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Jacques May was born in 1927 in Aigle (Switzerland). He first studied Latin and Greek at the University of Lausanne (1949), where the teaching and personality of the Swiss Hellenist André Bonnard (1888-1959), a noted specialist and translator of ancient Greek tragedy, left a lasting impression on him. His early childhood fascination with Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969) was transformed into a deep interest in "oriental" studies by the great Polish linguist, philologist, and musician Constantin Regamey (1907-1982). In 1949 Jacques May moved to Paris in order to obtain a "certificat d’études indiennes" (1951). At Sorbonne University, the École Pratique des Hautes Études and the Collège de France he studied Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Indian and Buddhist studies under the guidance of extraordinary personalities such as Louis Renou (1896-1966), Marcelle Lalou (1890-1967), Jean Filliozat (1906-1982), Paul Mus (1902-1969) and Paul Demiéville (1894-1979), all of whom impressed him deeply by their impeccable erudition, kindness, and, in the case of Jean Filliozat, administrative, diplomatic, and "political" skills. Of those who studied at the same time in Paris, mention can be made of André Bareau (1921-1993), Paul Horsch (1925-1971), Gerhard Oberhammer (born 1929), and the French Japanologist Bernard Frank (1927-1996). Jacques May could speak endlessly about that "golden age" of French Indology.<br><br>
Returning to Lausanne in 1956, he served as a librarian until 1961 while he prepared his doctoral thesis, which was published in Paris (Adrien Maisonneuve) in 1959 under the title ''Candrakīrti: Prasannapadā Madhyamakavṛtti'' (''Commentaire limpide au Traité du milieu''). This remarkable work consisted of an annotated French translation of the twelve chapters that had been left untranslated by Th. Stcherbatsky, S. Schayer and J.W. de Jong. As noted by P. Demiéville in his foreword, May’s translation was – and remains – a monument of erudition, accuracy and elegance. In 1961 the same Paul Demiéville appointed Jacques May as the editor in chief of the ''Hôbôgirin, Dictionnaire encyclopédique du bouddhisme d’après les sources chinoises et japonaises'', to which he contributed two long articles, ''Chūdō'' ([中道] "Middle Way," together with Katsumi Mimaki) and ''Chūgan'' ([中觀] "Madhyamaka"). Active as a privat-docent, Jacques May taught Sanskrit and Tibetan in Kyoto, where he stayed first as a grantee of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, 1962-1965) and then as a member of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (1965-1968).<br><br>
In 1968 Jacques May was appointed as a "professeur extraordinaire" at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lausanne ("professeur ordinaire" from 1976 to 1992, with a "chaire ad personam" of the Swiss National Science Foundation), directing?/managing? the Department of Oriental Languages and Cultures together with his colleagues Constantin Regamey, Heinz Zimmermann (1929-1986, since 1981), and Johannes Bronkhorst (born 1946, since 1987). Jacques May’s teaching was dedicated, in multi-annual cycles, to diverse topics such as Vasubandhu’s ''Abhidharmakośa'', the ''Mahāyāna Sūtras'', the life of the Buddha, and Sanskrit readings such as the ''Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā'' and the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra'' (the two texts the present writer read with Jacques May in 1991-1992). Besides occasional collaboration with Étienne Lamotte (1903-1983), Jacques May carried on his research on Indian Madhyamaka, which resulted in the French translation of Candrakīrti’s commentary on the ninth chapter of Āryadeva’s ''Catuḥśataka'' ("Āryadeva et Candrakīrti sur la permanence," 1980-1984). Jacques May also supervised the doctoral theses of Tom J.F. Tillemans (his successor in Lausanne, 1992-2011) and Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub (born 1947, professor of Indian Buddhism at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris until 2015). He was involved in the doctoral research of the Geneva-based japanologists Jérôme Ducor and Michel Mohr.<br><br> Wishing to make his retirement a "true retirement," Jacques May published nothing after 1992 but continued to actively supervise the PhD thesis of his Korean student and wife Kim Hyung-Hi, published in 2013 under the title ''La carrière du Bodhisattva dans l'Avatamsaka-sutra ; Matériaux pour l'étude de l'Avataṃsaka-sūtra et ses commentaires chinois'' (Peter Lang). As long as his health allowed, Jacques May kept travelling, notably in Asia and in South America. Those who had the privilege to know him remember an endearing personality with much wit, a touch of cynicism and (often dark) humor. As his impeccable French translations abundantly testify, Jacques May was a very talented writer; he was an expert in eighteenth-century French prose and late nineteenth-century poetry, above all Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) and his famous "aboli bibelot d’inanité sonore." Curious about everything and naturally inquisitive, there was very little Jacques May, who lived among dictionaries, encyclopedias and maps, could not say about nineteenth-century Vienna or the work of Mozart; in his hand-written correspondence (Jacques May never used a computer in his life), he would quote Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna in Sanskrit. Although he was not very fond of Yogācāra Buddhism, his article "La philosophie bouddhique idéaliste" (1971) has become a classic and remains, as Étienne Lamotte said a little less than fifty years ago, the best introduction to the topic. (Source: [http://iabsinfo.net/2018/03/obituary-tribute-to-professor-jacques-may/ Jacques May Obituary by Vincent Eltschinger, published on IABS March 24, 2018])
Jade Sylvan (born September 9, 1982, Chicago, Illinois) is an American poet, author, performer, producer, performing artist and Unitarian Universalist minister. They are heavily rooted in the literary and performance community of Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. They were called a "risque queer icon" by the Boston Globe. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Sylvan Source Accessed May 24, 2023]) +
Jaehee Han completed a translation of the ''Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra'' for his doctorate at the University of Oslo, under the supervision of Jens Braarvig, +
Jake Davis is currently a Postdoctoral Associate with the Virtues of Attention project at New York University. He has taught at Brown University and at the City of College of New York. He earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from CUNY Graduate Center, with an Interdisciplinary Concentration in Cognitive Science, as well as a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Hawai`i. His research at the intersection of Buddhist philosophy, moral philosophy, and cognitive science draws on his textual, meditative, and monastic training in the Theravāda Buddhist tradition of Burma (Myanmar), including work as an interpreter and teacher at meditation retreats. ([https://nyu.academia.edu/JakeHDavis Adapted from Source May 13, 2021]) +
Jake is a PhD student in the Department of Religious Studies at UCSB. His research focuses on Tantric Buddhism in ancient and medieval Tibet. His MA thesis is a translation of an epistle from the Tibetan Buddhist canon ascribed to Buddhaguhya, an eighth-century Indian Buddhist master. +
Jakob became a student of Buddhism in 1974. He traveled to India in 1975, where he became a student of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, as well as Tulku Pema Wangyal. He met Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse in 1977 and became his student as well.
In the early 1980s Jakob did a three-year retreat in France, after which he worked for Association de Centre d’Etudes de Chanteloube. He has worked on translations from Tibetan, including Shabkar and Wondrous Dance of Illusion (supported by Tsadra Foundation), and has also served as oral interpreter for several lamas. In the 1990s he lived in Bir, translating both Madhyamaka and sadhana material for Siddhartha’s Intent. In the late 1990s he began leading study and practice programs for SI Western Door.
Working toward clear and inclusive presentations of Buddhism for modern lay people and non-Buddhists, Jakob wrote and edited many of the early summaries and blurbs presenting Rinpoche’s teachings and programs. In the 2000s he earned a BA in Tibetology at the University of Copenhagen, exploring the commonalities and differences between Buddhism and western humanities and sciences. Since 2008 he has lived in Australia, where he presently directs study and practice programs for SI Australia. He is also a member of the KF Ashoka Translation Grants Subcommittee. ([https://khyentsefoundation.org/project/jakob-leschly/ Source: Khyentse Foundation]) +
Jakob Winkler studies and practices Tibetan Buddhism since the mid-eighties. He met Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in 1989. In 2002 he was authorized by him to teach the study and practice program of the base of "Santi Maha Sangha“ and in 2008 the 1st level. Jakob holds an MA in Tibetology, Indian art history and social anthropology, which he studied in Munich – his hometown – and Vienna. He works mainly as an author, editor and proofreader for Buddhist publications, instructor for Santi Maha Sangha and acts as interpreter for Buddhist teachings. Today he lives in Bonn, Germany. +
Jakub Zamorski is an assistant professor of East Asian Buddhism at the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. He researches and publishes on doctrinal and intellectual history of Pure Land Buddhism in early modern and modern China and Japan, on the reception of Buddhist logic and epistemology in East Asia and occasionally on other topics related to Chinese and Japanese Buddhist thought. He has contributed articles to e.g. ''Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies'', ''Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens'', chapters in edited volumes and essays in encyclopaedias (e.g. ''Brill Encyclopedia of Buddhism'', forthcoming). +
James A. Benn was trained primarily as a scholar of medieval Chinese religions (Buddhism and Taoism). His research is aimed at understanding the practices and world views of medieval men and women, both religious and lay, through the close reading of primary sources in literary Chinese—the lingua franca of East Asian religions. He has concentrated on three major areas of research: bodily practice in Chinese Religions; the ways in which people create and transmit new religious practices and doctrines; and the religious dimensions of commodity culture. In particular he has worked on self-immolation, Chinese Buddhist apocrypha, and the religious and cultural history of tea. ([https://altausterity.mcmaster.ca/people/a-benn-james#biography Adapted from Source Aug 9, 2023]) +
James B. Apple is full Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary. He received his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses upon the critical analysis of Mahāyāna sūtras and topics within Indian and Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism. +
James Bissett Pratt (June 22, 1875 – January 15, 1944) held the Mark Hopkins Chair of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Williams College. He was president of the American Theological Society from 1934 to 1935.
Born in Elmira, New York, Pratt was the only child of Daniel Ransom Pratt and Katharine Graham Murdoch. He had an early appreciation of being read to by his mother, and particularly admired the idealism of Ralph Waldo Emerson in his youth. Pratt graduated from Elmira Free Academy in 1893, then attended Williams College, graduating in 1898.
He subsequently studied at the University of Berlin and at Harvard University, earning his doctorate through his mentor William James in 1905. He returned to Williams to teach and write on philosophy thereafter. Pratt began teaching at Williams College in 1905 as Instructor of Philosophy. In 1906, he was promoted to Assistant Professor.
In 1910, Pratt traveled to Chicago, where he met his future wife, Catherine Mariotti. They traveled to Italy in 1911 and were married. In 1917, Pratt was named the Mark Hopkins Chair of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. He took a sabbatical in 1923, travelling in the Far East and teaching at the Chinese Christian University in Peking. Pratt retired in 1943 and received an honorary L.H.D. from Williams College. He died on January 15, 1944. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bissett_Pratt Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023])
''The Pilgrimage of Buddhism and a Buddhist Pilgrimage'' (New York: Macmillan, 1928) constitutes his major contribution to Buddhist studies. +
James Cahill [was] an art historian and curator who played an influential role in expanding the study and teaching of Chinese painting in the West before and after the opening up of U.S.-China relations in the early 1970s . . .
A longtime professor at UC Berkeley, Cahill was a dominant scholar in his field for 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was one of a small number of Western scholars permitted access to the imperial paintings that had been evacuated to Taiwan before the Chinese mainland fell under Communist rule. He was allowed to photograph many of the works for ''Chinese Painting'', his classic 1960 text that for decades was required reading in Chinese art history classes. ([https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-james-cahill-20140222-story.html#axzz2uLyt7i66 Adapted from Source July 14, 2023]) +
Dr. James William Coleman was born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal State Northridge (then called San Fernando Valley State College) and his master's and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His areas of specialization were criminology and the sociology of religion. . . .
His dissertation was an attempt to explain the process by which heroin addicts were able to give up drugs and change their lives, but his interest in criminology soon shifted to white collar crime. He first published ''The Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White Collar Crime'' in 1985, and it eventually went to six editions. His textbook, ''Social Problems'', which he originally co-authored with his dissertation advisor, Donald R. Cressey, and later with Harold R. Kerbo, Professor Emeritus, first came out in 1980 and had a total of 10 editions.
Later in his career, Coleman's interest turned back to the sociology of religion, and more specifically, to the amazing growth of Buddhism in the west. He published ''The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition'' in 1991, and continues to be involved with Buddhist theory and practice. He edited the talks of Reb Anderson Roshi into a booked entitled ''The Third Turning of the Wheel: The Wisdom of the Samdhnirmocana Sutra'', which was published in 2012. His latest book, ''The Buddha’s Dream of Liberation: Freedom, Emptiness and Awakened Nature'' came out in June 2017. ([https://socialsciences.calpoly.edu/newsletter-2017/coleman-retires Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
James Evert Bosson, an Associate Professor at Univerity of California, Berkeley's Department of Oriental Languages in 1963-1996, was known to his Mongo1ian colleagues and friends as Mergenbatu. A graduate from University of Washington and a student of Nicho1as Poppe, Bosson's Ph.D. Dissertation was an annotated translation of Sakya Paṇḍta's ''A Treasury of Aphoristic Jewels: The Subhāṣitaranadhi of Sa Skya Paṇḍita in Tibetan and Mongolian'', the most detailed translation from two languages to this day. ([https://www.jstor.org/stable/26865352?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Source Accessed Mar 22, 2023]) +
James G. Mullens is a scholar who received his PhD in Religious Studies from McMaster University in 1994. His doctoral dissertation, titled "Principles and Practices of Buddhist Education in Asaṅga’s ''Bodhisattvabhūmi''," provides a comprehensive study of the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'', a foundational Mahāyāna Buddhist text attributed to Arya Asaṅga. In his work, Mullens explores the educational ideals and training principles described in this classic treatise, examining how it bridges traditional religious and worldly forms of learning for both laypersons and monastics on the bodhisattva path. Mullens' research is frequently cited in the field of Buddhist studies, particularly regarding the pedagogical aspects and systematic structure of the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi''. +
James Gentry is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. He specializes in Tibetan Buddhism, with particular focus on the literature and history of its Tantric traditions. He is the author of Power Objects in Tibetan Buddhism: The Life, Writings, and Legacy of Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyeltsen, which examines the roles of Tantric material and sensory objects in the lives and institutions of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhists.
James’s research ranges across Tibetan and Himalayan intellectual history, material culture, contemplative and ritual practice, and scriptural translation, revelation, and canonicity, from the Tibetan imperial period to the present. His current projects include a study of the reception in Tibet from the 9th century to the present of the “Five Protectors” (Pañcarakṣā)—a set of five Indian Tantric Buddhist texts that have been among the most popular scriptures used for pragmatic purposes throughout the Buddhist world. James is also doing a study of a comprehensive literary treatment of Himalayan religious material culture: a 20th century compilation entitled A Treatise on the Paraphernalia and Musical Instruments of the Old School of Secret Mantra. His work on this compilation is directed toward the creation of a multimedia encyclopedia of Tibetan Buddhist material culture for use among scholars, teachers, and students of Asian religions.
Before joining Stanford, James was on the faculty of the University of Virginia. He has also taught at Rangjung Yeshe Institute’s Centre for Buddhist Studies at Kathmandu University, where he served as director of its Master of Arts program in Translation, Textual Interpretation, and Philology. He has also served as editor-in-chief of the project 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, which aims to commission English translations of the Buddhist sūtras, tantras, and commentaries preserved in Tibetan translation and publish them in an online open-access forum (http://84000.co). ([https://religiousstudies.stanford.edu/people/james-gentry Source: Stanford Official Website)
James Huntley Grayson (born 1944) is a scholar of the religions and folklore of Korea. He is Emeritus Professor of Modern Korean Studies in the School of East Asian Studies at The University of Sheffield.
Grayson earned a BA in Anthropology from Rutgers University (1962–66), an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University (1966–68), an MDiv in Systematic Theology from Duke University (1968–71), and a PhD in the History of Religion from University of Edinburgh (1976–79).
Grayson served as a missionary of the United Methodist Church (USA) to South Korea between 1971 and 1987. During this time he taught religion at Kyungpook National University and Keimyung University.
In 1987 he moved to the University of Sheffield, where at the School of East Asian Studies, he taught Korean history and culture, and East Asian philosophy and religion. as first Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, Reader and finally Professor. He retired in 2009.
Grayson's research has focused on topics such as traditional Korean religion, Korean Christianity and Korean oral folklore and has been summarised as being focused on both "the diffusion of religion across cultural boundaries, and an analysis of the religious and intellectual conceptual framework of the Korean and East Asian peoples". His research is informed by his anthropological training and has been aided by fieldwork in Korea, Japan, and Okinawa.
A collection of Grayson's research notes and correspondence, from the time he spent in East Asia, is kept in the Special Collections of the University Library, University of Sheffield.
Grayson has served as President of the British Association for Korean Studies (BAKS), and Vice-President of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE).
Grayson was also President of the Folklore Society from to 2014 to 2017. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Grayson Source Accessed Aug 11, 2023]) +
James Low is a disciple and teacher in the Byangter and Khordong lineages of the late Chhimed Rigdzin Lama.
He began studying and practising Tibetan Buddhism in India in the 1960’s and received teachings from Kalu Rinpoche, Chatral Rinpoche, Kanjur Rinpoche and Dudjom Rinpoche. Having met his root teacher, Chhimed Rigdzin Lama (also known as C R Lama), he lived in his home in West Bengal, India for many years, serving him as required and being taught many aspects of the tradition. During this period in India James did several retreats and pilgrimages in the Himalayas. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, on his return to Europe, he also had teachings and guidance from Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche.
James translated many tantric texts and sadhanas with CR Lama who wanted texts from his lineages, Byangter and Khordong, to be available in English. These are used as practice texts by CR Lama’s disciples and have been translated into various European languages.
C R Lama asked James to teach in 1976 and later gave him the transmissions necessary to do this, together with full lineage authority. In particular, James was encouraged to give the traditional instructions using methods that enable people in the west to get the point. James has been teaching in this way for over twenty years.
James regularly teaches the principles of dzogchen in Europe and he publishes translations and commentaries from time to time. . . .
James studied at Edinburgh and other universities and has retired from his work in London as a Consultant Psychotherapist in the National Health Service. He is slowly winding down his private psychotherapy practice. He has taught on many psychotherapy trainings in Britain. ([https://simplybeing.co.uk/about-james-low-2/ Source Accessed Nov 29, 2023]) +
James Mark Shields is Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities and Asian Thought at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA), Japan Foundation Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kyoto, Japan), and Research Associate with the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, Harvard University. He was educated at McGill University (Canada), the University of Cambridge (UK), and Kyoto University (Japan). He conducts research on modern Buddhist thought, Japanese philosophy, comparative ethics, and philosophy of religion. He has published articles and translations in ''Asian Philosophy'', ''The Eastern Buddhist'', ''Japan Review'', ''Studies in Religion / Sciences religieuses'', ''Journal of Religion and Society'', ''Kultura i Politkya'', and ''Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions''. He is author of ''Critical Buddhism: Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought'' (Ashgate, 2011) and co-editor (with Victor Sōgen Hori and Richard P. Hayes) of ''Teaching Buddhism in the West: From the Wheel to the Web'' (Routledge, 2003). He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled ''Warp and Woof: Modernism and Progressivism in Japanese Buddhism, 1886–1936''. He is Associate Editor of the ''Journal of Buddhist Ethics'', and is on the editorial board of the ''Journal of Japanese Philosophy''. ([https://bucknell.academia.edu/JamesMarkShields Source Accessed Jan 15, 2020]) +
James Marks received a B.A. in Philosophy from Eugene Lang College The New School in 2009, and an M.T.S in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 2012. He is primarily interested in Indian Buddhist philosophy, especially concerning debates over the nature of the self, both within Buddhism and between Buddhist and other Indian philosophical traditions. He completed his dissertation in 2019.
Dissertation: "Playfighting: Encountering Aviddhakarna and Bhāvivikta in Śāntarakshita’s ''Tattvasamgraha'' and Kamalaśīla's ''Pañjikā''." 2019 ([https://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/people/james-marks Source Accessed Oct 14, 2025]) +
