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Pei Xiu (Chinese: 裴休; 791–864), courtesy name Gongmei (公美), formally the Viscount of Hedong (河東子), was a Chinese politician, literary figure, and Buddhist intellectual during the Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong. A prominent literatus and member of a prestigious aristocratic clan, Pei was considered a capable administrator and was credited with the skillful management of the Tang government's salt and iron monopoly. Pei was also a dedicated practitioner and patron of Chan Buddhism, pursuits which drew critique from later Confucian historians. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pei_Xiu_(Tang_dynasty) Source Accessed Jan 15, 2025]) +
Pekka Airaksinen (21 August 1945 – 6 May 2019) was a Finnish composer of electronic music.
Airaksinen formed his first band, The Sperm, in the 1960s. The Sperm mixed elements of avant-garde music with free jazz and psychedelic pop. Their concerts featured confrontational performance art, which resulted in two members being arrested for simulating sexual intercourse and screening pornographic films.
Following The Sperm's breakup in the early 1970s, Airaksinen turned to Buddhism and ceased making music. He started to collect Tibetan art and started Tibet Art Center in Loimaa. He returned to music in the mid 1980s with his album Buddhas of Golden Light, which mixed free jazz with percussion from a Roland 808 drum machine.
In the 1990s, Airaksinen founded the Dharmakustannus label, on which he released numerous CDs and CD-Rs. The music styles of these releases varies considerable, ranging from new age, ambient, house, jazz and improvisation. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekka_Airaksinen Source Accessed Dec 17, 2021]) +
Pema Chödrön is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and is principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pema_Ch%C3%B6dr%C3%B6n Source Accessed Jan 7, 2021)] +
Lama Pema Dragpa (Taylor S. Cook) has been a resident Dharma teacher at Padma Samye Ling (PSL), the main monastery and retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center (padmasambhava.org) since 2004. This institute was founded and directed by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, who both trained and mastered the ancient traditions of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Lama Dragpa lives and teaches at Padma Samye Ling, and was ordained as a lama by the Ven. Khenpo Rinpoches. He is a senior editor of over 20 books on philosophy, meditation, and Buddhist tenets. Lama Dragpa graduated with honors in philosophy and religious studies from NYU in 2002, and is a certified Hospice volunteer. He has taught at Colgate University, Scranton University, and Binghamton Community College, and regularly travels to lead PBC events on traditional and contemporary Buddhist philosophy and meditation. ([https://www.padmasambhava.org/resident-lamas Source: Padmasambhava Buddhist Center]) +
Pema Gyatso is a graduate from the Tibetan Language Department of Tibet University and
has studied under many great masters. He presently works as a researcher of Tibetan language and culture at the Tibetan Academy of Social Science, Lhasa. (Source: ''The Six Brothers'', 2007) +
Pema Khandro is a scholar-practitioner and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. She is the founder of the non-profit organization Ngakpa International and oversees its projects, the Dakini Mountain Retreat Center, the Buddhist Studies Institute and the Yogic Medicine Institute.
Pema Khandro’s academic work specializes in the history of Dzogchen, women in Buddhism, and Tibet’s Buddhist yogis. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, a a Master’s degree in Religious Studies specializing in Tibet, and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies and studies English, Tibetan and Chinese languages. ([https://pemakhandro.org/biography/ Source Accessed June 6, 2023]) +
Pema Tashi was a major student of Dudjom Lingpa, and unlike many other students who met Dudjom Lingpa after he gained renown, Pema Tashi was with him constantly, since the beginning. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Pema_Tashi Rigpa Wiki]) +
Taklung Tsetrul Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, the eldest son of the late Kangyur Rinpoche. Pema Wangyal Rinpoche was born in Rong Dakmar, central Tibet. His family escaped from Tibet in 1958 and eventually resettled in Darjeeling, India. After Kangyur Rinpoche passed away in 1975, Pema Wangyal Rinpoche and his family settled in Dordogne, France.
Under the guidance of Kyabje Kangyur Rinpoche, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, and other great masters of Tibetan Buddhism, Pema Wangyal Rinpoche has studied extensively and spent many years in retreat.
Dedicated to continuing the activities of his teachers and aspiring to fulfil their wishes, Pema Wangyal Rinpoche has shaped the organization’s activities for more than three decades. With his intimate knowledge of the needs of the Tibetan community in exile, as well as Himalayan communities in need, he has continuously cared for the needs of Tibetan people with the help of international donors. Rinpoche frequently travels to Asia to oversee educational, cultural and development projects.
Rinpoche has been active as a teacher since 1975, giving teachings at the request of Dharma groups and institutions around the world, making the teachings accessible in the form of seminars, courses, and providing students with individual guidance. Since 1980, Rinpoche has been guiding the traditional three-year intensive practise and study retreats in France. In 2000, Rinpoche established the ‘parallel retreats’ as an alternative to the three-year retreat, allowing Buddhist practioners with families to follow a cycle of teachings similar to that of an intensive retreat.
Pema Wangyal Rinpoche’s longstanding concern with the preservation of rare texts has led him to initiate many projects centred on the conservation and restoration of ancient manuscripts, their calligraphic or computer transcription and reprinting. He also supervises the translation and preservation work of the Padmakara Translation Group in France. ([http://www.songtsen.org/chanteloube/EN/tchrs_pema_wangyal_rinpoche.php Source Accessed June 28, 2022])
His Holiness Penor Rinpoche (Wyl. pad nor rin po che) or Kyabjé Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche (1932-2009) was the 11th throne holder of the Palyul Lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the supreme head of the Nyingmapa lineage from 1993 to 2001.
H.H. Penor Rinpoche was born in 1932, in the Powo region of Kham, East Tibet. Choktrul Rinpoche was his main master, although he received teachings from many lamas. Beside becoming learned in several subjects including writing, poetry, astrology and medicine, he studied the sutras with different khenpos.
Aged twelve, he received from Choktrul Rinpoche the most important transmissions and empowerments of the Nyingma School, including the great empowerment of the Kagyé and the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments. From Karma Kuchen Rinpoche he received the terma revelations of Ratna Lingpa.
At twenty one he was fully ordained by his master at Tarthang Monastery following the vinaya lineage transmitted to Tibet by Shantarakshita, receiving all the essential instructions and empowerments of the Nyingma tradition.
He also received at that time the cycle of Tendrel Nyesel, Lerab Lingpa’s great terma revelation. He then completed a Vajrakilaya retreat and, having received all the transmissions of the Kangyur and Tengyur, he entered into retreat for four years during which his master gave him all the transmissions of the Palyul tradition, following the secret oral instructions of Tertön Mingyur Dorjé’s Namchö.
Penor Rinpoche successfully completed all the stages of the practice, accomplishing the root recitations of the Three Roots (lama, yidam, and khandro), the Namchö preliminary practices, tummo and tsa-lung, and Dzogchen practices.
He fled Tibet in 1959 and subsequently established Namdroling Monastery which is located in Karnataka State, in Southern India. Namdroling has become the largest Nyingma monastery in the world, where many khenpos, monks and nuns are receiving an education. Khenpo Namdrol, among others, is one of the main senior khenpos teaching at the shedra of Namdroling.
Penor Rinpoche made his first visit to the United States in 1985.
In 1993, he was elected the Supreme Head of the Nyingmapa, succeeding Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 2001 the title passed to Kyabjé Minling Trichen Rinpoche. ([https://shakyamuni.net/lineage/his-holiness-penor-rinpoche/ Source])
Penpa Dorjee is associate professor and head librarian of Shantarakshita
Library of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, India.
He received the acharya degree from Sampurnanada Sanskrit University in
Varanasi and his PhD from the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. He has seventeen books in his name as author, coauthor, translator, and
editor. (Source: Sera Monastery, 2019). +
Per Kjeld Sørensen is a prominent Danish Tibetologist who specialises in Tibetan and Himalayan history, literature and culture. From 1994 to 2017 he held the chair of Professor of Central Asian Studies (Zentralasienwissenschaften, Tibetology and Mongol Studies) at Leipzig Universität, Germany, which is the second-oldest university in Germany and has a long tradition of Oriental studies. In 2017 he was the Numata Visiting Professor in Buddhism at the University of California, Berkeley. ([https://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/2017-2018-events Sources: Berkeley Events] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_K._S%C3%B8rensen Wikipedia Entry])
An interview and detailed biographical information can be found in the book '''Gateways to Tibetan Studies''', [https://www.academia.edu/53412557/Festschrift_David_P_Jackson_Preface_etc Hamburg Indian and Tibetan Studies 12, 2021]. +
Per Kværne (born 1 April 1945) is a Norwegian Tibetologist and historian of religion. Kværne was born in Oslo, Norway. In 1970 he received the mag.art. degree in Sanskrit at the University of Oslo. From 1970 to 1975 he worked as a lecturer in the history of religion at the University of Bergen. In 1973 he received the dr.philos. degree from the University of Oslo with his thesis "An Anthology of Buddhist Tantric Songs." From 1975 to 2007 he was professor of the history of religion at the University of Oslo, and he is now a professor emeritus.
In 1976 he became an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. From 1992 he served as chairman of the board of the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, Oslo. He published a series of books on religious history, mainly on Bön and Buddhism.
He also published on art history, including the ''Singing Songs of the Scottish Heart. William McTaggart 1835-1910''.
Kværne became a Catholic on 15 June 1998. From 2006 to 2008 he was a member of the Academic Study Group of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo. From April 2007 to May 2008 he served as dean of Study at the St. Eystein Priest Seminar. Starting in the autumn of 2008 he was a student priest of the Catholic Diocese of Oslo, and in 2010 Kværne was ordained Roman Catholic priest. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Kv%C3%A6rne Source Accessed June 14, 2023]) +
Perry Schmidt-Leukel (born 1954) is Professor of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at the University of Muenster, Germany, and Director of the Institute for Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology. He is one of the Principal Investigators of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”, University of Muenster. He holds degrees in Theology (Diploma) and Philosophy (Master). He received his PhD from the University of Munich (1992). His habilitatio (1996) was in Systematic Theology, Ecumenical Theology and Religious Studies. Before he came to Muenster, he taught at the Universities of Munich, Innsbruck and Salzburg, and was Professor of Religious Studies and Systematic Theology at the University of Glasgow (2000-2009).
Schmidt-Leukel is internationally renowned as one of the leading proponents of a pluralist theology of religions. His main research interests are in the fields of inter-faith relations, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, theologies of religions in the various religious traditions and interreligious theology. Schmidt-Leukel published more than 30 books in German and English. Among his more recent English publications are God Beyond Boundaries: A Christian and Pluralist Theology of Religions (2017); Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Theology: The Gifford Lectures – An Extended Edition (2017); Buddhist-Christian Relations in Asia (2017); Interreligious Comparisons in Religious Studies and Theology (2016, co-ed. with A. Nehring); Buddhism and Religious Diversity, 4 volumes (2013).
[https://www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/perry-schmidt-leukel-0 Source: Gifford Lectures page]. +
Perry Schmidt-Leukel (born September 21, 1954 in Bonn ) is a German theologian and religious scholar. Since 2009 he has been a professor for religious studies and intercultural theology at the University of Münster. There he also heads the seminar for religious studies and intercultural theology (Center for Religious Studies and Inter-faith Theology). ([https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Schmidt-Leukel Source Accessed Jan 11, 2021]) +
Peter Alan Roberts was born in Wales and lives in Hollywood, California. He earned a BA in Sanskrit and Pali and a DPhil in Tibetan Studies from Oxford University (Harris-Manchester College). For more than thirty years he has been working as an interpreter for lamas and as a translator of Tibetan texts. He specializes in the literature of the Kagyü and Nyingma traditions with a focus on tantric practices, and he is the author of The Biographies of Rechungpa and Mahāmudrā and Related Instructions.<br>(Source: See the [https://conference.tsadra.org/session/translating-spiritual-instructions/ Tsadra Foundation Conferences] and the [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/peter-alan-roberts/ Wisdom Publications Website]) +
Peter Coyote is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author and narrator of films, theatre, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Cross Creek, Jagged Edge, Bitter Moon, Kika, Patch Adams, Erin Brockovich, A Walk to Remember, and Femme Fatale. +
Peter Hershock is Manager of the Asian Studies Development Program (ASDP) at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i. In his work with ASDP, he designs and directs higher education faculty and institutional development programs that seek to mainstream the study of Asian cultures and societies in the undergraduate classroom. In connection with his work in the Professional Development Program at the Center, he has collaborated in designing and hosting international education leadership programs and research seminars that critically examine the relationships among higher education, globalization, equity and diversity. Most recently, he has helped launch the Center’s initiative on Humane Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on the societal impacts and ethical issues raised by emerging technologies. Trained in Asian and comparative philosophy, his research and writing draw on Buddhist conceptual resources to reflect on and address contemporary issues of global concern. ([https://www.eastwestcenter.org/about/staff/peter.hershock Source Accessed May 28, 2023]) +
Peter Della Santina was born in the USA. He has spent many years studying and teaching in South Asia and East Asia. He received his BA. in religion from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA in 1972 and a MA in philosophy from the University of Delhi, India two years later. He did his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies also from the University of Delhi, India in 1979.
He worked for three years for the Institute for Advanced Studies of world Religions, Fort Lee, New Jersey as a research scholar translating 8th century Buddhist philosophical texts from the Tibetan. He taught at several Universities and Buddhist centers in Europe and Asia including, the University of Pisa in Italy, the National University of Singapore and Tibet House in Delhi, India. He was the Coordinator of the Buddhist Studies project at the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore, a department of the Ministry of Education from 1983 to 1985.
More recently, he was a senior fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, India and taught Philosophy at the Fo Kuang Shan Academy of Chinese Buddhism, Kaoh-shiung, Taiwan.
For twenty-five years Peter Della Santina has been a student of H.H. Sakya Trizin, leader of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism and of eminent abets of the Sakya Tradition. He has practiced Buddhist meditation and has completed a number of retreats.
He has published several books and articles in academic journals including Nagarjuna's Letter to King Gautamiputra, Delhi 1978 and 1982 and Madhyamaka Schools In India, Delhi 1986 and the Madhyamaka and Modern Western Philosophy, Philosophy East and West, Hawaii, 1986. ([http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Peter_Della_Santina Source Accessed Feb 10, 2021]) +
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. Peter Michel received his Ph.D. in Comparative Religion and German Literature from the University of Freiburg in Germany. He is sought after, both on German and Austrian television, as an expert on such subjects as the relationships between Christianity and spirituality, reincarnation, karma, and Christian teachings. He has published several books on these topics in English, German, Spanish, and Czech. He is the founder of Aquamarin Verlag, one of the major publishing houses for Wisdom Literature in Germany. ([https://www.amazon.com/His-Holiness-14th-Dalai-Lama/dp/1885394551 Source Accessed Nov 5, 2020]) +
