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Jingxi Zhanran. (J. Keikei Tannen; K. Hyŏnggye Tamyŏn 荊溪湛然 (711–782). Chinese monk who is the putative ninth patriarch of the Tiantai zong; also known as Great Master Miaole (Sublime Bliss) and Dharma Master Jizhu (Lord of Exegesis). Zhanran was a native of Jingqi in present-day Jiangsu province. At age nineteen, Zhanran became a student of the monk Xuanlang (673–754), who had revitalized the community on Mt. Tiantai. After Xuanlang's death, Zhanran continued his efforts to unify the disparate regional centers of Tiantai learning under the school's banner; for his efforts, Zhanran is remembered as one of the great revitalizers of the Tiantai tradition. A gifted exegete who composed numerous commentaries on the treatises of Tiantai Zhiyi, Zhanran established Zhiyi's ''Mohe zhiguan'', ''Fahua xuanyi'', and ''Fahua wenju'' as the three central texts of the Tiantai exegetical tradition. His commentary on the ''Mohe zhiguan'', the ''Mohe zhiguan fuxing zhuanhong jue'', is the first work to correlate ''zhiguan'' (calmness and insight) practice as outlined by Zhiyi with the teachings of the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'' ("Lotus Sūtra"), the central scripture of the Tiantai tradition. In his ''Jingang Pi'' ("Adamantine Scalpel"), Zhanran argued in favor of the controversial proposition that insentient beings also possess the buddha-nature (''foxing''). Zhanran's interpretation of Tiantai doctrine and the distinction he drew between his own tradition and the rival schools of the Huayan zong and Chan zong set the stage for the internal Tiantai debates during the Song dynasty between its on-mountain (shanjia) and off-mountain (shanwai) branches. Zhanran lectured at various monasteries throughout the country and was later invited by emperors Xuanzong (r. 712–756), Suzong (r. 756–762), and Daizong (r. 762–779) to lecture at court, before retiring to the monastery Guoqingsi on Mt. Tiantai. (Source: "Jingxi Zhanran." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 391–92. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Jingying Huiyuan. (J. Jōyō Eon; K. Chǒngyǒng Hyewǒn 淨影慧遠) (523-592). Chinese monk and putative Di lun exegete during the Sui dynasty. Huiyuan was a native of Dunhuang. At an early age, he entered the monastery of Guxiangusi in Zezhou (present-day Shanxi province) where he was ordained by the monk Sengsi (d.u.). Huiyuan later studied various scriptures under the vinaya master Lizhan (d.u.) in Ye, the capital of the Eastern Wei dynasty. In his nineteenth year, Huiyuan received the full monastic precepts from Fashang (495-580), ecclesiastical head of the saṃgha at the time, and became his disciple. Huiyuan also began his training in the Dharmaguptaka "Four-Part Vinaya" (Sifen lü) under the vinaya master Dayin (d.u.). After he completed his studies, Huiyuan moved back to Zezhou and began his residence at the monastery Qinghuasi. In 577, Emperor Wu (r. 560-578) of Northern Zhou began a systematic persecution of Buddhism, and in response, Huiyuan is said to have engaged the emperor in debate; a transcript of the debate, in which Huiyuan defends Buddhism against criticisms of its foreign origins and its neglect of filial piety, is still extant. As the persecution continued, Huiyuan retreated to Mt. Xi in Jijun (present-day Henan province). Shortly after the rise of the Sui dynasty, Huiyuan was summoned by Emperor Wen (r. 581-604) to serve as overseer of the saṃgha (shamendu) in Luozhou (present-day Henan). He subsequently spent his time undoing the damage of the earlier persecution. Huiyuan was later asked by Emperor Wen to reside at the monastery of Daxingshansi in the capital. The emperor also built Huiyuan a new monastery named Jingyingsi, which is often used as his toponym to distinguish him from Lushan Huiyuan. Jingying Huiyuan was a prolific writer who composed numerous commentaries on such texts as the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'', ''Mahāparinirvānasūtra'', ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', ''Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra'', ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra'', ''Shidi jing lun'' (Vasubandhu's commentary on the ''Daśabhūmikasūtra''), ''Dasheng qixin lun'', and others. Among his works, the ''Dasheng yi zhang'' ("Compendium of the Purport of Mahāyāna"), a comprehensive encyclopedia of Mahāyāna doctrine, is perhaps the most influential and is extensively cited by traditional exegetes throughout East Asia. Jingying Huiyuan also plays a crucial role in the development of early Pure Land doctrine in East Asia. His commentary on the ''Guan Wuliangshou jing'', the earliest extant treatise on this major pure land scripture, is critical in raising the profile of the ''Guan jing'' in East Asian Buddhism. His commentary to this text profoundly influenced Korean commentaries on the pure land scriptures during the Silla dynasty, which in turn were crucial in the evolution of Japanese pure land thought during the Nara and Heian periods. Jingying Huiyuan's concept of the "dependent origination of the tathāgatagarbha" (rulaizang yuanqi)—in which tathāgatagarbha is viewed as the "essence" (ti) of both nirvāṇa and saṃsāra, which are its "functioning" (yong)—is later adapted and popularized by the third Huayan patriarch, Fazang, and is an important precursor of later Huayan reconceptualizations of dependent origination (''pratītyasamutpāda''; see fajie yuanqi). (Source: "Jingying Huiyuan." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 392. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
NAGRU GESHE GELEK JINPA was born in Kham, East Tibet in 1967. He grew up in a nomad family, spending his childhood much as any young Tibetan would, tending the animals and working on the farm. Geshe Gelek also attended a local school, where he learnt to read and write. In 1986 H. E. Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche visited East Tibet, and it was then that Geshe Gelek made up his mind to take vows from him and become a monk; he was nineteen at the time.
As a novice, he began his monastic studies in Thongdrol Ritröd Monastery, starting with the Preliminary practices, and going on to receive teachings on Dzogchen as well as many other aspects of the Bön tradition. He later stayed in Tsedrug Gompa for a year and studied philosophy with the renowned scholar Lopon Drangsong Yungdrung in Lungkar Gompa for two years. Geshe Gelek completed several personal retreats, including a 49 day dark retreat and a 100 day Tummo retreat. He also practised Trekchö and Thögal.
In 1988 he began studying Bön philosophy, alongside Tantra and Dzogchen. Having begun studying Bön philosophy in 1988, Geshe Gelek decided to continue his studies with the great Bön masters in exile in India and Nepal. In 1992 he managed to travel from Tibet to
Nepal where he spent some time with Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche before transferring to the new Menri monastery in Dolanji, India, where he continued his studies under the guidance of Menri Tridzin Lungtok Tenpi Nyima Rinpoche.
In 1994 Geshe Gelek returned to Nepal to the newly-established Triten Norbutse Monastery where he was able to receive many extremely important Dzogchen teachings from Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. It was during this time that Geshe Gelek began researching and writing his own books, including a treatise on Bön Vinaya, the History of Zhang Zhung (currently being translated into English by Prof. Charles Ramble), and the Bön Kanjyur (canon). The latter was published in Nepal in 2001.
From 1999-2000 Geshe Gelek collaborated with Prof. Nagano of the National Museum of Ethnology Osaka, Japan and Prof. Samten G. Karmay of INRS on a major project to catalogue the Bön canon.
Geshe Gelek received his Geshe degree from Triten Norbutse in 2001; his class was the first to graduate in Nepal for many centuries, and the final exam were held in the presence of H. H. Lungtok Tenpi Nyima Rinpoche, H.E. Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche and Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung. Like the others in his class, Geshe Gelek received his degree certificate from a representative of H. H. the Dalai Lama.
Later that year Geshe Gelek was invited to France by the Kalpa Group to participate in a scientific study of Tummo for Harvard University, USA. Together with two other Bönpo monks, he completed a full 100 day retreat during which he was monitored regularly by physicians and scientists to establish the physical effects of this practice of inner heat. It was during that time that Geshe Gelek struck up what was to become a lasting friendship with Dr. Charles Ramble, then head of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at Oxford University, UK (now professor at École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris).
In 2003-2005 Geshe Gelek collaborated with Dr. Ramble and the Kalpa Group on research into the history and culture of Zhang Zhung, and this led to a fieldtrip in the Mount Kailash region which culminated in the production of a documentary film In Search of Zhang Zhung (featured om this site) and a book The Sacred Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet; In Search of the Lost Kingdom of Bön, Abbeville Press, New York, London, 2005.
Further research followed in 2008 when the newly-formed Bönpo Mahasangha of Nepal, headed by Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung, asked him to undertake a survey of Bön peoples, temples and customs in various regions of Nepal. This led to the production of a documentary film Secrets of Mustang: Treasure of Bön (featured on this website) and a book, BÖN IN NEPAL: Traces of the Great Zhang Zhung Ancestors - The Light of the History of Existence (forthcoming).
In 2003/4 Geshe Gelek studied English in Oxford and in 2008 he was invited to participate at Hope University's Big Hope conference in Liverpool, UK. He has made invaluable contributions to several recent publications, such as Masters of the Zhang Zhung Nyengyud, Heart Essence of the Khandro: Experiential Inistructions on Bönpo Dzogchen - Thirty signs and Meanings from Women Lineage-Holders and other yet unpublished texts.
Since the establishment of Shenten Dargye Ling, Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche's international centre in France, in 2005, Geshe Gelek has spend many months based in Europe; he travels regularly to teach a growing number of students throughout Europe, as well as in the US. His lively, energetic teaching style and easy-going, compassionate nature are much appreciated by his Western students.
In 2013 he was inaugurated as Khenpo (Abbott) of Shenten Dargye Ling at a ceremony held in Triten Norbutse Monastery, Kathmandu.
Source: [http://www.yungdrungbon.co.uk/GesheGelekJinpa.html]
Jitāri. [alt. Jetāri] (T. Dgra las rnam rgyal) (fl. c. 940-980). Sanskrit proper name of the author of the ''Hetutattopadeśa'' and a number of short works on pramāṇa in the tradition that follows Dharmakīrti; later Tibetan doxographers (see siddhānta) characterize him as interpreting Dharmakīrti's works from a
Madhyamaka perspective, leading them to include him in a Yogācāra - Svātantrika - Madhyamaka school following the false aspect (alīkākara) position. A Jitāri also appears in the list of the eighty-four mahāsiddhas as a tantric adept; he is also listed as a teacher of Atiśa Dīpamkaraśrījñāna. (Source: "Jitāri." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 393. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Jizang. (J. Kichizō; K. Kilchang) (549–623). In Chinese, "Storehouse of Auspiciousness"; Chinese Buddhist monk of originally Parthian descent and exegete within the San lun zong, the Chinese counterpart of the Madhyamaka school of Indian thought. At a young age, he is said to have met the Indian translator Paramārtha, who gave him his dharma name. Jizang is also known to have frequented the lectures of the monk Falang (507–581) with his father, who was also [an] ordained monk. Jizang eventually was ordained by Falang, under whom he studied the so-called Three Treatises (San lun), the foundational texts of the Chinese counterpart of the Madhyamaka school: namely, the ''Zhong lun'' (''Mūlamadhyamakārikā''), ''Bai lun'' (*''Śataśāstra''), and ''Shi'ermen lun'' (*''Dvādaśamukhaśāstra''). At the age of twenty-one, Jizang received the full monastic precepts. After Falang’s death in 581, Jizang moved to the monastery of Jiaxiangsi in Huiji (present-day Zhejiang province). There, he devoted himself to lecturing and writing and is said to have attracted more than a thousand students. In 598, Jizang wrote a letter to Tiantai Zhiyi, inviting him to lecture on the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra''. In 606, Emperor Yang (r. 604–617) constructed four major centers of Buddhism around the country and assigned Jizang to one in Yangzhou (present-day Jiangsu province). During this period, Jizang composed his influential overview of the doctrines of the Three Treatises school, entitled the San lun xuanyi. Jizang's efforts to promote the study of the three treatises earned him the name "reviver of the San lun tradition." Jizang was a prolific writer who composed numerous commentaries on the three treatises, the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'', ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', ''Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra'', etc., as well as an overview of Mahāyāna doctrine, entitled the ''Dasheng xuan lun''. ("Jizang". In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 395. Princeton University Press, 2014)
Joan Jiko Halifax (born July 30, 1942) is an American Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist, civil rights activist, hospice caregiver, and the author of several books on Buddhism and spirituality. She currently serves as abbot and guiding teacher of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a Zen Peacemaker community which she founded in 1990. Halifax-roshi has received Dharma transmission from both Bernard Glassman and Thich Nhat Hanh, and previously studied with the Korean master Seung Sahn. In the 1970s she collaborated on LSD research projects with her ex-husband Stanislav Grof, in addition to other collaborative efforts with Joseph Campbell and Alan Lomax. She is founder of the Ojai Foundation in California, which she led from 1979 to 1989. As a socially engaged Buddhist, Halifax has done extensive work with the dying through her Project on Being with Dying (which she founded). She is on the board of directors of the Mind and Life Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the relationship of science and Buddhism. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Halifax Source Accessed July 24, 2023]) +
Joan Nicell was born in Montreal, Canada in 1950 and obtained a BS in physiotherapy from McGill University in 1982. In 1986 she traveled to Asia, and in Thailand participated in a ten-day Vipassana course. The next year she did the annual month-long Dharma course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. In February 1989 she received ''getsul'' ordination in Dharamsala from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Joan has lived and worked at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa since 1990, where from 1996 to the present she has acted as coordinator for the institute’s residential and on-line Masters Program and Basic Program. She studied and learned scriptural Tibetan at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa and Sera Je Monastery. Since 1994, she has been translating Tibetan texts into English for the institute’s long-term study programs, regular Dharma courses, and retreats. In January 2009 she was assigned the job of English translation coordinator for the new FPMT Translation and Editorial Committee.[http://www.chronicleproject.com/images/general/word_of_buddha/Bios%20022209.pdf Source] See also [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/joan-nicell/ the Wisdom Experience website] +
Joanna Janiszewska-Rain is a freelance translator, interpreter, and editor living in the Krakow metropolitan area. ([https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-janiszewska-rain-5478a9101/?originalSubdomain=pl Source Accessed Mar 18, 2021]) +
Joaquín Pérez-Remon was a Jesuit missionary in India who taught Oriental Philosophy and was the chair of the History of Religions at the Jesuit University of Deusto (Bilbao). He is the author of several books, including ''Misticismo Oriental y Misticismo Cristiano'' (Bilbao, 1985), ''The Self and the Production of Pleasure and Pain in Early Buddhism'' (A.E.O. 1981), and ''Self and Non-Self in Early Buddhism'' (De Gruyter, 1980). ([https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2035 Source Accessed Oct 7, 2020]) +
Jobst Koss is a psychotherapist and has been studying Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan language for over 25 years. He is the editor of several books on Buddhism. ([https://www.amazon.de/Die-Lebensf%C3%BChrung-Geiste-Erleuchtung-Bodhisattvacharyavatara/dp/3896202251/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3SSQKX67FGDJ1K93WVWH Source Accessed Jan 8, 2021]) +
Joerg Tuske is Professor of Philosophy at Salisbury University in Maryland. Originally from Hamburg, Tuske completed his undergraduate studies and MA in Philosophy at King’s College London, before studying Sanskrit at the University of Pune in India. Afterwards he took his MPhil and PhD at Cambridge. His main research interests are in Classical Indian Philosophy and in Philosophy of Mind. He edited ''Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics'', which was published by Bloomsbury in 2017. ([https://philosophynow.org/issues/132/Joerg_Tuske Source Accessed May 18, 2021]) +
Jogamuni Bajrācārya was a Nepalese scholar and translator. He was involved in Buddhist studies and contributed to the field of Sanskrit and Nepali literature. Bajrācārya published a work titled ''Asta Sahasrika'', which includes a chapter where Lord Buddha addresses Subhuti. He was also associated with the translation or interpretation of Buddhist texts, particularly those related to the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'', an important Mahayana Buddhist text.
Bajrācārya's notable works include:
*''Bodhi-parināmanā: manushyapisam āsikāyāyemāhgu'', published in Kathmandu in 1981.
*''Asta Sahasrika'', which contains discussions on Buddhist philosophy. +
Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern (6 April 1833 – 4 July 1917) was a Dutch linguist and Orientalist. In the literature, he is usually referred to as H. Kern or Hendrik Kern; a few other scholars bear the same surname. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Hendrik_Caspar_Kern Source Accessed Aug 11, 2021]) +
Johannes Nobel (25 June 1887 – 22 October 1960) was a German Indologist and Buddhist scholar.
[He] was born on 25 June 1887 in Forst (Lausitz). He studied Indo-European languages, Arabic, Turkish and Sanskrit at the University of Greifswald from 1907, then from 1908 at the Friedrich Wilhelms University Berlin. In 1911 he completed his PhD thesis on the history of the Alamkãraśāstra, and decided to work as a librarian. In 1915 he passed the library examinations and found employment at the Old Royal Library in Berlin. In the First World War, Nobel joined the Landsturm and was temporarily employed by the Supreme Army Command as chief interpreter for Turkish.
In March 1920, Nobel joined the Preußische Staatsbibliothek as a librarian and in the same year, he successfully defended his habilitation thesis, a work on Indian poetics. He received his teaching qualification in Indian philology at the University of Berlin in 1921. At the same time, he learned Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese and devoted himself to the research in Buddhist Studies.
In 1927, Nobel was appointed extraordinary professor in Berlin. On 1 April 1928 he accepted a professorship for indology at the University of Marburg, which he held until his retirement in 1955. He did not try to ingratiate himself with national socialism, although he had, in November 1933, been one of the signers of the confession of professors at German universities and colleges to Adolf Hitler and the national socialist state. His successor on the Marburg chair was Wilhelm Rau; Claus Vogel is one of Nobel's Marburg pupils.
Nobel's extensive studies and critical editions of Suvaraprabhāsasūtra (Golden Light Sutra), one of the most important Mahāyāna-Sūtras, appeared between 1937 and 1958. In 1925, Nobel published the translation of the Amaruśataka by Friedrich Rückert.
Nobel's study book, his personal files and some unpublished manuscripts, including a corrected German version of his habilitation thesis, were discovered in his former institute in 2008. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Nobel Source Accessed Jan 19, 2022])
Johannes Rahder (December 27, 1898 – March 3, 1988), Dutch Orientalist, professor of Japanese at the University of Leiden (1931–1946) and Yale University (1947–1965).
Rahder was born in Lubuk Begalung, the Dutch East Indies, now a subdistrict of Padang, where his father was governor of the west coast of Sumatra. The fact that he requested as a birthday present a library when he was five years old suggests that he was a precocious child.
He earned his doctorate at the University of Utrecht for an edition of the text of Daśabhûmikasûtra (1926). Because of his interest in Buddhism and linguistics, he not only studied Sanskrit and Pali, but also Chinese, Japanese and many other languages. After working for several years on the Buddhist Dictionary Hôbôgirin (published by the Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tokyo), he was appointed Professor of Sanskrit, Avestan, Old Persian and principles of Indo-Germanic linguistics at the University of Utrecht (1930).
In 1933, during one of his many visits to the Far East, Rahder shared a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway with poet Langston Hughes who characterized Rahder as "a famous authority on obscure Oriental languages," who, having lost his luggage, "had nothing with him but paper and pencils, not even a change of clothing for the trip across the Soviet Union." ("I Wonder as I Wander," Langston Hughes, Hill and Wang Publishers, pages 233-234, 1956 )
Barely a year later, he exchanged the chair for that in Japanese language and literature at Leiden University. In 1946 he resigned from his post at Leiden, and joined the faculty at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where he had been a visiting professor during 1937–1938. The following year he went to Yale University, where he was Professor of Japanese from 1947 until his retirement in 1965. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Rahder Source Accessed Aug 27, 2021]) +
John Abramson is retired and lives in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. He obtained an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology and Consciousness Studies in 2011 when Les Lancaster and Mike Daniels ran this course at Liverpool John Moores University. He is currently studying for a distance learning Buddhist Studies MA at the University of South Wales. ([http://www.integralworld.net/abramson2.html Source Accessed Apr 9, 2021]) +
John B. Carman in Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Religion Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School. +
John Blofeld was a British writer, public speaker, and Buddhist practitioner. After years of traveling through Asia and experiencing the spiritual culture of China and the Taoist eremites, he became a pupil of the Buddhist master Hsu Yun. Books he has written or translated include ''Beyond the Gods'', ''Secret and Sublime'', ''The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet'', and a translation of the ''I Ching''. He died in 1987. ([https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/236850/john-blofeld/ Source Accessed Jan 12, 2022]) +
John C. Huntington dedicated the past 45 years to the study of Buddhist art in all of its forms. His primary interests are the communication values of the various art forms, how the arts set the environment of attainment for the practitioner, and the practice methodologies that involve art as part of rituals and the like. He has taught at the Ohio State University since fall of 1970 and during his time there has helped build a flourishing program in Asian art history.
John Huntington is also both the principal photographer for and the Co-founding Director (with Susan L. Huntington) of the Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art at the Ohio State University. The archive has made available nearly two hundred thousand photographs and other resources to scholars and the interested public of Buddhist art from many areas of Asia. ([https://huntingtonarchive.org/about.php Source: Huntington Archive])
A List of Publications can be found here: https://huntingtonarchive.org/resources/JCHPublications.php +
Is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and the Founder of the Contemplative Sciences Center (uvacontemplation.org), of which he is currently the Coordinating Director of Yoga Programs. He is a longtime practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga for over twenty years, seventeen of which were under the direct guidance of Shri K. Pattabhi Jois. In 2003 he was honored to become one the few Certified teachers of Ashtanga Yoga worldwide. He lives with his wife and three children in Charlottesville, VA. ([https://menla.org/teachers/john-campbell/ Source Accessed July 6, 2023]) +
