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Daniel is an experienced business executive with over a decade of insights gathered from corporate and consumer marketing executive roles working for multinationals such as Canon, and large financial firms such as Westpac. While pursuing his marketing career, Daniel continued to foster his life long interest in Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan language, and its literature. This has taken him across Australia, America, India, Nepal, and Tibet to pursue a deeper understanding of Buddhist theory and practice with masters from the living tradition. Daniel also reads Sanskrit and Tibetan and has a PhD in Buddhist Philosophy. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/about/ Source Accessed Apr 9, 2021]) +
[The] ''Ratnarāśī'' was translated by [the] monk named Daogong, in Liangzhou, about 700 km. ESE of Dunhuang on the main road, in modem day Gansu province, right at the end of the fourth or at the very beginning of the fifth century. . . . [. . . ] [T]here are no biographies of Daogong, and we know next to nothing about him.[2] It is not clear if the ''Karuṇapuṇḍarika'' attributed to him is attributed correctly, but this seems to be the less likely conclusion. It seems even less likely that the ''Aṣṭasāhasrika Prajñāpāramitā'' translation is to be accepted as his.
While we may know little about the man, the time and place in which Daogong lived certainly placed him in the middle of one of the most productive, even explosive, periods in Chinese Buddhist history. The monk-translators listed as contemporaries or near contemporaries of Daogong, and residing in the same region, are Fazhong, Sengqietuo, and Dharmakṣema. (Silk, "The Origins and Early History of the Mahāratnakūṭa," 671–72)
<h5>Notes</h5>
2. This was, I have lately noticed, also the conclusion of Bagchi 1927:211. As far as I can tell from the relevant indices, Daogong is not mentioned in the Chinese dynastic histories either. +
Daolang 道朗 wrote comments and exegeses of Dharmakśema's larger ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra''. He wrote a preface to the ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'' titled ''Da niepan jing xu'' 大涅槃經序 (preserved in T. 2145, 59b5–60a9). This preface was translated and studied by Whalen Lai. +
Daosheng (Chinese: 道生; pinyin: Dàoshēng; Wade–Giles: Tao Sheng), or Zhu Daosheng (Chinese: 竺道生; Wade–Giles: Chu Tao-sheng), was an eminent Six Dynasties era Chinese Buddhist scholar. He is known for advocating the concepts of sudden enlightenment and the universality of the Buddha nature.
Born in Pengcheng, Daosheng left home to become a monk at eleven. He studied in Jiankang under Zhu Fatai, and later at Lushan (Mount Lu) monastery with Huiyuan, and from 405 or 406 under Kumārajīva in Chang'an, where he stayed for some two years perfecting his education. He became one of the foremost scholars of his time, counted among the "fifteen great disciples" of Kumārajīva.
Sengzhao reports that Daosheng assisted Kumārajīva in his translation of the ''Lotus Sutra'', Daosheng wrote commentaries on the ''Lotus Sutra'', the ''Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra'' and the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra'' (the last of which has been lost). In 408, he returned to Lushan, and in 409 back to Jiankang, where he remained for some twenty years, staying at the Qingyuan Monastery (青园寺) from 419.
Daosheng controversially ascribed Buddha-nature to the icchantikas, based on his reading on a short version of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'', which in that short form appears to deny the Buddha-nature to icchantikas; the long version of the ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'', however (not yet known to Daosheng), explicitly includes the icchantikas in the universality of the Buddha-nature. Daosheng's bold doctrine of including icchantikas within the purview of the Buddha-nature, even before that explicit teaching had actually been found in the long ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'', led to the expulsion of Daosheng from the Buddhist community in 428 or 429, and he retreated to Lushan in 430.
With the availability of the long ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'' after 430, through the translation of Dharmakshema, Daosheng was vindicated and praised for his insight. He remained in Lushan, composing his commentary on the ''Lotus Sūtra'' in 432, until his death in 434.
Daosheng's exegesis of the ''Nirvāṇa Sūtra'' had an enormous influence on interpretations of the Buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism that prepared the ground for the Chán school emerging in the 6th century.<br>([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daosheng Source Accessed Sept. 2 2020])
''Dates from The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton University Press, 2014)''
Dr. Daphna McKnight is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Buddhist Chaplaincy at University of the West. She attended seminary at Upaya (Cohort 3) and is an ordained Buddhist minister with training in Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Daphna has served for many years as a hospice, hospital, and university Buddhist/interfaith chaplain. She also has extensive experience as an educator, curriculum designer, and trainer in higher education and business environments.
Daphna has researched and studied many types of mindfulness and meditative practices, particularly those related to compassion development, such as tonglen. She has taught mindfulness and compassion practices in business, healthcare, and educational settings. ([https://www.upaya.org/person/rev-daphna-mcknight-ph-d/ Source Accessed Mar 24, 2025]) +
John Davenport is a water resources development specialist with wide experience as an aid consultant in South and East Asia and Tibet, including for the Tibetan government-in-exile. He is currently the team leader of the ADB supported Western Basins Water Resources Management Project in Herat, Afghanistan. He has served as vice president of Deer Park Buddhist Center near Madison, Wisconsin. He lives in Eugene, Oregon. Source: ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/john-davenport/ Wisdom Publications]) +
David Adams Leeming (born February 26, 1937) is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, and a specialist in comparative literature of mythology.
Leeming received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1958. In 1959 he did a summer course graduate study at the University of Caen. From New York University he received his M.A. in 1964, and his Ph.D. in 1970.
Leeming was Head of the English Department at Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey from 1958 to 1963. From 1964 to 1967 he was the secretary-assistant of author James Baldwin. Since 1969 Leeming was Assistant Professor of English at the University of Connecticut. He eventually became Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, where he in later years has served as Professor Emeritus.
Leeming has written variously in comparative literature of mythology and edited numerous encyclopedias and dictionaries on the subject. He has also written biographies on Beauford Delaney, James Baldwin, and Stephen Spender.
Leeming is a member of the Modern Language Association of America and the Federation of University Teachers. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Adams_Leeming Adapted from Source June 14, 2023]) +
David Bellos gained his doctorate in French literature from Oxford University (UK) and taught subsequently at Edinburgh, Southampton and Manchester before coming to Princeton in 1997. He worked first in nineteenth century studies, particularly on the novel and the history of literary ideas and then developed interests in post-war French writing and film. He is the translator and biographer of Georges Perec and has also written major studies of Jacques Tati and Romain Gary. A well-known translator, he is also the author of an irreverent introduction to translation studies, ''Is That A Fish in Your Ear?'' His most recent book, ''The Novel of the Century'', marks a return to nineteenth century France from a trans-national point of view. He has a joint appointment in French and Comparative Literature and is also Director of the PIIRS Graduate Fellows Program. He has won the French-American Foundation’s translation prize (1988), the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie (1994), the Man Booker International translator’s award (2005) and the Book Award of the American Library in Paris, and holds the rank of officier in the Orde national des Arts et des Lettres. He was the recipient of the 2019 Howard T. Berhman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities. ([https://fit.princeton.edu/people/david-bellos Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023]) +
David Bennett first became involved in Buddhism in 1975 at Samye Ling Buddhist Centre in Scotland. After studying with various teachers he met Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX in 1981 in Australia and continued studying and practicing under his guidance until Traleg passed away in 2012. David was Vice-President of Traleg’s main Centre E-Vam Institute in Melbourne Australia for many years. He works as a graphic designer and has used these skills to contribute to Traleg Rinpoche’s ongoing activities since joining the Centre. ([https://www.shogam.com/project/david-bennett/ Source Accessed Dec 6, 2023]) +
David Bubna-Litic is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary scholar with interests in whole of systems thinking applied to individual, organizational, economic, and social change.
He researches the dialogue between mindful ways of being (presence), deep integrity, eastern philosophy, and established western disciplines to create a merged horizon for social and economic change.
He is Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. ([https://au.linkedin.com/in/david-bubna-litic-1a84259 Adapted from Source June 16, 2023]) +
Lama David Curtis founded the Tibetan Language Institute in 1996. Since then he has taught Tibetan language and Buddhism courses full-time, specializing in the development of Dharma-centered learning materials and instruction for Western students.
He is motivated by a desire to help others participate in the dharma in more meaningful ways; in puja, in private meditation practice, in meditational retreats, as Tibetan interpreters.
As president and executive director of TLI and Big Sky Mind, David strives to fulfill the TLI mission of helping to preserve the Tibetan language and culture through the teaching of the Tibetan language and instruction in meditation. ([https://www.tibetanlanguage.org/about/david-curtis/ Source Accessed Jan 20, 2025]) +
Associate Professor, Dept. of Religion, University of Manitoba +
Associate Professor, Dept. of Religion, University of Manitoba +
David E. Cooper is a British author and philosopher. He was brought up in Surrey and educated at Highgate School and then Oxford University, where he was given his first job in 1967, as a Lecturer in Philosophy. He went on to teach at the universities of Miami, London and Surrey before being appointed, in 1986, as Professor of Philosophy at Durham University – where he remained until retiring in 2008. During his academic career, David was a Visiting Professor at universities in the United States, Canada, Malta, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Cooper is the former Chair (or President) of the Aristotelian Society, the Mind Association, the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, and the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. He is Secretary and a Trustee of the charity Project Sri Lanka, and he spends time each year visiting and supervising educational and humanitarian projects.
Cooper has published across a broad range of philosophical subjects, including philosophy of language, philosophy of education, ethics, aesthetics, environmental philosophy, animal ethics, philosophy of technology, philosophy of religion, history of both Western philosophy and Asian philosophy, and modern European philosophy, especially Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. In recent years, Cooper has written widely on environmental and Buddhist aesthetics, music and nature, the relationship of beauty and virtue, cultures of food, the significance of gardens, Daoism, our relationship to animals, and the notion of mystery.
Cooper is the author of a number of books, including ''World Philosophies: An Historical Introduction''; ''Meaning''; ''Existentialism: A Reconstruction''; ''The Measure of Things: Humanism, Humility and Mystery''; ''A Philosophy of Gardens''; ''Convergence with Nature: A Daoist Perspective''; ''Senses of Mystery: Engaging with Nature and the Meaning of Life''; and ''Animals and Misanthropy''. He has also edited a number of collections, including ''Blackwell Companion to Aesthetics''; ''Philosophy: The Classic Readings''; ''Epistemology: The Classic Readings''; ''Ethics: The Classic Readings''; and ''Aesthetics: The Classic Readings'' – the latter four notable for their inclusion of material from the Indian and Chinese traditions. He is joint editor of ''Key Thinkers on the Environment''. Cooper is a regular reviewer of books for magazines, including ''The Times Literary Supplement'' and ''The Los Angeles Review of Books''. He is also the author of three novels, all set in Sri Lanka: ''Street Dog: A Sri Lankan Story'', its sequel, ''Old Stripe'', and ''A Shot on the Beach''. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Cooper Source Accessed Mar 12, 2021])
David Gonsalez (Losang Tsering) has been practicing Dharma for over twenty-five years and since that time has devoted the entirety of his life to practice, study, translation, as well as hosting and organizing numerous Dharma teachings and events in the Seattle area. He first began studying with Geshe Khenrab Gajam and traveled to Montreal on several occasions to receive teachings. After Geshe Khenrab’s passing David developed a close relationship with several lamas including Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ribur Rinpoche. Most notably David invited Gen Lobsang Choephel to Seattle on five occasions at which time he received countless empowerments, oral transmissions, and commentaries. David has also received numerous empowerments and teachings from other great lamas such as Lati Rinpoche, Denma Locho Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, and many more.
David has devoted a great deal of the last twenty-five years to retreat and has completed forty-three fully qualified retreats including subsequent fire pujas. As the translator for Dechen Ling Press these retreats give David a unique opportunity to approach these translations as not only a translator but an experienced practitioner as well assuring the translations are accurate and true to the lineage passed down through Tibetan lamas. ([https://dechenlingpress.org/about/the-translator/ Source: Dechen Link Press 2014 Website]) +
David Gray received his B.A. in Religious Studies from Wesleyan University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in the History of Religion from Columbia University. His research explores the development of tantric Buddhist traditions in South Asia, and their dissemination in Tibet and East Asia, with a focus on the Yogin?tantras, a genre of Buddhist tantric literature that focused on female deities and yogic practices involving the subtle body. He focuses particularly on the Cakrasamvara Tantra, an esoteric Indian Buddhist scripture that serves as the basis for a number of important Nepali and Tibetan Buddhist practice traditions. ([https://www.scu.edu/cas/religious-studies/faculty--staff/david-gray/ Source Accessed Dec 3, 2019])
[https://www.scu.edu/media/college-of-arts-and-sciences/religious-studies/cvs/GrayCV1.pdf Curriculum Vitae] +
David Higgins received his doctorate from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland in 2012. He subsequently held a position as a Post-doc Research Fellow in the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna where he explored the relationship between Mahāmudrā and Madhyamaka philosophies in Bka’ brgyud scholasticism during the post-classical period (15th to 16th centuries). His research interests include Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and epistemology with a particular focus on Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā and Rnying ma Rdzogs chen doctrines and practices. His PhD thesis was published under the title ''Philosophical Foundations of Classical Rdzogs chen in Tibet: Investigating the Distinction Between Dualistic Mind (sems) and Primordial Knowing (ye shes)'' (Vienna, WSTB no. 78, 2013). His recent publications include ''Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha Nature'' (Vienna, WSTB no. 90, 2016, 2 vols.) and ''Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa’s Middle Path'' (Vienna, WSTB, forthcoming, 2 vols.), both of which were co-authored with Martina Drazczyk. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/2019-vienna-symposium/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020]) +
David P. Jackson made many important contributions to the field of Tibetan studies and Tibetan art before he passed away in 2025. He received his doctorate in 1985 from the University of Washington and studied and translated for many years in Seattle for the polymath Tibetan scholar Dezhung Rinpoche. Until 2007, he was a professor of Tibetan Studies at Hamburg University in Germany, and after that was a curator for the Rubin Museum of Art, New York. He is the author of numerous articles and books on Tibetan art, literature, and history, including ''A Saint in Seattle'' (2003), ''Tibetan Thangka Painting'' (1984), ''The Mollas of Mustang (1984)'', ''A History of Tibetan Painting'' (1996), ''Enlightenment by a Single Means'' (1994), and the “Masterworks of Tibetan Painting” series (2009–2016), written for the Rubin Museum. He also translated ''A Concise History of the Glorious Sakyapa School'' (2022). +
David Jones is professor of philosophy and editor of ''Comparative and Continental Philosophy'' (Taylor and Francis), the founding editor of ''East-West Connections'' from 2000 to 2013, and the editor of the ''Series on Comparative and Continental Philosophy''. In 2013 and 2015 he was Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at National Taiwan University and has been a visiting professor at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Visiting Professor of Chinese Philosophy at the University of North Georgia, and Visiting Professor of Confucian Classics at Emory. From 1996 to 2008 he was the director of the Center for the Development of Asian Studies, which was a Southeast regional center of the Asian Studies Development Program of the East-West Center in Honolulu. Under his direction, CDAS coordinated a number of faculty development workshops and organized conferences and programs on Asia for faculty and the public in Atlanta, the Southeast, and nationally. David Jones was the president of the highly regarded Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle for the last twelve years. ([http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~djones/index.htm Source Accessed Mar 17, 2020]) +
David J. Kalupahana (1936–2014) was a Buddhist scholar from Sri Lanka. He was a student of the late K.N. Jayatilleke, who was a student of Wittgenstein. He wrote mainly about epistemology, theory of language, and compared later Buddhist philosophical texts against the earliest texts and tried to present interpretations that were both historically contextualized and also compatible with the earliest texts, and in doing so, he encouraged Theravadin Buddhists and scholars to reevaluate the legitimacy of later, Mahayana texts and consider them more sympathetically.
Born in Galle District, Southern Sri Lanka, Kalupahana attended Mahinda College, Galle for his school education. He obtained his BA (Sri Lanka, 1959), Ph.D (London), and D. Litt (Hon. Peradeniya, Sri Lanka). He was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii. He was assistant lecturer in Pali and Buddhist Civilization at the University of Ceylon, and studied Chinese and Tibetan at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London where he completed a Ph.D. dissertation on the problem of causality in the Pali Nikayas and Chinese Agamas in 1966.
He left the University of Ceylon (1972) to join the University of Hawaii, serving as the Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Chairman of the Graduate Field in Philosophy (1974–80). He directed international intra-religious conferences on Buddhism, and on Buddhism and Peace.
Many of his books are published and widely available in India (by Motilal Banarsidass and others), and therefore presumably have a fairly significant influence on the fields of Buddhism and Buddhist Studies in India and other nearby South Asian countries, such as his native Sri Lanka. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kalupahana Source Accessed Apr 21, 2021]) +
