddhism and another on the Kyoto School and interpersonal as well as intercultural dialogue. He was the Director of the 2017 Collegium Phaenomenologicum, is Associate Officer of The Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle, serves on the board of directors of the Nishida Philosophy Association (Nishida tetsugakkai) as well as on the editorial boards of several journals and book series, and is coeditor of Indiana University Press’s series in World Philosophies. ([https://loyola.academia.edu/BretDavis Source Accessed Nov 25, 2019])
Khenpo Dawa Tsering was born in 1987 in Tichurong Drigung Gonpa in the Dolpo region of Nepal. At 11, he started learning Tibetan and in 2000 he met H.H. Senge Tenzin and joined Drigung Monastery in India. He received his novice ordination from H.H. Drigung Kyapgon Thinley Lhundrup and undertook monastic education. In 2005, he joined Kagyu Buddhist University and finished his education in common sciences and Buddhist Studies in general and Kagyu systems, including the Single Intent, Five Verse Mahāmudra, etc., in particular under Khenchen Koncho Gyaltsen, Khenchen Nyima Gyaltsen, and H.H. Nubri Rinpoche. Since grade seven, he also taught language and grammar, and in 2014 he finished his education and taught at Samtenling Nunnery for eight years. In 2019, he was conferred the Khenpo title. He currently serves as the disciplinarian at Drigung Jangchubling Monastery. +
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]) +
Yasuo Deguchi is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Kyoto University in Japan. His research interests include: Philosophy of Mathematical Sciences that include Probability Theory and Statistics, Scientific Realism, Philosophy of Computer Simulation and Chaos Studies, Kant’s Philosophy of Mathematics, Skolem’s Philosophy, and Analytic Asian Philosophy. ([http://www.philosophy.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/staff/deguchi/ Source Accessed Dec 2, 2019]) +
Paul Demiéville (13 September 1894 – 23 March 1979) was a Swiss-French sinologist and Orientalist known for his studies of the Dunhuang manuscripts and Buddhism and his translations of Chinese poetry, as well as for his 30-year tenure as co-editor of ''T'oung Pao''.
Demiéville was one of the foremost sinologists of the first half of the 20th century, and was known for his wide-ranging contributions to Chinese and Buddhist scholarship. His influence on Chinese scholarship in France was particularly profound, as he was the only major French sinologist to survive World War II.
Demiéville was one of the first sinologists to learn Japanese to augment their study of China: prior to the early 20th century, most scholars of China learned Manchu as their second scholarly language, but Demiéville's study of Japanese instead was soon followed by nearly every major sinologist since his day. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Demi%C3%A9ville Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Mark Dennis is Associate Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth Texas. He earned his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006, focusing on early Japanese Buddhism. Before joining the Religion Department at TCU in 2007, he taught for four years at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He has lived in Japan and India for eight years where he studied Buddhism and Hinduism, and has traveled widely in Asia. His research focuses on the reception history of Japanese Buddhist texts, looking particularly at notions of authorship, textuality, and canon. He has published a translation of the ''Shomangyo-gisho'', a Japanese Buddhist text written in classical Chinese and attributed to Japan’s Prince Shotoku (574–622 CE). He has also written articles looking at the reception of this text in various periods of Japanese history. One of these articles examines the different ways in which four medieval Japanese monks understood and used the text, while another considers modern representations of it in Japanese manga, or comic books. He has also coedited a volume of essays on Shusaku Endo's novel ''Silence'' that was published in 2014 by Bloomsbury-Continuum. ([https://www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies/centre-religion-culture-asia/about/associate-fellows/textual Source Accessed Jun 6, 2019]) +
Dharmakṣema. (C. Tanwuchen; J. Donmusen; K. Tammuch'am 曇無讖 (385-433 CE). Indian Buddhist monk who was an early translator of Buddhist materials into Chinese. A scion of a brāhmaṇa family from India, Dharmakṣema became at the age of six a disciple of Dharmayaśas (C. Damoyeshe; J. Donmayasha) (d.u.), an Abhidharma specialist who later traveled to China c. 397–401 and translated the ''Śāriputrābhidharmaśāstra''. Possessed of both eloquence and intelligence, Dharmakṣema was broadly learned in both monastic and secular affairs and was well versed in mainstream Buddhist texts. After he met a meditation monk named "White Head" and had a fiery debate with him, Dharmakṣema recognized his superior expertise and ended up studying with him. The monk transmitted to him a text of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' written on bark, which prompted Dharmakṣema to embrace the Mahāyāna. Once he reached the age of twenty, Dharmakṣema was able to recite over two million words of Buddhist texts. He was also so skilled in casting spells that he earned the sobriquet "Great Divine Spell Master" (C. Dashenzhou shi). Carrying with him the first part of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' that he received from "White Head," he left India and arrived in the Kucha kingdom in Central Asia. As the people of Kucha mostly studied Hīnayāna and did not accept the Mahāyāna teachings, Dharmakṣema then moved to China and lived in the western outpost of Dunhuang for several years. Juqu Mengxun, the non-Chinese ruler of the Northern Liang dynasty (397–439 CE), eventually brought Dharmakṣema to his capital. After studying the Chinese language for three years and learning how to translate Sanskrit texts orally into Chinese, Dharmakṣema engaged there in a series of translation projects under Juqu Mengxun's patronage. With the assistance of Chinese monks, such as Daolang and Huigao, Dharmakṣema produced a number of influential Chinese translations, including the ''Dabanniepan jing'' (S. ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''; in forty rolls), the longest recension of the sūtra extant in any language; the ''Jinguangming jing'' ("Sūtra of Golden Light"; S. ''Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra''; in four rolls); and the ''Pusa dichi jing'' (S. ''Bodhisattvabhūmisūtra''; in ten rolls). He is also said to have made the first Chinese translation of the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'' (C. ''Ru Lengqie jing'', but his rendering had dropped out of circulation at least by 730 CE, when the Tang Buddhist cataloguer Zhisheng (700–786 CE) compiled the Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu. The Northern Wei ruler Tuoba Tao, a rival of Juqu Mengxun's, admired Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise and requested that the Northern Liang ruler send the Indian monk to his country. Fearing that his rival might seek to employ Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise against him, Juqu Mengxun had the monk assassinated at the age of forty-nine. Dharmakṣema's translation of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese had a significant impact on Chinese Buddhism; in particular, the doctrine that all beings have the buddha-nature (''foxing''), a teaching appearing in Dharmakṣema's translation of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', exerted tremendous influence on the development of Chinese Buddhist thought. (Source: "Dharmakṣema." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 247–48. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Dharmamitra ［曇摩蜜多・曇無蜜多］ (356–442) (Skt; Jpn Dommamitta or Dommumitta): A monk from Kashmir in ancient India who translated Buddhist sutras into Chinese. He entered the Buddhist Order while young and traveled through various kingdoms to pursue study of the sutras. He dedicated himself to the practice of meditation and, passing through Kucha and Tun-huang, went to China in 424, where he exhorted people to practice meditation. In 433 he went to Chien-k’ang, the capital of the Liu Sung dynasty, and in 435 founded Ting-lin-shang-ssu temple, where he lived. He converted the empress and crown prince of the Liu Sung dynasty. His works include ''The Secret Essentials of Meditation'' and Chinese translations of the ''Universal Worthy Sutra'' and the ''Meditation on Bodhisattva Space Treasury Sutra''. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/D/55 Source Accessed July 15, 2021]) +
Bhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name "Heng Shou" - 釋恆授) is a Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the earliest American disciples (since 1968) of the late Guiyang Ch'an patriarch, Dharma teacher, and pioneer of Buddhism in the West, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (宣化上人). He has a total of 34 years in robes during two periods as a monastic (1969‒1975 & 1991 to the present). Dharmamitra's principal educational foundations as a translator of Sino-Buddhist Classical Chinese lie in four years of intensive monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahāyāna texts in a small-group setting under Master Hsuan Hua (1968-1972), undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University, a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen University Language Center near Taipei, two years of course work at the University of Washington's Department of Asian Languages and Literature (1988-90), and an additional three years of auditing graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again at UW's Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra has devoted his energies primarily to study and translation of classic Mahāyāna texts with a special interest in works by rya Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles, including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the "Flower Adornment Sutra"), Nāgārjuna's 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika Vibhāṣā ("Treatise on the Ten Grounds"), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra (the "Ten Grounds Sutra") . . . ([https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Bhikshu-Dharmamitra# Source Accessed July 15, 2021]) +
Vorenkamp, a member of the Lawrence religious studies department since 1997, specializes in Asian religions, especially Buddhism. His teaching was recognized with the Lawrence Freshman Studies Teaching Award in 2000 and his scholarly research has been published in the Encyclopedia of Monasticism, the Journal of Asian Studies and the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, among others. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ([https://blogs.lawrence.edu/news/tag/dirck-vorenkamp Source Accessed April 15, 2020]) +
Divākara (地婆訶羅, 613–87), or Rizhao (日照) in Chinese, was born in central India in the Brahmin Caste.
He became a Monk when he was just a child, and he spent many years at the Mahābodhi Temple and the Nālandā Monastery. He was an accomplished Tripiṭaka master, excelled in the five studies and especially in Mantra practices.
Already in his sixties, Divākara went to Chang-an (長安), China, in 676, the first year of the Yifeng (儀鳳) years of the Tang Dynasty (618–907).
Emperor Gaozong (唐高宗) treated him as respectfully as he had treated the illustrious Tripiṭaka master Xuanzang.
In 680, the first year of the Yonglong (永隆) years, the emperor commanded ten learned Monks to assist Divākara in translating sūtras from Sanskrit into Chinese.
In six years Divākara translated eighteen sūtras, including the ''Sūtra of the Buddha-Crown Superb Victory Dhāraṇī'' (T19n0970), the ''Sūtra of the Great Cundī Dhāraṇī'' (T20n1077), and the ''Mahāyāna Sūtra of Consciousness Revealed'' (T12n0347).
Longing to see his mother again, he petitioned for permission to go home.
Unfortunately, although permission was granted, he fell ill and died in the twelfth month of 687, the third year of the Chuigong (垂拱) years, at the age of seventy-five.
Empress Wu (武后則天) had him buried properly at the Xiangshan Monastery (香山寺) in Luoyang (洛陽).
([http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Div%C4%81kara Source Accessed Aug 18, 2020]) +
Prof. Lucia Dolce is Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhism in the Department of Religions and Philosophies, School of History, Religions and Philosophies at SOAS, University of London. She is the Chair of the Centre of Buddhist Studies and the Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions.
Lucia Dolce specialises in Japanese religions and thought, with a particular research interest in the religiosity of the medieval period, including millenarian ideas and prophetic writings, the esotericisation of religious practice, and kami-Buddhas associations. She is also interested in Chinese Buddhist thought and in popular religion in contemporary Japan. ([https://ceres.rub.de/en/people/lucia-dolce/ Source Accessed Sep 21, 2021]) +
For six months each year, Don Handrick serves as the resident teacher at Thubten Norbu Ling, in Santa Fe, NM, a center affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). During that time, he also teaches at Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center in Taos, NM, and volunteers for the Liberation Prison Project, teaching Buddhism once a month at a local prison. Since 2012 he has been an active member of the Interfaith Leadership Alliance of Santa Fe.<br><br>
Don spends the other half of each year as a touring teacher for the FPMT, visiting centers around the world. In 2015, Don had the honor of being selected to lead the renowned November Course, a one month teaching and meditation retreat held annually at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal.<br><br>
Don's study of Buddhism began in 1993 after reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. Over the next two years he practiced with Sogyal Rinpoche's organization, until he began attending classes in 1996 with Venerable Robina Courtin at Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco.<br><br>
Don left the Bay Area in 1998 to attend the FPMT's Masters Program of Buddhist Studies in Sutra and Tantra, a seven-year residential study program conducted at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Tuscany, Italy, taught by the scholar and kind Spiritual Friend, Geshe Jampa Gyatso. He successfully completed all five subjects of this program in 2004, receiving an FPMT final certificate with high honors. Don then moved to Santa Fe, serving as the Spiritual Program Coordinator for Thubten Norbu Ling before being appointed resident teacher in 2006.<br><br>
Don has received teachings from many esteemed lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, and Khensur Jampa Tegchok. ([https://www.donhandrick.com/about Source Accessed Nov 12, 2020]) +
Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche was born in the Dhoshul region of Kham in eastern Tibet on June 10, 1950. On that summer day in the family tent, Rinpoche’s birth caused his mother no pain. The next day, his mother, Pema Lhadze, moved the bed where she had given birth. Beneath it she found growing a beautiful and fragrant flower which she plucked and offered to Chenrezig on the family altar.
Soon after his birth three head lamas from Jadchag monastery came to his home and recognized him as the reincarnation of Khenpo Sherab Khyentse. Khenpo Sherab Khyentse, who had been the former head abbot lama at Gochen Monastery, was a renowned scholar and practitioner who lived much of his life in retreat.
Rinpoche’s first dharma teacher was his father, Lama Chimed Namgyal Rinpoche. Beginning his schooling at the age of five, he entered Gochen Monastery. His studies were interrupted by the Chinese invasion and his family's escape to India. In India his father and brother continued his education until he entered the Nyingmapa Monastic School of Northern India, where he studied until 1967.
He then entered the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, which was then a part of Sanskrit University in Varanasi, where he received his B.A. degree in 1975. He also attended Nyingmapa University in West Bengal, where he received another B.A. and an M.A. in 1977.
In 1978 Rinpoche was enthroned as the abbot of the Wish-fulfilling Nyingmapa Institute in Boudanath, Nepal by [[H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche]], and later became the abbot of the Department of Dharma Studies, where he taught poetry, grammar, philosophy and psychology. In 1981, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche appointed Rinpoche as the abbot of the Dorje Nyingpo Center in Paris, France. In 1982 he was asked to work with H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche at the Yeshe Nyingpo Center in New York. During the 1980s, until H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche’s mahaparinirvana in 1987, Rinpoche continued working closely with him, often traveling as his translator and attendant.
In 1988, Rinpoche and his brother founded the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center. Since that time he has served as a spiritual director at the various Padmasambhava centers throughout the world. He maintains an active traveling and teaching schedule with his brother, Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche.
Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche has authored two books of poetry on the life of Guru Rinpoche, including ''Praise to the Lotus Born: A Verse Garland of Waves of Devotion'', and a unique two-volume cultural and religious history of Tibet entitled ''The Six Sublime Pillars of the Nyingma School'', which details the historical bases of the dharma in Tibet from the sixth through ninth centuries. At present, this is one of the only books written that conveys the dharma activities of this historical period in such depth. Khenpo Rinpoche has also co-authored a number of books in English on dharma subjects with his brother Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, including ''Ceaseless Echoes of the Great Silence: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra''; ''Prajnaparamita: The Six Perfections''; ''Door to Inconceivable Wisdom and Compassion''; ''Lion's Gaze: A Commentary on the Tsig Sum Nedek''; and ''Opening Our Primordial Nature''. ([http://www.padmasambhava.org/teach/longkhenpo.html Source Accessed Jan 29, 2015])
Gary Donnelly is an academic advisor at the University of Manchester, and lectures in Indic Religious Traditions at Liverpool Hope University. He holds a PhD in Indian Philosophy, specializing in Theravada, Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and Vedanta traditions. ([https://www.lionsroar.com/author/gary-donnelly/ Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje is the head of the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu Lineage and guide to millions of Buddhists around the world. Orgyen Trinley Dorje is a Tibetan practitioner and scholar, a painter, poet, songwriter and playwright, an environmental and social justice activist, and world spiritual leader who uses modern technology, such as Facebook and other digital platforms, to teach Buddhism and bring the Karma Kagyu lineage’s activities fully into the 21st century. You can see some of the projects he has initiated on Adarsha or Dharma Treasures: [https://digital-toolbox.dharma-treasure.org/ Digital Toolbox] & [https://dharmaebooks.org/ Dharma Books]
[https://kagyuoffice.org/news/ News and links to teachings from His Holiness]
*[https://kagyuoffice.org/joint-long-life-prayer-for-kunzig-shamar-rinpoches-reincarnation/ Long Life Prayer for Shamar Rinpoche with HH Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje]
*[https://www.facebook.com/karmapa/ Facebook - Live Teachings and News]
*[http://www.kagyuoffice.org/karmapa.html Karmapa Biography from kagyuoffice.org]
*[https://kagyu.org/gyalwang-karmapa-ogyen-trinley-dorje/ Karmapa Biography from kagyu.org]
[[Category:Karmapas]] +
Gyurme Dorje (1950 – 5 February 2020) was a Scottish Tibetologist and writer. He was born in Edinburgh, where he studied classics (Latin and Greek) at George Watson's College and developed an early interest in Buddhist philosophy. He held a PhD in Tibetan Literature (SOAS) and an MA in Sanskrit with Oriental Studies (Edinburgh). In the 1970s he spent a decade living in Tibetan communities in India and Nepal where he received extensive teachings from Kangyur Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Chatral Rinpoche, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 1971 Dudjom Rinpoche encouraged him to begin translating his recently completed ''History of the Nyingma Schoo''l (རྙིང་མའི་སྟན་པའི་ཆོས་འབྱུང་) and in 1980 his ''Fundamentals of the Nyingma School'' (བསྟན་པའི་རྣམ་གཞག) - together this was an undertaking that was to take twenty years, only reaching completion in 1991. In the 1980s Gyurme returned to the UK and in 1987 completed his 3 volume doctoral dissertation on the ''Guhyagarbhatantra'' and Longchenpa's commentary on this text at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.
From 1991 to 1996 Gyurme held research fellowships at London University, where he worked with Alak Zenkar Rinpoche on translating (with corrections) the content of the Great Sanskrit Tibetan Chinese Dictionary to create the three volume ''Encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary''. From 2007 until his death he worked on many translation projects, primarily as a Tsadra Foundation grantee. He has written, edited, translated and contributed to numerous important books on Tibetan religion and culture including ''The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History'' (2 vols.) (Wisdom, 1991), ''Tibetan Medical Paintings'' ( 2 vols.) (Serindia, 1992), ''The Tibet Handbook'' (Footprint, 1996), the first complete translation of the ''Tibetan Book of the Dead'', and ''A Handbook of Tibetan Culture'' (Shambhala, 1994). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyurme_Dorje Source Accessed Jul 14, 2020])
Drakar Lobzang Palden Tendzin Nyendrak (Brag dkar blo bzang dpal ldan bstan 'dzin snyan grags 1866–1928) of Trehor Kardzé wrote a refutation of Mipam Rinpoche's commentary on the ninth chapter of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''. He was also a disciple of the Longchen Nyingtik master Ragang Chöpa, and a teacher of Amdo Geshe Jampal Rolwé Lodrö. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Drakkar_Lobzang_Palden Adapted from Source Oct 4, 2022]) +
Martina Draszczyk holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies and Tibetology. Her doctoral thesis at the Department for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies of the University of Vienna dealt with the integration of the notion of buddha-nature in meditation practice. She trained in Buddhist philosophy and meditation with both Tibetan Buddhist and Theravāda teachers and acted as an interpreter for Tibetan masters for many years. In her research projects she focuses on Tibetan Madhyamaka, Mahāmudrā, and buddha-nature theories mainly in the context of the Bka’ brgyud tradition. She also teaches in Buddhist centers in Europe as well as in the field of secular mindfulness. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/2019-vienna-symposium/ Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
The Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang, Konchog Tenzin Kunsang Thrinle Lhundrup, was born on the 4th day of the 6th Tibetan month of the Fire-Dog-Year 1946 into the aristocratic family of Tsarong in Lhasa. This auspicious day marks the anniversary of the Buddha’s first turning of the Wheel of Dharma. Many prodigious signs and visions accompanied his birth. His grandfather, Dasang Damdul Tsarong (1888-1959), has been the favorite of the 13th Dalai Lama (1876-1933), Commander General of the Tibetan army and one of the most influential political figures in the early 20th century in Tibet. Chetsangs father, Dundul Namgyal Tsarong (b. 1920), held a high office in the Tibetan Government and he was still active in important positions for the Exile Government in Dharamsala after the escape of the Dalai Lama and the cabinet ministers. His mother, Yangchen Dolkar, is from the noble house of Ragashar, which descended from the ancient royal dynasty.
(Continue reading at [http://www.drikung.org/their-holiness/hh-kyabgoen-chetsang Drikung.org]) +
Lama Palden was one of the first Western women to be authorized as a lama in 1986, by her primary teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, following her completion of the traditional Tibetan three year, three month retreat. She has been a student and practitioner of Buddhism and of Comparative Mysticism for over 40 years. She is the founding teacher of Sukhasiddhi Foundation http://www.sukhasiddhi.org in the SF Bay Area, a Tibetan Buddhist center in the Shangpa and Kagyu lineages. Lama Palden has a deep interest in helping to make the teachings and practices of Vajrayana Buddhism accessible and practical for Westerners in order to help students actualize our innate wisdom, love and joy. As a teacher, she is committed to each student's unique unfolding and blossoming.
In 1993 Lama Palden completed a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. After licensing as a psychotherapist, she engaged in facilitating clients psycho-spiritual integration and development, through bringing together understandings and methods from Buddhism and Psychology, as well as from the Diamond Heart work, that she engaged with and trained in for many years. ([https://www.amazon.com/Lama-Palden-Drolma/e/B07NLJ87GM%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share Source Accessed August 13, 2020]) +
Drolungpa Lodrö Jungne was a disciple of rNgog lo tsā ba Blo ldan shes rab. Among his important works include a biography (''rnam thar'') of Blo ldan shes rab as well as the ''Great Stages of the Doctrine'' (''Bstan rim chen mo''), which served as a model for Tsongkhapa's Lam rim texts. +
Rnying ma scholar and practitioner. According to Erik Padma Kunsang, 'bru 'jam dbyangs chos kyi grags pa was a close disciple of 'jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po and a holder of the teaching lineage of the lam rim ye shes snying po;
see http://www.rangjung.com/gl/Lamrim_Yeshe_Nyingpo_intro.htm. He should not be confused with padma 'phrin las snying po whose one volume gsung 'bum has recently been found in tibet. (Source:[https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P9709 TBRC]) +
Douglas Duckworth, Ph.D. (Virginia, 2005) is Professor at Temple University and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Religion. His papers have appeared in numerous journals and books, including the ''Blackwell Companion to Buddhist Philosophy'', ''Sophia'', ''Philosophy East & West'', the ''Journal for the American Academy of Religion'', ''Asian Philosophy'', and the ''Journal of Contemporary Buddhism''. Duckworth is the author of ''Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition'' (SUNY 2008) and ''Jamgön Mipam: His Life and Teachings'' (Shambhala 2011). He also introduced and translated ''Distinguishing the Views and Philosophies: Illuminating Emptiness in a Twentieth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Classic'' by Bötrül (SUNY 2011). He is a co-author of ''Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet'' (Oxford 2016) and co-editor of ''Buddhist Responses to Religious Diversity: Theravāda and Tibetan Perspectives'' (Equinox 2020). He also is the co-editor, with Jonathan Gold, of ''Readings of Śāntideva’s Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra)'' (CUP 2019). His latest works include ''Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature'' (OUP 2019) and a translation of an overview of the Wisdom Chapter of the ''Way of the Bodhisattva'' by Künzang Sönam, entitled ''The Profound Reality of Interdependence'' (OUP 2019). Doctor Duckworth received the first '''Distinguished Research Grant in Tibetan Buddhist Studies''' from Tsadra Foundation for 2020-2023. (Source: Duckworth, January 28, 2021) +
Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche or Dudjom Jikdral Yeshe Dorje (Tib. བདུད་འཇོམས་འཇིགས་བྲལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje) (1904-1987) — one of Tibet’s foremost yogins, scholars, and meditation masters. He was recognized as the incarnation of Dudjom Lingpa (1835-1904), whose previous incarnations included the greatest masters, yogins and panditas such as Shariputra, Saraha and Khye'u Chung Lotsawa. Considered to be the living representative of Padmasambhava, he was a great revealer of the ‘treasures’ (terma) concealed by Padmasambhava. A prolific author and meticulous scholar, Dudjom Rinpoche wrote more than forty volumes, one of the best known of which is his monumental ''The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History''. Over the last decade of his life he spent much time teaching in the West, where he helped to establish the Nyingma tradition, founding major centres in France and the United States. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Dudjom_Rinpoche Source Accessed Feb 20, 2020]) +
Lama Tony is a very well-known practitioner, scholar, and translator who has spent over forty years of his life fully dedicated to studying, practising, teaching, and translating the Buddhist teachings. He has been a full-time Buddhist practitioner-scholar since 1973. He was a member of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Nalanda Translator Committee in which he retains honorary status. He was Tsoknyi Rinpoche's personal translator during the 1990's and has translated orally and in writing for many other great teachers during the years. He has been a member of several translation committees and has published or been involved in the publication of many Tibetan Buddhist texts.
Based on his long experience with Kagyu teachings, he has prepared many books on the Kagyu view, called "Other Emptiness", and on Mahamudra and the Kagyu teaching of it.
Tony has spent decades with the Nyingma teachings. In particular, he spent long periods in Tibet, receiving and practising the highest Dzogchen teachings in retreat. He has made a point of translating the key texts of the system for others who need accurate, reliable, and in-depth information about the practices of Dzogchen. His translation of the ultimate text of Longchen Nyingthig, known in Tibetan as "triyig yeshe lama" or "Guidebook to Highest Wisdom", has been highly praised by Tibetan teachers. <br>([https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Tony-Duff/e/B004O56VFK?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1599063446&sr=8-1 Source Accessed Sep 2, 2020]) +
The 7th Dzogchen Ponlop (Karma Sungrap Ngedön Tenpa Gyaltsen, born 1965) is an abbot of Dzogchen Monastery, founder and spiritual director of Nalandabodhi, founder of Nītārtha Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies, a leading Tibetan Buddhist scholar, and a meditation master. He is one of the highest tülkus in the Nyingma lineage and an accomplished Karma Kagyu lineage holder.
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche was born in 1965 at Rumtek Monastery (Dharma Chakra Center) in Sikkim, India. His birth was prophesied by the supreme head of the Kagyu lineage, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, to Ponlop Rinpoche's parents, Dhamchö Yongdu, the General Secretary of the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, and his wife, Lekshey Drolma. Upon his birth, he was recognized by the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as the seventh in the line of Dzogchen Ponlop incarnations and was formally enthroned as the Seventh Dzogchen Ponlop at Rumtek Monastery in 1968.[1]
After receiving Buddhist refuge and bodhisattva vows from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dzogchen Ponlop was ordained as a novice monk in 1974. He subsequently received full ordination and became a bhikṣu, although he later returned his vows and is now a lay teacher.
Rinpoche received teachings and empowerments from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse, Kalu Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (chief Abbot of the Kagyu lineage), Alak Zenkar Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, his root guru.
Ponlop Rinpoche began studying Buddhist philosophy at the primary school in Rumtek at age 12. In 1979 (when Rinpoche was fourteen), the 16th Karmapa proclaimed Ponlop Rinpoche to be a heart son of the Gyalwang Karmapa and a holder of his Karma Kagyu lineage. In 1980 on his first trip to the West, he accompanied the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa to Europe, United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia. While serving as the Karmapa's attendant, he also gave dharma teachings and assisted in ceremonial roles during these travels.[2]
In 1981, he entered the monastic college at Rumtek, Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies where he studied the fields of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, logic, and debate. During his time at Rumtek, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche worked for the Students' Welfare Union, served as head librarian, and was the chief-editor of the Nalandakirti Journal, an annual publication which brings together Eastern and Western views on Buddhism. Rinpoche graduated in 1990 as Ka-rabjampa from Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies in Rumtek Monastery. (Ka-rabjampa means "one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures", the Kagyu equivalent of the Sakya and Gelug's geshe degree.) He simultaneously earned the degree of Acharya, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy, from Sampurnanant Sanskrit University. Dzogchen Ponlop has also completed studies in English and comparative religion at Columbia University in New York City. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen_Ponlop_Rinpoche Source Accessed Nov 19, 2019])
For further information about Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, visit his [https://dpr.info/ Official Website]
Dānapāla. (C. Shihu; J. Sego; K. Siho 施護) (d.u.; fl. c. 980 CE). In Sanskrit, lit. "Protector of Giving"; one of the last great Indian translators of Buddhist texts into Chinese. A native of Oḍḍiyāna in the Gandhāra region of India, he was active in China during the Northern Song dynasty. At the order of the Song Emperor Taizhong (r. 960–997), he was installed in a translation bureau to the west of the imperial monastery of Taiping Xingguosi (in Yuanzhou, present-day Jiangxi province), where he and his team are said to have produced some 111 translations in over 230 rolls. His translations include texts from the prajñāpāramitā, Madhyamaka, and tantric traditions, including the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā'', ''Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra'', ''Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha'', ''Hevajratantra'', Nāgārjuna's ''Yuktiṣaṣtikā'' and ''Dharmadhātustava'', and Kamalaśīla's ''Bhāvanākrama'', as well as several dhāraṇī texts. (Source: "Dānapāla." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 212. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 19 January 1200– 22 September 1253), also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.
Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for five years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Chinese Caodong lineage. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the practice of zazen (sitting meditation) through literary works such as ''Fukan zazengi'' and ''Bendōwa''.
He eventually broke relations completely with the powerful Tendai School, and, after several years of likely friction between himself and the establishment, left Kyoto for the mountainous countryside where he founded the monastery Eihei-ji, which remains the head temple of the Sōtō school today.
Dōgen is known for his extensive writing including his most famous work, the collection of 95 essays called the ''[[Shōbōgenzō]]'', but also ''Eihei Kōroku'', a collection of his talks, poetry, and commentaries, and ''Eihei Shingi'', the first Zen monastic code written in Japan, among others. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dgen Source Accessed Jan 9, 2020]) +
E
Franz-Karl Ehrhard is a German Tibetologist. He teaches at the University of Munich, where he is a professor at the Institute of Tibetology and Buddhist Studies. His research focuses on religious and literary traditions in Tibet and the Himalayas (Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan). ([https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz-Karl_Ehrhard&prev=search Source Accessed Jun 7, 2019]) +
Elio was born in Varese, Italy, on 5 August 1954 and grew up in Como. He studied art and received a Master of Arts before traveling to India to study Buddhism. On his return from India he moved to Switzerland, where for ten years he learned Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy under one of the Dalai Lama’s philosophical advisors. Elio joined the Dzogchen community in 1986, when he received teachings from Chögyal Namkhai Norbu for the first time.
Invited by the late Kalu Rinpoche, Elio spent almost twenty years in India working on the large encyclopedia on Indo-Tibetan knowledge known as Shes bya kun khyab (Myriad Worlds,Buddhist Ethics, Systems of Buddhist Tantra, The Elements of Tantric Practice) authored by Kongtrul the Great, published in separate volumes by Snow Lion Publications. During this time Elio continued to actively collaborate with the Dzogchen Community and especially with the Shang Shung Institute in Italy, of which he is a founding member.
Elio has worked on various translations for the Shang Shung Institute in Italy, including several books by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu relating to Tibetan medicine. He has completed several levels of the Santi Maha Sangha training, and became an authorized teacher of the base, first, and second level. Since 2003, Elio has been one of the three principal translators for the Ka-ter project of the Shang Shung Institute of Austria. Aside from serving as instructor for the Training for Translators from Tibetan program, he also works for the Dzogchen Tantra Translation Project. ([http://skyjewel.org/ Source Accessed March 26, 2020]) +
Artemus B. Engle began studying the Tibetan language in Howell, New Jersey in early 1971 at Labsum Shedrup Ling, the precursor of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center. In 1972 he became a student of Sera Mey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche, a relationship that spanned more than thirty years. In 1975 he enrolled in the Buddhist Studies program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and received a PhD in 1983. Since the mid-1980s he taught Tibetan language and Buddhist doctrine at the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center in Howell, New Jersey. In 2005 he became a Tsadra Foundation Translation Fellow and has worked primarily on the ''Pañcaskandhaprakarana'' and the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi''. +
Erik Pema Kunsang is one of the most highly regarded Tibetan translators and interpreters today. Erik has been the assistant and translator for [[Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche]] and his sons since the late 1970s. He has translated and edited over fifty volumes of Tibetan texts and oral teachings, and was one of the founding directors of [[Rangjung Yeshe Publications]]. ([http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Erik_Pema_Kunsang Source Accessed Jul 24, 2020]) +
French Orientalist and seminal figure in the development of Buddhist Studies as an academic discipline. He was born in Paris on April 8, 1801, the son of the distinguished classicist Jean-Louis Burnouf (1773–1844). He received instruction in Greek and Latin from his father and studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. He entered the École des Chartes in 1822, receiving degrees in both letters and law in 1824. He then turned to the study of Sanskrit, both with his father and with Antoine Léonard de Chézy (1773–1832). In 1826, Burnouf published, in collaboration with the young Norwegian-German scholar Christian Lassen (1800–1876), ''Essai sur le pâli'' (“Essay on Pāli”). After the death of Chézy, Burnouf was appointed to succeed his teacher in the chair of Sanskrit at the Collège de France. His students included some of the greatest scholars of the day; those who would contribute to Buddhist studies included Philippe Edouard Foucaux (1811–1894) and Friedrich Max Müller. Shortly after his appointment to the chair of Sanskrit, the Société Asiatique, of which Burnouf was secretary, received a communication from Brian Houghton Hodgson, British resident at the court of Nepal, offering to send Sanskrit manuscripts of Buddhist texts to Paris. The receipt of these texts changed the direction of Burnouf's scholarship for the remainder his life. After perusing the ''Aṣtasāhasrikāprajñāpãramitā'' and the ''Lalitavistara'', he decided to translate the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra''. Having completed the translation, he decided to precede its publication with a series of studies. He completed only the first of these, published in 1844 as ''Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme indien''. This massive work is regarded as the foundational text for the academic study of Buddhism in the West. (Source: "Burnouf, Eugène." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 158. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Lama Tsering Everest was one of the main students of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, who recognized her as an emanation of Tara and a holder of the Red Tara lineage.
Born in the U.S.A., Lama Tsering has served Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche as his translator for more than 11 years. After completing a three year retreat in 1995, she was ordained as a lama and recognized by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche as a holder of the Red Tara lineage, authorized to give teachings and empowerments. In the same year she was invited to teach in Brazil where she moved to shortly after.
She teaches and conducts retreats in many cities across Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and Australia as well as returning each year to fulfill the requests of her students in North America.
Lama Tsering is the resident lama and director of Chagdud Gonpa Odsal Ling in São Paulo and is currently coordinating the construction of Odsal Ling's temple in Cotia, Brasil, along with her husband Lama Padma Norbu. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Lama_Tsering_Everest Rigpa Wiki]) +
F
A monk and translator of the Western Jin apparently of unknown origin active between 290–306. A collaborator of Dharmarakṣa, who appears in the colophon of Dharmarakṣa's translation of the ''Lalitavistara'' and the ''Daśabhūmikasūtra''. (Source: Zürcher, ''The Buddhist Conquest of China'', 2007) Twenty-four texts are attributed to him in the Taisho canon. (See [http://www.acmuller.net/descriptive_catalogue/indexes/index-authors-editors-translators.html ''The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue'']) +
Bernard Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese Religion, received his Ph.D. (Doctorat d’Etat) from Paris University (1984). He is interested in various aspects of East Asian Buddhism, with an emphasis on Chan/Zen and Tantric or esoteric Buddhism. His work, influenced by anthropological history and cultural theory, has focused on topics such as the construction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the Buddhist cult of relics, iconography, sexuality and gender. His current research deals with the mythico-ritual system of esoteric Buddhism and its relationships with medieval Japanese religion. He has published a number of books in French and English. His English publications include: ''The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism'' (Princeton 1991), ''Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition'' (Princeton 1993), ''Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism'' (Princeton 1996), ''The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality'' (Princeton 1998), ''The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender'' (Princeton 2003), and ''Double Exposure'' (Stanford 2004). ([https://religion.columbia.edu/content/bernard-r-faure Source Accessed Jun 10, 2019]).
He recently completed a two-volume work on Japanese Gods and Demons: ''The Fluid Pantheon: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume I'' and ''Protectors and Predators: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume 2'' (Both volumes by University of Hawai'i Press, 2015). +
Fazang is Zhiyan’s most accomplished and influential student, and became the third patriarch of Huayan. He is responsible for systematizing and extending Zhiyan’s teaching, and for securing the prominence of Huayan-style Buddhism at the imperial court. He is known especially for his definitive commentaries on the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'' and ''Awakening of Faith in Mahayana'', and for making Huayan doctrines accessible to laity with familiar technologies such as mirror halls and wood-block printing. These contributions support the traditional regard for Fazang as the third patriarch of the Huayan School.
Fazang’s ancestors came from Sogdiana (a center for trade along the Silk Road, located in what is now parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikestan), but he was born in the Tang dynasty capital of Chang’an (now Xi’an), where his family had become culturally Chinese. Fazang was a fervently religious adolescent. Following a then-popular custom that took self-immolation as a sign of religious devotion, Fazang burned his fingers before a stupa at the age of 16. After becoming a monk, he assisted Xuanzang—famous for his pilgrimage to India—in translating Buddhist works from Sanskrit into Chinese. Fazang had doctrinal differences with Xuanzang, though, so he later became a disciple of Zhiyan, probably around 663 CE.
Zhiyan’s access to the imperial court gave Fazang access to Empress Wu, with whom he quickly gained favor. He undertook a variety of public services, such as performing rain-prayer rituals and collaborating in various translation projects. He traveled throughout northern China, teaching the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'' and debating Daoists. He intervened in a 697 military confrontation with the Khitans, gaining further favor when Empress Wu ascribed to his ritual services an instrumental role in suppressing the rebellion. In addition, Fazang provided information to undermine plots by some of the empress’ advisors to secure power after her death. This secured Fazang’s status—and the prominence of Huayan teachings—with subsequent rulers. ([https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buddhism-huayan/#Faza643712 Source Accessed Jan 28, 2020])
Zoketsu Norman Fischer is an American poet, writer, and Soto Zen priest, teaching and practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a Dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, from whom he received Dharma transmission in 1988. Fischer served as co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1995–2000, after which he founded the Everyday Zen Foundation in 2000, a network of Buddhist practice group and related projects in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Fischer has published more than twenty-five books of poetry and non-fiction, as well as numerous poems, essays and articles in Buddhist magazines and poetry journals. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoketsu_Norman_Fischer Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Wulstan Fletcher holds degrees in Modern Languages and Theology (Oxford and Rome) and is a teacher of modern languages. He completed a three-year retreat at Chanteloube France from 1986–1989. He is a member of the Padmakara Translation Group and has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2001.
'''Current Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow (with Helena Blankleder):'''
* ''Lion Speech, The Life of Jamgön Mipham'', Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
'''Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow (with Helena Blankleder):'''
* ''Treasury of Precious Qualities'' (Sutra Section), Jigme Lingpa, commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche
* ''Counsels from My Heart'', Dudjom Rinpoche
* ''Introduction to the Middle Way'', Chandrakirti, commentary by Jamgön Mipham
* ''The Adornment of the Middle Way'', Shantarakshita, commentary by Jamgön Mipham
* ''Food of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist Teachings on Abstaining from Meat'', Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol
* ''The Way of the Bodhisattva'', Shantideva (rev. ed.)
* ''The Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva’s "Way of the Bodhisattva,"'' Kunzang Pelden
* ''The Root Stanzas on the Middle Way'', Nagarjuna
* ''White Lotus: An Explanation of the Seven-line Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava'', Jamgön Mipham
* ''Treasury of Precious Qualities'' (Tantra Section), Jigme Lingpa, commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche
* ''The Purifying Jewel and Light of the Day Star'' by Mipham Rinpoche
* ''Trilogy of Resting at Ease'', Longchenpa
(Source: [http://www.tsadra.org/translators/wulstan-fletcher/ Tsadra.org]) +
Floring Giripescu Sutton was Assistant Professor of Oriental Philosophy at Rutgers University. +
Dr. Gregory Forgues is Director of Research at Tsadra Foundation. Before joining the foundation, Gregory was part of the Open Philology research project with Professor Jonathan Silk at the University of Leiden. He also worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Heidelberg and a Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Bochum. Gregory has published on a wide variety of topics including Mahāyāna sūtra translations, Tibetan tantric rituals, Dzogchen teachings, and digital humanities methods. His PhD dissertation on Jamgon Mipham’s interpretation of the two truths under Professor Klaus-Dieter Mathes' supervision was reviewed by Professor Birgit Kellner and Professor Matthew Kapstein, receiving a distinction from the University of Vienna. +
T. Griffith Foulk trained in Zen monasteries in Japan. He is active in Buddhist studies, with research interests in philosophical, literary, social, and historical aspects of East Asian Buddhism, especially the Ch’an/Zen tradition. He is co-editor in chief of the Soto Zen Text Project (Tokyo). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion Buddhism Section steering committee (1987–1994, 2003–) and a board member for the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values. ([https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/faculty/foulk-t.-griffith.html Source Accessed Jun 11, 2019]) +
Eli Franco (born June 19, 1953 in Tel Aviv ) is an Israeli Indologist. He received his BA in Philosophy and Jewish Philosophy from the University of Tel Aviv in 1976, the Diplôme de l' Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in 1978, Paris, and the Doctorat 3e cycle from the Université de Paris X and L'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in 1980. Since 2004 he has held the chair for Indology at the Institute for Indology and Central Asian Studies at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Among his writings include: ''Perception, Knowledge and Disbelief: A Study of Jayarāśi's Skepticism'' (Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1987), ''Dharmakīrti on Compassion and Rebirth'' (Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 1997), ''The Spitzer Manuscript: The Oldest Philosophical Manuscript in Sanskrit'' (Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2004), and (with Miyako Notake) ''Dharmakīrti on the Duality of the Object: Pramāṇavārttika III, 1 - 63'' (Lit Verlag, 2014). ([https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Franco Adapted from Source July 20, 2019]) +
Koun Franz is a Soto Zen priest. He leads practice at Thousand Harbours Zen in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he also works as editor of Buddhadharma. His writing and teachings on Zen can be found at nyoho.com and on the Thousand Harbours Zen podcast. ([https://www.lionsroar.com/author/koun-franz/ Source: Lion's Roar]) +
Erich Frauwallner studied classical philology and Sanskrit philology in Vienna. He taught Indology from 1928-29 at the University of Vienna. His primary interest was Buddhist logic and epistemology, and later Indian Brahmanic philosophy, with close attention to primary source texts.
In 1938 Frauwallner joined the Department of Indian and Iranian philosophy at the Oriental Institute after its Jewish director, Bernhard Geiger, was forced out. Frauwallner became director in 1942. He was called up for military service in 1943 but did not serve, continuing to teach until 1945 when he lost his position due to his Nazi Party membership (dating to 1932). In 1951, after a review, he was reinstated. In 1955 the Institute for Indology founded, which he chaired, becoming a full professor in 1960.
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, called Frauwallner "one of the great Buddhist scholars of this [the twentieth] century." ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Frauwallner Source Accessed Jun 11, 2019]) +
Dr. Frederick Shih-Chung Chen holds a DPhil degree in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford and two MA degrees, in Oriental and African Religions and in the History and Culture of Medicine, respectively, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. In 2004-2005, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Tokyo, sponsored by the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai fellowship. After completing his DPhil degree, he was awarded Post-doctoral fellowships by the National Science Council of Taiwan R.O.C. and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation of European Region during 2010-2012, to conduct his research project, The Early Formation of the Buddhist Otherworld Bureaucracy in Early Medieval China, at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. He has published articles on related topics, which will eventually be collected in a planned book. Before arriving at IKGF, he was a researcher on the project, Buddhist Stone Inscriptions in China, at the Heidelberg Academy of Science and Humanities and a research associate at the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Oxford.<br> Dr. Chen specializes in East Asian Buddhism and Chinese religions. He is also interested in the history of Chinese medicine and the history of knowledge transmission. His current research focuses on transcultural exchange between Buddhism and Chinese religions in the border areas of China during the early medieval and medieval periods. ([http://www.ikgf.uni-erlangen.de/people/index.shtml/frederick-chen.shtml Source Accessed May 26, 2020]) +
Rosemarie Fuchs (1950-2010) studied and practiced with eminent lamas of the Karma Kagyu tradition and spent much of her life translating Tibetan texts to German and interpreting for Tibetan Lamas in Germany. She is a member of the Marpa Translation Committee and has been a devoted student of the Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche since 1978. Fuchs translated the ''Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra'' upon Khenpo Rinpoche’s advice. ([https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/author/?authorid=167711 Adapted from Source Jul 22, 2020]) +
Funayama Toru, born in 1961, is currently a professor of Buddhist studies at Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. His research mainly covers two different areas in the history of Buddhism. One is Chinese Buddhism from the fifth–seventh centuries, a period from the late Six Dynasties period up to early Tang; his focuses are on the formation of Chinese Buddhist translation and apocrypha, spread of the notion of Mahayana precepts, the exegetical tradition on the ''Nirvana Sutra'', and so on. The other is philological and philosophical issues in Buddhist epistemology and logic in India from the fifth–tenth centuries, particularly Kamalaśīla's (the late eighth century) theory of perception. In both areas, he is interested in the concept of saintliness as firmly related with the system of practice. ([https://www.iias.asia/profile/toru-funayama Source Accessed June 16, 2020]) +
G
Alexander Gardner is the Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives, an online biographical encyclopedia of Tibet and the Himalayan Region. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007. From 2007 to 2016 he worked at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, serving as their Executive Director from 2013 to 2016. His research interests are in Tibetan life writing and the cultural history of Kham in the nineteenth century. He is the author of ''The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great'', published by Shambhala in 2019. Alex served as the writer-in-residence for Tsadra Foundation's Buddha-Nature Project from 2017-2019. +
Jay L. Garfield chairs the Philosophy department and directs Smith’s logic and Buddhist studies programs and the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies.
Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; the history of Indian philosophy during the colonial period; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.
Garfield’s most recent books are ''Getting Over Ourselves: How to be a Person Without a Self'' (2022), ''Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse'' (with the Yakherds 2021, Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021), ̛What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest, and Robert Sharf 2021), The Concealed Influence of Custom: Hume’s Treatise From the Inside Out (OUP 2019), ''Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance'' (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), ''Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet'' (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) ''Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy'' (2015), ''Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness'' (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), ''Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals?'' (2015). ([https://jaygarfield.org/cv/ Source Accessed on January 19, 2024])
:Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy
:Department of Philosophy Smith College Northampton, MA 01063 USA +
Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of Pema Karpo Meditation Center in Memphis, Tennessee. He holds a khenpo degree after nine years of study at Namdroling Monastery in South India. In April 2006, Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche was formally enthroned as a khenpo by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and assigned to teach in the West. He came to the United States in 2004 at the invitation of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Shambhala International, and became an American citizen in 2012. He has lived in Memphis, Tennessee since 2007. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Gawang_Rinpoche Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020]) +
Holly Gayley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research focuses on the revitalization of Buddhism in Tibetan areas of the PRC in the post-Maoist period. Dr. Gayley became interested in the academic study of Buddhism through her travels among Tibetan communities in India, Nepal, and China. She completed her Masters in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University in 2000 and Ph.D. at Harvard University in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies in 2009. Dr. Gayley's first book titled ''Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet'' came out in November 2016 with Columbia University Press. The book charts the lives and love letters of a contemporary Buddhist tantric couple, Khandro Tāre Lhamo and Namtrul Jigme Phuntsok, who played a significant role in revitalizing Buddhism in eastern Tibet since the 1980s. Examining Buddhist conceptions of gender, agency and healing, this book recovers Tibetan voices in representing their own modern history under Chinese rule and contributes to burgeoning scholarly literature on Buddhist women, minorities in China, and studies of collective trauma.
Dr. Gayley's second project explores the emergence of Buddhist modernism on the Tibetan plateau and a new ethical reform movement spawned by cleric-scholars at Larung Buddhist Academy in Serta. Her recent publications on the topic include "Controversy over Buddhist Ethical Reform: A Secular Critique of Clerical Authority in the Tibetan Blogosphere" (''Himalaya Journal'', 2016), "Non-Violence as a Shifting Signifier on the Tibetan Plateau" (''Contemporary Buddhism'', 2016 with Padma 'tsho), "Reimagining Buddhist Ethics on the Tibetan Plateau (''Journal of Buddhist Ethics'', 2013), and "The Ethics of Cultural Survival: A Buddhist Vision of Progress in Mkhan po 'Jigs phun's Advice to Tibetans of the 21st Century" in ''Mapping the Modern in Tibet'' (International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, 2011). ([https://www.colorado.edu/rlst/holly-gayley Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020])
Japanese Tendaishū monk, scholar, and artist, popularly known as Eshin Sōzu (Head Monk of Eshin) because he spent much of his life at the monastery of Eshin at Yokawa on Hieizan. Genshin was born in Yamoto province (present-day Nara prefecture), but after losing his father at a young age, he was put in the care of the Tendai center on Mt. Hiei. It is believed that during his teens he formally joined the institution and became a student of the Tendai reformer Ryōgen (912–985). Genshin first gained a name for himself in 974 due to his sterling performance in an important debate at Mt. Hiei. Eventually, Genshin retired to the secluded monastery of Shuryōgon'in in Yokawa, where he devoted the rest of his life primarily to scholarship. Genshin wrote on a wide array of Buddhist topics related to both Tendai and Pure Land practices and is also regarded as the founder of the Eshin school of Tendai, which espoused the notion that everyone in inherently awakened (J. ''hongaku''). (Source: "Genshin." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 318. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Geoffrey Samuel’s research extends over a number of interrelated areas within religious studies, social anthropology, comparative sociology, and cognate disciplines. Theoretically, his interests centre around an understanding of cultural processes and their effects on human behaviour, in terms which recognise the embodied character of human existence and which give proper weight to both human consciousness and biology. He is particularly interested in religion (including ‘shamanism’) in relation to healing, gender and ecology, including the ways in which these issues manifest in contemporary societies.
His main ethnographic focus has been on religion in Tibetan societies. His work on Tibetan religion has also extended into the social history of Indic religions more generally. Other research topics include Tibetan medicine and health practices, the anthropology of music, research on Buddhism and other new religious movements (paganism, shamanism, esotericism) in the UK and Australia, and research into Islam in the UK and Bangladesh. He has carried out extensive field research over many years in India, Nepal, Tibet, and other Asian and Western societies.
His recent research, organised through the Research Group on the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR), focusses on the understanding of healing processes in a variety of contexts: folk healing practices in Asian societies, ‘traditional’ Asian medical and yogic practices aimed at healing, and Western adaptations and developments of such practices within the field of complementary and alternative medicine. This research has included two major externally-funded projects under his direction, an AHRC-funded project on Tibetan longevity practices (with Cathy Cantwell and Rob Mayer) and a Leverhulme Trust-funded project on Tibetan medicine in the Bon tradition (with Colin Millard). Currently he is involved in a Templeton Foundation-funded project on meditation-derived compassion training for nurses and other health staff in Sydney, NSW.
In 2008-11, he also took part in an ESRC-funded project on young Bangladeshis, marriage and the family in Bangladesh and the UK directed by Dr Santi Rozario.<br> ([https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/702489-samuel-geoffrey Source Accessed Aug 7, 2020])
George Nicolas de Roerich was a prominent 20th century Tibetologist. His name at birth was Yuri Nikolaevich Rerikh. George's work encompassed many areas of Tibetan studies, but in particular he is known for his contributions to Tibetan dialectology, his monumental translation of the ''Blue Annals'', and his 11-volume Tibetan-Russian-English dictionary (published posthumously). George was the son of the painter and explorer Nicholas Roerich and Helena Roerich. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_de_Roerich Source Accessed March 4, 2020]) +
David Germano is the Executive Director of the Contemplative Sciences Center. He has taught and researched Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia since 1992. In this context, he works extensively with each of the eleven schools at UVA to explore learning, research, and engagement initiatives regarding contemplation in their own disciplinary and professional areas. He is currently focused on the exploration of contemplative ideas, values, and practices involving humanistic and scientific methodologies, as well as new applications in diverse fields; he also holds a faculty appointment in the School of Nursing. He is one of the co-leaders of the Student Flourishing Initiative, a three-way partnership with UVA, the University of Wisconsin, and Penn State University, as well as the lead organizer of an international research community of scholars and translators specializing in the Great Perfection (Dzokchen) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. ([http://uvacontemplation.org/content/david-germano Source Accessed June 11, 2019]) +
Born in 1977 in Ngayul in the Amdo region, he became a monk at Jonang Se Monastery when he was young and learned reading, writing, and rituals under Khar Lama Sherab Chophel. Having finished the training, he followed the tradition of the monastery and entered into three year retreat under Lama Kunga Thukje Pal in order to take up the practice of the six yogas of Kālacakra. In 1998, he arrived in India and joined Gomang College in Drepung Monastery and completed the full study of the five treatises. He sat for Grand Geluk Examination and also successfully passed the defense for the Lharam Geshe degree. Following this, he attended the Gyuto College for Tantric Studies and passed the exams. He is currently lecturer at Jonang Monastery in Parping, Nepal. +
Born in 1980 in Tibet, he moved to India in 1995 and joined Gomang College in Drepung Monastery. He studied Buddhist texts, including the five great treatises, under many qualified teachers. Having completed his higher education in 2008, he sat in the Grand Geluk Examinations from 2009 and successfully finished the Karam, Lopen, and Lharam Geshe Examinations in six years. In 2015, he joined Gyume Tantric College to undertake tantric studies and successfully completed the program after three years in 2018. He currently serves as lecturer/teacher at Gomang College. +
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]) +
Born in 1979 in Sogshod in Kham, as a young boy he went to a local school and learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. After joining Sog Tsenden Monastery and learning prayers and rituals, he moved to India in 1997 and joined Sera Je Monastery to undertake the program of Buddhist Studies, including the five great treatises, for 18 years. Throughout his education, he ranked at the top in his cohort during the examinations, including those for the certificates of the Middle Way and Perfection Studies. He also learned grammar and poetry and published various writings in magazines and newspapers and taught grammar to many students. In the course of his study, he was also selected for the special occasion of prestigious debates called Rigchung Tshoklang, Tshenphud Damcha, Rigchen Tsoklang, and Kartro Tsoglang. In 2009, he sat for his examinations on the Middle Way in the presence of H.H. the Dalai Lama, and between 2015 and 2020, he sat for the Grand Geluk Examinations and attained first position among the Lharam Geshes during the exams. In 2021, he undertook tantric studies at Gyume Tantric College and passed his exams in first position. He received numerous teachings from various lamas, including H.H. the Dalai Lama, and participated in many learned conferences and seminars. Since 2009, he has been serving as a lecturer at Sera Je Monastery. +
Born in Gayul in Kham in 1974, he joined Labda Ganden Monastery in 1988 and learned prayers and rituals. In 1994, he arrived in India and joined Sera Je Monastery and started his study of Buddhist literature, including the five great treatises. In 1998, he received full monastic ordination from H.H. the Dalai Lama and finished training in the Middle Way and Perfection Studies in 2002 and 2006 respectively. In 2012, 2014, and 2016, he sat for the Grand Geluk Examinations and received the certificates of Karam, Lopen, and Lharam Geshe respectively. Following this, in 2017, he undertook tantric studies at Gyume College and was awarded first place. He presented a paper at the conference on Abhidharma among Buddhist and Bön and organized the conference on the Middle Way view at Sera Monastery and the conference on reality in Pramāṇa literature at Ganden Monastery. Since 2006, he has also been teaching Buddhism and Tibetan language to youth and regularly writes and speaks in newspapers, radio, online forums on Tibetan religion and culture, and gives classes and lectures. Currently, he is about to complete his research on the Middle Way views of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and is undertaking an in-depth study of Middle Way literature while also teaching at Sera Je. +
Born in 1979 in Khyungpo Tengchen, he became a monk at the age of eight under Lamrim Lama Pema Dorje and joined Dilgo Samtenling Monastery, where he studied reading, writing, prayers, and rituals. In 1996, he arrived in India and joined Ganden Shartse College. He finished his study of the five great treatises and in 2012 sat for the series of Grand Geluk Examinations. In 2018, he finished the course with the final defense for Lharam Geshe at the Grand Prayer Festival. After this, he undertook tantric studies at Gyuto Monastery and in 2019 he served on the Academic Council of Ganden Shartse. He currently teaches at Ganden Shartse and is also undertaking research on the Middle Way under the International Geluk Commission. +
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]) +
Stephen Gethin studied veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, where he was also awarded a choral exhibition. After a number of years in professional practice, he spent much of the 1980s undertaking two three-year retreats in France, where he now lives and, as a founding member of the Padmakara Translation Group, continues to translate. He became a Tsadra Foundation Translation Fellow in 2005. His published translations include Nagarjuna’s ''Letter to a Friend'', ''Zurchungpa’s Testament'', Dudjom Rinpoche’s ''A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom'', and Jamgön Mipham’s commentaries on Padmasambhava’s ''Garland of Views'' and the ''Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra''. He is currently working on a detailed preliminary practice commentary by Shechen Gyaltsap and on a volume of Jamgön Kongtrul’s ''Treasury of Precious Instructions''. ([https://www.colorado.edu/event/lotsawa/presenters/stephen-gethin Source Accessed Sept 18, 2020]) +
The first of the Katok Getse (kaH thog dge rtse) incarnations, Gyurme Tsewang Chokdrup, Katok Getse Mahapandita (1761-1829) was an important Nyingma scholar from Katok Monastery who famously wrote a catalogue to the Nyingma Gyübum.
He was born in the Iron Snake year of the thirteenth calendrical cycle (1761) and recognized as an incarnation of Tsewang Trinlé, the nephew of Longsal Nyingpo (1625-1692). His teachers included Dodrupchen Kunzang Shenpen, Ngor Khenchen Palden Chökyong, Changkya Rolpé Dorje and Dzogchenpa Ati Tenpé Gyaltsen. Through his connection with the Derge royal family, he arranged for the printing of the ''Collection of Nyingma Tantras'' (''Nyingma Gyübum'') and the writings of Longchenpa and Jikmé Lingpa, and took responsibility for proofreading. Among his students were the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche and the Third Shechen Rabjam, Rigdzin Paljor Gyatso (1770-1809). ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gyurme_Tsewang_Chokdrup Source Accessed Feb 18, 2022])
See also:<br>
*[[Deity, Mantra and Wisdom]]: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, Snow Lion, 2007.
**Ronis, Jann M. “Celibacy, Revelations, and Reincarnated Lamas: Contestation and Synthesis in the Growth of Monasticism at Katok Monastery from the 17th through 19th Centuries”. Available from [https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/downloads/hq37vp052?filename=1_Ronis_Jann_2009_PHD.pdf the University of Virginia, here].
*Tomoko Makidono, "Kah thog Dge rtse Mahāpaṇḍita’s Doxographical Position: The Great Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness (gzhan stong dbu ma chen po)" in Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies (IIJBS) vol. 12 (2011), pp. 77-119
*Tomoko Makidono, "The Turning of the Wheel of Mantrayāna Teachings in the Rnying ma rgyud ’bum dkar chag lha’i rnga bo che by Kaḥ thog Dge rtse Mahāpaṇḍita ’Gyur med tshe dbang mchog grub (149-186)" in IIJBS vol. 13 (2012), pp. 149-186 +
Rolf W. Giebel was born in Hawera, New Zealand, in 1954. He came to Japan in 1972 and took a B.A. in Japanese at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1977 and an M.A. in Indian Philosophy at the University of Tokyo in 1980. After spending three years on the editorial staff of a publishing company in Tokyo, he returned to the University of Tokyo in 1984 and at present continues his studies while working as a translator. Other of his translations include ''Tibetan Buddhist Art'' (Tokyo: Hakusuisha, 1984), ''An Introduction to the Buddhist Canon'' (Tokyo: Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1984), ''The Alps'' (Tokyo: Gyosei, 1986), and a Japanese translation of ''The Theory and Practice of the Mandala'' by the late Giuseppe Tucci (Tokyo: Hirakawa Shuppansha, 1984). ([https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/2018/06/Takasaki-Jikido_An-Introduction-to-Buddhism.pdf Source Accessed July 2, 2020]) +
Peter Gilks completed his PhD in Asian Studies at The Australian National University in 2011. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Entertainment Management at I-Shou University, Taiwan. His research interests include popular culture, music marketing, language testing and Buddhism. Current research projects in the area of celebrity studies include the role that English-speaking ability plays in shaping the image of Taiwanese celebrities and the impact of the celebrification of Buddhist leaders. ([https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2015.1088393 Source Accessed July 21, 2020]) +
Robert Gimello is a historian of Buddhism with special interests also in the Theology of Religions and in Comparative Mysticism.
In the field of Buddhist Studies he concentrates especially on Buddhism in East Asia (China, Korea, & Japan), most particularly on the Buddhism of medieval and early modern China. The traditions of Buddhist thought and practice on which he especially focuses are Huáyán/Hwaŏm/Kegon 華嚴 (The “Flower-Ornament” Tradition), Chán 禪 (Zen), and Mijiao/Milgyo/Mikkyō 密教 (Esoteric/Tantric Buddhism), in the study of which he is particularly concerned with the relationships between Buddhist thought or doctrine and Buddhist contemplative and liturgical practice.
In the area of Theology of Religions, against the background of contemporary debates about the theological implications of religious pluralism, and in critical response to major trends in the ongoing Buddhist-Christian dialogue, he is concerned chiefly with the question of what Catholic Christian theology can, should, or must make of Buddhism.
In the field of the study of mysticism, he joins regularly in the debates, chiefly among philosophers of religion, about the differences and similarities among various mystical traditions and about the relationship between mystical experience and the practices and beliefs that comprise religious traditions. ([https://theology.nd.edu/people/robert-m-gimello/ Source Accessed June 12, 2019]) +
Giuseppe Tucci (5 June 1894 – 5 April 1984), was an Italian scholar of oriental cultures, specialising in Tibet and history of Buddhism. He was fluent in several European languages, Sanskrit, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Chinese and Tibetan and he taught at the University of Rome La Sapienza until his death. He is considered one of the founders of the field of Buddhist Studies.
Tucci was born to a middle-class family in Macerata, Marche, and thrived academically. He taught himself Hebrew, Chinese and Sanskrit before even going to university and in 1911, aged only 18, he published a collection of Latin epigraphs in the prestigious Review of the Germanic Archaeological Institute. He completed his studies at the University of Rome in 1919, where his studies were repeatedly interrupted as a result of World War I.
After graduating, he traveled to India and settled down at the Visva-Bharati University, founded by the Bengali poet and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. There he studied Buddhism, Tibetan and Bengali, and also taught Italian and Chinese. He also studied and taught at Dhaka University, the University of Benares and Calcutta University. He remained in India until 1931, when he returned to Italy. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Tucci Source Accessed April 14, 2020]) +
Dwight Goddard was a Christian missionary to China when he first came in contact with Buddhism. In 1928, he spent a year living at a Zen monastery in Japan. In 1934, he founded "The Followers of Buddha, an American Brotherhood," with the goal of applying the traditional monastic structure of Buddhism more strictly than Senzaki and Sokei-an. The group was largely unsuccessful: no Americans were recruited to join as monks and attempts failed to attract a Chinese Chan (Zen) master to come to the United States. However, Goddard's efforts as an author and publisher bore considerable fruit. In 1930, he began publishing ZEN: A Buddhist Magazine. In 1932, he collaborated with D. T. Suzuki on a translation of the ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra''. That same year, he published the first edition of ''A Buddhist Bible'', an anthology of Buddhist scriptures focusing on those used in Chinese and Japanese Zen. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_the_United_States#Dwight_Goddard Source Accessed Dec 3, 2019])
For an interesting article on Goddard's life, see Robert Aitken's article [https://tricycle.org/magazine/still-speaking/ "Still Speaking"] in the Spring 1994 issue of ''Tricycle: The Buddhist Review''. +
Zuisei is a writer and lay Zen teacher based in Playa del Carmen in the south of Mexico. Zuisei lived and trained full time at Zen Mountain Monastery from 1995 to 2018, and was a monk for fourteen of those years. In 2018 she received ''shiho'' or dharma transmission (empowerment to teach) from Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, and after a short stint in New York City, moved back to Mexico, where she is originally from, and began teaching virtually.
She has served as the Teachings Editor at the Buddhist journal ''Tricycle'', and her dharma writing has been featured there as well as in ''Lion's Roar'', ''Buddhadharma'', and ''Parabola''. Her books include ''Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion'' and the children's book ''Weather Any Storm''.
As Ocean Mind Sangha's Guiding Teacher, Zuisei continues to welcome students for group and private teaching. ([https://www.oceanmindsangha.org/zuisei-goddard Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
Dr. V. V. Gokhale was a professor of Buddhist studies in India. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg and taught at Fergusson College from 1932 to 1959. He was appointed Reader in the Department of Buddhist studies at the University of Delhi and then later became Professor and Head of the department.
Dr. Gokhale maintained an interest in the ''Pratītyasamutpāda-sūtra'' and Madhyamaka philosophy throughout his career. Among his numerous articles, he wrote several on Bhāvaviveka's ''Tarkajvālā'' commentary on Nāgārjuna's ''Madhyamakaśāstra'', and he published the ''Abhidharmakoṣa-kārikās'' of Vasubandhu. (Source: ''Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute'' 74, no. 1/4 (1993), 349–51) +
Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and lovingkindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Joseph first became interested in Buddhism as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in 1965. Since 1967 he has studied and practiced different forms of Buddhist meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma and Tibet. He is the author of ''Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening'', ''A Heart Full of Peace'', ''One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism'', ''Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom'', ''The Experience of Insight'', and co-author of ''Seeking the Heart of Wisdom'' and ''Insight Meditation: A Correspondence Course''. (Source: [https://www.dharma.org/teacher/joseph-goldstein/ Insight Meditation Society]) +
Dr. S. C. Goswami was a Professor of Chemistry at Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi, India. He is the author of "The Monistic Absolute of the Uttaratantra and Modern Science" and "Complementarity of Opposites: The Undercurrent of Upaniṣadic Thought," both of which are published in the volume ''Philosophy, Grammar, and Indology: Essays in Honour of Prof. Gustav Roth'' (Sri Satguru Publications, 1992). +
Qalvy Grainzvolt, LMHC, is an ordained Shinnyo-en priest, a uniformed police chaplain, a licensed mental health clinician, and a Buddhist chaplain and member of mindfulness faculty for New York University. ([https://www.lionsroar.com/author/qalvy-grainzvolt/ Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
David Gray received his B.A. in Religious Studies from Wesleyan University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in the History of Religion from Columbia University. His research explores the development of tantric Buddhist traditions in South Asia, and their dissemination in Tibet and East Asia, with a focus on the Yogin?tantras, a genre of Buddhist tantric literature that focused on female deities and yogic practices involving the subtle body. He focuses particularly on the Cakrasamvara Tantra, an esoteric Indian Buddhist scripture that serves as the basis for a number of important Nepali and Tibetan Buddhist practice traditions. ([https://www.scu.edu/cas/religious-studies/faculty--staff/david-gray/ Source Accessed Dec 3, 2019])
[https://www.scu.edu/media/college-of-arts-and-sciences/religious-studies/cvs/GrayCV1.pdf Curriculum Vitae] +
Gray Tuttle studies the history of twentieth century Sino-Tibetan relations as well as Tibet’s relations with the China-based Manchu Qing Empire. The role of Tibetan Buddhism in these historical relations is central to all his research. In his Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China (Columbia UP, 2005), he examines the failure of nationalism and race-based ideology to maintain the Tibetan territory of the former Qing empire as integral to the Chinese nation-state. Instead, he argues, a new sense of pan-Asian Buddhism was critical to Chinese efforts to hold onto Tibetan regions (one quarter of China’s current territory). His current research project, “Amdo Tibet, Middle Ground between Lhasa and Beijing (1578-1865),” is a historical analysis of the economic and cultural relations between China and Tibet in the early modern periods (16th – 19th centuries) when the intellectual and economic centers of Tibet shifted to the east, to Amdo — a Tibetan cultural region the size of France in northwestern China. Deploying Richard White’s concept of the “Middle Ground” in the context of two mature civilizations — Tibetan and Chinese — encountering one another, this book will examine how this contact led to three dramatic areas of growth that defined early modern Tibet: 1) the advent of mass monastic education, 20 the bureaucratization of reincarnate lamas’ charisma and 3) the development of modern conceptions of geography that reshaped the way Tibet was imagined. ([http://ealac.columbia.edu/gray-tuttle/ Source Accessed March 30, 2020]) +
Eric Greene is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. He received his B.A. in Mathematics from Berkeley in 1998, followed by his M.A. (Asian Studies) and Ph.D. (Buddhist Studies) in 2012. He specializes in the history of medieval Chinese Buddhism, particularly the emergence of Chinese forms of Buddhism from the interaction between Indian Buddhism and indigenous Chinese culture. Much of his recent research has focused on Buddhist meditation practices, including the history of the transmission on Indian meditation practices to China, the development of distinctly Chinese forms of Buddhist meditation, and Buddhist rituals of confession and atonement. He is currently writing a book on the uses of meditative visionary experience as evidence of sanctity within early Chinese Buddhism. In addition to these topics, he has published articles on the early history of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, Buddhist paintings from the Silk Roads, and the influence of modern psychological terminology on the Western interpretation of Buddhism. He is also presently working on a new project concerning the practice of translation - from Indian languages to Chinese - in early Chinese Buddhism. He teaches undergraduate classes on Buddhism in East Asia, Zen Buddhism, ritual in East Asian Buddhism, and mysticism and meditation in Buddhism and East Asia, and graduate seminars on Chinese Buddhist studies and Chinese Buddhist texts.<br> After completing his Ph.D. in 2012, Eric took a position at the University of Bristol (UK), where he taught East Asian Religions until coming to Yale in 2015. ([https://religiousstudies.yale.edu/people/eric-greene Source Accessed July 21, 2020]) +
Peter N. Gregory taught at Smith College from 1999 until 2014. After receiving his doctorate in East Asian languages and civilizations from Harvard University in 1981, he taught in the Program for the Study of Religion at the University of Illinois for 15 years. He has also served as the president and executive director of the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values since 1984, and in that capacity he has directed two publication series with the University of Hawaii Press: "Studies in East Asian Buddhism" and "Classics in East Asian Buddhism."
Gregory's research has focused on medieval Chinese Buddhism, especially the Chan and Huayan traditions during the Tang and Song dynasties, on which he has written or edited seven books, including ''Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism'' (1991). He is currently completing a translation of a ninth-century Chinese Buddhist text on the historical and doctrinal origins of the Chan tradition.
After coming to Smith, Gregory's research and teaching became increasingly concerned with Buddhism in America, on which he produced a film, ''The Gate of Sweet Nectar: Feeding Hungry Spirits in an American Zen Community'' (2004), and co-edited a book, ''Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences'' (Wisdom Publications, 2007). ([https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/peter-gregory Source Accessed June 13, 2019]) +
Gregory Schopen's work focuses on Indian Buddhist monastic life and early Mahāyāna movements. By looking beyond the Pali Canon in favor of less commonly used sources such as the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya and Indian Buddhist inscriptions, his numerous scholarly works have shifted the field away from Buddhism as portrayed through its own doctrines toward a more realistic picture of the actual lives of Buddhists, both monastic and lay. In this sense, he has seriously challenged many assumptions and myths about Buddhism that had been long perpetuated in earlier Western scholarship. In 1985 he received the MacArthur Fellowship for his work in the field of History of Religion. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. Four volumes of his collected articles have been published by the University of Hawai'i Press: Buddhist Nuns, Monks, and Other Worldly Matters (2014), Figments and Fragments of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India (2005), Buddhist Monks and Business Matters (2004), and Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks (1999). ([https://www.international.ucla.edu/cisa/person/276 Source Accessed October 21, 2019]) +
Griffiths was born in London, England, on 12 November 1955. Griffiths has held appointments at the University of Notre Dame, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Chicago. A scholar of Augustine of Hippo, Griffiths's main interests and pursuits are philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion – particularly Christianity and Buddhism. He received a doctorate in Buddhist studies in 1983 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his early works established him as one of the most incisive interpreters of Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy. His works on Buddhism include ''On Being Mindless'' (Lasalle, IL: Open Court, 1991) and ''On Being Buddha'' (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994). After converting from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism and accepting the Schmitt Chair of Catholic Studies at UIC, he has largely given up his work in Buddhist studies. His recent books include: ''Problems of Religious Diversity'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001); ''Philosophy of Religion: A Reader'' (co-edited with Charles Taliaferro) (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003); and ''Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity'' (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2004). His latest book deals with curiositas and the nature of intellectual appetite; its title is: ''Intellectual Appetite: A Theological Grammar''. According to the faculty pages at Duke Divinity School, from which he resigned in 2017, Griffiths has published ten books as sole author and seven more as co-author or editor. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_J._Griffiths Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Paul Groner received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Yale and spent most of his career at the University of Virginia. His research mostly focused on the Japanese Tendai School during the Heian period. He has also done research on the precepts and ordinations, which led to research on Eison, founder of the Shingon Ritsu sect, and the status of nuns in medieval Japan. In recent years, his interests have extended to the Tendai educational system during the Muromachi Period and to the establishment of Japan’s first public library at the Tendai temple, Kan’eiji. Among his major works are ''Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School'' and ''Ryōgen and Mount Hiei: Japanese Tendai in the Tenth Century''. He is also the translator of HIRAKAWA Akira’s ''The History of Indian Buddhism'', vol. 1 (all published by University of Hawai’i Press). ([https://ealc.berkeley.edu/people/paul-groner Source Accessed Dec 3, 2019]) +
Williiam Grosnick, Assistant Professor of Religion at La Salle College, Philadelphia, received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979. His articles on the Buddhist ''Tathāgatagarbha'' tradition have appeared in ''The Journal of the International Association for Buddhist Studies'' and the ''Proceedings of the International Conference of Orientalists'' in Japan. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=r61jYd_uDF0C&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=william+grosnick+Buddhism+professor&source=bl&ots=TFkHV3J0NN&sig=ACfU3U38FQ1F4GGaJgMNEiZULnWjSjeqYA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWzJ2BgIbnAhWpAp0JHa4_COMQ6AEwBHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=william%20grosnick%20Buddhism%20professor&f=false Source Accessed Jan 15, 2020]) +
Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu) is the founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center (www.tallahasseechan.com) and is also the guiding teacher for the Western Dharma Teachers Training course at the Chan Meditation Center in New York and the Dharma Drum Lineage. He is one of the late Master Sheng Yen’s (1930–2009) senior and closest disciples, and assisted him in leading intensive retreats throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Guo Gu has edited and translated a number of Master Sheng Yen’s books from Chinese to English. He is also a professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at Florida State University, Tallahassee. (Source: [https://www.shambhala.com/authors/g-n/guo-gu.html Shambhala Publications]) +
Dr. Herbert Guenther (1917-2006) was one of the first translators of the Vajrayana and Dzogchen teachings into English. He was well known for his pioneering translations of Gampopa's ''Jewel Ornament of Liberation'' and Longchenpa's ངལ་གསོ་སྐོར་གསུམ་, ''ngal gso skor sgum'', which was published as a trilogy under the title ''Kindly Bent to Ease Us''.
He was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1917. He studied in Munich and Vienna, and then taught at Vienna University from 1943 to 1950. He then lived and taught in India, at Lucknow University from 1950 to 1958, and the Sanskrit University in Varanasi from 1958 to 1963. He then went to the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, where his students included Leslie Kawamura, Kennard Lipman, Steven Goodman and James Valby.
According to Steven Goodman, Guenther used to say that a good translator must do two things: 1) translate Tibetan terms based on the genre and approach in which they are being used, and 2) continually refine one's translation choices.
Guenther had many admirers and although many of his translation choices never caught on, his work did have a clear and undeniable influence on many translators. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Herbert_V._Guenther Source Accessed July 22, 2020])
Also see Steven Goodman's article "[https://www.lionsroar.com/profile-death-of-a-pioneer/ Death of a Pioneer]".
See a list of terms used by Guenther in translation on [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Category:HVG_Glossary Rigpa Wiki here].
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_V._Günther Herbert V. Günther on Wikipedia]
'''QUOTES:'''<br>
"1. To give an example, if someone were to 'translate' the French ''il a le mal de tête'' as 'he has the evil of the earthenware pot,' which is the correct philological rendering and then were to claim that this is what the French understood by that phrase, he would be considered insane, but when someone proclaims such absurdities as 'embryo of Tathāgatha,' 'substantial body', 'eminated incarnation Body,' and so on, which are not even philologically correct but merely reveal utter incomprehension of the subject matter, by a strange volte-face, he is said to be a scholar."
~ "Bodhisattva - The Ethical Phase in Evolution" in [[The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism]], page 123, note 1.
Gungru Gyaltsen Zangpo (Tib. གུང་རུ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་, Wyl. gung ru rgyal mtshan bzang po) (1383–1450) - the third throneholder of Sera Monastery. He was a disciple of Tsongkhapa, Gyaltsab Je, and Khedrup Je. He was a teacher of Ga Rabjampa Kunga Yeshe. His extant writings were recently published in three volumes.
Volume 1<br>
''byams pa'i dgongs rgyan'' - a commentary on Prajnaparamita philosophy.
Volume 2<br>
''dbu ma rtsa ba shes rab kyi don bsdus'' - Short explanation of the meaning of Nagarjuna's ''Mulamadhyamakakarika''.<br>
''dbu ma 'jug pa'i 'grel pa'' - Commentary on the ''Madhyamakavatara'' of Chandrakirti.<br>
''legs bshad bla ma'i man ngag bdud rtsi'i chu rgyun'' - General treatise on Madhyamika philosophy.
Volume 3<br>
''dbu ma bzhi brgya pa'i 'grel pa'' - Commentary on Aryadeva's ''Four Hundred Verses''<br>
''dbu ma'i stong thun'' - Survey of Madhyamika thought in the context of the various philosophical positions.<br>
''mngon rtogs rgyan gyi de kho na nyid gsal bar byed pa mkhas pa'i yid 'phrog'' - A commentary on the ''Abhisamayalankara''. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gungru_Gyaltsen_Zangpo Source Accessed Jan 27, 2023]) +
Indian scholiast and major translator of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese during the Liu Song period (420–479). Born in central India to a brāhmaṇa family, he is said to have studied in his youth the five traditional Indian sciences, as well as astronomy, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine, and magic. He was converted to Buddhism and began systematically to study Buddhist texts, starting with the Abhidharma and proceeding through the most influential Mahāyāna texts, such as the ''Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'' and ''Avataṃsakasūtra''. Around 435, he departed from Sri Lanka for China, arriving in Guangzhou by sea. In China, he devoted himself to teaching and translating Buddhist scriptures, carrying out most of his translations of Mahāyāna and mainstream Buddhist texts while residing in Qiyuansi in Jiankang and Xinsi in Jingzhou. He translated a total of fifty-two scriptures in 134 rolls, including the ''Saṃyuktāgama'' and the ''Prakaranapāda'' [śāstra], both associated with the Sarvāstivāda school, such seminal Mahāyāna texts as the ''[[Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra]]'' and the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra''. In the ''Lengqie shizi ji'', a Chan genealogical history associated with the Northern school (Bei zong) of the early Chan tradition, Guṇabhadra is placed before Bodhidharma in the Chan patriarchal lineage, perhaps because of his role in translating the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school. (Source: "Guṇabhadra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 336. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27) +
Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen is core faculty at Nitartha Institute and recently retired from [https://www.naropa.edu/faculty/acharya-gyaltsen.php Naropa University].
Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen was born in Trakar, Nepal, near the Tibetan border. He completed 10 years of traditional scholastic training at [http://www.rumtek.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=400&Itemid=612&lang=en Karma Shri Nalanda Institute] at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, India, graduating as acharya with honours (graduated in the same class as [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]]). This was followed by traditional yogic training in the first three-year retreat to be conducted at Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche's monastery in Pullahari, Nepal.
Following the advice of [[Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche]], Lama Tenpa taught at various Kagyu centers in Europe (Teksum Tashi Choling in Hamburg, Germany), at Nitartha, and centers in Canada. In 2004 he moved to Boulder, CO and began teaching at Naropa University. He retired from Naropa in 2020.
Learn more about Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen on the [https://nitarthainstitute.org/about/nitartha-faculty/ Nitartha faculty page] and at [https://nalandabodhi.org/teacher/acharya-lama-tenpa-gyaltsen/ Nalandabodhi]. +
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso is a noted scholar and teacher who was born in Eastern Tibet in 1935. After completing this early training, he spent five years wandering throughout Eastern and Central Tibet undertaking extensive solitary retreats in caves. When he reached Tsurphu Monastery, he received instruction from the head of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, the 16th Karmapa, who later named him a khenpo, which is a title of scholastic mastery. In 1977 he came to the West to teach Tibetan language and Buddhism. Known for his highly engaging teaching style, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso has been traveling and teaching in the West ever since, placing an emphasis on the careful training of Westerners. Some of his students include [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]], [[Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen]], [[Shenpen Hookham|Lama Shenpen Hookham]], [[Karl Brunnhölzl]], and [[Elizabeth Callahan]]. ([http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0661/2002152104-b.html Source Accessed July, 21 2020])
Visit his official site at [http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/ ktgrinpoche.org] +
The son of a physician, Luis Gómez was born in Puerto Rico on April 7 1943, growing up in the town of Guayanilla. He received his B.A. degree in 1963 from Universidad de Puerto Rico, enrolling there at age sixteen. He received his Ph.D. degree in Buddhist Studies, Indic Philology, and Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University in 1967. His first academic position was at the University of Washington. After that, he returned to Puerto Rico for four years, serving as chair of the Department of Philosophy at the Universidad de Puerto Rico.
He joined the University of Michigan faculty as an Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies in 1973 and was promoted to full professor in 1979. In 1986, he was named a “Collegiate Professor,” the highest faculty rank in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at Michigan, naming his professorship after his former colleague and mentor, the distinguished Chinese historian Charles Hucker.
Luis Gómez’s contributions to Buddhist Studies during his thirty-five years at Michigan spanned the areas of graduate training, undergraduate teaching, and scholarship. He founded Michigan’s highly regarded Ph.D. program in Buddhist Studies, which has produced several generations of outstanding scholars. That his students specialized in Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Indian, Thai, and Burmese Buddhism testifies to his wide-ranging knowledge, as well as his high level of proficiency in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as Latin, French, German, and Italian (in addition to his native Spanish). His work as a graduate mentor was honored in 1995, when he received the John H. D’Arms Award for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities. In recognition of his outstanding undergraduate teaching, he was named Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in 1997. A dedicated administrator, he chaired the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures for a decade. ([http://iabsinfo.net/2017/09/obituary-tribute-to-luis-oscar-gomez/ Source Accessed May 20, 2020])
H
Yoshito S. Hakeda was an Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. He is the translator of ''The Awakening of Faith'', attributed to Aśvaghosha (1967), and one of the collaborators assisting Wm. Theodore de Bary in preparing ''Buddhist Tradition in India, China, and Japan'' (1969).
According to his obituary in the New York Times, "Professor Hakeda's major volume was a translation and study of the works and thought of Kukai, a ninth-century Japanese Buddhist priest and scholar, published by the Columbia University Press in 1972. He also collaborated on ''Bankei Zen,'' a translation of the works of a 17th-century Zen master." ([https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/01/obituaries/yoshitoshakeda-professor-ofjapaneseatcolumbiadies.html Source Accessed December 4, 2019)] +
Sarah Harding was born in Malibu in 1951 and educated in Los Angeles, California. She studied English literature and anthropology at Prescott College in Arizona and earned a degree in Religious Studies from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Sarah spent three years traveling through Europe, Africa, and Asia, and while abroad, she studied Tibetan language and culture for two years in Darjeeling, India, and in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 1974, Sarah returned to the United States to continue her studies in Tibetan culture and language. Her interests in Tibetan and Buddhist studies culminated in her participation in the first traditional three-year meditation and study retreat for Westerners, which was conducted entirely in Tibetan, under the guidance of Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, near Dijon, France.
Between 1980 and 1992, Sarah served as a resident Dharma teacher and translator in Los Angeles and later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has done extensive oral translation internationally for such renowned teachers as Kalu Rinpoche, Chagdud Tulku, Tenga Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, and Gangteng Rinpoche. Sarah is a founding member of the International Buddhist Translation Committee and a member of the Nalanda Translation Committee. Her prolific career as a translator includes more than thirty-five translations of traditional Buddhist texts, as well as the Tibetan Language Correspondence Course, co-authored with Jeremy Morrelli. From 1992 she was a faculty member in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University and is recently retired. Sarah continues to make her home in Boulder, where she is currently working on her next book. She has been a Tsadra Fellow since 2000. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=eBhgB0Xqr24C&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=Sarah+Harding+was+born+in+Malibu+in+1951+and+educated+in+Los+Angeles,+California.+She+studied+English+literature+and+anthropology+at+Prescott+College+in+Arizona+and+earned+a+degree+in+Religious+Studies+from+Naropa+University+in+Boulder,+Colorado.+Sarah+spent+three+years+traveling+through+Europe,+Africa,+and+Asia,+and+while+abroad,+she+studied+Tibetan+language+and+culture+for+two+years+in+Darjeeling,+India,+and+in+Kathmandu,+Nepal.+In+1974,+Sarah+returned+to+the+United+States+to+continue+her+studies+in+Tibetan+culture+and+language.+Her+interests+in+Tibetan+and+Buddhist+studies+culminated+in+her+participation+in+the+first+traditional+three-year+meditation+and+study+retreat+for+Westerners,+which+was+conducted+entirely+in+Tibetan,+under+the+guidance+of+Venerable+Kalu+Rinpoche,+near+Dijon,+France.&source=bl&ots=aeYb7bOnh-&sig=ACfU3U0wbLUpmQYmQ8kGJrpCPhiuFrEe9g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihnZCTuuHqAhXIbc0KHZQ_AP8Q6AEwAXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sarah%20Harding%20was%20born%20in%20Malibu%20in%201951%20and%20educated%20in%20Los%20Angeles%2C%20California.%20She%20studied%20English%20literature%20and%20anthropology%20at%20Prescott%20College%20in%20Arizona%20and%20earned%20a%20degree%20in%20Religious%20Studies%20from%20Naropa%20University%20in%20Boulder%2C%20Colorado.%20Sarah%20spent%20three%20years%20traveling%20through%20Europe%2C%20Africa%2C%20and%20Asia%2C%20and%20while%20abroad%2C%20she%20studied%20Tibetan%20language%20and%20culture%20for%20two%20years%20in%20Darjeeling%2C%20India%2C%20and%20in%20Kathmandu%2C%20Nepal.%20In%201974%2C%20Sarah%20returned%20to%20the%20United%20States%20to%20continue%20her%20studies%20in%20Tibetan%20culture%20and%20language.%20Her%20interests%20in%20Tibetan%20and%20Buddhist%20studies%20culminated%20in%20her%20participation%20in%20the%20first%20traditional%20three-year%20meditation%20and%20study%20retreat%20for%20Westerners%2C%20which%20was%20conducted%20entirely%20in%20Tibetan%2C%20under%20the%20guidance%20of%20Venerable%20Kalu%20Rinpoche%2C%20near%20Dijon%2C%20France.&f=false Adapted from Source July 22, 2020])
'''Online Publications''':
*[http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/2016/07/13/pha-dampa-sangye-and-the-alphabet-goddess/ Pha Dampa Sangye and the Alphabet Goddess: A Preliminary Study of the Sources of the Zhije Tradition]. Presented by Sarah Harding at the 2016 meeting of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS) in Bergen, Norway
*[http://magazine.naropa.edu/wisdom-traditions-fall-2017/features/glorious-naropa.php Nāropa’s Life of Liberation and Spiritual Song]
*[http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/2014/04/28/did-machik-really-teach-chod/ Did Machik Lapdrön Really Teach Chöd? A Survey of the Early Sources]
Ian Charles Harris (born June 17, 1952, died December 23, 2014 ) was an English Orientalist, Sanskrit scholar, and Buddhist. Harris studied at Lancaster University from 1977 to 1982. He earned a master's degree in religious studies at Lancaster University, and then earned a doctorate at Lancaster, with the book ''The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism'' (1991). He then graduated from the University of Cambridge, and then became a teacher of religious studies and then head of department for schools in Bradford and Keighley. In 1987, his time began as a lecturer in religious studies at St. Martin's College Lancaster (later part of the University of Cumbria). ([https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Charles_Harris Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019])
An online obituary can be found [https://buddhism.arts.ubc.ca/2015/01/06/obituary-professor-ian-charles-harris-june-17th-1952-to-december-23rd-2014/ here.] +
Paul Harrison completed his B.A. and M.A. in Chinese at Auckland University in his native New Zealand and took his Ph.D. in South Asian & Buddhist Studies from Australian National University in 1979. After a short stint at Auckland (1981-1983), he taught Religious Studies at Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand, for 22 years, being responsible for courses on Buddhism. Paul joined the permanent faculty of Stanford's Religious Studies Department in 2007. His research focuses on Buddhist history and literature, on the study of Buddhist manuscripts, and the edition and translation of Buddhist sacred texts in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese. Paul is co-director of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford. ([https://explorecourses.stanford.edu/instructor/paulh1 Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019]) +
Peter Harvey, who gained his doctorate in Buddhist Studies at Lancaster University, under Ninian Smart, is Emeritus Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland, UK. His research focuses on early Buddhist thought and practices, and Buddhist ethics. He edits ''Buddhist Studies Review'', journal of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies, having founded the Association in 1995 with Ian Harris, and from 2002 to 2011 ran an online MA Buddhist Studies program. He is author of ''An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices'' (University of Cambridge Press, 1990, 2nd edn. 2013), ''The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism'' (Curzon Press, 1995), and ''An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Practices'' (University of Cambridge Press, 2000). He has edited an anthology of Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna texts, ''Common Buddhist Text: Guidance and Insight from the Buddha'', to be published for free distribution by Mahachulalongkorn-rajavidyalaya University in Thailand. He is a member of the Samatha Trust and teaches a free online course on Samatha meditation. Retired, he now lives near York. ([https://sunderland.academia.edu/PeterHarvey Source Accessed Dec 5, 2019]) +
Dr. Steven Heine is Professor of Religious Studies and History as well as Director of Asian Studies at Florida International University. He specializes in East Asian and comparative religions, Japanese Buddhism and intellectual history, Buddhist studies, and religion and social sciences. Dr. Heine earned his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and M.A. and Ph.D. at Temple University. Before coming to FIU in 1997, he taught at Pennsylvania State University and directed the East Asian Studies center there. Professor Heine teaches a variety of courses including Modern Asia and Methods in Asian Studies at graduate and undergraduate levels as well as Japanese culture and religion, Zen Buddhism, Ghosts, spirits and folk religions, religions of the Silk Road, and other aspects of Asian society.
Dr. Heine was a Fulbright Senior Researcher in Japan and twice won National Endowment for Humanities Fellowships plus funding from the American Academy of Religion and Association for Asian Studies in addition to the US Department of Education, the Japan Foundation and Freeman Foundation. He has conducted research on Zen Buddhism in relation to medieval and modern society primarily at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Heine has lectured there institutions in addition to Brown, Cambridge, Columbia, Emory, Florida, Free University, Harvard, Hawaii, Iowa, London, North Carolina, McGill, Ohio State, Oslo, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Stanford, UCLA, Yale, Zurich and many other conferences and institutions. He was chair of the national Japanese Religions Group and the Sacred Space in Asia Group, and he is editor of Japan Studies Review and a former book review editor for Japan for Philosophy East and West published by the University of Hawaii Press.
Dr. Heine’s research specialty is medieval East Asian religious studies, especially the transition of Zen Buddhism from China to Japan. In addition to 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and outstanding edited volumes, he has published thirty-five books, both monographs and edited volumes. Over a dozen of his books have been reviewed or noted in such publications as CHOICE, Chronical of Higher Education, Booklist, Library Journal, or Times Literary Supplement, in addition to multiple reviews in various academic journals or professional outlets.
The most recent books include ''From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen: A Remarkable Century of Transmission and Transformation'' (Oxford); ''Zen and Material Culture'' (Oxford); ''Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record: Sharpening the Sword at the Dragon's Gate'' (Oxford); ''Zen Koans'' (Hawaii); ''Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting the Mu Kōan in Zen Buddhism'' (Oxford); ''Dōgen and Sōtō Zen: New Perspectives'' (Oxford); ''Dōgen: Textual and Historical Studies'' (Oxford); and ''Sacred High City, Sacred Low City: A Tale of Sacred Sites in Two Tokyo Neighborhoods'' (Oxford). Three books are forthcoming in 2020: ''Readings of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye'' (Columbia); ''Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree: Giun's Verse Comments on Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō'' (Oxford); ''Creating the World of Chan/ Sǒn /Zen: Chinese Chan Buddhism and its Spread throughout East Asia''.
Other books include ''Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?'' (Oxford); ''Did Dōgen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It'' (Oxford); ''Opening a Mountain: Kōans of Zen Masters'' (Oxford); ''Shifting Shape, Shaping Text: Philosophy and Folklore in the Fox Kōan'' (Hawaii); ''The Zen Poetry of Dōgen: Verses From the Mountain of Eternal Peace'' (Tuttle); ''Dōgen and the Kōan Tradition: A Tale of Two Shōbōgenzō Texts'' (SUNY); ''Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dōgen'' (SUNY); ''The Zen Canon: Studies of Classic Zen Texts'' (Oxford). His book ''White Collar Zen: Using Zen Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Your Career Goals'' (Oxford) was reviewed by the Harvard Business School, USA Today, and the Washington Post. For more detailed information on his books, please see [https://asian.fiu.edu/about/director/books/ here]. ([https://asian.fiu.edu/about/director/ Source Accessed Jan 17, 2020])
A long–term student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Ann joined the Nalanda Translation Committee in 1986. She studied Tibetan at Naropa University, mainly with Dzigar Kongtrul, and she taught Tibetan and Foundations of Buddhism at Naropa from 1991-2004. After 30 years in Boulder, Ann lived as a retreatant for eight years at Padma Samye Ling, the monastery in upstate New York of Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. From 1997 to 2014, she translated primarily with Ringu Tulku and for Dharma Samudra, the Khenpo Brothers’ publication group. In 2014 Ann moved to Portland, Oregon, where she continues her Buddhist practice and study under the guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. ([http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Ann_Helm Source Accessed Sept 9, 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]) +
Heshang Moheyan [or Hashang Mahāyāna] was the Chinese abbot whom Kamalashila defeated in a famous debate at Samyé. He is said to have been a representative of a form of Ch’an meditation, but in a rather nihilistic form. He taught that meditation consists of not doing anything at all in the mind, and that this can bring about sudden enlightenment, without the need even to practice the six paramitas. Tibetan scholars throughout the centuries have often accused one another of adhering to Hashang’s system, and often put this down to the particular tendrel created when he “left his shoes behind” in Tibet following his defeat. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Hashang Source Accessed Oct 22, 2019]) +
Hideko Wayman was a translator of Buddhist works and the wife of the Buddhist studies scholar Alex Wayman (1921–2004). She was a graduate of Tsuda College of Tokyo in her native Japan and subsequently earned an M.A. at the University of California, Berkeley.
While Alex Wayman was writing his doctoral dissertation, "Analysis of the
''Śrāvakabhūmi'' Manuscript," she studied the ''Śrāvakabhūmi'' in Hsüan-tsang's Chinese translation as well as in the Japanese rendition.
One of the books Hideko Wayman co-authored with her husband was a translation of the third-century Buddhist scripture ''Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā'', published by Columbia Univ. Press under the auspices of the Translation Committee on Asian Classics at Columbia. Hideko's research and translation of Chinese and Japanese sources complemented Wayman's work in Sanskrit and Tibetan sources. As the cotranslator of this work, she added to the introductions and annotations, supplied important data from the Sino-Japanese commentaries, and supervised preparation of the Glossary, Appendix, and Index. (Adapted from ''The Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā'', translators' note, xv) +
Rev. Blayne Higa is the Resident Minister of the Kona Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Kealakekua on the Big Island of Hawaii. He holds a Master of Divinity from the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California with a focus on Shin Buddhist ministry and chaplaincy. He has been a contributor to Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, and Buddhadharma, and is a frequent speaker and seminar leader at Buddhist communities in Hawaii and around the nation.
Rev. Blayne received Tokudo ordination and Kyoshi certification from the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha in Kyoto, Japan. He is the Chair of the Committee on Social Concerns and Ministerial Training Committee for the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. He was also a co-planner for the 2022 Future of American Buddhism Conference.
Prior to entering ministry, he had careers in state government and the non-profit sector for over seventeen-years. He holds a Master of Public Administration and a certificate in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He received a BA from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Committed to civic engagement, Rev. Blayne serves on the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and Vibrant Hawaii. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of The Interfaith Alliance Hawaii. You can learn more about his work at www.blaynehiga.com. ([https://www.blaynehiga.com/about Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
David Higgins received his doctorate from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland in 2012. He subsequently held a position as a Post-doc Research Fellow in the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna where he explored the relationship between Mahāmudrā and Madhyamaka philosophies in Bka’ brgyud scholasticism during the post-classical period (15th to 16th centuries). His research interests include Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and epistemology with a particular focus on Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā and Rnying ma Rdzogs chen doctrines and practices. His PhD thesis was published under the title ''Philosophical Foundations of Classical Rdzogs chen in Tibet: Investigating the Distinction Between Dualistic Mind (sems) and Primordial Knowing (ye shes)'' (Vienna, WSTB no. 78, 2013). His recent publications include ''Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha Nature'' (Vienna, WSTB no. 90, 2016, 2 vols.) and ''Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa’s Middle Path'' (Vienna, WSTB, forthcoming, 2 vols.), both of which were co-authored with Martina Drazczyk. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/2019-vienna-symposium/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020]) +
Born in Toyohashi City in Aichi Prefecture on January 21, 1915, Hirakawa studied as an undergraduate and then graduate student (1939-1945) at the Department of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit Philology, Faculty of Letters, Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo), and became Research Assistant of that department in 1946. He was appointed Associate Professor of the newly established Department of Indian Philosophy at Hokkaido University in 1950. After teaching for four years in Hokkaido University, he returned to Tokyo in 1954 to become Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies at his alma mater. Hirakawa was granted a full professorship in 1962, a position he held until reaching the University of Tokyo’s mandatory retirement age of 60 in 1975, at which time he received the title of Professor Emeritus. After his retirement he taught for 10 years (1975-1985) Buddhist Studies at Waseda University, Department of Oriental Philosophy, School of Literature. Hirakawa also served as Chairman of the Directors of the Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies for eight years (1983-1991), where he made tremendous contributions toward the advancement of the Association. In 1993 he was selected to be a member of the Japan Academy. He went on to become Chairman and Professor at the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies (established in 1996), where in addition to his duties as the director of research and education, he was responsible for the general administration of the College. He held this position until passing away. ([https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/download/8928/2821/ Source Accessed Dec 5, 2019])
[https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/download/8928/2821/ See also, ''In Memoriam'', Professor Akira Hirakawa] +
Dr. Hiromi Habata is a faculty member at the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies in Tokyo, Japan. Before her appointment she was a researcher in Indology at the Institute of Indology and Tibetology at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. Her scholarly interests include Buddhist Sanskrit, manuscripts of Central Asia, and methods of translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese and Tibetan. She is a member of the British Library Sanskrit Fragments Project and is currently working on a critical edition and analysis of the Mahaparinirvana-sutra of the Mahayanists. ([https://www.en.buddhismus-studien.uni-muenchen.de/people_vorlage/index.html Adapted from Source Aug 3, 2020])
Click here for a link to Hiromi Habata's [https://www.indologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/3_privatdoz/habata/publ_habata/index.html publications] +
Hitoshi Inui is a professor at Koyasan University in the Department of Esoteric Buddhism. His main areas of specialization are Chinese, Indian, and Buddhist Philosophy and Esoteric Buddhism. He is the author of numerous articles on these topics. For a list of publications, visit Hitoshi Inui's page at [https://jglobal.jst.go.jp/en/detail?JGLOBAL_ID=200901092696376140&e=publication/misc J-Global] +
Dr. Stephen Hodge completed his undergraduate studies at SOAS, University of London (1969–72) and his post-graduate studies at Tōhoku Universty (1972–81), focussing on the formation of early tantric Buddhism and early Yogācāra. He was ordained as a Shingon monk at Mt. Koya in 1974. Since returning to the UK, apart from some teaching work, Hodge has mainly engaged in translation work and also independent research into the textual formation of early Mahāyāna, especially focusing on the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' and related texts. He is currently working on a translation of the Tibetan and two Chinese versions of the ''Nirvāṇasūtra'', to be accompanied by an exhaustive textual analysis demonstrating the compositional methods and stratification of this text and the relationship between the three versions. Hodge has recently embarked upon a parallel study of the development and texts of early 1st century CE Messianic Judaism and the Hebreo-Aramaic basis of the Gospels, as well as investigating possible ideological influences in Southern India.
His publications include: ''An Introduction to Classical Tibetan'' (1990), ''The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead'' (1998), ''The Dead Sea Scrolls'' (2001), ''The Mahā-Vairocana Tantra with Commentary by Buddhaguhya'' (2001), ''The Daodejing'' (2002), the following sections of the ''Yogācāra-bhūmi-ṣāstra'': ''Vyakhyā-saṃgrahaṇī'', ''Paryāya-saṃgrahaṇī'', ''Vastu-saṃgrahaṇī'', ''Śrāvaka-bhūmi'' (forthcoming with BDK). Hodge is also currently publishing a series of interim study papers on the ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra'': Paper I “The Textual Transmisssion of the ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra''," Paper II "Who Compiled the ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra'', Where & When?” (forthcoming), Paper III "The Development of the Conceptual Terminology of the ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra''" (forthcoming. ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/hodge.html Source Accessed October 16, 2019]) +
Augustus Frederic Rudolf Hoernlé (1841–1918), also referred to as Rudolf Hoernle or A. F. Rudolf Hoernle, was an Indologist and philologist. He is famous for his studies on the Bower Manuscript (1891), Weber Manuscript (1893) and other discoveries in northwestern China and Central Asia particularly in collaboration with Aurel Stein. Born in India to a Protestant missionary family from Germany, he completed his education in Switzerland, and studied Sanskrit in the United Kingdom. He returned to India, taught at leading universities there, and in the early 1890s published a series of seminal papers on ancient manuscripts, writing scripts, and cultural exchange between India, China, and Central Asia. His collection after 1895 became a victim of forgery by Islam Akhun and colleagues in Central Asia, a forgery revealed to him in 1899. He retired and settled in Oxford in 1899. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Hoernl%C3%A9 Source Accessed December 5, 2019]) +
Following an education in France and America, Katia Holmes gained an M.A. in political science at SciencePo in Paris and went on to gain an M.Sc. in economics at the University of Paris. Her research at this time took her to India. Following a year of lecturing at Vincennes University in Paris, in 1970 she stayed for much of a sabbatical year in Kagyu Samye Ling Tibetan Centre in Scotland, which she had visited in 1969. Based in Samye Ling and France, she has dedicated her life since then to the study and preservation of Tibetan wisdom. In 1987 she gained a pre-doctoral DEA diploma in Religious Anthropology of Asia and Africa at the EPHE, Paris. Since 1993, she has concentrated on Tibetan Medicine and has worked in close conjunction with Khenpo Troru Tsenam Rinpoche . . . Katia is the main translator and interpreter for the Tara-Rokpa College of Tibetan Medicine where she is working on a translation of the famous Fourfold Tantra . . . ([http://kagyu.org.za/harare/visiting-teachers/ken-and-katia-holmes-october-23-november-2-2013/ Source Accessed Jul 22, 2020]) +
Ken is currently Director of Studies at Kagyu Samye Ling. His life is spent teaching in Samye Dzongs in various countries, writing and translating dharma works, and he also occasionally interprets for visiting Tibetan lamas. He has also lectured in elementology and astro-science for the Tara-Rokpa College of Tibetan Medicine. He was a founder member of the Scottish Inter-Faith Council and has worked with the British Cabinet Office and the European Community on training programmes. He represented Buddhism at the seminal 2002 meetings in Brussels to discuss religious representation in the new European constitution. ([https://www.samyeling.org/buddhism-and-meditation/teaching-archive-2/dharmacharya-ken-holmes/ Source Accessed Jul 22, 2020]) +
Lama Shenpen Hookham is the founding Lama of the [https://buddhawithin.org.uk/about/ Awakened Heart Sangha] and principle teacher of the [https://ahs.org.uk/training Living the Awakened Heart training].
Lama Shenpen has trained for over 50 years in the Mahamudra & Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
She has spent over 12 years in retreat and has been a student of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, one of the foremost living masters of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, since the late 70s.
Lama Shenpen is fluent in Tibetan and has translated a number of Tibetan texts into English for her students. On Khenpo Rinpoche’s instructions she produced a seminal study of the profound Buddha Nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism, published as ''The Buddha Within'', and gained a doctorate in this from Oxford University. She is also the author of ''[https://www.windhorsepublications.com/product/theres-more-to-dying-than-death/ There’s More to Dying than Death]'', ''[https://buddhawithin.org.uk/autobiography/ Keeping the Dalai Lama Waiting and Other Stories]'', and ''[https://www.shambhala.com/the-guru-principle.html The Guru Principle]''.([https://ahs.org.uk/lama-shenpen Source Accessed July 21, 2020]) +
Jeffrey Hopkins is Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia where he taught Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language for thirty-two years from 1973. He received a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America in Freewood Acres, New Jersey, USA (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey), and received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin in 1973.<br> For ten years, from 1979 to 1989, Hopkins served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s chief interpreter into English on lecture tours. At the University of Virginia, he founded the largest academic program in Tibetan and Buddhist studies in the West, and served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. He has published forty-eight books, some of which have been translated into a total of twenty-two languages. He published the first translation of the foundational text of the Jo-nang school of Tibetan Buddhism in ''Mountain Doctrine: Tibet’s Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix''. He has translated and edited sixteen books from oral teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the last four being ''How to See Yourself as You Really Are''; ''Becoming Enlightened''; ''How to Be Compassionate''; and ''The Heart of Meditation: Discovering Innermost Awareness''.<br> He is the President and Founder of the UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies. ([https://uma-tibet.org/author-hopkins.html Source Accessed Jul 22, 2020])
Curriculum Vitae available for download [https://uma-tibet.org/bod/cv/hopkins_cv.pdf here] +
Sarah J. Horton received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University. She is a scholar of East Asian religions and Japanese culture. She is the author of ''Living Buddhist Statues in Medieval and Modern Japan'' (Palgrave MacMillan 2007) +
Mei Hsiao received her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary in 2008. She is an Assistant Professor at China Medical University Center for General Education in Taiwan. She specializes in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Chinese Philosophy. +
Jamie Hubbard graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctorate in Buddhist studies and has been teaching at Smith College since 1985.
Hubbard is the author of books, articles and films on Buddhism in East Asia, including ''Pruning the Bodhi Tree'' (with Paul Swanson), "Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood," and the film ''The Yamaguchi Story: Buddhism and the Family in Japan''. He also has extensive interests in the use of technology in Buddhist studies and has worked on numerous projects in the area of archiving Buddhist texts and digital publication, and more recently in the field of neuroscience and emerging technologies of awareness: Cyborg Buddha! ([https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/jamie-hubbard Source Accessed June 13, 2019]) +
Pascale Hugon studied Indology and Tibetology at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). Her primary focus of research is the philosophical literature of Buddhism, in particular epistemology and Madhyamaka. She studies its transmission to Tibet, Tibetan interpretations, and indigenous elaborations. Following the fortunate recovery of significant texts by authors of the bKa’ gdams pa school, her current research is examining the development of Tibetan scholasticism in the 11th–13th c. Her publications include editions, translations and thematic studies based on Sanskrit and Tibetan materials.
Hugon is the head of the FWF project "Buddhist narratives and 'Tibetan' ethnogenesis" (2021–2025) and she is the Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project "The dawn of Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism (11th–13th c.)" (TibSchol, CoG 101001002) (2021–2026).
:([https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ikga/team/research/hugon-pascale/ Source Accessed Jan 26, 2023])
[https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/Institute/IKGA/PDF/team/CV_Hugon_2021.pdf CV]
[https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/Institute/IKGA/PDF/team/Publications_Hugon_2021.pdf Publications] +
Dajian Huineng (traditional Chinese: 大鑒惠能; pinyin: Dàjiàn Huìnéng; Wade–Giles: Ta-chien; Japanese: Daikan Enō; Korean: Hyeneung); (February 27, 638 – August 28, 713), also commonly known as the Sixth Patriarch or Sixth Ancestor of Chan (traditional Chinese: 禪宗六祖), is a semi-legendary but central figure in the early history of Chinese Chan Buddhism. According to tradition he was an uneducated layman who suddenly attained awakening upon hearing the ''Diamond Sutra''. Despite his lack of formal training, he demonstrated his understanding to the fifth patriarch, Daman Hongren, who then supposedly chose Huineng as his true successor instead of his publicly known selection of Yuquan Shenxiu.
Twentieth century scholarship revealed that the story of Huineng's Buddhist career was likely invented by the monk Heze Shenhui, who claimed to be one of Huineng's disciples and was highly critical of Shenxiu's teaching.
Huineng is regarded as the founder of the "Sudden Enlightenment" Southern Chan school of Buddhism, which focuses on an immediate and direct attainment of Buddhist enlightenment. ''The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch'' (六祖壇經), which is said to be a record of his teachings, is a highly influential text in the East Asian Buddhist tradition. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huineng Source Accessed July 14, 2021]) +
Scott Hurley is an Assistant Professor in Religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. His research interests include new religions of China and Japan, early-mid twentieth century Chinese Buddhism, animal rights, and welfare issues.
He currently teaches "Living Religions," "Religions of East Asia," and a course entitled "Enduring Questions." ([https://www.luther.edu/religion/faculty/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020])
[https://www.luther.edu/hurlsc01/assets/ScottHurleyCV.pdf CV and List of Publications] +
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Katsuhito Inoue is a Professor at Kansai University in the Faculty of Letters, Department of Humanities. He is the author of numerous articles on Japanese philosophy and Confucian thought. +
Isaline Blew Horner (30 March 1896 – 25 April 1981), usually cited as I. B. Horner, was an English Indologist, a leading scholar of Pali literature and late president of the Pali Text Society (1959–1981). On 30 March 1896 Horner was born in Walthamstow in Essex, England. Horner was a first cousin once removed of the British Theravada monk Ajahn Amaro. In 1917, at the University of Cambridge's women's college Newnham College, Horner was awarded the title of a B.A. in moral sciences. After her undergraduate studies, Horner remained at Newnham College, becoming in 1918 an assistant librarian and then, in 1920, acting librarian. In 1921, Horner traveled to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India and Burma where she was first introduced to Buddhism, its literature and related languages. In 1923, Horner returned to England where she accepted a Fellowship at Newnham College and became its librarian. In 1928, she became the first Sarah Smithson Research Fellow in Pali Studies. In 1930, she published her first book, ''Women Under Primitive Buddhism''. In 1933, she edited her first volume of Pali text, the third volume of the ''Papancasudani'' (Majjhima Nikaya commentary). In 1934, Horner was awarded the title of an M.A. from Cambridge. From 1939 to 1949, she served on Cambridge's Governing Body. From 1926 to 1959, Horner lived and traveled with her companion "Elsie," Dr. Eliza Marian Butler (1885–1959). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaline_Blew_Horner Source Accessed Apr 22, 2020]) +
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Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. After graduating from Dartmouth College in Asian Studies in 1967 he joined the Peace Corps and worked on tropical medicine teams in the Mekong River valley. He met and studied as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. Returning to the United States, Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. Over the years, Jack has taught in centers and universities worldwide, led International Buddhist Teacher meetings, and worked with many of the great teachers of our time. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a father, husband and activist.
His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. They include, ''A Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology''; ''A Path with Heart''; ''After the Ecstasy, the Laundry''; ''Teachings of the Buddha''; ''Seeking the Heart of Wisdom''; ''Living Dharma''; ''A Still Forest Pool''; ''Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart''; ''Buddha's Little Instruction Book''; ''The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness and Peace''; ''Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are''; and his most recent book, ''No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are''. ([https://jackkornfield.com/bio/ Source Accessed March 6, 2020])
===Teachings on Buddha-nature===
* Awakening to Your Buddha Nature: https://www.spiritrock.org/buddha-nature
* Finding Buddha Nature in the Midst of Difficulty Meditation: https://jackkornfield.com/finding-buddha-nature-in-the-midst-of-difficulty/
* Your Buddha Nature: Teachings on the Ten Perfections: https://www.soundstrue.com/store/your-buddha-nature-507.html
David P. Jackson received his doctorate in 1985 from the University of Washington and studied and translated for many years in Seattle for the polymath Tibetan scholar Dezhung Rinpoche. Until 2007, he was a professor of Tibetan Studies at Hamburg University in Germany and is now a curator for the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. He is the author of numerous articles and books on Tibetan art, literature, and history, including ''A Saint in Seattle'', ''Tibetan Thangka Painting'', ''The Mollas of Mustang'', and ''Enlightenment by a Single Means''. He lives in Washington State. ([http://www.wisdompubs.org/author/david-p-jackson Source Accessed Oct 19, 2019]) +
Roger Jackson is John W. Nason Professor of Asian Studies and Religion, Emeritus, at Carleton College. He also has taught at the University of Michigan, Fairfield University, McGill University, and Maitripa College. He has a BA from Wesleyan University and an MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under Geshe Lhundub Sopa. His books include ''Is Enlightenment Possible?'' (1993), ''Tibetan Literature'' (with José Cabezón, 1996), ''Buddhist Theology'' (with John Makransky, 1999), ''Tantric Treasures'' (2004), ''The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems'' (with Geshe Sopa et al., 2009), and ''Mahāmudrā and the Bka’ brgyud Tradition'' (with Matthew Kapstein, 2011). He is a past editor of the ''Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies'', and currently co-edits the ''Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies''. He recently completed a major study and anthology centered on Mahāmudrā theory and practice in the Geluk tradition: [https://wisdomexperience.org/product/mind-seeing-mind/ ''Mind Seeing Mind'']. ([http://conference-wp.tsadra.org/past-event/the-2017-tt-conference/ Source Accessed Dec 6, 2019])
Roger Jackson's [https://apps.carleton.edu/profiles/assets/rjackson_cv.pdf CV]
Roger Jackson, John W. Nason Professor of Asian Studies and Religion, Emeritus, recently published an article-length memoir of his career as a scholar of Buddhism, “[https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/pages/6031574/jackson-roger-r Playing Both Ends Against the Middle: Buddhadharma, Buddhist Studies, and Me],” on the Buddhist studies website H-Buddhism. +
Dr. Lozang Jamspal received an Acharya degree in Sanskrit, Hindi, and Buddhist and Indian philosophy at Sanskrit University, Benares. At the university, he served as a librarian and Tibetan language instructor, and helped to establish the Central Institute of Tibetan Studies where he later worked as lecturer. He also worked as a lecturer of Sanskrit and classical Tibetan language at the University of Delhi. After moving to the U.S. in 1974, he taught at the Bslab gsum bshad grub gling in New Jersey. In 1991, he earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he taught classical Tibetan. Currently he is a regular professor at the International Buddhist College. ([http://ibc.ac.th/en/community/prof-dr-lozang-jamspal Source Accessed April 30, 2020]) +
Yūn-hua Jan was Professor of Religion in the Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton. He received a Canada Council Fellowship (1973-74) and has lectured in Chinese Studies at Visva-Bharati University, India. He has been a visiting researcher at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo (1974). He was the author of ''A Chronicle of Buddhism in China 581-906 A.D.'' (1967) and ''The Autobiography of Ch'i Pai-shih''. He has contributed many articles written in Chinese and English to various journals. He received his Ph.D. from the Visva-Bharati University, India. (Source: Adapted from [https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/content/search?search_in%5B%5D=all&SearchText=the+bodhisattva+doctrine+in+buddhism ''The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism''], Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1981) +
Dr. Jarosław Zapart is an Indologist and buddhologist whose research interests revolve mainly around early literature and philosophy of Mahāyāna Buddhism. He is especially concerned with origins of the tathāgatagarbha concept, its evolution in Indian sources and its earliest history in China. His second field of interest encompasses the Hindi Sant thought & literature as well as the North Indian Bhakti. He is also involved in the study of Indian aesthetics and poetics and the aesthetics of Indian & Western classical music. ([https://jagiellonian.academia.edu/JaroslawZapart Adapted from Source April 16, 2020]) +
The Most Venerable Phra Thepyanmongkol was born on 6 March 1929. While he was a layman, he worked as a research specialist at the United States Information Services (USIS) in Bangkok. Also, he was a visiting lecturer in research methodology, research and evaluation, and public opinion surveys to various academic institutions in Thailand. Sermchai began practicing meditation in 1970. After he made an attainment according to the Dhammakaya Meditation, he furthered his meditation to the advanced level with the Most Venerable Master Phrarajbrahmathera (Veera Kanuttamo), the vice abbot and head of Vipassana Meditation department of Wat Paknam in Bangkok, who studied the superknowledge of Dhammakaya directly with the Most Venerable Grand Master Phramongkolthepmuni (Luang Por Wat Paknam). After his achievement in meditation, Sermchai entered Buddhist monkhood on 6 March 1986. As a Buddhist monk, he spent years studying Buddhist doctrine and Pali language until he completed the advanced level of Dhamma study and level six of Pali curriculum. In 1991, he established Wat Luang Phor Sodh Dhammakayaram to be a center for Dhamma study and meditation practice in Rajaburi Province. In 1996, he became a certified Buddhist preceptor. As a recognition to his works which benefit Buddhism and the society, Venerable Sermchai was promoted for the first time to the ecclesiastical title of Phra Bhavana Visutthikhun in 1998. In 2004, he was promoted to the title of Phra Rajyanvisith. He was promoted again to the higher ecclesiastical title of Phra Thepyanmongkol in 2011. Throughout years of his monkhood, the Most Venerable Sermchai has promoted Dhamma study and Dhammakaya Meditation practice in order to create peace among human societies. With his qualified knowledge gained from the modern education system and profession as well as knowledge about Dhamma doctrine and meditation experience, the Most Venerable Sermchai has authored many books on Buddhism and meditation. In addition, as the abbot of Wat Luang Phor Sodh Dhammakayaram, he has organized meditation retreat and training for both Thais and foreigners. Venerable Master Sermchai initiated many projects which benefit Buddhism and the propagation of Dhammakaya Meditation which includes the establishment of Buddhist college located within the area of his temple in Rajaburi Provice. Consequently, with his work achievement and qualification, in July 2018, Venerable Master Sermchai (Phrathepyanmongkol) was granted the title of 'Associate Professor' by Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (MCU) which is the prominent Buddhist University in Thailand. ([https://www.meditation101.org/14497024/venerable-master-assoc-professor-sermchai-jayamanggalo Source Accessed Apr 4, 2022])
Jin Y. Park is Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Founding Director of Asian Studies Program at American University. Park's research areas include East Asian Buddhism (especially Zen and Huayan Buddhism), postmodernism, deconstruction, Buddhist ethics, Buddhist philosophy of religion, Buddhist-postmodern comparative philosophy, and modern East Asian philosophy. Park’s research in Buddhism focuses on the Zen and Huayan schools of East Asian Buddhism on language, violence, and ethics. In her comparative study, Park reads Zen and Huayan Buddhism together with postmodern thought in Continental philosophy, with a special focus on Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction. Park’s research on modern East Asian philosophy examines the dawn of philosophy in East Asia and the East-West encounter in this context. In her monograph ''Buddhism and Postmodernity: Zen, Huayan, and the Possibility of Buddhist-Postmodern Ethics'' (2008), Park discusses Buddhism and continental philosophy on the topics of, among others, self, language, and violence. In this book, Park offers the "ethics of tension" as a potential ethical paradigm drawn from Buddhism and postmodern philosophy. ''Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun'' (2014), is a translation of a book published in Korean in 1960 by Kim Iryŏp (1896-1971), a writer, first-generation Korean feminist, Buddhist nun, and philosopher. In this book, Kim Iryŏp offers a creative interpretation of Buddhist philosophy and practice. In ''Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryop'' (2017), Park proposes a new mode of philosophizing based on the discussion of Kim Iryŏp’s life and philosophy. Park is also the editor of volumes: ''Buddhisms and Deconstructions'' (2006), ''Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism'' (co-edited, 2009), ''Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy'' (2009), and ''Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism'' (2010). ([https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/jypark.cfm Source Accessed May 18, 2020]) +
Jingxi Zhanran. (J. Keikei Tannen; K. Hyŏnggye Tamyŏn 荊溪湛然 (711–782). Chinese monk who is the putative ninth patriarch of the Tiantai zong; also known as Great Master Miaole (Sublime Bliss) and Dharma Master Jizhu (Lord of Exegesis). Zhanran was a native of Jingqi in present-day Jiangsu province. At age nineteen, Zhanran became a student of the monk Xuanlang (673–754), who had revitalized the community on Mt. Tiantai. After Xuanlang's death, Zhanran continued his efforts to unify the disparate regional centers of Tiantai learning under the school's banner; for his efforts, Zhanran is remembered as one of the great revitalizers of the Tiantai tradition. A gifted exegete who composed numerous commentaries on the treatises of Tiantai Zhiyi, Zhanran established Zhiyi's ''Mohe zhiguan'', ''Fahua xuanyi'', and ''Fahua wenju'' as the three central texts of the Tiantai exegetical tradition. His commentary on the ''Mohe zhiguan'', the ''Mohe zhiguan fuxing zhuanhong jue'', is the first work to correlate ''zhiguan'' (calmness and insight) practice as outlined by Zhiyi with the teachings of the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'' ("Lotus Sūtra"), the central scripture of the Tiantai tradition. In his ''Jingang Pi'' ("Adamantine Scalpel"), Zhanran argued in favor of the controversial proposition that insentient beings also possess the buddha-nature (''foxing''). Zhanran's interpretation of Tiantai doctrine and the distinction he drew between his own tradition and the rival schools of the Huayan zong and Chan zong set the stage for the internal Tiantai debates during the Song dynasty between its on-mountain (shanjia) and off-mountain (shanwai) branches. Zhanran lectured at various monasteries throughout the country and was later invited by emperors Xuanzong (r. 712–756), Suzong (r. 756–762), and Daizong (r. 762–779) to lecture at court, before retiring to the monastery Guoqingsi on Mt. Tiantai. (Source: "Jingxi Zhanran." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 391–92. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Jingying Huiyuan. (J. Jōyō Eon; K. Chǒngyǒng Hyewǒn 淨影慧遠) (523-592). Chinese monk and putative Di lun exegete during the Sui dynasty. Huiyuan was a native of Dunhuang. At an early age, he entered the monastery of Guxiangusi in Zezhou (present-day Shanxi province) where he was ordained by the monk Sengsi (d.u.). Huiyuan later studied various scriptures under the vinaya master Lizhan (d.u.) in Ye, the capital of the Eastern Wei dynasty. In his nineteenth year, Huiyuan received the full monastic precepts from Fashang (495-580), ecclesiastical head of the saṃgha at the time, and became his disciple. Huiyuan also began his training in the Dharmaguptaka "Four-Part Vinaya" (Sifen lü) under the vinaya master Dayin (d.u.). After he completed his studies, Huiyuan moved back to Zezhou and began his residence at the monastery Qinghuasi. In 577, Emperor Wu (r. 560-578) of Northern Zhou began a systematic persecution of Buddhism, and in response, Huiyuan is said to have engaged the emperor in debate; a transcript of the debate, in which Huiyuan defends Buddhism against criticisms of its foreign origins and its neglect of filial piety, is still extant. As the persecution continued, Huiyuan retreated to Mt. Xi in Jijun (present-day Henan province). Shortly after the rise of the Sui dynasty, Huiyuan was summoned by Emperor Wen (r. 581-604) to serve as overseer of the saṃgha (shamendu) in Luozhou (present-day Henan). He subsequently spent his time undoing the damage of the earlier persecution. Huiyuan was later asked by Emperor Wen to reside at the monastery of Daxingshansi in the capital. The emperor also built Huiyuan a new monastery named Jingyingsi, which is often used as his toponym to distinguish him from Lushan Huiyuan. Jingying Huiyuan was a prolific writer who composed numerous commentaries on such texts as the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'', ''Mahāparinirvānasūtra'', ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', ''Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra'', ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'', ''Shidi jing lun'' (Vasubandhu's commentary on the ''Daśabhūmikasūtra''), ''Dasheng qixin lun'', and others. Among his works, the ''Dasheng yi zhang'' ("Compendium of the Purport of Mahāyāna"), a comprehensive encyclopedia of Mahāyāna doctrine, is perhaps the most influential and is extensively cited by traditional exegetes throughout East Asia. Jingying Huiyuan also plays a crucial role in the development of early Pure Land doctrine in East Asia. His commentary on the ''Guan Wuliangshou jing'', the earliest extant treatise on this major pure land scripture, is critical in raising the profile of the ''Guan jing'' in East Asian Buddhism. His commentary to this text profoundly influenced Korean commentaries on the pure land scriptures during the Silla dynasty, which in turn were crucial in the evolution of Japanese pure land thought during the Nara and Heian periods. Jingying Huiyuan's concept of the "dependent origination of the tathāgatagarbha" (rulaizang yuanqi)—in which tathāgatagarbha is viewed as the "essence" (ti) of both nirvāṇa and saṃsāra, which are its "functioning" (yong)—is later adapted and popularized by the third Huayan patriarch, Fazang, and is an important precursor of later Huayan reconceptualizations of dependent origination (''pratītyasamutpāda''; see fajie yuanqi). (Source: "Jingying Huiyuan." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 392. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Thupten Jinpa Langri (b. 1958) is a former Tibetan monk and a Geshe Lharampa with B.A. in philosophy and a Ph.D. in religious studies, both from Cambridge University. Since 1985, he has been the principal English translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama and has translated and edited numerous books by the Dalai Lama, including the New York Times Bestsellers ''Ethics for the New Millennium'' and ''The Art of Happiness''. Jinpa’s own publications include works in Tibetan, English translations as well as books, the latest being ''Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows'' and ''Illuminating the Intent'', a translation of Je Tsongkhapa's commentary on ''Entering the Middle Way''. Jinpa is the general series editor of the 32-volume ''Bod kyi tsug lag gces btus'' series, whose translations are published in English as [https://tibetanclassics.org/ The Library of Tibetan Classics]. His current projects include the editing of classical Indian Buddhist texts from Tengyur for a special anthology known as Rgya gzhung gnad che bdam bsgrigs (Selected Indian Buddhist treaties). He is the main author of CCT (Compassion Cultivation Training), an eight-week formal program developed at Stanford University, and co-founder and president of the Compassion Institute. He is the Chair of Mind and Life Institute, founder of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, and an adjunct professor at the School of Religious Studies at McGill University. Jinpa lives in Montreal and is married with two daughters. (Source: Thupten Jinpa) +
Jizang. (J. Kichizō; K. Kilchang) (549–623). In Chinese, "Storehouse of Auspiciousness"; Chinese Buddhist monk of originally Parthian descent and exegete within the San lun zong, the Chinese counterpart of the Madhyamaka school of Indian thought. At a young age, he is said to have met the Indian translator Paramārtha, who gave him his dharma name. Jizang is also known to have frequented the lectures of the monk Falang (507–581) with his father, who was also [an] ordained monk. Jizang eventually was ordained by Falang, under whom he studied the so-called Three Treatises (San lun), the foundational texts of the Chinese counterpart of the Madhyamaka school: namely, the ''Zhong lun'' (''Mūlamadhyamakārikā''), ''Bai lun'' (*''Śataśāstra''), and ''Shi'ermen lun'' (*''Dvādaśamukhaśāstra''). At the age of twenty-one, Jizang received the full monastic precepts. After Falang’s death in 581, Jizang moved to the monastery of Jiaxiangsi in Huiji (present-day Zhejiang province). There, he devoted himself to lecturing and writing and is said to have attracted more than a thousand students. In 598, Jizang wrote a letter to Tiantai Zhiyi, inviting him to lecture on the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra''. In 606, Emperor Yang (r. 604–617) constructed four major centers of Buddhism around the country and assigned Jizang to one in Yangzhou (present-day Jiangsu province). During this period, Jizang composed his influential overview of the doctrines of the Three Treatises school, entitled the San lun xuanyi. Jizang's efforts to promote the study of the three treatises earned him the name "reviver of the San lun tradition." Jizang was a prolific writer who composed numerous commentaries on the three treatises, the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'', ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', ''Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra'', etc., as well as an overview of Mahāyāna doctrine, entitled the ''Dasheng xuan lun''. ("Jizang". In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 395. Princeton University Press, 2014)
Joaquín Pérez-Remon was a Jesuit missionary in India who taught Oriental Philosophy and was the chair of the History of Religions at the Jesuit University of Deusto (Bilbao). He is the author of several books, including ''Misticismo Oriental y Misticismo Cristiano'' (Bilbao, 1985), ''The Self and the Production of Pleasure and Pain in Early Buddhism'' (A.E.O. 1981), and ''Self and Non-Self in Early Buddhism'' (De Gruyter, 1980). ([https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2035 Source Accessed Oct 7, 2020]) +
Edward Hamilton Johnston was a British oriental scholar who was Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1937 until his death. He was born on 26 March 1885; his father was Reginald Johnston, Governor of the Bank of England from 1909 to 1911. He was educated at Eton College before studying at New College, Oxford, switching to history after a year of mathematics and obtaining a first-class degree in 1907. He joined the Indian Civil Service, winning the Boden Sanskrit Scholarship during his probation, and worked in India from 1909 onwards in various capacities. He took the opportunity to retire in 1924 after working in India for 15 years, and returned to England. Thereafter he spent his time on the study of Sanskrit, later learning sufficient Tibetan and Chinese to make use of material available in those languages.
Although Johnston seems only to have published one article in India (on a group of medieval statues), his later works show that he had noted local Indian practices in agriculture and other areas, since he made reference to these in his analysis of Sanskrit texts. Between 1928 and 1936, he published an edition and translation of the ''Buddhacārita'' (''Acts of the Buddha'') by the 2nd-century author Aśvaghoṣa; this was described by the writer of his obituary in The Times as his "magnum opus."
In 1937, he was elected Boden Professor of Sanskrit and Keeper of the Indian Institute at the University of Oxford, also becoming a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College. He started cataloguing the Sanskrit manuscripts acquired for the Bodleian Library by an earlier Boden professor, A. A. Macdonell, helped improve the museum of the Indian Institute, and worked on the manuscripts held by the India Office Library. He published several articles on a variety of topics. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Johnston_(orientalist) Source Accessed Jan 13, 2020]) +
Chris Jones completed doctoral research at the University of Oxford (St Peter’s College) in 2015, with a thesis that explored the language of selfhood (ātman) in relation to teachings about buddha-nature in Indian Buddhist literature. The thesis was awarded the Khyentse Foundation Award for outstanding doctoral research produced in Europe, and was the foundation for his first monograph – The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman. Jones spent three further years researching and teaching at Oxford as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the British Academy, and is now on a UK Arts and Humanities Research Project connected to the University of Cambridge, associated also with the University of Edinburgh. His continuing research concerns predominantly Mahāyāna Buddhist thought as preserved across Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan literature, as well as the boundaries and interactions between Buddhism and other religious traditions in India and elsewhere. (Personal Communication, September 2021]) +
David Jones is professor of philosophy and editor of ''Comparative and Continental Philosophy'' (Taylor and Francis), the founding editor of ''East-West Connections'' from 2000 to 2013, and the editor of the ''Series on Comparative and Continental Philosophy''. In 2013 and 2015 he was Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at National Taiwan University and has been a visiting professor at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Visiting Professor of Chinese Philosophy at the University of North Georgia, and Visiting Professor of Confucian Classics at Emory. From 1996 to 2008 he was the director of the Center for the Development of Asian Studies, which was a Southeast regional center of the Asian Studies Development Program of the East-West Center in Honolulu. Under his direction, CDAS coordinated a number of faculty development workshops and organized conferences and programs on Asia for faculty and the public in Atlanta, the Southeast, and nationally. David Jones was the president of the highly regarded Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle for the last twelve years. ([http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~djones/index.htm Source Accessed Mar 17, 2020]) +
Sina Joos received her MA in Tibetan studies, Chinese studies, and the History of Oriental Art in 2009 from the University of Bonn, Germany. Since 2016 she has been a PhD candidate at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, under the supervision of Prof. Klaus-Dieter Mathes. Her research focuses on the ''gzhan stong'' doctrine of the Jonang school, while her teachers are mainly from the bka’ brgyud school of Tibetan Buddhism. Apart from her academic studies, she participated in the Translation Training Program at Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu and works at the Kamalashila Institute for Buddhist Studies and Meditation, interpreting for Tibetan lamas as well as translating and editing texts for the practice sessions and seminars. +
Khenpo Dr Ngawang Jorden was born in 1956 and grew up in Sikkim. He lived at Lachung, Sikkim until he was 12 then moved to Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim where he began formal studies at Enchey School. At age 14 he joined Sa-Ngor-Choe-Tshok Monastery in Gangtok. After completing his monastic studies such as rituals, he then studied Buddhist Philosophy with the late Khenpo Lodro Zangpo.
In 1975 he went to Sakya College, Dehradun, India, where he studied the five branches of Buddhist philosophy under the late Khenchen Appey Rinpoche. He obtained the degree of Kachupa (equivalent to B.A.) and Loppon (equivalent to M.A.) in Buddhist Studies. Khenpo Jorden later taught at Sakya College before going to America to study at Harvard University where he completed his M.A. and then Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies.
His Holiness the Sakya Trizin and Khenchen Appey Rinpoche invited Khenpo Jorden to take up the position of Principal of IBA in Kathmandu and so he left his teaching post at the University of Chicago and joined IBA in 2009. As Principal of IBA he oversees the many projects IBA is involved in, teaches the Dharma to students from across the globe and engages in translation work. He also travels extensively to countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Europe to give teachings.
IBA has around 40 monastic scholars undertaking the five-year monastic leadership program and each year offers a summer program in Buddhist studies and practice to overseas students. IBA also has an active translation program, the Chödung Karmo Translation Group, with scholars and translators from many countries. Khenpo Jorden is currently managing a rebuilding program at IBA after significant damage to campus buildings in the earthquakes. ([http://internationalbuddhistacademy.org/about-us/khenpo-ngawang-jorden/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020])] +
John Jorgensen is a senior research associate in the Chinese Studies Research Centre at La Trobe University. A specialist in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Buddhism, he taught at Griffith University in Queensland and was a researcher at The Australian National University before taking up his current role at La Trobe University. ([http://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Books/Treatise_on_Awakening_Mah%C4%81y%C4%81na_Faith Source Accessed Jan 6, 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]) +
Prof. GONG Jun 龔隽 is currently based in the Department of Philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China). His research interest covers Chan Buddhism, the intellectual history of Chinese Buddhism, and Chinese philosophy. Born in 1964 in Jiangxi, China, Gong studied philosophy and Buddhism at Wuhan University and East China Normal University in Shanghai. Having finished his PhD, Gong started his academic career at South China Normal University in Guangzhou in 1993, and then moved to Sun Yat-sen University in 2001. He stayed one year at Harvard University (2002-2003) as Harvard-Yenching visiting scholar. Being solidly trained in both Chinese philosophy and Buddhist literature, Gong has authored a number of influential monographs such as ''Dacheng qixin lun yu Foxue zhongguohua'' 大乘起信論與佛學中國化 (The ''Awakening of Faith'' and Sinolization of Buddhism, 2001), and ''Chanshi gouchen'' 禅史鈎沉 (Essays Investigating the Hidden Historical Facts about Chan Buddhism, 2006), etc. Overall, Gong’s work demonstrates a very fine combination of philosophical debates with textual analysis. He also dedicates to dealing with methodological issues, his ''Zhongguo Chanxue yanjiu rumen'' 中國禅學研究入門 (Introduction to the studies in Chinese Chan Buddhism; 2009; co-authored with CHEN Jidong 陳繼東), for instance, offers methodological guidance and is deemed a must for junior researchers in this field. ([https://frogbear.org/guest-lecture-gong-jun/ Source Accessed July 3, 2020]) +
Jörg Plassen is Professor of East Asian Religions in the faculty of East Asian Studies / Center for Religious Studies at Ruhr Universität Bochum (RUB) in Germany. His areas of research include: Early Korean Hwaom and Samnon-Buddhism in East Asian Context; Authorship and intertextuality in Tang dynasty Huayan/Hwaom/Kegon texts (combining digital text mining and traditional philological methods); Literary and Pragmatic Dimensions of Buddhist Commentaries (especially Writing and Reading as Spiritual Practice); Religious Processes of Transfer ("Sinification of Buddhism", Interdependencies between Buddhism and Taoism / Xuanxue, Buddho-Confucian Interactions in China and Korea). ([https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/oaw/roa/plassen.html Source Accessed June 15, 2020]) +
Following Dogen Zenji, the Dharma lamp was transmitted to Ejo Zenji, then to Gikai Zenji, and then to Keizan Zenji, who was the fourth ancestor in the Japanese Soto Zen lineage.
Keizan Zenji was born in 1264 in Echizen Province, which is present-day Fukui Prefecture. His mother, Ekan Daishi, was a devoted believer in Kannon Bosatsu (Avalokiteshvara), the bodhisattva of compassion. It is said that she was on her way to worship at a building dedicated to Kannon when she gave birth. For that reason, the name that Keizan Zenji was given at birth was Gyosho.
At the age of eight, he shaved his head and entered Eiheiji where he began his practice under the third abbot, Gikai Zenji. At the age of thirteen, he again went to live at Eiheiji and was officially ordained as a monk under Ejo Zenji. Following the death of Ejo Zenji, he practiced under Jakuen Zenji at Hokyoji, located in present-day Fukui. Spotting Keizan Zenji’s potential ability to lead the monks, Jakuen Zenji selected him to be ino, the monk in charge of the other monks’ practice.
In contrast to Dogen Zenji, who deeply explored the internal self, Keizan Zenji stood out with his ability to look outwards and boldly spread the teaching. For the Soto Zen School, the teachings of these two founders are closely connected with each other. In spreading the Way of Buddha widely, one of them was internal in his approach while the other was external.
After more years of practice in Kyoto and Yura, Keizan Zenji became resident priest of Jomanji in Awa, which is present-day Tokushima Prefecture. He was twenty-seven years old. During the next four years, he gave the Buddhist precepts to more than seventy lay people. From this we can understand Keizan Zenji’s vow to free all sentient beings through teaching and transmitting the Way.
He also came forth emphasizing the equality of men and women. He actively promoted his women disciples to become resident priests. At a time when women were unjustly marginalized, this was truly groundbreaking. This is thought to be the origin of the organization of Soto Zen School nuns and it was for this reason many women took refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
Keizan Zenji finally moved back to Daijoji, in present-day Kanazawa City, where he became the second abbot, following Gikai Zenji. It was here that he gave teisho on Transmission of Light (Denkoroku). This book explains the circumstances by which the Dharma was transmitted from Shakyamuni Buddha through the twenty eight ancestors in India, the twenty three patriarchs in China, through Dogen Zenji and Keizan Zenji in Japan until Keizan’s teacher, Tettsu Gikai.
In 1321 at the age of fifty-eight, a temple called Morookaji in Noto, which is present-day Ishikawa Prefecture, was donated to Keizan Zenji and he renamed it Sojiji. This was the origin of Sojiji in Yokohama, which is, along with Eiheiji, the other Head Temple (Daihonzan) of the Soto Zen School.
Keizan Zenji did not, by any means, make light of the worldly interests of ordinary people and along with the practice of zazen used prayer, ritual, and memorial services to teach. This was attractive to many people and gave them a sense of peace. For this reason, the Soto Zen School quickly expanded.
Even in the Soto Zen School today, while all temples have zazen groups to serve the earnest requests of believers, they also do their best to fulfill the requests that many people have for benefiting in the everyday world, which include memorial services and funerals.
Keizan Zenji died in 1325 at the age of sixty-five. In succeeding years, his disciples did a good job in taking over for him at Sojiji on the Noto Peninsula. However, that temple was lost to fire in 1898. This provided the opportunity in 1907 to move Sojiji to its present location. The former temple was rebuilt as Sojiji Soin and continues today with many supporters and believers. (Source: [https://www.sotozen.com/eng/what/Buddha_founders/dogen_zenji.html Sotozen.com])
K
Kaiji Jeffrey Schneider is a Zen priest who has lived, worked and practiced at San Francisco Zen Center since 1978. The founder of the Zen Center recovery programs, he is currently the Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator. ([https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/kaiji-jeffrey-schneider Source Accessed August 13, 2020]) +
At the age of 13, he joined Shugding Monastery in Tibet and memorized prayers and ritual texts. When he was 20, he joined Sera Monastery in Lhasa and learned language and logic. At 23, he left Tibet and arrived at Sera Monastery in India to pursue education in Buddhist studies. He stood 3rd in his exams on the Middle Way and Perfection Studies and carried out research on logic and epistemology as part of his Lharam Geshe training and sat the exams for it. He also stood 3rd in the examination in tantric studies. In 2020, he sat in the final defense for the Lharam Geshe degree. In addition to his regular academic achievements, he also won the first prize in a literary competition in Tibet, was the sole prize winner for literary composition during the international commemoration of Tsongkhapa, and also received many other prizes for literary writings. He served as the 11th President of the Khampa Literary Society and has authored many works including a commentary on ''Pramāṇasiddhi'' and two books of poetry entitled ''Sweets of the Mute.'' He is currently a researcher. +
Kalu Rinpoche was one of the most prominent Tibetan lamas of the twentieth century, active in both exile communities and in the West. As a young man he spent over a decade in isolated retreat, coming out only to serve as retreat master at Tsādra Rinchen Drak. Although never formally enthroned, he was commonly recognized as a reincarnation of Jamgon Kongtrul. In exile he settled in India, where he was a primary teacher to many contemporary Kagyu lamas and served as the main propagator of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition. In the later decades of his life he traveled multiple times to Europe and North America, where he established dharma centers and three-year retreat centers and initiated the translation of Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge into English. (Source: [https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/kalu-rinpoche/12180 Treasury of Lives]) +
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]) +
Dr. Kano is an associate professor at Komazawa University in Japan and a specialist of Sanskrit and Tibetan tathāgatagarbha literature. His particular research interests focus on philosophical interpretations of the ''Ratnagotravibhāga''. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/2019-vienna-symposium/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020]) +
Matthew T. Kapstein specializes in the history of Buddhist philosophy in India and Tibet, as well as in the cultural history of Tibetan Buddhism more generally. He regularly teaches Contemporary Theories in the Study of Religion in the History of Religions program, and Introduction to the Philosophies of India in Philosophy of Religions. His seminars in recent years have focused on particular topics in the history of Buddhist thought, such as Buddha Nature, idealism, and epistemology (''pramāṇa''), or on broad themes in the study of religion including the problem of evil, death, and the imagination. Kapstein has published over a dozen books and numerous articles, among the most recent of which are a general introduction to Tibetan cultural history, ''The Tibetans'' (Oxford 2006), an edited volume on Sino-Tibetan religious relations, ''Buddhism Between Tibet and China'' (Boston 2009), and a translation of an eleventh-century philosophical allegory in the acclaimed Clay Sanskrit Series, ''The Rise of Wisdom Moon'' (New York 2009). With Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia) and Gray Tuttle (Columbia), he has completed ''Sources of Tibetan Traditions'', published in the Columbia University Press Sources of Asian Traditions series in 2013. Kapstein is additionally Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. In 2018 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ([https://divinity.uchicago.edu/directory/matthew-kapstein Source Accessed Sep 17, 2019]) +
Professor Seishi Karashima was appointed assistant professor at Soka University’s International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology in April 1997 upon the establishment of the institute, becoming a full professor two years later. After taking on the role of director in April 2011, he continued to make significant contributions to the development of the institute.<br> Specializing in Buddhist philosophy, Professor Karashima applied his vast knowledge of Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pāḷi, Middle Indo-Aryan, and ancient Chinese to conduct detailed analyses of early Chinese Buddhist Translations. Among his many publications, he compiled A glossary of Dharmaraksa's translation of the Lotus Sutra, A Glossary of Kumārajīva's translation of the Lotus Sutra, and A glossary of Lokakṣema's translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. He studied the formation of early Mahayana Buddhism and was a leading light of the Buddhist academic community in Japan and abroad. Professor Karashima was invited to work at various institutions in Japan and abroad, including the University of California, Berkeley; the School of Literary Studies at Renmin University of China; and Institut de France. During his time at these institutions, he did not limit himself to simply giving lectures on Buddhist studies. He also set up initiatives to support research, such as creating a worldwide network of Buddhist researchers.<br> Numerous published papers and books bear the hand of Professor Karashima, either as author or editor. These include Vessantara-jātaka Yakuchū (included in The Jātaka, Vol. 10 by Hajime Nakamura, Shunjūsha, 1988); A Textual Study of the Chinese Versions of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra (Sankibo Busshorin, 1992); A Study of the Underlying Language of the Chinese Translation of the Dīrgha-āgama (Hirakawa Shuppan Inc., 1994); Buddhist Manuscripts from Central Asia: The British Library Sanskrit Fragments, (author and editor of three volumes in five books; International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2006, 2009, 2015); Abhisamācārika- Dharma (three volumes, German language publication, International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, 2012); Languages and Transmission of Buddhist Scriptures (Chinese language publication, Nakanishi Shokyoku, 2016). (Source: [https://www.soka.ac.jp/en/news/2019/07/10324/ Soka University])
An important master of the Dakpo Kagyu tradition. He was a student of the Seventh Karmapa and a teacher to the Eighth Karmapa and the Second Pawo Rinpoche. An immanent scholar, he wrote works on both sūtra and tantra, as well as an acclaimed commentary on the three cycles of doha of the famed Indian master Saraha. +
Lama Karma Yeshe Chödrön is a scholar, teacher, and translator in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. She divides her time between the Rigpe Dorje Institute at Pullahari Monastery, Kathmandu, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before studying Buddhism, she completed graduate degrees in biology and law and worked as a litigator in Miami and Silicon Valley. With her husband, Lama Karma Zopa Jigme, she cofounded Prajna Fire and the Prajna Sparks podcast. She also co-hosts the Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC teachers podcast. ([https://www.lionsroar.com/author/lama-karma-yeshe-chodron/ Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
The Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, was a prominent Karma Kagyu hierarch who also held Nyingma and Chod lineages. He was likely the first man to carry the title of Karmapa, following his identification by Orgyenpa Rinchen Pel as the reincarnation of Karma Pakshi, whom Orgyenpa posthumously identified as the reincarnation of Dusum Khyenpa. He spent much of his life traveling across Tibet and made two visits to the Yuan court in China. ([http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Third-Karmapa-Rangjung-Dorje/9201 Read more at the source: Treasury of Lives]) +
The eighth member of the incarnation lineage of the Karmapas, Mikyö Dorje, was a prolific scholar and an acclaimed artist, often credited with the development of the Karma Gadri style of painting. Though he only lived into his mid-40's his contributions to the Karma Kagyu and Tibetan tradition, in general, were immense. His collected works are said to have originally filled thirty volumes and he is widely held to be one of the most significant of the Karmapa incarnations.
For a detailed discussion of The Eighth Karmapa's life, with interesting reference to source texts, see the [https://kagyuoffice.org/life-of-mikyo-dorje/ 17th Karmapa's teachings from February 2021].
'''From the book, ''Karmapa: 900 Years'' (KTD Publications, 2016, revised 3rd edition):'''
Mikyö Dorje is among the greatest scholars Tibet has ever produced. He was an active participant in the rigorous intellectual debates of his day, making major contributions in virtually all areas of textual study. He was an accomplished Sanskritist, and wrote Sanskrit grammars alongside works ranging from poetry to art to tantra. The Eighth Karmapa’s voluminous writings include substantial commentaries on all the principal Sanskrit texts, clarifying points of confusion and deeply engaging with their inner meaning. The act of composing philosophical texts within the Karma Kagyu—a lineage so fully devoted to attaining realization through practice—is wholly unlike the act of producing philosophical texts in a modern academic or scholastic setting. Rather, the philosophical works of Mikyö Dorje point out the way to view reality in order to be liberated from the cycles of samsaric suffering. As such, his compositions are a supreme act of kindness. It is said that Mikyö Dorje’s deeds in recording his insight and understanding in his commentaries had the effect of doubling or tripling the lifespan of the Karma Kagyu lineage.(Source: Page 73, ''Karmapa: 900 Years'' (KTD Publications, 2016, revised 3rd edition). E-Book available online here: http://www.ktdpublications.com/karmapa-900-third-edition-e-book/ .
Mikyö Dorje left numerous Buddhist writings on all major and minor topics, including a biography of Bodong Chogle Namgyal (1376–1451), entitled ''Ocean of Miracles'' (ngo mtshar gyi rgya mtsho), a Gongchik commentary, and he introduced a special guru yoga in four sessions, which is the basis for contemporary Karma Kagyu practice. See a list of Tibetan works by the 8th Karmapa available as free ePubs on [https://dharmacloud.tsadra.org/book-author/eighth-karmapa-mikyo-dorje/ Tsadra Foundation's DharmaCloud website].
'''For more biographical information see the following sources:'''
*Rheingans, Jim. 2017. ''The Eighth Karmapa's Life and His Interpretation of the Great Seal: A Religious Life and Instructional Texts in Historical and Doctrinal Contexts''. Bochum, Germany: Projekt Verlag.
*[https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:P385 BDRC Person page for The 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje]
*[https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1335480 WikiData entry for The 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje]
*[https://www.himalayanart.org/items/560 Himalayan Art Resource page for The 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje]
*[https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/People/Karmapa,_8th Tsadra Foundation person page for The 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje]
*[https://kagyuoffice.org/life-of-mikyo-dorje/ Official Karmapa Office Page on the 8th Karmapa]
*[http://tsurphu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:the-eighth-karmapa-mikyo-dorje-1507-1554&catid=10&Itemid=280&lang=en Tsurphu Monastery Page on the 8th Karmapa]
Born in eastern Tibet in 1924, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche was one of the great masters of the Karma Kagyu tradition. Rinpoche, who received most of his training and education in Tibet before the Chinese invasion, was highly accomplished in meditation, philosophy, and monastic arts. As abbot of Karma Triyana Dharmacakra Monastery (KTD) in Woodstock, New York; spiritual guide of thirty-five Karma Thegsum Choling (KTC) affiliate centers; and retreat master at the Karme Ling Retreat Center in Delhi, New York, Rinpoche touched the lives of thousands of students. He was also known for numerous books, including ''The Quintessence of the Union of Mahamudra and Dzokchen''; ''Dharma Paths''; ''Instructions of Gampopa''; ''Bardo: Interval of Possibility''; ''The Wish-Fulfilling Wheel: The Practice of White Tara''; and the five-volume masterwork ''Karma Chakme’s Mountain Dharma''. +
Kazunobu Matsuda is a Professor of Buddhist Studies at Bukkyo University in Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of numerous papers on Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts and is particularly known for his work on the Buddhist manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection. He was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (2001-2002). And he received an ACLS grant to work on a collaborative project—The Eighth Century Schøyen fragments of the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya—a project that brings together an international collaborative team with expertise in Buddhist manuscripts, palaeography, and the Mulasarvastivada vinaya (MSV) in order to sort, transcribe, study and catalog a set of unique eighth century birch bark manuscript fragments presently held in the Schøyen Collection in Oslo. +
Birgit Kellner is an Austrian Buddhologist and Tibetologist. She studied Buddhology and Tibetology at University of Vienna, where she received a master's degree in 1994 under the supervision of Ernst Steinkellner, and at the Hiroshima University, where she earned her doctorate in 1999 under the supervision of Katsura Shōryū.
After a series of research projects, including as a Humboldt Fellow at the University of Hamburg, as well as a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, she joined the University of Heidelberg in 2010 as Professor of Buddhist Studies within the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context". In 2015, she returned to Austria to serve as the Director of the Institute for Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia in Vienna, part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgit_Kellner Source Accessed Nov 15 2019]) +
Casey Kemp received her Master’s degree from Oxford University in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, and she has worked closely with the Drikung Kagyu monastic community in Europe and Asia. She is completing her PhD dissertation on the concept of luminosity in the early Tibetan Mahāmudrā tradition through the University of Vienna. She has translated and edited for 84000 and is a Snow Lion editor at Shambhala Publications. +
Kengo Harimoto has been a faculty member in the Buddhist Studies department at Mahidol University in Thailand since 2015. He is a Sanskritist focusing on Indian Philosophy, an expert reader of manuscripts, and has a wide academic background ranging from Vedānta, to Āyurveda, to the edition of Buddhist philosophical commentaries. ([https://www.facebook.com/BuddhistPhDMahidol/photos/a.10152914725503032/10153873367343032/?type=1&theater Source Accessed April 27, 2020]) +
Sangye Khandro has been a Buddhist since 1971 and a translator of the Dharma since 1976. She has helped to establish numerous centers in the USA and has served as translator for many prominent masters in all four lineages. Sangye has been the spiritual companion of the Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche for nearly thirty years and has continued to help serve the centers established by her root teacher, Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, with whom she studied and practiced for many years. Sangye Khandro is one of the founders of the Light of Berotsana Translation Group. ([http://www.berotsana.org/sangye-khandro/ Source Accessed August 2014]) +
Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche, born in Tsari, Tibet in the spring of 1946, came to the West in the early 1980’s to found the Tibetan Meditation Center in Washington, D.C. The only Khenchen in the Drikung lineage, Rinpoche completed a nine-year course of study at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi, India beginning in 1967. ([https://drikungtucson.org/our-teachers/khenchen-konchog-gyaltsen-rinpoche/ Source Accessed Jan 30, 2020]) +
Khenpo Gyurme Tsultrim was born in the Mugu district of western Nepal in 1969 where he studied reading and writing with his uncle. When he was thirteen, he met Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and became one of the first monks at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal. In 1985, as the Shechen Philosophical College was not yet built, Khyentse Rinpoche sent him to the Dzongsar Monastic College in India for higher studies. He studied there for six years and then completed the last three years of his study at the Palyul Nyingmapa College in Mysore, India.
He became the first monk of Shechen Monastery, Nepal, to attain the rank of Khenpo, the equivalent of a Ph.D., in 1996. Presently, Khenpo Gyurme Tsultrim is the vice abbot of the monastery and teaches at its College. He has traveled to Europe a number of times to give teachings, and he oversees many of the activities of the monastery. (Source: Shechen https://shechen.org/spiritual-development/teachers/khenpo-gyurme-tsultrim/) +
Khenpo Kunga became a monk at a young age and began his education at Tergar monastery, where he studied the rituals, prayers, and other traditional practices of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. At fifteen, he entered an extended meditation retreat and spent three years mastering the profound contemplative practices of the Kagyü lineage.<br> Following this period of intense meditation practice, he entered the renowned Dzongsar monastic college near Dharamsala in Northwest India. After studying there for eleven years and receiving his Khenpo degree (roughly equivalent to a PhD), he taught at Dzongsar college for three additional years. Khenpo Kunga’s primary teacher is Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, though he has studied with many other revered masters as well.<br> In recent years, Khenpo Kunga has taught in Asia, Europe, and the United States as one of the main teachers for the worldwide network of Tergar monasteries, meditation centers, and meditation groups. ([https://tergar.org/about/instrtergar-lamas/ Source Accessed August 14, 2020]) +
Born in Nubri, the sacred land blessed by Milarepa and many other saints, in the Gorkha region of Nepal in 1992, he spent his early youth at home. In 2001, he had the opportunity to join Benchen Monastery near Bouddha and study under Sangay Nyenpa Rinpoche and Tenga Rinpoche. He received monastic ordination from H.H. Tenga Rinpoche and started his education, including reading, writing, grammar, Buddhist teachings in general, and the Marpa Kagyu tradition in particular. In 2007, he joined Benchen College, which was newly established, and became a part of the first cohort and undertook education in Buddhist literature, including the five great treatises, history, language, etc. He finished his education in 2018 and currently serves as a lecturer at the monastic college. +
Born in Phadru Lhok village in the Lato Dingri region, he joined school for about four years. Then, he left Tibet and joined Mindrolling Monastery in Dehradun, India. For three years, he learned monastic rituals and language. He got his novice ordination from H.H. Trulzhik Rinpoche and his full monastic ordination from H.H. Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche. He entered the monastic college in Mindrolling to undertake the nine-year program of studying the 13 great treatises. Even before completing his study, he served as an assistant lecturer, and in 2014, he completed his higher Buddhist education and became a lecturer in the same college for four years and the chief of examination for one year. In 2018, he was awarded the Khenpo title by Mindrolling Monastery. He taught in the Mindrolling college for three years and also worked for four months in the project of creating an extensive catalogue of the Kangyur canon under the aegis of H.H. Darthang Rinpoche. He participated in the Nyingma conferences at Namdrolling twice and currently serves as a teacher at Zhelpa Monastery in Kathmandu. +
He was born in Drukrephud village in Latolho in the Tsang region. From seven to eight, he went to local school, and in 2005 he joined Dongachodzong Monastery in Shar Khambu. In 2007, he joined Sakya College and studied the eighteen great treatises and other sciences for 10 years. In 2015, he obtained the Kachupa degree, in 2017 the Lopen title, and he was conferred the Khenpo title in 2022. After serving as assistant lecturer at Sakya College for two years, he was appointed in 2017 as lecturer for the Sakya tradition at the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies, where he currently works. +
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. +
