Property:Bio
From Tsadra Commons
This is a property of type Text.
J
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]) +
A specialist in the study of pre-Tang Buddhism and Daoism, James Ware was the first student to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard in the field of Chinese studies. He completed his dissertation in 1932, on the representation of Buddhism in the historical chronicle of the Wei dynasty known as the Weishu. He then taught courses in the Chinese language and Chinese history at Harvard, and was, together with Serge Elisséeff, one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. In this capacity, he supervised the Chinese language program for much of the 1930s and 40s.
Much of the material for Ware’s early studies was drawn from the Weishu. He wrote on problems relating to the Toba rulers of the Wei, the history of Buddhism and Daoism in the Northern Dynasties, and the textual history of the ''Fanwang jing'' and other scriptures from the Buddhist canon. In the same years, he also published selected translations from several Buddhist sutras. He worked together with Serge Eliseeff to establish the ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' in 1936, and contributed numerous articles and book reviews to the journal over the course of the next decade. He also developed a series of Chinese language textbooks and wrote on aspects of modern Chinese linguistics.
In the latter years of his career, Ware turned his attention his attention to translating, primarily for a non-specialist audience. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he published selections from the Analects, Zhuangzi, and Mencius. His final significant work was a complete translation of Ge Hong’s fourth century ''Baopuzi'' (1967). ([https://ealc.fas.harvard.edu/james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021]) +
James Burnell Robinson, religious educator. National Endowment of the Humanities scholar, 1987. Senior warden vestry St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Cedar Falls, 1990. Member American Academy Religion, International Association Buddhist Studies, Tibet Society, Constantian Society, Sarmatian Society. +
James Whelan is a Cambridge graduate and a Buddhist scholar, translator and lawyer. He has practiced Buddhism since the 1960s and is a founding member of The Zen Trust, London. He continues to teach Sanskrit and Pali and is a member of The Buddhist Society in the UK. ([https://www.thebuddhistsociety.org/content/library/docs/2023_03/tbs_catalogue_2023.pdf Source Accessed Apr 30, 2023]) +
James Donald Whitehill is Associate professor at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. He has been the Director of the Columbia Zen Center since 1980. He is a member of the American Academy Religion, Association for Asian Studies, and the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. +
Jamie Cresswell was President of the European Buddhist Union from 2011 to 2017 and was elected Vice-President in 2017.
Jamie is a member of SGI-UK and the Network of Buddhist Organisations UK, which he represents at the EBU. He is director of the Centre for Applied Buddhism, a member of the European Council of Religious Leaders and a trustee of Religions for Peace, UK.
He has practised Buddhism for nearly 30 years and his Buddhist background includes a degree in Buddhist studies, as well as practice and study in many traditions and schools.
In his spare time Jamie sings with a male voice choir, attempts to compose music and walks in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside. ([http://europeanbuddhism.org/about/ebucouncil/ Source Accessed may 19, 2021]) +
Jamie is a graduate student in Tibetan Studies at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, where he is currently completing his MA thesis on the life of Gö Lotsawa Shönu Pal. Jamie provides administrative support for the Translation Teams and is our source text researcher and catalogue curator.
Jamie’s research focuses mainly on the philosophical literature of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the different Tibetan Madhyamaka interpretations, Tibetan biography writing, the Kadam teachings on mind training (blo sbyong), and experiential songs (mgur). He has also contributed to several translation projects, such as Study Buddhism (Berzin Archives) and 84000.
Jamie currently lives in Vienna, where he has found the ideal environment to spend his free time pursuing his interest in classical music and playing the double bass. ([https://www.khyentsevision.org/team/jamie-creek/ Source Accessed Sep 7, 2021]) +
Born in 1930, Khensur Jampa Tegchok became a monk at the age of eight. He studied major Buddhist treatises at Sera Monastic University in Tibet for fourteen years before fleeing his homeland in 1959. The former abbot of the Jé College of Sera Monastic University in India, he was also a beloved teacher at several FPMT centers including the Masters Program at Instituto Lama Tsongkhapa in Italy, Land of Medicine Buddha in California, and Nalanda Monastery in France. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/khensur-jampa-tegchok/ Wisdom Publications]) +
Jamyang Donyo Gyeltsen, the Thirteenth Sakya Tridzin, was the brother of the Twelfth Sakya Tridzin, Namkha Lekpai Gyeltsen, and the son of the Eleventh. He held the seat of Sakya from 1343 to his death two years later. +
A disciple of Lorepa, Jamyang Gonpo was the main transmitter of the Lower Drukpa school. He was also an important teacher of the Chod tradition. +
Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro was one of the most influential religious teachers in Kham in the first half of the twentieth century. One of multiple reincarnations of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, he served as head of Dzongsar Monastery, which he enlarged, founding the monastic college, Khamshe, in 1918. Chokyi Lodro fled Kham in 1955 during the Communist takeover of Tibet, settling in Sikkim, where he passed away in 1959. ([http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Jamyang-Khyentse-Chokyi-Lodro/9990 Source: Treasury of Lives]). Also see his collected works at [https://khyentselineage.tsadra.org/index.php/%27jam_dbyangs_mkhyen_brtse_chos_kyi_blo_gros Tsadra Foundation's Khyentse Lineage webiste] and the translations of his texts at [https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/jamyang-khyentse-chokyi-lodro/ Lotsawa House]. +
