Property:Bio
From Tsadra Commons
This is a property of type Text.
G
Gareth Sparham was a monk for more than twenty years and an oral interpreter for many learned lamas while living in India. He holds a PhD in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia. The author and translator of numerous works, many focusing on the writings of Tsongkhapa, he has taught Tibetan language at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of California at Berkeley. He lives with his wife in Walnut Creek, California. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/gareth-sparham/ Wisdom Experience]) +
Garma Chen-Chi Chang was Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the Pennsylvania State University and a renowned Buddhist scholar. His books include ''The Buddhist Teaching of Totality'' and ''The Practice of Zen'', as well as his English translation of the Tibetan classic, ''The 100,000 Songs of Milarepa''. ([https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-00341-3.html Source Accessed May 20, 2021]) +
Gary Donnelly is an academic advisor at the University of Manchester, and lectures in Indic Religious Traditions at Liverpool Hope University. He holds a PhD in Indian Philosophy, specializing in Theravada, Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and Vedanta traditions. ([https://www.lionsroar.com/author/gary-donnelly/ Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
Gautama Prajñāruci (Jutan Boreliuzhi 瞿曇般若流支, fl. 538–543) was a translator of Indian texts into Chinese and is said to have reached China in 516. Among the texts he translated include Vasubandhu's ''Viṃśatikā'', Nāgārjuna's ''Vigrahavyāvartanī'' (co-translated with *Vimokṣa Prajñārṣi 毘目智仙), and the ''Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra'' (T721) ca. A.D. 538–541.
. +
Gavin Kilty has been a full-time translator for the Institute of Tibetan Classics since 2001. Before that he lived in Dharamsala, India, for fourteen years, where he spent eight years training in the traditional Geluk monastic curriculum through the medium of class and debate at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. He has also taught Tibetan language courses in India, Nepal, and elsewhere, and is a translation reviewer for the organization 84000, Translating the Words of the Buddha. He received the 2017 Shantarakshita Award from Tsadra Foundation for his translation of ''A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages''. Other published translations are ''The Fourteenth Dalai Lama's Stages of the Path, Volume 1'' (2022), ''The Life of My Teacher'' (2017), ''Mirror of Beryl'' (2010), ''Ornament of Stainless Light'' (2004), and '' The Splendor of an Autumn Moon'' (2001). ([https://conference.tsadra.org/session/special-address-2017-shantarakshita-award/ Source: Tsadra Foundation]) +
Gaynor Sekimori is presently Research Associate in the Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions, SOAS, London, and a Visiting Professor at Kôkugakuin University, Tôkyô. She is also a Council member of the Association for the Study of Japanese Mountain Religion and Shugendô. She was Associate Professor and Managing Editor of the ''International Journal of Asian Studies'', University of Tôkyô, 2001-2007, and continues to work professionally as an academic editor and translator. Her research interests include Shugendô history, ritual study (Haguro Shugendô), female exclusion from sacred sites, and Edo popular cults (Otake Dainichi Nyorai) and she has published numerous articles on these topics. She translated and edited Miyake Hitoshi's ''Mandala of the Mountain: Shugendô and Folk Religion'' (Tôkyô, 2005). ([https://publications.efeo.fr/en/author/1100_gaynor-sekimori Source Accessed Apr 23, 2021]) +
Great Dzogchen yogi and practitioner of the Ratna Lingpa (Rat+na gling pa) transmissions. A disciple of Drupwang Tsoknyi and rebirth of both Lingje Repa (Gling rje ras pa) and Guru Thugse Gyalwa Chogyang (Guru thugs sras rgyal ba mchog dbyangs). +
Sherab Drime contributed content to [http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/SherabDrime&limit=500&target=SherabDrime RYWiki] from 2005 to 2016.
Thomas Roth, or rather (Karma) Sherab Drime as he prefers to be called again since having been re-ordained, born in 1963, is a former Radio Operator (the only "proper" profession he ever learned) and became a monk in 1981. He took refuge in February 1977 from Lama Gendun Rinpoche and has been a student of Ven. Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche since February 1979. In 1989, following H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's advice, he returned his ordination to Lama Gendun Rinpoche and continued to practice as a lay-person until March 2012. He never intended to be a "interpreter or translator" as such and actually only learned Tibetan because in the late 70's and early 80's there were so few translators around, that it was at times difficult to find one when needed. Still a bit at odds with being called a translator by some, he used to interpret mainly for H.E. Drubwang Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche and the late Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche during their annual spring courses in Kathmandu and their summer courses in Germany and Belgium. Since the passing of Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche in March 2012, and H.E. Drubwang Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche's English having improved so much that he doesn't require an interpreter any longer, he considers himself semi-retired and spends most of his time in retreat either in [[Yolmo]] or [[Lapchi]]. Rather than being called a translator, he prefers to be known as a simple practitioner. His main interest, apart from anything Mahamudra, is Tibetan history, particularly the histories of the various Dagpo Kagyu lineages, the Shangpa Kagyu lineage in particular and how it suffused virtually all lineages of Buddhism in Tibet, and the Jonang school. In 2012 he took full Gelong ordination from [[Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche]] and, technically, now answers to the name Karma Lodrö Samphel. ([http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Sherab_Drime Source Accessed March 1, 2021])
Ani Migme as she was known to anyone who met her during her long tenure at Gampo Abbey for many she embodied what it was to be a western Buddhist monastic. Her commitment to monasticism was unwavering and her influence on life at Gampo Abbey was all pervasive. In 2008 a short biography and interview with Ani Migme The Fortunate Life of Ani Migme was included in the Abbey’s newsletter The Lionsroar. https://gampoabbey.org/files/2016/10/Ani-Migme-a-Fortunate-Life.pdf.
In addition to her unwavering commitment to the monastic tradition Migme Chödrön worked tirelessly to make the dharma available to others through her work as a transcriber, editor and translator of Buddhist teachings. Gampo Abbey has had the privilege to host many prominent Buddhist teachers over the years most of whom would give teachings to the community. Ani Migme transcribed and edited all of these teachings which amounted to dozens of talks, most in the early years were done with a manual typewriter. Many of these talks became the basis for some of the earliest published teachings of their kind available to western students including Acharya Pema Chödrön’s first book. In later years working in conjunction with Lodro Sangpo under the mandate of the Chökyi Gyatso Translation Committee, Ani Migme translated many scholarly Buddhist texts from French into English. For more details on her translation work visit [https://www.kccl.ca/committees-projects-2/ the Karma Changchub Ling website].
Gelongma Migme Chödrön has produced translations of the following texts:
Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra. Translated by Étienne Lamotte.<br>
Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi. Translated by Louis de La Vallée Poussin.<br>
Mahāyānasaṃgraha. Translated by Étienne Lamotte.<br>
Les Sectes Bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule. By André Bareau.<br>
La Saveur de l’Immortel (Amṛtarasa). Translated by Van den Broeck.<br>
Vie et chants de ‘Brug-pa Kun-legs le yogin (The Life and Songs of Drugpa Kunlegs). Translated by R.A. Stein. (Note that Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was said to be an incarnation of Drugpa Kunlegs, who was known as the Madman of Bhutan.)
Bhikṣuṇī Lakṣmī, or Gelongma Palmo as she is known in the Tibetan world, was the originator of the practice of nyungne (''smyung gnas''). While some Tibetan sources identify her as a princess of Oḍḍiyana who later became a nun, the Adinath temple in the small hilltop village of Chobhar on the outskirts of Kathmandu is believed to have been either her family home or the original site in which she engaged in this practice. Based on the thousand-armed form of the deity Avalokiteśvara, nyungne involves a typically three day cycle of practice that combines long periods of prostrations with intermittent fasting and the strict observance of vows. The practice was developed by Bhikṣuṇī Lakṣmī and through it she is reported to have cured herself of leprosy. The practice continues to be popular among Himalayan Buddhists, especially among older lay people for whom it is often an annual event that they practice collectively in groups. It is also traditional to repeat the three day cycle eight times in a row. +
Khenpo Yönga aka Khenchen Yönten Gyatso (Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wyl. yon tan rgya mtsho) (19th-20th C.) was a personal student of Patrul Rinpoche and Orgyen Tendzin Norbu. He belonged to Gemang Monastery, a branch of Dzogchen Monastery, and studied at Dzogchen and Shechen monasteries. He wrote a very popular two-part commentary on Rigdzin Jikme Lingpa's Treasury of Precious Qualities, called Lamp of Moonlight and Rays of Sunlight. Among his students were Changma Khenchen Thubten Chöpel (the teacher of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok) and Khenchen Tsewang Rigdzin of Washul Mewa (who attained the rainbow body). (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Yönga Rigpawiki]) +
Professor at Tibet University in Lhasa. +
Gendün Drub was a close disciple of Tsongkhapa, after first ordaining and training in the great Kadam monastery of Nartang. Gendün Drub was instrumental in spreading the new Geluk tradition in Tsang; he founded the great monastery Tashilhunpo in 1447 and was its first abbot, until 1484. He was posthumously identified as the First Dalai Lama, a previous incarnation of the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso, who first held the title. Gendün Drub was identified as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion believed to be embodied in the Dalai Lama incarnation line. +
Gene Reeves studied, taught, and wrote in Japan for twenty years, primarily on Buddhism and interfaith relations. When he retired from the University of Tsukuba, where he taught for eight years, he served as the international advisor at Rissho Kosei- kai. He was a founder of and the special minister for the International Buddhist Congregation in Tokyo, and he also served as the international advisor to the Niwano Peace Foundation and was the coordinator of an annual International Seminar on the Lotus Sutra. In the spring of 2008, Reeves was a visiting professor at the University of Peking, Beijing, China.
Reeves was active in interfaith conversations and organizations: he served as chair of the Planning Committee for the 1987 Congress of the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) at Stanford University; he was one of the founders of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions; and he was a member of the Board of the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies. In Japan he was an advisor to the Japan Liaison Committee of the IARF and a participant in the Religious Summit at Mount Hiei and in various activities of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. As a Buddhist teacher, he traveled frequently to China, Singapore, Taiwan, America, and Europe to give talks at universities and churches, mainly on the Lotus Sutra.
Gene Reeves died in 2019.
(Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/gene-reeves/ Wisdom Publications]) +
[https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genesmith Founder of TBRC, now BDRC]
*[https://84000.co/obituary-of-e-gene-smith/ Obituary on 84000]
*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2011010102390.html Obituary in Washington Post]
*[http://digitaldharma.com/home Documentary film about his life and work: Digital Dharma]
''[https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genesmith Biography from BDRC]:''
E. Gene Smith (BDRC Founder and Senior Research Scholar) was born in Ogden, Utah in 1936. He studied at a variety of institutions of higher education in the United States: Adelphi College, Hobart College, University of Utah, and the University of Washington in Seattle.
In 1959, the Rockefeller Foundation, seeing the opportunity to promote Tibetan studies, funded the establishment of nine centers of excellence worldwide, one of which was at the University of Washington.
Under the auspices of the Rockefeller grant to the Far Eastern and Russian Institute, nine Tibetans were brought to Seattle for teaching and research, including the Ven. Deshung Rinpoche Kunga Tenpai Nyima, the tutor to the Sakya Phuntsho Phodrang. Smith had the good fortune to study Tibetan culture as well as Buddhism with Deshung Rinpoche and the rest of the Tibetan teachers in Seattle from 1960 to 1964. He lived with the Sakya family for five years. He spent the summer of 1962 travelling to the other Rockefeller centers in Europe to meet with the Tibetan savants there.
In 1964 he completed his Ph.D. qualifying exams and travelled to Leiden for advanced studies in Sanskrit and Pali. In 1965 he went to India under a Foreign Area Fellowship Program (Ford Foundation) grant to study with living exponents of all of the Tibetan Buddhist and Bonpo traditions.
He began his studies with Geshe Lobsang Lungtok (Ganden Changtse), Drukpa Thoosay Rinpoche and Khenpo Noryang, and H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He decided to remain in India to continue serious study of Tibetan Buddhism and culture. He travelled extensively in the borderlands of India and Nepal. In 1968 he joined the Library of Congress New Delhi Field Office. He then began a project which was to last over the next two and a half decades: the reprinting of the Tibetan books which had been brought by the exile community or were with members of the Tibetan-speaking communities in Sikkim, Bhutan, India, and Nepal.
He became field director of the Library of Congress Field Office in India in 1980 and served there until 1985 when he was transferred to Indonesia. He stayed in Jakarta running the Southeast Asian programs until 1994 when he was assigned to the LC Middle Eastern Office in Cairo.
In February 1997 he took early retirement from the U.S. Library of Congress to become a consultant to the Trace Foundation for the establishment of the Himalayan and Inner Asian Resources (HIAR) library.
In December 1999 he and a group of friends established the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center in Cambridge.
He passed away on December 16, 2010. (Source Accessed on June 30, 2020)
Japanese Tendaishū monk, scholar, and artist, popularly known as Eshin Sōzu (Head Monk of Eshin) because he spent much of his life at the monastery of Eshin at Yokawa on Hieizan. Genshin was born in Yamoto province (present-day Nara prefecture), but after losing his father at a young age, he was put in the care of the Tendai center on Mt. Hiei. It is believed that during his teens he formally joined the institution and became a student of the Tendai reformer Ryōgen (912–985). Genshin first gained a name for himself in 974 due to his sterling performance in an important debate at Mt. Hiei. Eventually, Genshin retired to the secluded monastery of Shuryōgon'in in Yokawa, where he devoted the rest of his life primarily to scholarship. Genshin wrote on a wide array of Buddhist topics related to both Tendai and Pure Land practices and is also regarded as the founder of the Eshin school of Tendai, which espoused the notion that everyone in inherently awakened (J. ''hongaku''). (Source: "Genshin." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 318. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Geoff Bailey is currently a resident scholar at the Tibetan Academy of Social Science,
having graduated from the Tibet University Tibetan language program. He has been
involved in numerous Tibetan language projects. (Source: ''The Six Brothers'', 2007) +
Geoff Barstow first encountered Tibetan Buddhism in 1999, while on a study abroad trip in college. Since that time, the study of Tibetan religion, history, and culture has been the focus of his professional life. He has spent more than six years conducting research in Nepal, China, and Tibet. At present, that research focuses on the history of vegetarianism on the Tibetan plateau, asking questions about how animals were viewed, how they were treated (ie: eaten), and what that can tell us about Tibetan Buddhism more broadly. As a teacher, his courses emphasize various aspects of Buddhist religious thought, but also seek to explore how those ideas have been lived and experienced by actual Buddhists. ([https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/users/geoffrey-barstow Source Accessed Apr 27, 2021]) +
Geoffrey Samuel’s research extends over a number of interrelated areas within religious studies, social anthropology, comparative sociology, and cognate disciplines. Theoretically, his interests centre around an understanding of cultural processes and their effects on human behaviour, in terms which recognise the embodied character of human existence and which give proper weight to both human consciousness and biology. He is particularly interested in religion (including ‘shamanism’) in relation to healing, gender and ecology, including the ways in which these issues manifest in contemporary societies.
His main ethnographic focus has been on religion in Tibetan societies. His work on Tibetan religion has also extended into the social history of Indic religions more generally. Other research topics include Tibetan medicine and health practices, the anthropology of music, research on Buddhism and other new religious movements (paganism, shamanism, esotericism) in the UK and Australia, and research into Islam in the UK and Bangladesh. He has carried out extensive field research over many years in India, Nepal, Tibet, and other Asian and Western societies.
His recent research, organised through the Research Group on the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR), focusses on the understanding of healing processes in a variety of contexts: folk healing practices in Asian societies, ‘traditional’ Asian medical and yogic practices aimed at healing, and Western adaptations and developments of such practices within the field of complementary and alternative medicine. This research has included two major externally-funded projects under his direction, an AHRC-funded project on Tibetan longevity practices (with Cathy Cantwell and Rob Mayer) and a Leverhulme Trust-funded project on Tibetan medicine in the Bon tradition (with Colin Millard). Currently he is involved in a Templeton Foundation-funded project on meditation-derived compassion training for nurses and other health staff in Sydney, NSW.
In 2008-11, he also took part in an ESRC-funded project on young Bangladeshis, marriage and the family in Bangladesh and the UK directed by Dr Santi Rozario.<br> ([https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/702489-samuel-geoffrey Source Accessed Aug 7, 2020])
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold is the abbot and resident teacher of Zen Mountain Monastery and abbot of the Zen Center of New York City. He received dharma transmission from John Daido Loori Roshi in 1997. ([https://www.lionsroar.com/mind-is-buddha/ Source Accessed Nov 18, 2019]) +
