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Born in France in 1946, son of philosopher Jean-François Revel and artist Yahne Le
Toumelin, Matthieu Ricard is a Ph.D. in cell genetics turned Buddhist monk who has studied
Buddhism in the Himalayas for the last 50 years under respected masters such as Kangyur
Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He is a humanitarian, an author, a photographer,
and a speaker at various international events.
His books in English include ''The Monk and the Philosopher''; ''The Quantum and the Lotus'';
''Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill''; ''Why Meditate?''; ''Altruism:
The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World'', ''A Plea for the Animals'',
''Enlightened Vagabond'', ''Beyond the Self: A conversation between Neuroscience and
Buddhism'', ''In Search of Wisdom'', ''Freedom for All and Our Animal Neighbours''.
As a translator from Tibetan, in English, his works include,
:Dilgo Khyentse, ''The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel'', Shambhala Publications.
:Dilgo Khyentse, ''The Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones'', Shambhala Publication.
:Dilgo Khyentse, ''The Excellent Path to Enlightenment'', Snow Lion Publications.
:Dilgo Khyentse, ''The Hundred Verses of Advice'', Shambhala Publications.
:Dilgo Khyentse, ''The Heart of Compassion'', Shambhala Publications.
:Rabjam Rinpoche, ''The Great Medicine that Vanquishes Ego Clinging'', Shambhala Publications.
:''Shabkar, Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin'', SUNY Press, reprinted Snow Lion Publications.
:''On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters''. Shambhala Publications, 2013.
:''The Enlightened Vagabond, The life and teachings of Patrul Rinpoche'', Shambhala Publications.
As a photographer, he has published a number of albums in French, including, in English ''Journey to Enlightenment (Aperture)'', ''Tibet: An Inner Journey'' (Thames and Hudson), ''Motionless Journey: From a Hermitage in the Himalayas'' (Thames and Hudson), ''Bhutan: Land of Serenity''. Henri Cartier Bresson wrote about his photographic work: "Matthieu's camera and his spiritual life are one. From there, spring these images, fleeting yet eternal."
As a scientist and Buddhist monk, under the umbrella of the Mind and Life Institute, he has been an active participant in the scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain and has co-authored a number of scientific publications.
He presently lives at Shechen monastery in Nepal and devotes all the proceedings of his books and activities to humanitarian projects in India, Nepal and Tibet, through Karuna- Shechen, the organization he founded twenty-one years ago (www.karuna-shechen.org), which benefit over 400,000 people every year. (Source: Matthieu Ricard, personal communication, Oct. 12, 2021.)
www.matthieuricard.com
Dr. Mattia Salvini obtained a BA and MA Sanskrit from RKM Vivekānanda College Chennai, India, and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). He was also part of two research projects on Vāstuśāstra, in teams headed by Prof. Adam Hardy (Cardiff University).
His main research interests are: Buddhist philosophy as expressed in Sanskrit, and especially Madhyamaka; the relationship between philosophy and vyākaraṇa; the relationship between Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, and non-Mahāyāna Abhidharma; Buddhist Sūtras in Sanskrit and Tibetan; Vāstuśāstra; Buddhist kāvya.
During his stay in India and Nepal, Mattia had the opportunity to study with Prof. Rāṁśaṅkar Tripāṭhī, and has learnt from several Tibetan Buddhist masters, especially Ayang Rinpoche, Lama Gelong Tsultrim Gyaltsen, Lama Rinchen Phuntsok, and others.
Mattia has taught in Nepal (Rangjung Yeshe Institute), Thailand (Mahidol University), and, as visiting professor, Taiwan (Hua Fan University) and Germany (Hamburg University, as a Numata Visiting Professor), and has offered occasionally lectures and reading sessions in UK (Oxford University), Malaysia (Than Hsiang, Brickfields Mahāvihāra, MyBA), Japan (Kyoto University), India (Ashoka University, Delhi University) and mainland China. ([http://ibc.ac.th/en/Mattia-Salvini Source Accessed Sep 8, 2021]) +
Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. My interests include subjects such as Tibetan traditional sciences, Buddhism and history of Tibet. ([https://lmu-munich.academia.edu/PetraMaurer Source:Academia.edu]) +
Maurice Walshe was born in London in 1911 and was an active Buddhist from 1951 until the end of his life in 1998. He served as the Vice-President of the Buddhist Society and Chair of the English Sangha Trust. A scholar of Pali and German, his other works include ''Buddhism for Today'' and translations of the sermons of Meister Eckhart. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/maurice-walshe/ Wisdom Publications]) +
Max Gebhard Lebrecht Walleser (born June 18, 1874 in Mannheim ; † April 15, 1954 in Wiesloch) was a German Indologist. He was a professor at the Institute for Buddhist Studies (today: Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies ) in Heidelberg, of which he is also the founder. From 1891 to 1896 he studied modern philology and philosophy in Heidelberg, Freiburg and Geneva. With his 1904 book, ''The Philosophical Basis of the Older Buddhism'' he became known. He suffered from mental disorders and, according to the diagnosis, died of cardiovascular failure with schizophrenia and cerebral sclerosis. ([https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Walleser Source Accessed Sep 7, 2021]) +
Maximino Miyar Teja is an academic and translator who specializes in Buddhist texts and teachings. He has an active presence on Academia.edu, a platform for academics to share research papers where he has published numerous translations and works related to Buddhist philosophy and teachings.
His scholarly work includes translations of several important Buddhist texts into Spanish, such as:
*Kamalaśīla's ''Los Estados Graduales de Meditación'' (''The Gradual States of Meditation'')
*Gendun Jamyang's ''El Lam Rim del Linaje del Sur'' (''The Lam Rim of the Southern Lineage'')
*Dudjom Rinpoche's ''El Gran Camino del Medio'' (''The Great Middle Way'')
*Maitreya's ''El Sublime Continuo del Mahayana'' (''The Sublime Continuum of Mahāyāna'')
*Various Buddhist sūtras including ''Sūtra del Poderoso Giro de la Rueda del Dharma'' and ''Sūtra del Rugido del León''.
Miyar Teja is focused on making classical Buddhist philosophical and meditation texts accessible to Spanish-speaking audiences through translation work, covering various schools and traditions of Buddhism including Tibetan Buddhist teachings. +
Mazu Daoyi (709–788) (Chinese: 馬祖道一; pinyin: Mǎzŭ Dàoyī; Wade–Giles: Ma-tsu Tao-yi, Japanese: Baso Dōitsu) was an influential abbot of Chan Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. The earliest recorded use of the term "Chan school" is from his ''Extensive Records''. Master Ma's teaching style of "strange words and extraordinary actions" became paradigmatic Zen lore.
His family name was Ma – Mazu meaning ''Ancestor Ma'' or ''Master Ma''. He was born in 709 northwest of Chengdu in Sichuan. During his years as master, Mazu lived in Jiangxi, from which he took the name "Jiangxi Daoyi".
In the ''Transmission of the Lamp'', compiled in 1004, Mazu is described as follows:
:His appearance was remarkable. He strode along like a bull and glared about him like a tiger. If he stretched out his tongue, it reached up over his nose; on the soles of his feet were imprinted two circular marks.
According to the ''Transmission of the Lamp'', Mazu was a student of Nanyue Huairang (677-744) at Mount Heng in Hunan. A story in the entry on Nanyue Huairang in the ''Transmission of the Lamp'' is regarded as Mazu's enlightenment-account, though the text does not claim it as such. An earlier and more primitive version of this story appears in the ''Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall'' which was transcribed in 952:
:Reverend Ma was sitting in a spot, and Reverend Rang took a tile and sat on the rock facing him, rubbing it. Master Ma asked, "What are you doing?" Master [Huairang] said, "I'm rubbing the tile to make it a mirror." Master Ma said, "How can you make a mirror by rubbing a tile?" Master [Huairang] said, "If I can't make a mirror by rubbing a tile, how can you achieve buddhahood by sitting in meditation?"
This story echoes the ''Vimalakirti Sutra'' and the ''Platform Sutra'' in downgrading purificative and gradualist practices instead of direct insight into the Buddha-nature. . . .
Though regarded as an unconventional teacher, Mazu's teachings emphasise Buddha-nature:
:[L]et each of you see into his own mind. ... However eloquently I may talk about all kinds of things as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges, the Mind shows no increase... . You may talk ever so much about it, and it is still your Mind; you may not at all talk about it, and it is just the same your own Mind. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazu_Daoyi Source Accessed July 15, 2021])
Indian pandita ca. 8th century responsible for translating numerous texts into Tibetan, including the ''Dharmasaṃgītisūtra'' and many others. His student was Ye shes sde. +
Mañjuśrīkīrti wrote a commentary on the ''Samādhirājasūtra'' entitled ''Kīrtimālā''.
According to Christoph Cüppers, "This text has been preserved only in its Tibetan translation. The edition is based on the Tanjur block prints of Derge, Cone, Narthang and Peking, among which, as a rule, the readings of Cone agree with those of Derge and the readings of Narthang with those of Peking. . . .
"In the Tanjur four other texts besides the commentary to the [''Samādhirājasūtra''] SR are ascribed to one 'Jam-dpal-grags-pa (Mañjuśrīkīrti), of which three are commentaries to Tantric works and one is a text on grammar (TTP nos.: 3314, 3316, 3357 and 5778). [Whether the author of these works is identical with the author of the ''Kīrtimālā'' is unclear.]
"Mañjuśrīkīrti's philosophical standpoint in the ''Kīrtimālā'' is . . . not a purely ''śūnyavāda'' one; rather, one is also confronted in the explications with ideas of the Yogacāra school." (Cüppers, introductory remarks to appendix A of ''The IXth Chapter of the Samādhirājasūtra'', 110) +
Eighth- to ninth-century Tibetan translator also known by his Tibetan name, Gajam Gocha (dba ’jam dpal go cha). +
Dissertation: [[From Bodhgayā to Lhasa to Beijing: The Life and Times of Śāriputra (c.1335-1426), Last Abbot of Bodhgayā]], by Arthur McKeown. Harvard University. 2010. 570 pp. Primary Advisor: Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp.<br>REVIEW: http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2362 +
Chim Jampé Yang (Tib. མཆིམས་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་, Wyl. ''mchims 'jam pa'i dbyangs'') (13th century) — author of the most famous Tibetan commentary on Vasubandhu's ''Abhidharmakosha'', ''The Ornament of Abhidharma'', often known simply as the 'Chim Dzö' or 'Chim Chen'. Here large (chen) is referring to the size of his commentary. Some traditions identify the author of this text with Chim Namkha Drak.
His teacher was Chim Lozang Drakpa, who is known as The Omniscient Chim, and who is the author of the 'Chim chung', the smaller commentary. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Chim_Jamp%C3%A9_Yang Rigpa Wiki]) +
Meghan Barwick received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) at Thomas Jefferson University in 2020. She received her BA in Journalism with a minor in Studio Art from Lehigh University in 2015. She also participated in a program sponsored by the School for International Training (SIT) in 2014. While in this program, she lived with a host family in New Delhi, India, for over two months, studying Indian arts, Hindi, and Madhubani painting with an artist in the city. She attended lectures on music, painting, architecture, and the religion and politics of India. In addition she executed a research project on Shantideva, the eighth-century Buddhist scholar, entitled "Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara: An Internal Pilgrimage to Universal Peace and Compassion." ([https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanbarwick/ Adapted from Source Jan 12, 2021]) +
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. +
Ven. Dr Yung Dong (Mei-feng Lin) earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies from University of the West. Her dissertation is titled "The Origin of Bodhicitta and Its Development in Chinese Buddhism." Her committee included Lewis R. Lancaster, Ananda W. P. Guruge, and Thich An-Hue.
She has served as the director in Buddhist temples throughout Australia, Thailand, and the United States, and has lectured in Auckland University, Melbourne University, and MIT. ([https://www.fgschungtian.org.au/event-details-registration/the-life-portrait-of-venerable-master-hsing-yun Source Accessed Mar 18, 2025]) +
Meir Shahar received his undergraduate degree from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. After studying Chinese in Taipei, he went on to pursue graduate studies in the United States, receiving his PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 1992. Meir Shahar is currently Professor of Chinese Studies at the Department of East Asian Studies, Tel Aviv University.<br><br>
Meir Shahar’s research interests include the interplay of Chinese religion and Chinese literature, Chinese martial-arts history, Chinese esoteric Buddhism, and the impact of Indian mythology on the Chinese pantheon of divinity.<br><br>
Meir Shahar is the author of ''Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literature'' (Harvard University Asia Center, 1998); ''Oedipal God: the Chinese Nezha and his Indian Origins'' (University of Hawaii Press, 2015); and the ''Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts'' (University of Hawaii Press, 2008), which has been translated into several languages including Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, and Polish. He is the co-editor (with Robert Weller) of ''Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China'' (University of Hawaii Press, 1996); the co-editor (with John Kieschnick) of ''India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought'' (The University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013); and the co-editor (with Yael Bentor) of ''Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism'' (Brill, 2017). He is currently researching the Horse King (also known as the Horse God), who has been the tutelary deity of Chinese horses, donkeys, and mules.<br><br>
Meir Shahar’s Hebrew-Language publications include ''The Chinese Religion'' (הדת הסינית) (1998) and a translation of Wu Cheng’en’s ''Monkey and the Magic Gourd'' (קוף ודלעת הקסמים), with drawings by Noga Zhang Shahar (נגה ג'אנג שחר). ([https://english.tau.ac.il/profile/mshahar Source Accessed June 18, 2020]) +
Mel A. V. Voulgaris (they/them) has a decade of experience working with students. They began their career in 2013 as a high school teacher, before becoming a counsellor in 2022. As a counsellor, Mel has worked at Simon Fraser University between 2022-2023, and currently works with the Richmond School District (SD38) and in private practice. +
I am Assistant Professor at the Chinese Department of ELTE University, in Budapest. My research focuses on Chinese Tiantai philosophy, I wrote my doctoral thesis about Zhanran and his buddha-nature theory, and obtained a PhD in 2011. I'm interested in various forms of Chinese Buddhist philosophy, the ways of interpreting and re-interpeting the inherited ideas. +
Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, is a Zen teacher with Boundless Way Zen, a school of Zen Buddhism with practice centers throughout New England and beyond. She is one of the resident teachers at Boundless Way Temple (Mugendo-ji) in Worcester, MA.
Background: Melissa was born in 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were secular Jews, who taught her from an early age to have a deep appreciation of art, theater, music (especially jazz) and leftist politics. In order to understand a spontaneous spiritual experience she had when she was nine years old, Melissa began a life-long exploration of religion and psychology.
Education, Work and Family: Melissa is a 1976 graduate of Wesleyan University, with a BA magna cum laude in Anthropology and Music. She went on to earn an MA in Counseling Psychology from Vermont College of Norwich University in 1991, specializing in grief counseling. In 1993, after careers as a vocalist, pianist, music teacher and psychotherapist, she joined the staff of the Center for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Until 2012 she was a member of the teaching staff, the Associate Director of the Stress Reduction Clinic, and a Director of professional training programs at the Center. She met her husband David Dae An Rynick, Roshi in 1977, and they married in 1982. Their daughter, Rachel Blacker Rynick, was born in 1986.
Zen training and teaching: In 1981 she and David began studying Zen with the independent teacher Richard Clarke, a former student of Philip Kapleau, Roshi. After twenty years of study with Dr. Clarke she became the student of James Myoun Ford, Roshi, a dharma heir of Jiyu Kennett, Roshi and John Tarrant, Roshi. She was ordained a Soto Zen priest (unsui) in 2004 and completed shuso training in 2005. Advancing through the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum she received Dharma transmission from James Ford in April of 2006, and was elected a guiding teacher of Boundless Way Zen. After hosting a Zen meditation group in their home for 20 years, Melissa and David founded Boundless Way Temple in 2009. Melissa received inka shomei from James Ford in July, 2010.
Melissa is co-editor of ''The Book of Mu'', published by Wisdom Publications in April of 2011, and her writing appears in ''Best Buddhist Writing'', 2012, published by Shambhala Publications and ''The Hidden Lamp'', published by Wisdom in 2013 . . . She is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
([http://www.melissablacker.com/biography/ Source Accessed Jul 20, 2020])
Melvin McLeod is the editor-in-chief of two of America's leading Buddhist magazines, [https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Category:Buddhadharma:_The_Practitioner%27s_Quarterly Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly] and [https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Category:Lion%27s_Roar Lion's Roar magazine] (formerly Shambhala Sun), and is the editorial director of [https://www.mindful.org/magazine/ Mindful magazine]. McLeod has edited three books of teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh, ''Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place'', and is the series editor for The Best Buddhist Writing series. He lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. ([https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Melvin-McLeod Adapted from Source Aug 4, 2020]) +
