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Mujū lchien. (無住一円) (1227-1312). A Japanese monk during the Kamakura period; also known as Mujū Dōgyō. He was born into a warrior family and became a monk at the age of eighteen. Mujū studied the doctrines of various sects, including the Hossōshū, Shingonshū, Tendaishū, and Jōdoshū, and received Zen training from the Rinzaishū monk Enni Ben'en (1202-1280). In 1262, Mujū built Chōboji (Matriarchal Longevity Monastery) in Owari (present-day Nagoya, a port city in the center of the main Japanese island of Honshū), where he spent the rest of his life. Although affiliated with the Rinzaishū, Mujū took an ecumenical approach to Buddhism, arguing that all the different teachings of Buddhism were skillful means of conveying the religion's ultimate goal; he even denounced Nichiren (1222-1382) for his contemporary's exclusivist attitude toward his own eponymous sect. Mujū was also famous for his collections of Japanese folklore, such as the ''Shasekishū'' ("Sand and Pebbles Collection"), written between 1279 and 1283; his ''Tsuma kagami'' ("Mirror for Wives") of 1300; and his 1305 ''Zōdanshū'' ("Collection of Random Conversations"). In particular, in the ''Shasekishū'', Mujū introduced the idea of the "unity of spirits and buddhas" (shinbutsu shūgō) , describing the Japanese indigenous gods, or Kami, as various manifestations of the Buddha. (Source: "Mujū lchien." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 552. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Born in 1902 Professor Amulyadhan Mukherji graduated with a first class in English from Presidency College. Calcutta, and took a first class in his M. A. from Calcutta University. In 1930 he was awarded Premchand Roychand studentship and later the Mouat Medal for his pioneering scientific study of Bengali prosody. Professor Mukherji was awarded the Sarojini Basu Gold Medal for 1968 by the Calcutta University for his outstanding contributions to the study of Bengali language and literature. A Professor of English language and literature for more than thirty years, he was on the faculties of the Universities of Calcutta and Jadavpur and is a member of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. He was selected a senior Research Fellow by the University Grants Commission for 1965-68. Author of more than a dozen research papers of high merit in English on Bengali and Sanskrit prosody and on various topics of English and Bengali literature, Professor Mukherji's important works in Bengali include Bangla Chhander Mulsutra, Kaviguru, Adhunik Sahitya Jijnasa and Rabindranather Manasi.
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His major English works- 'Sanskrit prosody: Its Evolution', (1976, 2nd Edn 2000)' 'Studies in Rabindranath's Prosody and Bengali-Prose- Verse' (1999). Source: ([https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/sanskrit-prosody-its-evolution-NAK593/ exotic india]) +
A student of the First Gyatrul, Dongak Tenzin; the Third Karma Kuchen; and Dongak Chökyi Nyima. +
Munidatta was a Buddhist scholar (circa 8th–10th century CE) who wrote the Sanskrit commentary known as ''Caryāgītikoṣavṛtti'' for the Caryāgīti by Atiśa. Munidatta's commentary was later translated by Kirticandra and Grags pa rgyal mtshan. +
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]) +
Märt Läänemets (born July 14, 1962 in Avinurme) is an Estonian orientalist. His main research interests are Mahāyāna Buddhism and the history of Chinese thought. He has published translations from Chinese, Sanskrit, and English. He has written opinion pieces on contemporary Chinese politics.
He was an associate professor (2016–2020) and head of the Oriental Studies Centre at the University of Tartu, and the president of the Estonian Academic Oriental Society. He teaches Mandarin Chinese and Sanskrit at the University of Tartu and has given lecture courses on Eastern topics. One of the authors of the Lexicon of the History of Eastern Thought (together with Linnart Mäll and Teet Toome).
In 2009, he defended his doctoral thesis "Gandavyūha-sūtra as a Historical Source" at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Tartu. Together with Gao Jingyi, he compiled the first Chinese language textbook specifically designed for Estonian learners (Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2015). ([https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4rt_L%C3%A4%C3%A4nemets Adapted from Source Jan 7, 2025]) +
Möndrup Sherab was a Tibetan translator who lived in the 12th century. He is known for translating the ''Biographies of the 84 Mahasiddhas'' from Sanskrit into Tibetan. This text, originally recorded by the Indian scholar Abhayadatta Sri, contains stories of 84 great Buddhist masters who achieved enlightenment in a single lifetime.
The translated work by Möndrup Sherab is beautifully illustrated and explores the personalities of the 84 Mahasiddhas, as well as the miraculous events that occurred in their lives. +
Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen was a Sakya master who was born in the Mu valley of U. Late in his long life he became the second abbot of Ngor Monastery, which was founded by his teacher Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo. Konchok Gyeltsen founded Linga Dewachen Monastery in 1437 and Musu Yama Monastery in 1459, and was important in the transmission of the Sakya Lamdre tradition. +
After graduating from Humboldt University Berlin and following (post-)doctoral research in Munich, Zurich and Kyoto, I am currently a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy at Hildesheim University (Germany), which specializes in Asian and World philosophy.
My research focuses on the philosophy of language and culture, particularly based on the works of Ernst Cassirer and Wilhelm von Humboldt. My interests also encompass regional philosophies including pre-modern Buddhist and modern Japanese philosophy. I have published widely in various languages and translated seminal philosophical works from Japanese into German and English.
Throughout my career, I have been engaged in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research activities inside and outside of academia. I am the founding member of the research network »Morphology as Scientific Paradigm« (funded by the German Research Council, DFG) and have co-curated (as »Konzeptbegleiter«) the new permanent exhibit »Play of culture/s« (»Spiel der Kultur/en«) at Historisches und Völkerkundemuseum in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. ([http://ralfmueller.eu Source Accessed May 14, 2020]) +
Mātṛceṭa (second century C.E.) was a Sanskrit poet. A Śaivite convert to Buddhism, he is the author of: (1) ''Varṇārhavarṇastotra'' (''Hymn in Praise of the Praiseworthy''), a poem in 386 stanzas (hence the subtitle ''Catuḥśataka'') in praise of the Buddha, which survives in Sanskrit (incomplete) and Tibetan; (2) ''Prasādapratibhodbhava'' (''Inspired by Faith''), a poem in 153 stanzas (hence the subtitle ''Śatapañcāśatka'') also in praise of the Buddha, which survives in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese; and (3) ''Mahārōjakaniṣkalekha'' (''Letter to the Great King Kaniṣka''), a poem in 85 stanzas, surviving only in Tibetan translation, in which the aged Mātṛceṭa offers advice to the young Kaniṣka. A number of other works in the Tibetan Tanjur are attributed to Mātṛceṭa, but only a few further fragments remain of the original Sanskrit. Mātṛceṭa's poetry is notable for its terse, clear style, which heightens the intensity of his thought and feeling. ([https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/matcea Source Accessed Sep 30, 2022]) +
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Nikolai Dmitrievich Mironov (b. 1880, Dresden d. 1936, Ariane, Tunisia) was a Russian orientalist, Indologist, Sanskritologist, and politician.
He was born in the family of Dmitry Gavrilovich and Taisiya Alekseevna Mironov. He graduated from the First St. Petersburg Gymnasium.
He studied at St. Petersburg and Strasbourg Universities, where his mentors were Professor E. Leiman, a specialist in Jain literature and Khotanese manuscripts, and Professor Heinrich Khyubshman, a comparative Iranist. In 1901–1902, at the University of Berlin, he listened to lectures by the researcher of the Avesta, Iranian scholar, Professor Karl Friedrich Geldner, as well as a prominent specialist in the field of Prakrit grammar, Professor Richard Pischel and a Tocharologist, Professor Emil Sieg. In 1902–1903 he studied at the University of Bonn with Sanskrit professor Hermann Georg Jacobi.
In October 1903, at the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the Imperial St. Petersburg University, he received a master's degree in Sanskrit literature. In the same year, at the University of Strasbourg, he defended his dissertation "Dharmapariksha Amitagati", dedicated to the study of the work of a Jain author of the 11th century, and received a Ph.D.
During the 1905 revolution, Mironov was an assistant professor at Moscow University and a teacher of Sanskrit. Mironov created a Socialist-Revolutionary group called "Organization of an armed uprising" and its printed organ - the bulletin "Petrel". Attracted A. F. Kerensky to cooperate in the bulletin. Burevestnik soon became one of the leading publications of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, but Mironov himself never made it to the Socialist Revolutionary leaders.
In 1909-1911, Mironov published a number of articles in scientific periodicals: "Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences", " Bibliotheca Buddhica", "Journal of the Ministry of Education", "Notes of the Eastern Branch of the Russian Archaeological Society", articles about India, Indian literature, religion and philosophy in the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.
In 1916 he was invited to the position of Privatdozent of the Historical and Philological Department of Petrograd University.
After the February Revolution, Mironov, with the support of Kerensky, was appointed head of the newly created counterintelligence department of the Ministry of Justice. On July 27, 1917, he was appointed head of the counterintelligence department of the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District instead of B. V. Nikitin.
Mironov directed his main efforts to the search for "counter-revolution" and "monarchist conspiracies." The first was the case of General V. I. Gurko, who was arrested on July 21, 1917 on the basis of an order signed personally by Kerensky. The reason for the arrest was a letter that Gurko addressed to the former emperor, which contained harsh words against the revolution and its leaders.
Before the Kornilov speech, "Mironovskaya counterintelligence" managed to identify and arrest some of Kornilov's supporters in Petrograd.
On the eve of the Kornilov speech, together with B. V. Savinkov, Mironov arrived at Headquarters to arrest the most prominent members of the conspiratorial group. But in Mogilev, where the Headquarters was located, no one perceived Mironov's powers and his instructions as binding. Moreover, General Kornilov told Savinkov in a confidential conversation that if Mironov proceeded with arrests, he himself would be immediately shot.
During the civil war he left for Irkutsk. Since October 1918, Mironov began teaching at the Department of Comparative Linguistics and Sanskritology of the newly opened Irkutsk University as an extraordinary professor, and since 1920 he was in charge of the Oriental Studies cabinet.
After the final establishment of Soviet power in Siberia, he emigrated to China.
From 1926 until his death in 1936 he lived in Ariana (Tunisia). ([https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9_%D0%94%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 Source Accessed Apr 6, 2022])
Nalinaksha Dutt (1893–1973), was an Indian scholar of Buddhism, professor of Sanskrit and Pali at the University of Calcutta and chaired The Asiatic Society, among other representative functions, as Vice-President of the Maha Bodhi Society. He was also a politician who served as Member of Parliament, representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha the upper house of India's Parliament representing the Indian National Congress. He is the author of numerous books on Buddhism.
Nalinaksha Dutt was born on 4 December 1893. He did his undergraduate studies at Chittagong College and the Presidency University, Kolkata. Initially interested in mathematics and physics, he was a student of Ashutosh Mukherjee, before discovering the Sanskrit and Pali languages with scholar Satish Chandra Vidyabhusan who also introduced him to Indian and Tibetan Buddhist texts. After graduation, he became a professor of Sanskrit and Pali at Judson College (which later, in 1920, became part of the University of Yangon). But Ashutosh Mukherjee, as a wise educator, perceived Dutt's real abilities and persuaded him to return to Calcutta in order to deepen his studies on Buddhism from the Sanskrit source texts, because at that time, most of the known Buddhist texts were translations from Tibetan. He met the scholar Sarat Chandra Das and the tibetan translator Kazi Dawa Samdup and they worked together.
In appreciation of Dutt’s researches in both the schools of buddhism, Calcutta University awarded him the Premchand Roychand Scholarship award and the doctor’s degree. Then he went to London, being admitted to the School of Oriental Studies, to prepare the D. Littérature, specialty Buddhism in Sanskrit. However, in the absence of a British Sanskrit scholar able to direct his work, the Belgian Indologist Louis de La Vallée-Poussin took on the task. Thus Dutt lived most of his time in Brussels, near his research master.
He defended his thesis in 1930, entitled: Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its relationship with the Hinayana, before renowned Western scholars, including Lionel Barnett, Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, who praised his work. His later works will be the subject of publications (the main ones are listed in the rest of the article), which will make him, with Lokesh Chandra, one of the main Indian scholars in Buddhism.
He has held many official positions: President (1959–1961), and Vice-President of The Asiatic Society, Vice-president of the Maha Bodhi Society (1959–1973). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalinaksha_Dutt Source Accessed Sep 30, 2022])
Nalini Bhushan's research addresses questions in the philosophy of mind and language, aesthetics, the philosophy of science, and 19th- and 20th-century Indian philosophy.
Bhushan is co-editor of Of Minds and Molecules: New Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry (Oxford University Press, 2000) and author of several articles in that field. She has also published articles in aesthetics and the philosophy of mind and language.
Bhushan is currently at work on several projects, including a recently completed book on the history of Indian philosophy in the 19th and 20th century (Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance, Oxford University Press, 2017); several essays on topics such as conceptions of suffering and evil in Colonial India; reworkings of scientific concepts, such as causality in Indian modernity; philosophical ideas in the work of American modernist novelist Willa Cather; and the work of modern Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil.
She teaches courses on Nietzsche, aesthetics, the philosophy of language, mind and science, cosmopolitanism and Indian philosophy. In addition to being a faculty member of the philosophy department, she is a member of the South Asia Concentration at Smith. ([https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/nalini-bhushan Source Accessed Feb 13, 2023]) +
Nalini Ramlakhan recently finished her Ph.D., researching moral psychology in the Cognitive Science Department at Carleton University (dissertation entitled "Emotion and Morality: Understanding the Role of Empathy and Other Emotions in
Moral Judgment and Moral Behaviour"). She works on a variety of empirical and conceptual issues concerning the moral dimensions of addressing psychopathology, as well as ethics and moral psychology in general. Her publications include "An
Argument in Favour of a Universal Moral Grammar and Its Weaknesses," ''International Journal of Arts and Sciences'' (2011), and "On the Nature of Moral Judgment," ''Cognitive Science Proceedings'' (2014). (Source: [https://research.tsadra.org/index.php/Ethics_without_Self,_Dharma_without_Atman Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman]) +
Namkhai Norbu (Tibetan: ཆོས་རྒྱལ་ནམ་མཁའི་ནོར་བུ་; Wylie: nam mkha’I nor bu, 8 December 1938 – 27 September 2018) was a Tibetan Buddhist master of Dzogchen and a professor of Tibetan and Mongolian language and literature at Naples Eastern University. He was a leading authority on Tibetan culture, particularly in the fields of history, literature, traditional religions (Tibetan Buddhism and Bon), and Traditional Tibetan medicine, having written numerous books and scholarly articles on these subjects.
When he was two years old, Namkhai Norbu was recognized as the 'mindstream emanation', a tulku, of the Dzogchen teacher Adzom Drugpa (1842–1924). At five, he was also recognized as a mindstream emanation of an emanation of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594–1651). At the age of sixteen, he met master Rigdzin Changchub Dorje (1863–1963), who became his main Dzogchen teacher.
In 1960, he went to Italy at the invitation of Giuseppe Tucci and served as Professor of Tibetan and Mongolian Language and Literature from 1964 to 1992 at Naples Eastern University. In 1983, he hosted the first International Convention on Tibetan Medicine, held in Venice, Italy.
In 1976, Namkhai Norbu began to give Dzogchen instruction in the West, first in Italy, then in numerous other countries. He became a respected spiritual authority among many practitioners, and created centers for the study of Dzogchen worldwide. Namkhai Norbu taught Dzogchen for more than fifty years and was considered by the Tibetan government in exile as "the foremost living Dzogchen" teacher at the time of his death, in 2018. Norbu founded the Dzogchen Community, which today has centers around the world, including in the US, Mexico, Australia, Russia, and China. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namkhai_Norbu Source Accessed Mar 17, 2022]) +
Nan Suo is affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts, Tibetan University, Lhasa, Tibetan Autonomous Region +
Title: Associate Professor of Tibetan and South Asian Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley, CA.
Nancy Lin joined the faculty in 2021 after previously teaching at Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on how literary and visual cultures have shaped Buddhist traditions of Tibet and the Himalaya. Her current book project is a study of worldly Buddhists and courtly cultures of Tibet in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her teaching emphasizes how people draw from the resources of their historical and living traditions, including rituals, narratives, values, objects, environments, and cosmologies.
:Degrees
::Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
::MA, Columbia University
::AB, Harvard University
:Research and Teaching Interests
::Buddhism in Tibet and the Himalaya, South Asia, and Inner Asia
::World-engaging and world-renouncing aspects of Buddhist thought and practice
::Karma and rebirth
::Poetic language, rhetoric, and narrative
::Buddhist visual and material culture
::Translation and circulation of words and images
::Courtly cultures and networks
:Selected Publications
::“Ornaments of This World: Materiality and Poetics of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Reliquary Stūpa.” In Jewels, Jewelry, and Other Shiny Things in the Buddhist Imaginary, edited by Vanessa R. Sasson. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, forthcoming.
::“Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage.” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 38 (February 2017): 119–156.
::“Purity in the Pudding and Seclusion in the Forest: Si tu paṇ chen, Monastic Ideals, and the Buddha’s Biographies.” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 7 (August 2013): 86–124.
::“Döndrup Gyel and the Remaking of the Tibetan Ramayana.” In Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change, edited by Lauran R. Hartley and Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani, 86–111. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.
:Courses Taught
::Buddhism and World Religions
::Buddhist Pastoral Care
Nancy J. Barnes received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in Sanskrit and Indian Studies, with specialization in Buddhism in India and China. She has taught at Wesleyan University, the Hartford Seminary Foundation, the Hartford College for Women, and in the Religion Department of Trinity College and the Art History Department of the University of Hartford. She has published in the fields of women in Buddhism, and Mahāyāna Buddhist thought and practice. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=dyQpNKH1oOYC&pg=PA430&lpg=PA430&dq=Nancy+J.+Barnes+received+her+Ph.D.+from+the+University+of+Toronto+in+Sanskrit+and+Indian+Studies,+with+specialization+in+Buddhism+in+India+and+China.&source=bl&ots=zwKFr5ovW9&sig=ACfU3U1-X8HBUyE0JdRsjqzJsBdZ_Rx3mQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAkpiQlvTuAhUTZc0KHVS-AtUQ6AEwAHoECAUQAw#v=onepage&q=Nancy%20J.%20Barnes%20received%20her%20Ph.D.%20from%20the%20University%20of%20Toronto%20in%20Sanskrit%20and%20Indian%20Studies%2C%20with%20specialization%20in%20Buddhism%20in%20India%20and%20China.&f=false Adapted from Source Feb 18, 2021]) +
Nancy Jane Ramey (born June 29, 1940), later known by her married name Nancy Lethcoe, is an American former competition swimmer, 1956 Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in two events. After the Olympics, Ramey earned her doctorate and became a college instructor, environmental activist and political candidate. She and her husband Jim Lethcoe founded Prince William Sound Books. She authored books about Prince William Sound: ''Valdez Gold Rush Trails of 1898-99'', ''History of Prince William Sound'', 'Cruising Guide to Prince William Sound'', and ''Habitats of Change''.
Ramey was born in Seattle and grew up on Mercer Island, Washington. At time of the 1956 Olympics, she was a student at Mercer Island High School.
As a 16-year-old, Ramey represented the United States at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where she won a silver medal in the 100 meter butterfly event. In 1958 she set two world records in the 100 m and one in the 200 m butterfly; the same year she won five American and one Canadian national title. In 1959 she won a silver medal in the 100 m butterfly at the Pan American Games.
Later Ramey graduated from the University of Washington and earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin. In the 1970s she worked as an assistant professor of religious studies at Stanford University. After that she organized Alaskan wilderness safaris, together with her husband Jim Lethcoe. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Ramey Source Accessed July 24, 2023]) +
Ku Nân-ti, i.e. Nandi, whose name is translated 喜 Hhi, lit. 'joy.' He was a G''ri''hapati (householder) of the western region, who in A.D. 419 and the following years translated 3 works, one of them was lost already in A.D. 730.
Two of the texts attributed to him include the ''Dàchéng fāngbiàn huì jīng'' (''Upāyakauśalyasūtra'') and the ''Ch'ing kuan shih yin p'u sa hsiao fu tu hai t'o lo ni chou ching'' (''Saḍakṣaravidyāmantra(sūtra'').
[He was] of the Eastern Tsin dynasty , A.D. 317–420. ([http://www.kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~wittern/data/nanjio-catalog.pdf Source Accessed Sep 8, 2021; see esp. number 47]) +