Stearns, C.

Stearns, C. on the DRL

Authors of English Works • Translators • Tsadra Fellows and Grantees

Cyrus Stearns

English Phonetics	Cyrus Stearns
Sort Name	Stearns, Cyrus

Dates

Birth:	1949

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 Language:	English
Translates from:	Tibetan
Translates to:	English

Primary Affiliation (Workplace)

Tsadra Foundation

Religious Affiliation

Sakya

Teachers

Dezhung Rinpoche · Chogye Tritsen Rinpoche · Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Current projects

• Dölpopa’s Mountain Dharma
  

PhD University

University of Washington

Education

PhD. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Biographical Information

Cyrus Stearns has twenty-seven years of experience in the study of Tibetan language, literature, and religion. He has extensive experience in the translation of Tibetan Buddhist texts into English. From 1973 until 1987 he studied with the late Dezhung Tulku Rinpoche, and from 1985 until 1991 he studied with Chogye Trichen Rinpoche. During most of these years he was the principal translator for both teachers. Cyrus lived for about eight years Nepal, India, and Southeast Asia. He has often translated for Tibetan teachers of all traditions during public talks and seminars in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

Cyrus was educated at the University of Alabama and received his PhD from the University of Washington in 1996. In 1985 Cyrus was the leader of the Smithsonian Institute's Associates Tour to Tibet and China, one of the first groups allowed into Tibet after many years of travel restriction by the Chinese government. He was a Tsadra Foundation fellow from 2003–2015. He is currently an independent scholar and translator and lives in the woods on Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington.

Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow:

• King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo, Lochen Gyurmé Dechen
• Treasury of Esoteric Instructions: A Commentary on Virupa’s "Vajra Lines," Lama Dampa Sönam Gyaltsen
• The Buddha from Dölpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, rev. ed.
• Treasury of Esoteric Instructions, Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen, Virupa
• Song of the Road, The Poetic Travel Journal of Tsarchen Losal Gyatso, Tsarchen Losel Gyatso

Previously Published Books:

• The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen
• Luminous Lives: The Story of the Early Masters of the Lam ’Bras Tradition in Tibet
• Hermit of Go Cliffs: Timeless Instructions from a Tibetan Mystic, Godrakpa
• Taking the Result as the Path: Core Teachings of the Sakya Lamdré Tradition

(Source Accessed March 29, 2019)

Links

Wiki Pages

• Stearns, C. on the DRL
• Stearns, C. on the LIB
• Stearns, C. on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
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All beings have Buddha-nature
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If "Qualified", explain:
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Which Wheel Turning
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Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
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Zhentong vs Rangtong
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Promotes how many vehicles?
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Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
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What is Buddha-nature?
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Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
Position:
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Causal nature of the vajrapāda
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The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre.

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.