Hopkins, J.

Hopkins, J. on the DRL

Authors of English Works • Professors Emeritus • Translators

Jeffrey Hopkins

Dates

Birth:	1940

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Contact information

Website:	http://www.uma-tibet.org/; http://uma-tibet.org/edu/gomang/gomang_first.php; http://www.uvatibetcenter.org/?page_id=1933;

About

Primary Language:	English
Translates from:	Tibetan
Translates to:	English

Primary Affiliation (Workplace)

UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies

Secondary Affiliation

University of Virginia

Religious Affiliation

Geluk; Tibetan Buddhism

Teachers

Dalai Lama, 14th

Current projects

• Gomang Tradition Translation Project at the UMA Institute
  

PhD University

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Education

1973 - Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Biographical Information

Jeffrey Hopkins is Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia where he taught Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language for thirty-two years from 1973. He received a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America in Freewood Acres, New Jersey, USA (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey), and received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin in 1973.
      For ten years, from 1979 to 1989, Hopkins served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s chief interpreter into English on lecture tours. At the University of Virginia, he founded the largest academic program in Tibetan and Buddhist studies in the West, and served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. He has published forty-eight books, some of which have been translated into a total of twenty-two languages. He published the first translation of the foundational text of the Jo-nang school of Tibetan Buddhism in Mountain Doctrine: Tibet’s Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix. He has translated and edited sixteen books from oral teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the last four being How to See Yourself as You Really Are; Becoming Enlightened; How to Be Compassionate; and The Heart of Meditation: Discovering Innermost Awareness.
      He is the President and Founder of the UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies. (Source Accessed Jul 22, 2020)

Curriculum Vitae available for download here

Links

Wiki Pages

• Hopkins, J. on the DRL
• Hopkins, J. on the LIB
• Hopkins, J. on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
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All beings have Buddha-nature
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If "Qualified", explain:
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Which Wheel Turning
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Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
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Zhentong vs Rangtong
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Promotes how many vehicles?
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Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
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What is Buddha-nature?
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Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
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Causal nature of the vajrapāda
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Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.