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Birgit Kellner is an Austrian Buddhologist and Tibetologist. She studied Buddhology and Tibetology at University of Vienna, where she received a master's degree in 1994 under the supervision of Ernst Steinkellner, and at the Hiroshima University, where she earned her doctorate in 1999 under the supervision of Katsura Shōryū.
After a series of research projects, including as a Humboldt Fellow at the University of Hamburg, as well as a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, she joined the University of Heidelberg in 2010 as Professor of Buddhist Studies within the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context". In 2015, she returned to Austria to serve as the Director of the Institute for Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia in Vienna, part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgit_Kellner Source Accessed Nov 15 2019]) +
Jongang Lama. See [http://rimebuddhism.com/community/affiliated-monasteries/tibet/tashi-chothang-monastery/ Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute] +
Mark Blum, Professor and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, received his M.A. in Japanese Literature from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in Pure Land Buddhism throughout East Asia, with a focus on the Japanese medieval period. He also works in the area of Japanese Buddhist reponses to modernism, Buddhist conceptions of death in China and Japan, historical consciousness in Buddhist thought, and the impact of the Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra) in East Asian Buddhism. He is the author of ''The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism'' (2002), and co-editor of ''Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism'' (2005) and ''Cultivating Spirituality'' (2011), and his translation from Chinese of ''The Nirvana Sutra: Volume 1'' (2013). He is currently working on completing ''Think Buddha, Say Buddha: A History of Nenbutsu Thought, Practice, and Culture''. ([http://ealc.berkeley.edu/faculty/blum-mark Source Accessed May 31, 2019]) +
Born in Los Angeles, Jim grew up in Southern California. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of San Diego and continued to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he finished his MA and PhD under the direction of the Tibetan Buddhist scholar/practitioner Geshe Lhundub Sopa. His graduate studies focused on the work of the Indian teacher Śāntarakṣita.
Both in his career as Associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University and as Professor of Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College, Jim displayed the rare combination of deep commitment to teaching and rigorous engagement as a research scholar. Even more unusually, Jim was able to produce scholarly texts that were valued equally by the academy and by Buddhist communities. He published analytical and translation works on Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism based upon this research, including The Ornament of The Middle Way: A Study of the Madhyamaka Thought of Śāntarakṣita (2004) and Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning (2004). With Geshe Sopa, he completed a translation of the 4th Chapter of the ''Lamrim Chenmo'', and was pursuing the publication of a translation of Śāntarakṣita’s ''Madhyamakālaṃkāravṛtti''.
Jim was a strong advocate for institutions of higher education that strive to integrate the knowledge base of Buddhist philosophy with meditative practice and service to the community. In 2004, Jim invited Yangsi Rinpoche to Portland, Oregon to speak to interested persons. In 2005, Jim began working alongside Yangsi Rinpoche, Namdrol Adams, and Angie Garcia on the founding of Maitripa Institute, soon to become Maitripa College, which seeks to embody those ideals. . . .
His main teachers were His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche, Jangtse Choje Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Yangsi Rinpoche, and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. ([https://maitripa.org/jim-blumenthal/ Source adapted from an obituary written by Namdrol Miranda Adams, Damcho Diana Finnegan, and Jim's wife, Tiffany)]
Also known as Po-yüan or Po Fa-tsu. A priest and a translator of Buddhist texts during the late Western Chin dynasty (265–316) in China. He built a Buddhist monastery at Ch'ang-an, where he translated and lectured on Buddhist scriptures. In 305 he set out for Lung-yu, where he intended to live in retirement. He was killed along the way, however, because of his refusal to work for Chang Fu, the local governor of Ch'in-chou, and also because of accusations lodged by someone he had defeated in debate. The Buddha's Parinirvāna Sutra, one of the Hinayana versions of the Nirvana Sutra, was translated by Fa-tsu. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/F/14 Source Accessed Sep 3, 2021]) +
A renowned Indian translator and monk (to be distinguished from a subsequent Bodhiruci [s.v.] who was active in China two centuries later during the Tang dynasty). Bodhiruci left north India for Luoyang, the Northern Wei capital, in 508. He is said to have been well versed in the Tripiṭaka and talented at incantations. Bodhiruci stayed at the monastery of Yongningsi in Luoyang from 508 to 512 and with the help of Buddhaśānta (d.u.) and others translated over thirty Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises, most of which reflect the latest developments in Indian Mahāyāna, and especially Yogācāra. His translations include the ''Dharmasaṃgīti'', ''Shidijing lun'', ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', ''Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'', and the ''Wuliangshou jing youpotishe yuansheng ji'', attributed to Vasubandhu. Bodhiruci’s translation of the ''Shidijing lun'', otherwise known more simply as the ''Di lun'', fostered the formation of a group of Yogācāra specialists in China that later historians retroactively call the Di lun zong. According to a story in the ''Lidai fabao ji'', a jealous Bodhiruci, assisted by a monk from Shaolinsi on Songshan named Guangtong (also known as Huiguang, 468–537), is said to have attempted on numerous occasions to poison the founder of the Chan school, Bodhidharma, and eventually succeeded. Bodhiruci is also said to have played an instrumental role in converting the Chinese monk Tanluan from Daoist longevity practices to the pure land teachings of the ''Guan Wuliangshou jing''. (Source: "Bodhiruci." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 133. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Since the late 1960s Bodo Balsys has dedicated his life to understanding the nature of consciousness and sharing his unique insights with others. He is a writer, a poet, an artist, a meditation teacher and healer. He has studied extensively across multiple fields of life. These include Esoteric science, meditation, healing, cosmology, Christianity, Buddhism, natural science, art, politics and history.
Bodo has published multiple books. His first series, The Revelation (three volumes), was concerned with providing insights into fundamental esoteric subjects, and specifically providing an esoteric understanding of the Christian Bible. His more recent books focus on providing new insights into Buddhism and particularly their alignment with esoteric science. Bodo also holds a science degree from the University of Western Sydney. He is currently teaching at the School of Esoteric Sciences (near Sydney), which he established. ([https://www.universaldharma.com/about-us/our-teacher-bodo-balsys/ Source Accessed July 19, 2023]) +
(Chokle Namgyal) (1376-1451). The twenty-third abbot of Bo dong E monastery, founded in about 1049 by the Bka' gdams geshe (dge bshes) Mu dra pa chen po, and the founder of the Bo dong tradition. His collected works, said to number thirty-six titles, include his huge encyclopedic work ''De nyid 'dus pa'' ("Compendium of the Principles"); it alone runs to 137 volumes in the incomplete edition published by the Tibet House in Delhi. Phyogs las rnam rgyal (who is sometimes confused with Jo nang pa Phyogs las rnam rgyal who lived some fifty years earlier) was a teacher of Dge 'dun grub (retroactively named the first Dalai Lama) and Mkhas grub Dge legs dpal bzang, both students of Tsong kha pa. Among his disciples was the king of Gung thang, Lha dbang rgyal mtshan (1404–1463), whose daughter Chos kyi sgron me (1422–1455) became a nun after the death of her daughter and then the head of Bsam lding (Samding) monastery, which her father founded for her. The monastery is the only Tibetan monastery whose abbot is traditionally a woman; incarnations are said to be those of the goddess Vajravārāhī (T. Rdo rje phag mo), "Sow-Headed Goddess." (Source: "Bo dong Phyogs las rnam rgyal." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 139. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Bodong Sangye Gönpo was a Tibetan yogi adept in the practice of Siṃhamukhā. Though he initially practiced the teaching cycle of this deity associated with Bari Lotsāwa, through his practice he was able to encounter Siṃhamukhā and received empowerment for her practice from Guru Rinpoche. This became the basis for the Siṃhamukhā cycle known as the Bodong Tradition of the Aural Lineage of the Profound Secret of the Lion Faced [Ḍākinī] (''bo dong lugs zab gsang seng gdong snyan brgyud). +
Bokar Tulku Rinpoche (1940 – 17 August 2004) was heart-son of the Second Kalu Rinpoche and a holder of the Karma Kagyü and Shangpa Kagyü lineages.
Bokar Rinpoche was born in western Tíbet not far from Mount Kailash, in 1940 (Iron Dragon year) to a family of nomadic herders. When Rinpoche was four years old, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa recognized him as the reincarnation of the previous Bokar Tulku, Karma Sherab Ösel.
Bokar Rinpoche was trained at the monastery founded by the previous Bokar incarnation. He continued his studies at Tsurphu Monastery in central Tibet, main seat of the Karmapas. While still a teenager, he assumed full responsibilities for the Bokar monastic community. Then, due to the Communist oppression in Tibet, Bokar Rinpoche fled into exile at the age of 20. In India, he became a close disciple of Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche.
Under Kalu Rinpoche's guidance in Sonada, Bokar Rinpoche twice completed the traditional three-year retreat. During the first one, he followed the practices of the Shangpa Kagyu; the second was based on the practices of the Karma Kagyu.
In Mirik, India, Bokar Rinpoche founded a retreat center that is an important centre for Kalachakra practice, now called Bokar Ngedhon Choekhor Ling.
Brief bio available at [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1iaW9ncmFwaHktQm9rYXI= bokarmonastery.org]
Also see [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1wdWJsaWNhdGlvbnM= Bokar Publications] +
George D. Bond (Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1972) is an associate
professor in the Department of the History and Literature of Religion
at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Word of the Buddha:
The Tipi.taka and Its Interpretation in Theraviida Buddhism and coeditor
of Sainthood in World Religions.
Source: [[Buddhist Hermeneutics]] +
Russian linguist. In 1909 he graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University, and trained in France at the A. Meye. From 1918 he taught at Petrograd (Leningrad) University, and became a professor in 1921 and academician in 1929. He participated in expeditions to Mongolia. He was one of the first who used methods of contemporary linguistics, both in the field of comparative historical research, as well as in the description of Modern Languages. His main linguistic work "Comparative Grammar" of the Mongolian written language and the Khalkha dialect (1929, 2nd ed. 1989) including a genetic classification of the Mongolian languages and dialects. A sketch of their history and description of the phonetics and writing. He was the author of works on the history of the Mongolian Peoples: Genghis Khan (1922) The social system of the Mongols, and Mongolian nomadic feudalism (1934). ([https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94699424/boris-yakovlevich-vladimirtsov Source Accessed Mar 11, 2021]) +
Filippo Brambilla is a PhD candidate at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies of the University of Vienna. He is currently writing his dissertation on Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho (1880–1940), a late Jo nang scholar whose philosophical works are characterized by a distinctive approach that reconciles typically rang stong positions with more orthodox Jo nang views. Filippo’s PhD thesis will include a complete edition and translation of Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho’s Illuminating Light (''Rab gsal snang''). Recently, Filippo also started working as a researcher in the FWF funded project “Emptiness of Other (gZhan stong) in the Early Jo nang Tradition.” He holds a BA and an MA in Languages and Cultures of Eastern Asia, with specialization in Chinese language and culture, from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Filippo has also spent long periods of study and research in China and Eastern Tibet. (Source: [https://conference.tsadra.org/session/empty-of-true-existence-yet-full-of-qualities-tshogs-gnyis-rgya-mtsho-1880-1940-on-buddha-nature/ Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia]) +
Brandon Dotson is associate professor and Thomas P. McKenna Chair of Buddhist Studies. Besides Georgetown, he has taught and researched at Oxford, SOAS, UCSB, and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich. He has also enjoyed research stays in China and Tibet. His work concerns ritual, narrative, and cosmology and the interaction of Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions in the Tibetan cultural area. In particular, he works closely with Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts to explore the history and culture of the Tibetan Empire (7th to 9th centuries CE). ([https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014SlSxAAK/brandon-dotson Source: Georgetown University Page]) +
Bret W. Davis is Professor and Thomas J. Higgins, S.J. Chair in Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland, where he teaches courses on Western, Asian, and cross-cultural philosophy. His research focuses on Japanese philosophy (esp. the Kyoto School and Zen Buddhism), on Continental philosophy (esp. Heidegger, phenomenology, and hermeneutics), and on issues in cross-cultural philosophy and comparative philosophy of religion.
Along with earning a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University, he has studied and taught for more than a year in Germany and for more than a dozen years in Japan. In Japan, he studied Buddhist thought at Otani University, completed the coursework for a second Ph.D. in Japanese philosophy at Kyoto University, taught philosophy and related courses in Japanese at various universities, and practiced Zen Buddhism at Shōkokuji, one of the main Rinzai Zen training monasteries in Kyoto.
In addition to authoring more than 75 articles in English and Japanese, as well as translating many articles from Japanese and German, he is author of Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit (Northwestern University Press, 2007); translator of Martin Heidegger’s Country Path Conversations (Indiana University Press, 2010, paperback edition 2016); editor of The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2020) and of Martin Heidegger: Key Concepts (Acumen, 2010, Routledge, 2014); coeditor with Fujita Masakatsu of Sekai no naka no Nihon no tetsugaku (Japanese Philosophy in the World) (Shōwadō, 2005); and coeditor with Brian Schroeder and Jason Wirth of Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School (Indiana University Press, 2011) and of Engaging Dōgen’s Zen: The Philosophy of Practice as Awakening (Wisdom Publishing, 2017).
His current projects include a book manuscript on Zen Buddhism and another on the Kyoto School and interpersonal as well as intercultural dialogue. He was the Director of the 2017 Collegium Phaenomenologicum, is Associate Officer of The Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle, serves on the board of directors of the Nishida Philosophy Association (Nishida tetsugakkai) as well as on the editorial boards of several journals and book series, and is coeditor of Indiana University Press’s series in World Philosophies. ([https://loyola.academia.edu/BretDavis Source Accessed Nov 25, 2019])
2014 - present
Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim (Norway)
2008 - 2014
Professor, Chair for Religious Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum (Germany)
2008
Senior Assistant, Institute for the Science of Religion and Central Asian Studies, University of Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
2001 - 2007
Assistant, Institute for the Science of Religion and Central Asian Studies, University of Bern
2000 - 2001
Temporary lecturer, Institute for the Science of Religion and Central Asian Studies, University of Bern, Bern
2000 - 2001
Assistant, Department of Indian and Buddhist Studies, Georg-August-University, Göttingen (Germany)
1998 - 2001
Temporary lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, Georg-August-University, Göttingen
1998 - 2000
Temporary lecturer, Department of Indian and Buddhist Studies, Georg-August-University, Göttingen
2000
Phd (Dr. phil.), Indology, Tibetology, Study of Religions, Georg-August-University, Göttingen
([https://www.multiple-secularities.de/team/prof-dr-sven-bretfeld/ Source Accessed on May 4, 2020]) +
Brian Beresford (1948–97) was a photographer, translator, and editor. Beresford translated and edited several Tibetan Buddhist texts, including the first Wisdom title ever published, ''Advice from a Spiritual Friend''. His photographs of Tibetan lamas and scenes of Tibetan culture have been published worldwide. He was also one of the first Westerners to travel into the remote areas of western Tibet, which he visited between 1986 and 1993. Between 1973 and 1979 he lived in Dharamsala and studied at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. He took pictures of, studied with, and translated for Geshe Rabten, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, Lama Yeshe, and Lama Zopa, among other Tibetan masters. In the 1980s Beresford made his home in England, where in 1985 he helped found the Meridian Trust. At the end of his life, Brian was a student of the Dzogchen master Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and a leading figure in the Dzogchen community. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/brian-beresford/ Source Accessed Mar 13, 2025]) +
Brian Cutillo (1945–2006) was an American scholar and translator. He was also an accomplished neuro-cognitive scientist, musician, anthropologist and textile weaver. Cutillo was a student of Geshe Wangyal and other Tibetan teachers. He also collaborated with Lama Kunga Rinpoche on the translation of additional songs and stories of Milarepa published in the volume ''Miraculous Journey''. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/brian-cutillo/ Wisdom Experience]) +
Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1800 or more likely 1801[1] – 23 May 1894[2]) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Himalayas, and several birds were named after him by others such as Edward Blyth. He was a scholar of Newar Buddhism and wrote extensively on a range of topics relating to linguistics and religion. He was an opponent of the British proposal to introduce English as the official medium of instruction in Indian schools. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Houghton_Hodgson Source Accessed Oct 6, 2023]) +
Brian was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1953 to Gordon and JoAnne Smith who moved to St. Paul Minnesota soon thereafter. His father and grandfather were ordained Baptist ministers and Brian had an abiding interest and education in the Christian tradition.
He did his undergraduate work at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and went on to earn a Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago, where he focused on Hindu and Sanskrit texts. During his academic studies, he cultivated an unorthodox understanding of religion thanks to the influence of such renowned scholars as Mircea Eliade, Wendy Doniger and Jonathan Z. Smith.
Brian taught for over two decades in the academic world, first at Columbia University’s Barnard College and later, at the University of California, Riverside, where he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2004.
In 1998, Brian began an intensive study of Tibetan Buddhism in the Gelugpa tradition with Geshe Michael Roach and his teacher, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin. Later he took further teachings and initiations with Lama Christie McNally, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Lati Rinpoche, Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen and Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. He became a Tibetan Buddhist monk and took the ordination name of Sumati Marut, becoming affectionately known by his many students as Lama Marut. He lived as a monk for 8 years.
Brian – now called Lama Marut – continued his interest in comparative religion, studying the teachings of other spiritual masters, drawing inspiration from many past and contemporary teachers of the Buddhist and yoga traditions. He also returned to his Christian roots through study and personal friendships with Christian priests and ministers.
In addition to several scholarly studies and translations based on Sanskrit materials, Brian/Lama Marut, authored the popular and award-winning books, ''A Spiritual Renegade’s Guide to the Good Life'' and ''Be Nobody''. ([http://lamamarut.org/lama-maruts-obituary/ Source Accessed May 3, 2021])
