Nicell, J.

Nicell, J. on the DRL

Ordained (Monks and Nuns) • Translators

Joan Nicell

Dates

Birth:	1950
Place of birth:	Montreal, Canada

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Primary Affiliation (Workplace)

FPMT

Religious Affiliation

Geluk

Biographical Information

Joan Nicell was born in Montreal, Canada in 1950 and obtained a BS in physiotherapy from McGill University in 1982. In 1986 she traveled to Asia, and in Thailand participated in a ten-day Vipassana course. The next year she did the annual month-long Dharma course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. In February 1989 she received getsul ordination in Dharamsala from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Joan has lived and worked at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa since 1990, where from 1996 to the present she has acted as coordinator for the institute’s residential and on-line Masters Program and Basic Program. She studied and learned scriptural Tibetan at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa and Sera Je Monastery. Since 1994, she has been translating Tibetan texts into English for the institute’s long-term study programs, regular Dharma courses, and retreats. In January 2009 she was assigned the job of English translation coordinator for the new FPMT Translation and Editorial Committee.Source See also the Wisdom Experience website

Publications

Translations include:

• The First Dalai Lama, Gedun Drub’s Clarifying the Path to Liberation: An Explanation of the “of Manifest Knowledge’”(unpublished manuscript, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, 2002);
• Lama Tsongkhapa’s Illumination of the Thought (the sixth chapter onward; unpublished manuscript, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, 2001);
• Geshe Jampa Gyatso’s A Short Explanation of the Meaning of the Words of “A Treatise of Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom: An Ornament for Clear Realization” (unpublished manuscript, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, 2001);
• Kirti Losang Trinle’s The Condensed Meaning of the Path of the Vajra Vehicle: The Essence of the Nectar of the Great Secret (unpublished manuscript, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, 2003);
• and numerous long and short sadhanas, burnt offering rituals, pujas, and prayers.
• She has also edited two books that contain translations of Tibetan commentaries:
  • Everlasting Rain of Nectar: Purification Practice in Tibetan Buddhism by Geshe Jampa Gyatso (Wisdom Publications, 1996);
  • Becoming a Child of the Buddhas: A Simple Clarification of the Root Verses of Seven Point Mind Training by Gomo Tulku (Wisdom Publications, 1998).

Links

Wiki Pages

• Nicell, J. on the DRL
• Nicell, J. on the LIB

A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school.