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Gudo Wafu Nishijima (Nishijima Gudō Wafu (西嶋愚道和夫), 29 November 1919 – 28 January 2014) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest and teacher.
Biography:
As a young man in the early 1940s, Nishijima became a student of the Zen teacher Kōdō Sawaki.[2] Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Nishijima received a law degree from Tokyo University and began a career in finance. It was not until 1973, when he was in his mid-fifties, that Nishijima was ordained as a Buddhist priest. His preceptor for this occasion was Rempo Niwa, a former head of the Soto Zen sect. Four years later, Niwa gave him shiho, formally accepting him as one of his successors. Nishijima continued his professional career until 1979.
During the 1960s, Nishijima began giving regular public lectures on Buddhism and Zen meditation. From the 1980s, he lectured in English and had several foreign students. Nishijima was the author of several books in Japanese and English. He was also a notable translator of Buddhist texts: working with student and Dharma heir Mike Chodo Cross, Nishijima compiled one of three complete English versions of Dōgen's ninety-five-fascicle Kana Shobogenzo; he also translated Dogen's Shinji Shōbōgenzō. He also published an English translation of Nagarjuna's Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā).
In 2007, Nishijima and a group of his students organized as the Dogen Sangha International. In April 2012, the president of the organization, Brad Warner, dissolved it subsequent to Nishijima's death. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gud%C5%8D_Wafu_Nishijima Source Accessed July 12, 2023]) +
Dr. Gunapala Dharmasiri, retired chair of the philosophy department at the University at Peradeniya, was affectionately known as “Dharme” to his many students in Sri Lanka and around the world. The soft-spoken philosopher was one of Sri Lanka’s foremost Buddhist scholars. Over the course of his career, he integrated his profound understanding of the Theravadan tradition with the Mahayanan and Vajrayanan paths to enlightenment. Fluent in Sinhalese, Pali, Sanskrit, and English, Dharme’s books, translations, and lectures were infused with his remarkable understanding of the Buddha’s teachings and with his thorough comprehension of Eastern and Western philosophies. Read more [https://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/archive/fall-2015-issue-i-cxiii/farewell-dharm.html here]. +
Gunapala Piyasena Malalasekera, OBE, JP (8 November 1899 – 23 April 1973) was a Sri Lankan academic, scholar and diplomat best known for his Malalasekara English-Sinhala Dictionary. He was Ceylon's first Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Ceylon's High Commissioner to Canada, the United Kingdom and Ceylon's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. He was the Professor Emeritus in Pali and Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunapala_Piyasena_Malalasekera Source Accessed Apr 20, 2021]) +
Gungru Gyaltsen Zangpo (Tib. གུང་རུ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་, Wyl. gung ru rgyal mtshan bzang po) (1383–1450) - the third throneholder of Sera Monastery. He was a disciple of Tsongkhapa, Gyaltsab Je, and Khedrup Je. He was a teacher of Ga Rabjampa Kunga Yeshe. His extant writings were recently published in three volumes.
Volume 1<br>
''byams pa'i dgongs rgyan'' - a commentary on Prajnaparamita philosophy.
Volume 2<br>
''dbu ma rtsa ba shes rab kyi don bsdus'' - Short explanation of the meaning of Nagarjuna's ''Mulamadhyamakakarika''.<br>
''dbu ma 'jug pa'i 'grel pa'' - Commentary on the ''Madhyamakavatara'' of Chandrakirti.<br>
''legs bshad bla ma'i man ngag bdud rtsi'i chu rgyun'' - General treatise on Madhyamika philosophy.
Volume 3<br>
''dbu ma bzhi brgya pa'i 'grel pa'' - Commentary on Aryadeva's ''Four Hundred Verses''<br>
''dbu ma'i stong thun'' - Survey of Madhyamika thought in the context of the various philosophical positions.<br>
''mngon rtogs rgyan gyi de kho na nyid gsal bar byed pa mkhas pa'i yid 'phrog'' - A commentary on the ''Abhisamayalankara''. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gungru_Gyaltsen_Zangpo Source Accessed Jan 27, 2023]) +
The Third Gungtang Lama Konchok Tenpai Dronme was identified as reincarnation of the Second Guntang Ngawang Tenpai Gyeltsen. He studied in Drepung Gomang College near Lhasa and Labrang Tashikhyil in Amdo, and later he served as the twenty-first abbot of the monastery. He also served as the first abbot of Ngawa Gomang Monastery. Familiar with Chinese and Mongolian languages, he spent most of his life in teaching and composing texts on many subjects such as ethics and medicine as well as religion. ([https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Konchok-Tenpai-Dronme/4730 Source Accessed Feb 3, 2022]) +
Guntram Hazod is an anthropologist focusing on the early history of Tibet. His methodological approach combines text and historical ethnography. He has been the co-author of several major monographs on Central Tibet’s medieval political and religious history, as well as author of numerous contributions that deal with identifying historical Tibetan toponyms, especially related to the period of the Tibetan empire. Linked to this is his interest in archaeology and landscape archaeology, with particular focus on early Tibetan burial practices, including the Tibetan tumulus tradition (4th–10th cent. CE).
Hazod received his PhD and habilitation at the University of Vienna. He has been working at the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 1992, from 2006 as a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA), and from July 2016 as a co-funded researcher at both the ISA and IKGA. Since January 2019 he has been working as a Senior Researcher exclusively at the IKGA. ([https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ikga/team/former-employees/hazod-guntram Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023]) +
Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu) is the founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center (www.tallahasseechan.com) and is also the guiding teacher for the Western Dharma Teachers Training course at the Chan Meditation Center in New York and the Dharma Drum Lineage. He is one of the late Master Sheng Yen’s (1930–2009) senior and closest disciples, and assisted him in leading intensive retreats throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Guo Gu has edited and translated a number of Master Sheng Yen’s books from Chinese to English. He is also a professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at Florida State University, Tallahassee. (Source: [https://www.shambhala.com/authors/g-n/guo-gu.html Shambhala Publications]) +
Gustav Roth (born January 22, 1916 in Breslau; † June 6, 2008 in Lenglern) was a German Indologist.
Roth passed his Abitur in 1935 at the König-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Breslau. He then studied from 1935 (immediately in 1935 and all year round in 1936 due to work in the labor service, so that he could not begin attending lectures until 1937), first at the University of Breslau and then from 1939 in Leipzig and in 1941 in Halle (Saale). During his time in Breslau he became a member of the Corps Silesia there. During the Second World War he worked as a teacher for Persian at an interpreting school of the Wehrmacht in Meissen and then moved to Bordeaux. From January 1944 until the end of the war he was an interpreter for Hindustani and Punjabi for the Indian Freedom Corps Azad Hind Fauj, which he had already looked after during his time in Königsbrück. In 1949 he enrolled at the University of Munich. He graduated in 1952 with a doctorate of philology. From 1953 to 1960 he stayed for scientific studies in India and Nepal. After his return he was an academic advisor at the Indological seminar at the University of Göttingen where he stayed until his retirement in 1981. From 1982 to 1985 Roth lived as director of the Shri Nava Nalanda Mahavihara Institute in Bihar, India, before finally returning to Germany. Roth's scientific life achievement was recognized by several commemorative publications in his honor. ([https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Roth Adapted from Source July 22, 2021]) +
Gustave-Charles Toussaint, born in Rennes on January 11, 1869 and died in Parame on October 12, 1938, [was] a colonial magistrate, orientalist, Tibetologist, explorer, French poet, member of the Geographical Society and the Asian Society of Paris. Passionate about the study of Asian civilizations, he notably translated from Tibetan the ''Padma Thang Yig'' which he brought from the Litang monastery in Tibet. ([https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave-Charles_Toussaint Source Accessed Jan 24, 2024]) +
Guy Newland is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Central Michigan University, where he has taught since 1988. He has authored, edited, and translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism, including the three-volume translation of ''The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment'' and ''Introduction to Emptiness''. Since the loss of his wife Valerie Stephens in 2013, he has expanded his teachings, given to universities and Dharma centers, which include topics on death, dying, and grief. He lives in Mount Pleasant, MI. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/guy-newland/ Source Accessed May 12, 2021]) +
Indian scholiast and major translator of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese during the Liu Song period (420–479). Born in central India to a brāhmaṇa family, he is said to have studied in his youth the five traditional Indian sciences, as well as astronomy, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine, and magic. He was converted to Buddhism and began systematically to study Buddhist texts, starting with the Abhidharma and proceeding through the most influential Mahāyāna texts, such as the ''Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'' and ''Avataṃsakasūtra''. Around 435, he departed from Sri Lanka for China, arriving in Guangzhou by sea. In China, he devoted himself to teaching and translating Buddhist scriptures, carrying out most of his translations of Mahāyāna and mainstream Buddhist texts while residing in Qiyuansi in Jiankang and Xinsi in Jingzhou. He translated a total of fifty-two scriptures in 134 rolls, including the ''Saṃyuktāgama'' and the ''Prakaranapāda'' [śāstra], both associated with the Sarvāstivāda school, such seminal Mahāyāna texts as the ''[[Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra]]'' and the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra''. In the ''Lengqie shizi ji'', a Chan genealogical history associated with the Northern school (Bei zong) of the early Chan tradition, Guṇabhadra is placed before Bodhidharma in the Chan patriarchal lineage, perhaps because of his role in translating the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school. (Source: "Guṇabhadra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 336. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27) +
Gunaprabha (Skt. Guṇaprabha; Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་འོད་, Yönten Ö; Wyl. yon tan 'od) — an Indian master of the Vinaya tradition born in the seventh century and a disciple of Vasubandhu. According to one tradition, he is counted as one of the ‘Two Supreme Ones’—great commentators on the Buddha’s teachings. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gunaprabha Source Accessed Aug 14, 2025]) +
Gunavarman. (C. Qiunabamo; J. Gunabatsuma; K. Kunabalma 求那跋摩) (367–431 CE). A Kashmiri monk who was an important early translator of Buddhist vinaya and bodhisattva preceptive materials into Chinese. He was a prince of Kubhā, who was ordained at the age of twenty and eventually became known as a specialist in the Buddhist canon (trepiṭaka). Upon his father's death, he was offered the throne, but refused, and instead embarked on travels throughout Asia to preach the dharma, including to Java, where he helped to establish the Buddhist tradition. Various miracles are associated with the places he visited, such as fragrance wafting in the air when he meditated and a dragon-like creature who was seen ascending to heaven in his presence. In 424 CE, Guṇavarman traveled to China and was invited by Emperor Wen of the Liu Song dynasty to come to the capital in Nanjing. Upon his arrival, a monastery was built in his honor and Guṇavarman lectured there on various sūtras. During his sojourn in China, he translated some eighteen rolls of seminal Buddhist texts into Chinese, including the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'', and several other works associated with the bodhisattvaśīla, the Dharmaguptaka vinaya (Sifen lü), and monastic and lay precepts. Guṇavarman was a central figure in founding the order of nuns (bhikṣunī) in China and he helped arrange the ordination of several Chinese nuns whose hagiographies are recorded in the Biqiuni zhuan. (Source: "Guṇavarman." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 337–38. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Gwendolyn McKee Bays was a professor of French literature as well as a scholar of Buddhism and Eastern mysticism, writing and translating several books on the subject. She was the author of ''The Orphic Vision'' and translator of the book, ''The Voice of the Buddha'' from the original French. ([https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/atlanta/name/gwendolyn-bays-obituary?pid=164933470 Source Accessed Aug 25, 2021]) +
Gwenola Le Serrec is a former expert in the protection of the environment, writer, and translator. She is now essentially a meditator and lover of nature and music. ([https://www.instagram.com/gwenola_leserrec/?hl=en Adapted from Source Jan 3, 2022]). She has translated the ninth chapter on wisdom of the commentary on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''
by Khenpo Kunzang Palden with Patrick Carré and Christian Bruyat — ''Perles d'Ambroisie'', ''Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i tshig 'grel 'jam dbyangs zhal lung bdud rtsi thig pa'' and other works with the Padmakara Translation Group. +
Gyalse Lhaje, also known as Chokdrup Gyalpo, was the second son of the Tibetan prince Mutik Tsenpo. He came to be considered the subsequent rebirth of his grandfather, Dharma King Trisong Deutsen. +
Venerable Gyalten Mindrol met the Dharma through her father when she was ten years old and came to Tibetan Buddhism at the age of seventeen. She joined the FPMT family in her mid-twenties, first attending Basic Program courses with Geshe Tsulga at Kurukulla Center in Boston and Ven. George Churinoff at Land of Medicine Buddha in California. She has also received numerous teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche, and Gyume Khensur Lobsang Tenzin Rinpoche, as well as Ven. Sarah Thresher and Ven. Robina Courtin. She joined the staff of FPMT International Office as editor working in educational materials development in 2005, and later that year took novice ordination with Choden Rinpoche. She has led Nyung Ne fasting retreats at Land of Medicine Buddha and currently visits a prison near Vancouver, WA, as well as offering "Discovering Buddhism" courses as part of Maitripa College’s Jokhang program. She has been a student of Yangsi Rinpoche at Maitripa College since 2006. ([https://dharmafriendship.org/teachers/ Source Accessed Apr 14, 2022]) +
Gyalwa Yang Gönpa Gyaltsen Pal (Tib. ཡང་དགོན་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དཔལ་, Wyl. yang dgon pa rgyal mtshan dpal) (1213-1258 or 1287) was a great yogin of the Drukpa Kagyü school and one of the foremost disciples of Gyalwa Götsangpa (1189-1258). He also studied with Godrakpa (1181-1261), who is considered the first great non-sectarian master of Tibet, Drikung Chenga Rinpoche (1175-1255) of the Drikung Kagyü school, Sakya Pandita (1182-1251), and Sangye Repa, and other masters. He is known as one of the 'three victorious ones', the other two being his teacher Gyalwa Götsangpa and Gyalwa Lorepa. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Yang_Gönpa Rigpawiki]) +
Gyamarwa Changchub Drak (Wyl. rgya dmar ba byang chub grags) was an important scholar born in the late eleventh or early twelfth century. He studied Madhyamika, Pramana and other philosophical topics with Khyung Rinchen Drak and Kangpa She'u Lodrö, and soon became an expert. From Lhajé Dawé Özer, he received many pith instructions related to the secret mantra from the lineage of Ancient Translations, and from Lhopa Könchok Pal he received instructions on mind training. As a result of his studies, he gained a reputation for excellent scholarship; and, in addition, he was also a holder of the lineage of pith instructions. In places such as Nyangro and Tölung, Sethang and elsewhere, he taught Madhyamika, Pramana, the treatises of Maitreya and other topics. His students included Chapa Chökyi Senge, Karmapa Düsum Khyenpa, Phagmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo, Chokro Chökyi Gyaltsen, Shyang Bal Tsepa, Kyilkhar Lhakhangwa and many other learned scholars. Chapa Chökyi Sengé, in particular, said that it was from Gyamarwa that he learned all the various tenets of Madhyamika and Pramana.
Writings:<br>
Gyamarwa’s writings included commentaries on the Pramanasamuccaya and Madhyamaka Two Truths, and many original treatises, including summaries of Pramana and Middle Way philosophy. Recently discovered works include ''Ascertaining the Nature Itself in the Middle Way'' (''dbu ma’i de kho na nyid gtan la dbab pa''), which was found in a volume in the Nechu temple at Drepung Monastery, ''Summary of the Bodhicharyavatara'' (''spyod 'jug bsdus don''), and his clear explanation of the meaning of the text of the ''Bodhisattvacharyavatara''. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gyamarwa_Changchub_Drak Source Accessed Feb 8, 2023]) +
Gyurme Avertin began his study of the Tibetan language in 1997. He spent two years following the Tibetan program at Langues’O University in Paris. He then went to Nepal in 1999 to study at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute, before making his way to Bir in northern India, where he studied at Dzongsar Shedra. He regularly interprets for teachers visiting Rigpa centres and at the Rigpa Shedra East. (2014 Translation & Transmission Conference Program) +
