Property:Bio
From Tsadra Commons
This is a property of type Text.
Y
Yijing. (J. Gijō; K. Ǔijǒng 義淨) (635-713). Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim. Ordained at the age of twenty, Yijing dreamed of following in the footsteps of the renowned pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang. He eventually set out for India in 671 via the Southern maritime route. After visiting the major Indian pilgrimage sites (see mahāsthāna), Yijing traveled to the monastic university at Nālandā, where he remained for the next ten years. On his return trip to China, Yijing stopped at Śrīvijaya (Palembang in Sumatra) to continue his studies. He praised the monks there for their high level of learning, describing them as primarily Hīnayāna in affiliation. It was in Śrīvijaya that he began to compose his record of his travels, the ''Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan'', which remains an important source on the practice of Buddhism in the many regions where he traveled and for understanding the various nikāya affiliations of the period. It was also during his time in Śrīvijaya that Yijing began his translation of the massive ''Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya''. When he ran out of paper and ink, he made a brief trip back to China in 689 to retrieve more writing supplies and then returned to Śrīvijaya. After a thirty=year sojourn overseas, Yijing finally returned to China in 695 with some four hundred Sanskrit texts and three hundred grains of the Buddha's relics (''śarīra''). Yijing was warmly welcomed in the capital of Luoyang by Empress Wu Zetian, who appointed him to the monastery of Foshoujisi. Later, from 695 to 699, Yijing participated in Śikṣānanda's new translation of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'' and devoted the next decade or so to the translation of the scriptures that he had brought back with him from India. In addition to the ''Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya'', his translations also include several important Yogācāra treatises and tantras. His writings also include a collection of the biographies of renowned East Asian Buddhist pilgrims to India, the Da Tang xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan. (Source: "Yijing." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 1028. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Yin Guan is an Operational Specialist at Mem Tea Imports. She received a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) specializing in Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School in 2019. +
(Master) Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìnshùn Dǎoshī) (5 April 1906 – 4 June 2005) was a well-known Buddhist monk and scholar in the tradition of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism. Though he was particularly trained in the Three Treatise school, he was an advocate of the One Vehicle (or Ekayāna) as the ultimate and universal perspective of Buddhahood for all, and as such included all schools of Buddha Dharma, including the Five Vehicles and the Three Vehicles, within the meaning of the Mahāyāna as the One Vehicle. Yin Shun's research helped bring forth the ideal of "Humanistic" (human-realm) Buddhism, a leading mainstream Buddhist philosophy studied and upheld by many practitioners. His work also regenerated the interests in the long-ignored Āgamas among Chinese Buddhist society and his ideas are echoed by Theravadin teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi. As a contemporary master, he was most popularly known as the mentor of Cheng Yen (Pinyin: Zhengyan), the founder of Tzu-Chi Buddhist Foundation, as well as the teacher to several other prominent monastics.<br> Although Master Yin Shun is closely associated with the Tzu-Chi Foundation, he has had a decisive influence on others of the new generation of Buddhist monks such as Sheng-yen of Dharma Drum Mountain and Hsing Yun of Fo Guang Shan, who are active in humanitarian aid, social work, environmentalism and academic research as well. He is considered to be one of the most influential figures of Taiwanese Buddhism, having influenced many of the leading Buddhist figures in modern Taiwan. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_Shun Source Accessed July 10, 2020]) +
Yoke Meei Choong 宗玉媺 currently teaches as an Associate Professor in the Department of Buddhist Studies at Fo Guang University, Taiwan. Her research combines Buddhist philological study with the historical study of Buddhist thought. Her interest lies mainly in the derivation, adaptation and development of Mahāyāna concepts or thought from the ideas of mainstream Buddhism. Her chief publications include "''Nirvāṇa'' and ''Tathatā'' in Yogācāra Texts: The Bodhisattva’s Adaptation of the ''Śrāvaka''-Path", "To Realize or Not to Realize the Supreme Truth: A Change of the Conception of Realization”, “On the Interpretation of ''na śūnyatayā śūnya''", and a book, ''Zum Problem der Leerheit'' (śūnyatā) ''in der Prajñāpāramitā''. (Source: ''A Distant Mirror'', about the authors, 529) +
Yokota Takezo is a figure associated with Buddhist studies and translations, particularly in the mid-20th century.
Yokota Takezo was involved in the translation and publication of Buddhist texts. One notable example is his contribution to the translation of "Das Sutra Vimalakirti" (The Vimalakirti Sutra), which was translated by Jakob Fischer and published in Tokyo in 1944. +
Yongdzin Ayang Thubten Rinpoche (1899-1966) was one of the tutors to the present Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche (7th). He is the author of ''Rays of Sunlight'', a commentary on Zhedang Dorje’s ''The Heart of the Mahayana Teachings''. +
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (born 1975) is a Tibetan teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He has authored two best-selling books and oversees the Tergar Meditation Community, an international network of Buddhist meditation centers.
As the head of the Tergar Meditation Community, Mingyur Rinpoche supports groups of students in more than thirty countries, leading workshops around the world for new and returning students every year. [https://tergar.org/about/mingyur-rinpoche/ Learn more at https://tergar.org/]
Mingyur Rinpoche was born in Nepal in 1975, the youngest of four brothers. His mother is Sönam Chödrön, a descendant of the two Tibetan kings Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Deutsen. His brothers are Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and his nephews are Phakchok Rinpoche and the reincarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, known popularly as Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche. From the age of nine, his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, taught him meditation, passing on to him the most essential instructions of the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions.
At the age of eleven, Mingyur Rinpoche began studies at Sherab Ling Monastery in northern India, the seat of Tai Situ Rinpoche. Two years later, Mingyur Rinpoche began a traditional three-year retreat at Sherab Ling. At age twenty, Mingyur Rinpoche became the functioning abbot of Sherab Ling. At twenty-three, he received full monastic ordination. During this time, Mingyur Rinpoche received important Dzogchen transmissions from Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. At the age of nineteen, he enrolled at Dzongsar Institute, where, under the tutelage of the renowned Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, he studied the primary topics of the Buddhist academic tradition, including Middle Way philosophy and Buddhist logic.
In 2007, Mingyur Rinpoche completed the construction of Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, India, which will serve large numbers of people attending Buddhist events at this sacred pilgrimage site, serve as an annual site for month-long Karma Kagyu scholastic debates, and serve as an international study institute for the Sangha and laity. The institute will also have a medical clinic for local people.
Mingyur Rinpoche has overseen the Kathmandu Tergar Osel Ling Monastery, founded by his father, since 2010. He also opened a shedra (monastic college) at the monastery.
In June 2011, Mingyur Rinpoche left his monastery in Bodhgaya to begin a period of extended retreat. Rinpoche left in the middle of the night, taking nothing with him, but leaving a farewell letter. He spent four years as a wandering yogi... After continuing with his retreat for four years, he later returned to his position as abbot. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongey_Mingyur_Rinpoche Source Accessed June 27, 2022])
Yoshio Takanashi is Professor of English and American Literature and Culture at Nagano Prefectural College, Japan. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including ''ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance'' and ''The Japanese Journal of American Studies''. He has also published a Japanese translation of Stephen E. Whicher's ''Freedom and Fate: An Inner Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson''. ([https://www.ebooks.com/en-ad/1661507/emerson-and-neo-confucianism/yoshio-takanashi-lawrence-buell/ Source Accessed Nov 23, 2020]) +
Yoshiro Imaeda (Japanese: 今枝 由郎, Hepburn: Imaeda Yoshirō, born 1947) is a Japanese-born Tibetologist who has spent his career in France. He is director of research emeritus at the National Center for Scientific Research in France.
Born in Aichi Prefecture, Imaeda graduated from the Otani University Faculty of Letters, where he studied with Shoju Inaba, under whose advice he pursued graduate studies in France, where he earned his Ph.D. at Paris VII. He began work at the CNRS[clarification needed] in 1974. Between 1981 and 1990, he worked as an adviser to the National Library of Bhutan Bhutan. In 1995, he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and has also held a visiting appointment at Columbia University.
His research has focused on Dunhuang Tibetan documents, but he has also translated the poems of the VI Dalai lama, and produced a catalog of Kanjur texts. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiro_Imaeda Source Accessed Feb 2, 2024]) +
Yoshiro Tamura (1921-1989) was a well-regarded scholar of Japanese Buddhism, known particularly for his study of the Lotus Sūtra and the traditions that developed around it and the person of Nichiren in Japan. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/yoshiro-tamura/ Source Accessed October 17, 2019]) +
Yoshito S. Hakeda was an Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. He is the translator of ''The Awakening of Faith'', attributed to Aśvaghosha (1967), and one of the collaborators assisting Wm. Theodore de Bary in preparing ''Buddhist Tradition in India, China, and Japan'' (1969).
According to his obituary in the New York Times, "Professor Hakeda's major volume was a translation and study of the works and thought of Kukai, a ninth-century Japanese Buddhist priest and scholar, published by the Columbia University Press in 1972. He also collaborated on ''Bankei Zen,'' a translation of the works of a 17th-century Zen master." ([https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/01/obituaries/yoshitoshakeda-professor-ofjapaneseatcolumbiadies.html Source Accessed December 4, 2019)] +
Young-ho Kim was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Inha University in Korea. He is the author of ''Tao-Sheng's Commentary on the Lotus Sūtra: A Study and Translation'' (SUNY Press, 1990). This work was originally presented as a doctoral thesis at McMaster University in Ontario in 1985, under the supervision of [[Yün-hua Jan]]. +
Young-suk Kim is a Ph.D. Candidate of Buddhist Studies at Dongguk University. (To be updated) +
Younghee Lee earned her Ph.D. from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and has taught at Smith College and the University of Aukland, where she serves concurrently as the Director of the Korean Studies Centre of the New Zealand Institute. Presently, she is an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Asian Studies, University of Aukland. Among her publications are ''Ideology, Culture and Han: Traditional and Early Modern Korean Women's Literature'' (2002) and several articles on Buddhist ''kasa''. ([https://www.jstor.org/stable/23943319 Source Accessed Aug 11, 2023]) +
Professor Pak has published numerous articles, books, and chapters in various publications, such as; ‘The State of Field: Koryo Buddhist Painting.’ How to approach Korean Art History? Craft Art and Craftsman. pp. 151-159 in 2003.
As well as History, Language, and Culture in Korea. Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the Association of Korean Studies in Europe, in 2001 (with Youn.J as co-editor) among other publications.
She is also an Emeritus Reader, for both the school of arts and the department of, History of art and archaeology, school of art as SOAS, University of London. She is also a research associate for the centre for Korean Studies (London). ([https://londonkoreanlinks.net/2017/08/21/han-collections-korean-arts-lecture-series/ Source Accessed July 19, 2023]) +
Wang's research interests include the re-interpretation of Chinese Buddhist, especially Chan/Zen, thought and early Daoist thought in contemporary contexts, and the comparative study and dialogue between Western postmodern and Chinese thought. He is the author of ''Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism: The Other Way of Speaking'' (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) and the editor of ''Deconstruction and the Ethical in Asian Thought'' (Routledge 2007). His articles have appeared in journals such as ''International Philosophical Quarterly'', ''Philosophy East and West'', ''Asian Philosophy'', and ''Journal of Chinese Philosophy''. He is a member of the editorial board for the ''Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy'' published by Springer. He teaches Religions of the World, Religions of Asia, Asian Thought, Introduction to Buddhism, Introduction to Daoism, and Select Topics in Philosophy and Religion Studies at Rowan.<br> ([https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/philosophy/faculty/WangYouru.html Source Accessed March 25, 2020]) +
Professor Yuichi KAJIYAMA was Emeritus Professor of Buddhist Studies at Kyoto University.
Born in Shizuoka city on Jannary 2, 1925, Professor Kajiyama attended Shizuoka Junior High School and Shizuoka High School. He entered Kyoto University in October 1944, studying in the department of Philosophy (Buddhist Studies) of the Faculty of Letters until his graduation in March
1948. Then he became a special research fellow of the Graduate School of the same university. He married Hiroko MATSUURA in 1951 and had a daughter Tomoko in 1952. From April 1953 until March 1956 he continued his research, while teaching, under the direction of Professors J. Kashab
and Satkari Mookerjee at the Nalanda Pali Institute, in Bihar, India. After his return to Kyoto, he became an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Letters of Kyoto University in April 1956. Having received a prize from the Japanese Academy for his joint-work Ju yong guan in May 1959 as well as a prize from the Japanese Association of Buddhist Studies in October of the same year, he was promoted to Associate Professor in March 1961. From July 1961 until August 1962 he studied under the guidance of Professor John Brough as a fellow of the British Council in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London Unversity. From September to December 1962 he continued his research under the guidance of Professor Erich Frauwallner at the Indological Institute of Vienna University. Promoted to Professor of Kyoto University in November 1971 he concentrated on research and education for the sixteen years until his retirement in March 1988, and in April 1988 he was given the title of Emeritus Professor of Kyoto University. From April 1988 until March 1997 he was Professor at Bukkyo University (Faculty of Letters, Department of Buddhist Studies). There in April 1991 he founded the Comprehensive Research Institute, and as its Director he inaugurated its Bulletin. From April 1997 until March 2001 he was Professor at Soka University.
There in June 1997 he founded the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, and as its Director he inaugurated the Annual Report. It was amazing to see how easily he accomplished the difficult tasks of founding a new Institute and launching a new journal.
The research of Professor Kajiyama was recognized and appreciated not only inside Japan, but also internationally. He had occasions to teach as Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin (1967-1968), the University of California, Berkeley (1974; 1981; 1997), Harvard University (1986), Vienna University (1985), and Leiden University (1989). [https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/download/8950/2843/8744 Read more here]
Yúnmén Wényǎn (Chinese: 雲門文偃; Pinyin: Yúnmén Wényǎn; Romanji: Ummon Bun'en; 862 or 864 – 949 CE), was a major Chinese Chan master in Tang-era China. He was a dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun.
Yunmen founded the Yunmen school, one of the five major schools of Chán (Chinese Zen). The name is derived from Yunmen monastery of Shaozhou where Yunmen was abbot. The Yunmen school flourished into the early Song Dynasty, with particular influence on the upper classes, and eventually culminating in the compilation and writing of the ''Blue Cliff Record''.
The school would eventually be absorbed by the Linji school later in the Song. The lineage still lives on to this day through Chan Master Hsu Yun (1840–1959). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunmen_Wenyan Source Accessed July 15, 2021]) +
Z
Zach Larson is a practitioner in the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of the Nyingma School, who works as a translator, editor and author. He was born in 1978 in Wisconsin and received a BA in "Buddhism and Politics" at UW-Madison in 2001 after a year-long study-abroad program in Kathmandu, Nepal in which he met his first teacher, Changling Tulku Rinpoche of Shechen Monastery, with whom he studied the Longchen Nyinthig preliminaries for six months. While working on the research project "Nonviolence in Tibetan Culture: A glimpse at how Tibetans view and practice nonviolence in politics and daily life," he met and received profound blessings from Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche and offered to compile and translate teachings by him in the coming years. Chatral Rinpoche approved of the idea, and Larson returned to Wisconsin to study Tibetan language and Buddhism for three years at the UW-Madison Graduate School. He returned to Nepal in 2004 and compiled, edited, and translated Chatral Rinpoche's biography and teachings into the book ''Compassionate Action: The Teachings of Chatral Rinpoche'', which was published by Shechen Publications in New Delhi in 2005.
Larson attended the full Nyingma Kama Wang with Trulshik Rinpoche in the winter of 2004 in Boudha and received the Kunsang Lama'i Shelung empowerment from Tsetrul Rinpoche in January 2005.
Snow Lion Publications released an expanded and updated version of ''Compassionate Action'' in 2007. The book has since been translated into Spanish (2009), Indonesian (2009), and Russian (2010). ([https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Zachary_Larson Source Accessed Nov 21, 2023]) +
Zack leads and coordinates translation teams and manages team processes, workloads, and schedules for the Khyentse Vision Project.
Zack became interested in Buddhist meditation as a teenager. He attended Stanford University, where he completed a BA in Religious Studies focusing on Buddhism, with a minor in creative writing. He then spent eleven years based in the Tibetan community of Boudhanath, Nepal. There, he first studied and earned an MA at Rangjung Yeshe Institute before eventually working at RYI for four years as a teacher and interpreter.
Under the umbrella of Dharmachakra Translation Committee, he has published a number of translations, including works on development-stage practice by Shechen Gyaltsab (in ''Deity, Mantra, and Wisdom'' and ''A Practice of Padmasambhava'', both published by Snow Lion) and several sūtras for 84000. In 2014, he began his PhD studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he is currently completing a dissertation on the topic of secrecy in early Tibetan Buddhism.
Zack lives in California and spends his free time baking bread and watching birds. +
