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There are at least two Indian authors known by the name Vairocanarakṣita, as well as being the full ordination name of the famous Tibetan translator Vairocana (bai ro tsa na). Of the two Indians, the first was an 11th century scholar from Vikramaśīla, while the second, known also as Vairocanavajra, lived about a century later and spent time in Tibet in the mid-12th century. Based on the literary output of these two figures, with the former producing works on sūtra and the latter more focused on tantra and mahāmudrā, Brunnhölzl suggests the 11th century Vairocanarakṣita as the most likely candidate for the authorship of the ''Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraṭippanī''. However, BDRC seems to conflate these two figures, perhaps even all three, with attributions of their individual works and translations included in the Tibetan canon linking to a single page. Though, it is clear that some of these texts, such as the commentaries on the works of Śāntideva belong to the 11th century Vairocanarakṣita, as they were translated by Ngok Lotsāwa who predates the 12th century Vairocanarakṣita. While, others works linked to the same page should certainly be attributed to this second Vairocanarakṣita, a.k.a. Vairocanavajra, as he was well known among early Kagyu masters for his teaching activities and his translations of several crucial ''dohas'' that helped form the basis of the Kagyu mahāmudrā tradition. +
Vajrabodhi. (C. Jingangzhi; J. Kongōchi; K. Kǔmgangji 金剛智) (671-741). Indian ācārya who played a major role in the introduction and translation in China of seminal Buddhist texts belonging to the esoteric tradition or Mijiao . . .; also known as Vajramati. His birthplace and family background are uncertain, although one source says that he was a south Indian native whose brāhmaṇa father served as a teacher of an Indian king. At the age of nine, he is said to have gone to the renowned Indian monastic university of Nālandā, where he studied various texts of both the abhidharma and Mahāyāna traditions. Vajrabodhi also learned the different vinaya recensions of the eighteen mainstream Buddhist schools. It is said that Vajrabodhi spent the years 701–708 in Southern India, where he received tantric initiation at the age of thirty-one from Nāgabodhi (d.u.), a south Indian mahāsiddha of the Vajraśekhara line. He later traveled to Sri Lanka and then to Śrīvijaya before sailing to China, eventually arriving in the eastern Tang capital of Luoyang in 720. In 721, Vajrabodhi and his famed disciple Amoghavajra arrived in the western capital of Chang’an. Under the patronage of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756), Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra translated the ''Vajraśekharasūtra'' and other related texts. Vajrabodhi devoted his energy and time to spreading tantric Buddhism by establishing the abhiṣeka or initiation platforms and performing esoteric rituals. In particular, Vajrabodhi was popular as a thaumaturge; his performance of the rituals for rainmaking and curing diseases gained him favor at the imperial court; he even gave tantric initiation to the Tang emperor Xuanzong. During his more than twenty years in China, Vajrabodhi introduced about twenty texts belonging to the Vajraśekhara textual line. Vajrabodhi attracted many disciples; the Silla monk Hyech'o (704–87), known for his travel record Wang O Ch'ǒnch'uk kuk ch’ōn ("Record of a Journey to the Five Kingdoms of India"), also studied with him. The Japanese Shingonshū honors Vajrabodhi as the fifth of the eight patriarchs in its lineage, together with Nāgabodhi and Amoghavajra. (Source: "Vajrabodhi." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 952–53. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Ghanḍḥapa was a monk of Nālandā. When the king invited him to his palace, he refused. The king schemed to disgrace Ghanḍḥapa by sending a beautiful girl to seduce him. Instead, she asked to become his patron. One day, she convinced Ghanḍḥapa to allow her to spend the night because she was afraid to travel home alone. While sleeping, their bodies joined. Rather than reporting her success to the king, the girl lived with Ghanḍḥapa, bearing a son. One day, the king encountered them,
Ghanḍḥapa carrying the child and a bottle of wine. When the king mocked him, Ghanḍḥapa threw down the child and the bottle. Water gushed from the earth, causing a flood, the child turning into a vajra and the bottle turning into a bell. Ghanḍḥapa turned into Cakrasaṃvara and the girl turned into Vajravārāhī, rising into the sky. The king and his courtiers were drowning when Avalokiteśvara appeared, stopping the flood with his foot. Ghanḍḥapa made the waters recede, declaring that a single substance can be both medicine and poison. The king became Ghanḍḥapa's disciple. (Source: Lopez Jr., Donald S. ''Seeing the Sacred in Samsara: An Illustrated Guide to the Eighty-Four Mahāsiddhas''. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 2019: p. 147.) +
Mrs. Stache was no professional Indologist, although her earlier studies in Buddhist literature went in this direction. She continued to work in the field of Indoiogy after her marriage, and so much so that she was well known among the professionals. During the long years of her stay in India she became interested in Indian folk art, and she was one of the first Germans to research on it.
Valentina Rosen was born on 28.4.1925 in Copenhagen, where her father worked at the time in the German Embassy. She came from a family of orientalists which had served as diplomats with the Prussian, later the German Foreign Office for three generations, mostly in oriental countries. It was therefore quite natural for her to take up oriental studies. Impressed by a stay of 4 years in Peking, she chose Chinese and Sanskrit as subjects of study at Goettingen University, to which she added Archeology during a 2 year stay in London as a student at the Institute of Oriental Studies. Returning to Goettingen, she was advised by E. Waldschmidt, then head of the Indological Institute there, to concentrate on Indian studies and to join the group of students which fervently worked with him to reconstruct, edit, and translate those fragmentary, mostly Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts which several expeditions to East Turkestan had discovered in ruined monasteries, mainly in the Turfan oasis, and which had been deposited at the Berlin Academy of Sciences at the time. She worked for her doctorate on one of these manuscripts, a text on the Buddhist monks discipline, and got the Ph.D. from Goettingen University in 1954 for the thesis ''Der Vinayavibhanga zum Bhikṣhupratimokṣha der Sarvastivadins; Sanskritfragmente nebst einer Analyse der chinesischen Uebersetzung'' (Sanskrit fragments together with an analysis of their Chinese translation), published by the Berlin Academy of Sciences as No. II of the series "Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden ", 1959. A second publication followed in the same field of studies as No. IX in the series "Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfuden" of the Berlin Academy, ''Dus Sangitiszma und sein Kommelltar Sangitiparyaya'', in 2 vols., Berlin 1968, an edition and translation to which she dedicated 4 years of work. A further publication concerning a text oe [sic] the Buddhist monks' discipline has been prepared in later years, Dlls ''Upaliparipricchasutra''; . . . As a by-product of these later studies, she wrote a comparative analysis of the numerous biographies of the monk Gunavarman in the Chinese Tripitaka, ''Guṇavarman'', in Vol. X/1 of the Bulletin of Tibetology, Gangtok 1973.
Studying in India in 1955-57 with a scholarship from the Indian Government, and returning to India in 1971 and living in Bangalore till 1980, Valentina Stache-Rosen became more and more interested in Indian history of culture, folklore, and folk art. She was fascinated by the colourful religious ceremonies of Kerala, by the unique cultural heritage of South-Kanara, by the different styles and literary versions of the South Indian shadow-theatre, and by many a subject on which one can correctly work only when one has the possibility to stay in the country for a long time and is able to travel freely. Being an excellent photographer and a well informed student of Indian literature, she brought together a good deal of documentation in pictures and texts. Preliminary papers have been published occasionally, in Germany and in India. Among them are ''Schattenspiele und Bildervorfuehrungen in Jndien'' (On the shadow plays and picture shows in India), ZDMG 1975, English version in Quarterly of the Mythic Society of Bangalore, vol. 56, 3/4; ''On the Shadow Theatre in India'', in 'German Scholars on India', vol. II, New Delhi 1976; ''Gandabherunda, Zur Tradition des doppelkoepfigen Vogels in Suedindien'' (On the tradition of the double-headed bird in South India), in 'Beitraege zur Indienfor-schung,' Veroeffentlichungen des Museums fuer Indische Kunst Berlin, Band 4, Berlin 1977, English version in the Quarterly of the Mythic Society Bangalore, Vol. 67/1976, Bangalore 1978; ''Survival of some ancient forms of audio-visual education in present-day India'' in 'Studies in Indo-Asian Art and Culture' V, Acharya Raghn Vira Commemoration Volume, Delhi 1977; ''A note on the so-called Yogini Temple of Coimbatore'', in Quarterly of the Mythic Society, Vol. 69/1978, Bangalore 1979; a.o. She prepared an exhibition of her photographs of Bhutas and Teyyams and collected extensive information on the spirit worship and the ntual [sic] dances of South-Kanara and Kerala for the exhibition-catalogue and for later work. This documentary exhibition was shown in a number of towns in India and has toured German towns as well.
As she had lived not only in India for a long time, but for several years each also in China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Iran, learning the languages of the countries, travelling extensively and collecting materials, especially i[n] the field of folk-culture, she had great plans of studies and publications for a time that she would retire with her husband to a quiet place in Southern Germany. An adverse fate ended all her expectations, shortly after her return to Europe. Valentina Stache-Rosen died on 20.10.1980 in Munich from cancer which she bad unknowingly carried home with her. (Appendix II in ''German Indologists'', 1981)
Also known by his Tibetan name of nags kyi rin chen (1384-1468), a Bengali Paṇḍita and Māhasiddha, reportedly the "last great Indian Paṇdita to visit Tibet". He was born in Sadnagara, near present-day Chittagong. At age eight he received novice ordination from Buddhaghoṣa and Sujataratna. He took up his studies and perfected them very quickly. At age 20 he received full ordination from the same two masters, and went to Shri Lanka for six years, where he spent most of his time meditating in seclusion. Upon his return to India, he was greatly praised by the famous scholar Narāditya.
At Śrī Dhānya-kaṭaka mahā-caitya he met, in a vision, with Māhasiddha Shavaripa and received from him his unique transmission of the Sadaṅga-yoga, the Six-limbed Yoga of the Kālacakra tradition. Vanaratna eventually beheld a vision of Avalokiteśvara, who advised him to go to Tibet.
Vanaratna visited Tibet in 1426, 1433 and 1453 and spread the Kālacakra lineage and instructions of Paṇḍita Vibhūti-candra there, especially the Sadaṅga-yoga according to Anupamarakṣita, and many other teachings. He also assisted in the translation of many texts and treatises. Such famous Tibetan masters as Gö Lotsawa Shönnu Pal (1392-1481) and Thrimkang Lotsawa Sönam Gyatso (1424-1482) were his close students. He also spent time in Bhutan, where even nowadays there is a temple, near Paro, with a sacred statue of his and a rock that bears his name in old Bengali script. Vanaratna spent his final years in the Gopicandra Vihara in Patan/Kathmandu, now known as Pinthu Bahal, and passed away there. (Source: [https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Vanaratna RY wiki]) +
Zuisei is a writer and lay Zen teacher based in Playa del Carmen in the south of Mexico. Zuisei lived and trained full time at Zen Mountain Monastery from 1995 to 2018, and was a monk for fourteen of those years. In 2018 she received ''shiho'' or dharma transmission (empowerment to teach) from Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, and after a short stint in New York City, moved back to Mexico, where she is originally from, and began teaching virtually.
She has served as the Teachings Editor at the Buddhist journal ''Tricycle'', and her dharma writing has been featured there as well as in ''Lion's Roar'', ''Buddhadharma'', and ''Parabola''. Her books include ''Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion'' and the children's book ''Weather Any Storm''.
As Ocean Mind Sangha's Guiding Teacher, Zuisei continues to welcome students for group and private teaching. ([https://www.oceanmindsangha.org/zuisei-goddard Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
Vanja is a multifaceted intellectual who defies conventional boundaries. With a Master's in Economics/IT and another in philosophy and sociology, he's now pursuing a PhD in Buddhist philosophy and has co-translated a Croatian edition of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''. His decade-long meditation practice and annual journeys to India reflect his deep commitment to Buddhist studies, even as he humorously acknowledges his ongoing struggles with taming his "wild mind." Beyond academia, he's carved out expertise in digital marketing, previously organizing cultural salons at Matrix Croatica and now running his own marketing company. +
CHRIS V ASANTKUMAR is Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies and Anthropology
at Hamilton College. His current research deals with issues of race, nation and
indigeneity between China, Tibet and Taiwan. +
Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Ра́длов; 17 January [O.S. 5 January] 1837 in Berlin – 12 May 1918 in Petrograd) was a German-born Russian founder of Turkology, a scientific study of Turkic peoples. According to Turkologist Johan Vandewalle; he knew all the Turkic languages and dialects as well as German, French, Russian, Greek, Latin, Manchu, Mongolian, Chinese, Arabic, Persian and Hebrew.
Working as a schoolteacher in Barnaul, Radlov became interested in the native peoples of Siberia and published his ethnographic findings in the influential monograph From Siberia (1884). From 1866 to 1907, he translated and released a number of monuments of Turkic folklore. Most importantly, he was the first to publish the Orhon inscriptions. Four volumes of his comparative dictionary of Turkic languages followed in 1893 to 1911. Radlov helped establish the Russian Museum of Ethnography and was in charge of the Asiatic Museum in St. Petersburg from 1884 to 1894.
Radlov assisted Grigory Potanin on his glossary of Salar language, Western Yugur language, and Eastern Yugur language in Potanin's 1893 Russian language book The Tangut-Tibetan Borderlands of China and Central Mongolia.
During the Stalinist repressions of the late 1930s, the NKVD and state science apparatus accused the late (ethnically German) Radlov of Panturkism. A perceived connection with the long-dead Radlov was treated as incriminating evidence against Orientalists and Turkologists, some of whom were executed, including Alexander Samoylovich in 1938. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Radlov Source Accessed May 6, 2022]) +
Dr. V. V. Gokhale was a professor of Buddhist studies in India. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg and taught at Fergusson College from 1932 to 1959. He was appointed Reader in the Department of Buddhist studies at the University of Delhi and then later became Professor and Head of the department.
Dr. Gokhale maintained an interest in the ''Pratītyasamutpāda-sūtra'' and Madhyamaka philosophy throughout his career. Among his numerous articles, he wrote several on Bhāvaviveka's ''Tarkajvālā'' commentary on Nāgārjuna's ''Madhyamakaśāstra'', and he published the ''Abhidharmakoṣa-kārikās'' of Vasubandhu. (Source: ''Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute'' 74, no. 1/4 (1993), 349–51) +
Robina Courtin (born 20 December 1944, in Melbourne, Australia) is a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition and lineage of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 1996 she founded the Liberation Prison Project, which she ran until 2009.
Courtin was raised Catholic, and in her youth was interested in becoming a Carmelite nun. In her young adulthood, she trained as a classical singer while living in London during the late 1960s. She became a feminist activist and worked on behalf of prisoners' rights in the early 1970s. In 1972 she moved back to Melbourne. Courtin began studying martial arts in 1974, living in New York City and, again, back in Melbourne. In 1976, she took a Buddhist course taught by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa in Queensland.
In 1978 Courtin ordained at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala. She was Editorial Director of Wisdom Publications until 1987 and Editor of Mandala until 2000. She left Mandala to teach and to develop the Liberation Prison Project.
Robina Courtin's work has been featured in two documentary films, Christine Lundberg's On the Road Home (1998) and Amiel Courtin–Wilson's Chasing Buddha (2000), and in Vicki Mackenzie's book ''Why Buddhism?'' (2003). Her nephew's film, Chasing Buddha, documents Courtin's life and her work with death row inmates in the Kentucky State Penitentiary. In 2000, the film was nominated for best direction in a documentary by the Australian Film Institute.
In 2001, Courtin created Chasing Buddha Pilgrimage, which lead pilgrimages to Buddhist holy sites in India, Nepal, and Tibet to raise money for the Liberation Prison Project, an association engaged for the Tibetan cause. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robina_Courtin Source Accessed Nov 18, 2020]) +
Phra Visuddhisamvarathera AM, known as Ajahn Brahmavaṃso, or simply Ajahn Brahm (born Peter Betts on 7 August 1951), is a British-Australian Theravada Buddhist monk. Currently Ajahn Brahm is the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of Victoria, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of South Australia, Spiritual Patron of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, Patron of the Brahm Centre in Singapore, Spiritual Adviser to the Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project in the UK, and the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajahn_Brahm Source Accessed Nov 12, 2020]) +
The Venerable Cheng Kuan is the founder, president, and abbot of Americana Buddhist Temple (Michigan) and Mahavairocana Temple (Taiwan), as well as the founder and president of the Neo-carefree Garden Buddhist Canon Translation Institute (Taiwan).
He became an ordained Buddhist monk in 1988 under Master Hsien-Ming (the 45th-generation patriarchate holder of the Tien-Tai sect).
Born in 1947 in Taipei, Taiwan, he graduated from the English department of Taiwan Normal University (1977–1978) and attended graduate school at Texas Christian University (1979–1982).
His publications include many translations of Buddhist sutras: ''The Sutra of 42 Chapters'' (2005), ''The Diamond Sutra'' (2005), ''The Altar Sutra'' (2005), ''The Sutra of Consumate Enlightenment'' (2009), ''The Sutra of Terra-Treasure'' (2009), ''The Heart Sutra'' (2012), and ''The Lotus Sutra of Wondrous Dharma'' (2014).
His other writings in English include: ''The Sweet Dews of Ch'an'' (1995), ''Three Contemplations toward Buddha Nature'' (2002), and ''Tapping the Inconceivable'' (2002). (Source: Adapted from author's biography in ''Three Contemplations Toward Buddha Nature'', 2018) +
Now 60 years old, Venerable Dhammadipa (lay name Thomas Peter Gutman) was born in Czechoslovakia in 1949. He studied Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Prague University, graduating in 1969, and then studied Russian literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received a degree in 1973.<br> In the late seventies Venerable began his Buddhist studies in Berlin, where he had immigrated as a refugee after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1977 he received a master's degree in Chinese literature and philosophy at the University of Paris. In 1979, he enrolled at Nalanda University in India (where he also taught French and German) to study Sanskrit and Buddhist Philosophy. After receiving a degree at Nalanda in 1984, he returned to serve as the Associate Librarian at Berlin University.<br> In 1986, Venerable Dhammadipa went to Japan and studied under Zen Master Harada Serrei Roshi of the S t school (Caodong in Chinese) practice. He was given a Dharma name as Xing-Kong (meaning Nature of Emptiness).<br> In 1987, with the encouragement of Venerable Athurugiriye Nyanavimala Mahathera, Venerable Wijayasoma Mahathera, and Venerable Dikwelle Mahinda, he ordained as a monk in Meetirigala and was given a Dharma name as Dhammadipa (island of Buddhism or Dharma). He received the full Theravada Bhiksu ordination in Sri Lanka where he practiced meditation under the guidance of his preceptor, Venerable Nanarama Mahathera. In 1989, he received the Three Fold ordination as a Mahayana Monk in Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles and began Dharma teaching in US, Germany and Taiwan. ([http://dhammadipa.info/Bio.htm Source Accessed Aug 13, 2020]) +
Ven. Tenzin Fedor was born in 1967 in Germany and has been a Buddhist monk since 1988. He has spent more than ten years in Sera Je Monastic University studying for the esteemed Geshe degree, which he is now close to attaining. He was one of the founders and the first director of Sera Je IMI house, a complex especially built for the Western monks studying at the monastery. During his time in India he also attended many of the public teachings given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on a variety of subjects in both Dharamsala and south India. Ven. Fedor has been teaching in FPMT centers since 1988 and from 1996 has also served as Tibetan interpreter for various FPMT and non-FPMT geshes. ([https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/VenerableFedorStracke Source Accessed Oct 29, 2021]) +
Member of the Sakya Pandita Translation Group +
Ven. Ngawang Tenzin was born in Mustang, Nepal, in 1988. After eight years of study, he graduated from Sakya College, Dehra Dun, India, with the Ka-Chu-Pa Degree/ Shastri Degree (equivalent of B.A.) in Tibetan Buddhist Studies. Fluent in Tibetan and English, as well as Hindi and Nepali, Ngawang Tenzin has a profound understanding of Buddha Dharma and an exceptionally clear manner when explaining its concepts to foreign students. He has translated both oral teachings and texts from Tibetan into English, and is highly sought after within the Sakya tradition for his excellent translation skills and knowledge. ([https://chodungkarmo.org/the-group/ Source Accessed Aug 27, 2021]) +
Ven. Tenpa'i Gyaltsen, also known as Joe Flumerfelt is a student of Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö and works at the Tibetan Buddhist Rimé Institute in Australia. +
Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi is a Buddhist nun who first became interested in meditation and Buddhism in the early 1970s, and became a student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist teachers in early 1991. Venerable Tenzin took novice ordination in 2004 with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and completed several long meditation retreats over a six year period. Venerable Tenzin teaches Buddhist philosophy and meditation within the FPMT network, and also teaches Cultivating Emotional Balance (a secular program developed by Alan Wallace and Paul Ekman). She is passionate about social justice and interfaith work in addition to her Buddhist practice, and has been teaching in prisons for the last 13 years. ([https://www.compassioninstitute.com/teachers/tenzin-chogkyi/ Source Accessed Oct 29, 2021]) +
Venerable Dr. Yifa became a nun at Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Taiwan in 1979. She received a law degree from National Taiwan University, a MA in comparative philosophy from University of Hawaii and her Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University in 1996.
She has been the Dean at Fo Guang Shan Buddhist College and the Provost at Hsi Lai University, Rosemead, California, a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard University, a lecturer at Boston University and a faculty member at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan. She taught at McGill University as the Numata visiting professor in the spring of 2005 and served as the chair of Department of Religious Studies at the University of the West in Los Angeles. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yifa Source: Wikipedia])
([https://www.woodenfish.org/single-post/2017/10/11/ven-dr-yifas-story-being-a-religious-nun-with-secular-ambitions Read more about Dr. Yifa's life at Wooden Fish]) +
