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Meghan Barwick received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) at Thomas Jefferson University in 2020. She received her BA in Journalism with a minor in Studio Art from Lehigh University in 2015. She also participated in a program sponsored by the School for International Training (SIT) in 2014. While in this program, she lived with a host family in New Delhi, India, for over two months, studying Indian arts, Hindi, and Madhubani painting with an artist in the city. She attended lectures on music, painting, architecture, and the religion and politics of India. In addition she executed a research project on Shantideva, the eighth-century Buddhist scholar, entitled "Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara: An Internal Pilgrimage to Universal Peace and Compassion." ([https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanbarwick/ Adapted from Source Jan 12, 2021]) +
Candida Bastos is a translator of Buddhist works into Portuguese. She has translated a number of works by by Chagdud Tulku, including ''Portões da Prática Budista: Ensinamentos Essenciais de um Lama Tibetano'', ''O senhor da dança: a autobiografia de um lama tibetano'', ''Para Abrir o Coração: Treinamento para Paz'', ''Comentários sobre Tara Vermelha'', and ''Vida e morte no Budismo Tibetano''. She has also co-translated, with Manoel Vidal, ''O caminho do bodisatva'', a Portuguese translation of the revised edition of the English translation of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' made by the Padmakara Translation Group. She lives in São Paulo, Brazil. +
Martine Batchelor was born in France in 1953. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in Korea in 1975. She studied Zen Buddhism under the guidance of the late Master Kusan at Songgwang Sa monastery until 1984. From 1981 she served as Kusan Sunim's interpreter and accompanied him on lecture tours throughout the United States and Europe. She translated his book 'The Way of Korean Zen'. Following Master Kusan’s death she returned her nun’s vows and left Korea. She returned to Europe with her husband, Stephen, in 1985. She has worked as a lecturer and spiritual counsellor both at Gaia House and elsewhere in Britain. She was also involved in interfaith dialogue and was a Trustee of the International Sacred Literature Trust until 2000. Her latest book is ‘The Spirit of the Buddha’. With her husband she co-leads meditation retreats worldwide. She now lives in France. She speaks French, English and Korean and can read Chinese characters. She has written various articles for magazines on the Korean way of tea, Buddhism and women, Buddhism and ecology, and Zen cooking. She is interested in meditation in daily life, Buddhism and social action, religion and women's issues, Zen and its history, factual and legendary. ([https://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Ecology-Martine-Batchelor/dp/8120812468/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Source Accessed Feb 22, 2023]) +
Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. In particular, he regards the doctrines of karma and rebirth to be features of ancient Indian civilisation and not intrinsic to what the Buddha taught. Buddhism has survived for the past 2,500 years because of its capacity to reinvent itself in accord with the needs of the different Asian societies with which it has creatively interacted throughout its history. As Buddhism encounters modernity, it enters a vital new phase of its development. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism's role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer. ([https://www.stephenbatchelor.org/index.php/en/stephen Source Accessed Jan 12, 2021]) +
Christoph Baumer is a Swiss scholar and explorer. From 1984 onwards, he has conducted explorations in Central Asia, China and Tibet, the results of which have been published in numerous books, scholarly publications and radio programs. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Baumer Wikipedia]) +
Professor Achim Bayer teaches Buddhism at Kanazawa Seiryo University, Japan. His main fields of research are tantric Buddhism, Abhidharma systematics and Buddhist ethics. +
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]) +
Manu Bazzano is a psychotherapist/supervisor in private practice and an internationally recognized author, lecturer, and facilitator. He is an associate tutor at Cambridge University. Among his books: ''Buddha is Dead'' (2006); ''Spectre of the Stranger'' (2012); ''After Mindfulness'' (2014); ''Therapy and the Counter-tradition'' (2016); ''Zen and Therapy'' (2017); ''Re-visioning Person-centred Therapy'' (2018); ''Nietzsche and Psychotherapy'' (2019). He is a regular contributor to several academic journals and magazines. ([https://books.google.com/books/about/Re_Visioning_Existential_Therapy.html?id=i1aFzQEACAAJ&source=kp_author_description Source Accessed Jan 7, 2021]) +
A student of Dkon mchog 'byung gnas. He had a student named Seng+ge ba rgyal ba'i rdo rje. +
There seems to be some confusion regarding this figure, and he is likely conflated with a later figure of the same name on his BDRC page, namely the Tertön Dudjom Rolpa Tsal that was a student of Dzogchen Khenpo Padma Vajra and teacher to Kathok Situ Chökyi Gyamtso and others. The Dudjom Rolpa Tsal whose Red Garuda treasure is included in the Terdzö, seems to have lived circa the 17th-18th centuries. Kongtrul doesn't give much details in his brief biography of him, other than that Kathok Rigdzin seems to have met him in his younger years. However, in the addendum included by Kongtrul in the text found in the Terdzö, which delineates the lineage from which he received this particular treasure, it is clear that this figure lived a couple generations before Kongtrul. The text in question comes from the Tertön's student Drime Zhingkyong (b. 1724), whom was the son of Chöje Lingpa and the teacher of several prominent lamas, such as Kunzang Ngedön Wangpo and Getse Mahāpaṇḍita, that lived toward the second half of the 18th century. Therefore, the BDRC page in which we find the Tertön's collected works is inaccurate in its biographical details and subsequently in the associated persons, all of which are related to the later Dudjom Rolpa Tsal that lived in the 18-19th centuries. However, Jeff Watt's description on HAR of the image included here does seem to reference the correct Dudjom Rolpa Tsal, a.k.a. Pema Chögyal. In this image we find Drime Zhingkyong depicted as a disciple of the Tertön. +
Samuel Beal (27 November 1825, in Devonport, Devon – 20 August 1889, in Greens Norton, Northamptonshire) was an Oriental scholar, and the first Englishman to translate directly from the Chinese the early records of Buddhism, thus illuminating Indian history. [Beal] was born in Devonport, Devon, and went to Kingswood School and Devonport. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1847. He was the son of a Wesleyan minister, reverend William Beal; and brother of William Beal and Philip Beal who survived a shipwreck in Kenn Reef. From 1848 to 1850 he was headmaster of Bramham College, Yorkshire. He was ordained deacon in 1850, and priest in the following year. After serving as curate at Brooke in Norfolk and Sopley in Hampshire, he applied for the office of naval chaplain, and was appointed to H.M.S. ''Sybille'' (1847) during the China War of 1856–58. He was chaplain to the Marine Artillery and later to Pembroke and Devonport dockyards 1873–77. In 1857, he printed for private circulation a pamphlet showing that the Tycoon of Yedo (i.e. Tokugawa shōgun of Edo), with whom foreigners had made treaties, was not the real Emperor of Japan. In 1861 he married Martha Ann Paris, 1836–81. In September 1872 he was appointed to examine the Buddhist Chinese books in the India Office Library, London. Of the Chinese language books held by the library, Beale found 72 Buddhist compilations across 112 volumes. His research illustrated key philosophical differences between Indian and Chinese Buddhism. An example was the Chinese version of the Indian Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta. Beale's exegesis of the Chinese narrative revealed a key doctrinal divergence from the Indian version, and therefore between Northern and Southern Asian Buddhism, namely that Nirvana is not the cessation of Being but its perfection. He retired from the navy in 1877, when he was appointed Professor of Chinese at University College, London. He was Rector of Falstone, Northumberland 1877–80; Rector of Wark, Northumberland 1880–88; and of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire, 1888–89. He was awarded DCL (Durham) in 1885 "in recognition of the value of his researches into Chinese Buddhism." Beale's reputation was established by his series of works which traced the travels of the Chinese Buddhists in India from the fifth to the seventh centuries AD, and by his books on Buddhism, which have become classics.
In 1874, Beale requested a Japanese copy of the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka, the sacred books of Chinese and Japanese Buddhists, from Japanese ambassador Iwakura Tomomi. The copy was deposited at the India Office Library in 1875. This was the first time that the work became available in the West. Beal finished cataloging the books in June 1876. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beal Source Accessed Aug 16, 2021])
Heinz Bechert (born June 26, 1932 in Munich , † June 14, 2005 in Göttingen) was a German Indologist and Buddhologist.
From 1965 to 2000, Bechert held the professorship in Indology at the University of Göttingen. In 1971, on his initiative, the former "Indological Seminar" was renamed "Seminar for Indology and Buddhist Studies."
Bechert's main research areas were Indology and Buddhism, with a focus on Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and Nepal. In addition, he dealt with Buddhist Sanskrit tradition in Central Asia as well as the political and social significance of the Buddhist religious community up to the present day.
His language skills included Sanskrit, Middle Indian languages (Pali, several Prakrits), Tibetan, Sinhala and Burmese.
He published numerous scientific papers and works. Together with Ernst Waldschmidt, he was the editor of the ''Sanskrit dictionary of Buddhist texts from the Turfan finds''. ([https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Bechert Source Accessed Sep 9 2021]) +
Beckwith has taught at IU for 45 years, in which time he has developed 48 distinct courses. He is one of the most prolific and versatile researchers in the field of Central Eurasian studies. Beckwith is renowned for revolutionary scholarship that reshapes understanding of how, why and when the Central Eurasian steppe peoples from Eastern Europe to East Asia influenced the development of knowledge, religious beliefs and societies, not only within their homeland but in the neighboring peripheral cultures of Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia as well. His research focuses on the history of ancient and medieval Central Eurasia and the cultures of the peripheral peoples, as well as the linguistics of Aramaic, Chinese, Japanese, Koguryo, Old Tibetan, Scythian, Turkic, and other languages.
He has been named a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fulbright-Hays Fellow, and a Japan Foundation fellow and has had numerous visiting appointments around the United States and the world. He has authored 12 books and over 60 articles. ([https://hls.indiana.edu/faculty/beckwith-christopher.html Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023]) +
Robert Beer has studied and practiced Tibetan thangka painting for thirty years, including five years of study with master artists Jampa of Dharamsala and Khamtrül Rinpoche of Tashijong. Beer is one of the first Westerners to become actively involved in this art form. Over the last two decades he has concentrated on an extensive series of iconographical drawings depicting the major deities, lineage holders, and symbols that occur in the spectrum of Tibetan art. (Source: [https://www.shambhala.com/the-encyclopedia-of-tibetan-symbols-and-motifs.html Shanbhala Publications]) +
Zachary is currently a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. Zack began studying Tibetan in 2002. He has studied at Stanford University and at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. +
Christopher Bell, PhD, is an associate professor of religious studies at Stetson University. He received his bachelor of arts degree in creative writing and religions and his master of arts degree in religious studies from Florida State University. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Virginia, where his area of concentration has been in Tibetan and Buddhist studies. He has experience as a teaching assistant and as an instructor at both Florida State University and at the University of Virginia, as well as experience for one year as a teaching associate at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong. During his graduate program he was awarded a Fulbright Institute of International Education Graduate Fellowship for International Study and completed extensive multi-country field research in the Chinese cities of Xining, Chengdu, and Lhasa, Tibet, as well as in Dharamsala, India. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. ([https://www.stetson.edu/other/faculty/christopher-bell.php Source Accessed Oct. 31, 2023]) +
John Vincent Bellezza is an archaeologist and cultural historian specializing in the pre-Buddhist heritage of Tibet and the Western Himalaya. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tibet Center, University of Virginia, and the University of Bern, Switzerland, and has lived in high Asia for three decades. Since 1994, Bellezza has comprehensively surveyed ancient monuments and rock art on the uppermost reaches of the Tibetan plateau. He has also extensively studied archaic rituals, myths and narratives in Bon and Old Tibetan literature. In addition to nine books, Bellezza has written numerous academic and popular articles on topics pertaining to early Tibet. He is the first non-Tibetan to have explored both the geographic and ritual sources of each of the four great rivers that emerge from the Mount Kailas region. He also visited most major islands and headlands in the great lakes of Upper Tibet. Bellezza has also traveled widely on foot in the Western Himalayan regions of India and Pakistan. ([http://www.tibetarchaeology.com/about-the-author/ Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023]) +
David Bellos gained his doctorate in French literature from Oxford University (UK) and taught subsequently at Edinburgh, Southampton and Manchester before coming to Princeton in 1997. He worked first in nineteenth century studies, particularly on the novel and the history of literary ideas and then developed interests in post-war French writing and film. He is the translator and biographer of Georges Perec and has also written major studies of Jacques Tati and Romain Gary. A well-known translator, he is also the author of an irreverent introduction to translation studies, ''Is That A Fish in Your Ear?'' His most recent book, ''The Novel of the Century'', marks a return to nineteenth century France from a trans-national point of view. He has a joint appointment in French and Comparative Literature and is also Director of the PIIRS Graduate Fellows Program. He has won the French-American Foundation’s translation prize (1988), the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie (1994), the Man Booker International translator’s award (2005) and the Book Award of the American Library in Paris, and holds the rank of officier in the Orde national des Arts et des Lettres. He was the recipient of the 2019 Howard T. Berhman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities. ([https://fit.princeton.edu/people/david-bellos Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023]) +
Cecil Bendall (1 July 1856 – 14 March 1906) was an English scholar, a professor of Sanskrit at University College London from 1895 to 1902 and later at the University of Cambridge from 1903 until his death.
Bendall was educated at the City of London School and at the University of Cambridge, achieving first-class honours in the Classical Tripos in 1879 and the Indian Languages Tripos in 1881. He was elected to a fellowship at Gonville and Caius College.
From 1882 to 1893 he worked at the British Museum in the department of Oriental Manuscripts (now part of the British Library).
In 1894–1895 he was in Nepal and Northern India collecting oriental manuscripts for the British Museum. During the winter 1898–1899 he returned to Nepal and together with pandit Hara Prasad Shastri and his assistant pandit Binodavihari Bhattacharya from the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, the team registered and collected information from palm-leaf manuscripts in the Durbar Library belonging to Rana Prime Minister Bir Shumsher J. B. Rana, and here he found the famous historical document Gopal Raj Vamshavali, describing Nepal's history from around 1000 to 1600. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Bendall Adapted from Source Mar 18, 2021]) +
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]) +
David Bennett first became involved in Buddhism in 1975 at Samye Ling Buddhist Centre in Scotland. After studying with various teachers he met Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX in 1981 in Australia and continued studying and practicing under his guidance until Traleg passed away in 2012. David was Vice-President of Traleg’s main Centre E-Vam Institute in Melbourne Australia for many years. He works as a graphic designer and has used these skills to contribute to Traleg Rinpoche’s ongoing activities since joining the Centre. ([https://www.shogam.com/project/david-bennett/ Source Accessed Dec 6, 2023]) +
Yael Bentor is a senior lecturer of Indian and Tibetan Studies in the departments of Comparative Religion and Asian Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her current research interests are the dynamics of the evolution of tantric traditions in Tibet during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, focusing on the creation stage of the Guhyasamāja Tantra. She is the author (with Penpa Dorjee) of [[The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments]]: Explanation of the Creation Stage of the Guhyasamāja, King of All Tantras (AIBS, 2013) and [[A Classical Tibetan Reader]]: Selections from Renowned Works with Custom Glossaries (Wisdom, 2013). ([http://www.as.huji.ac.il/user/287 Source]) +
AY\E-SOPHIE BENTZ is a teaching assistant at the Graduate Institute of International
and Development Studies in Geneva. Her research focuses on the politics of the
Tibetan diaspora. +
Samuel Bercholz is the founder and editor-in-chief of Shambhala Publications. +
Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (/bərˈdjɑːjɛf, -jɛv/; Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев; 18 March [O.S. 6 March] 1874 – 24 March 1948) was a Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialist who emphasized the existential spiritual significance of human freedom and the human person. Alternative historical spellings of his surname in English include "Berdiaev" and "Berdiaeff", and of his given name "Nicolas" and "Nicholas". Russian paleontologist and Christian apologist Alexander V. Khramov (Borissiak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ph.D. from Moscow University) attributes his ideas about an atemporal human fall to Berdyaev and Evgenii Nikolaevitch Troubetzkoy. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Berdyaev Source Accessed June 1, 2023]) +
Douglas L. Berger is Professor of Comparative Philosophy at Leiden University in the Netherlands. His primary areas of research and teaching are classical Brāhmiṇical and Indian Buddhist thought, Classical Chinese philosophy, and cross-cultural
philosophical hermeneutics. He is the author of ''Encounters of Mind: Luminosity and Personhood in Indian and Chinese Thought'' (SUNY Press, 2015), ''"The Veil of Māyā:" Schopenhauer’s System and Early Indian Thought'' (Global Academic Publications, 2004), and coeditor, with JeeLoo Liu, of ''Nothingness in Asian Philosophy'' (Routledge, 2014). He has authored dozens of essays and book chapters on the areas of his research and is chief editor of the University of Hawai'i Press book series "Dimensions of Asian Spirituality." He has also served as the president of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (2014–2016). (Source: [https://research.tsadra.org/index.php/Ethics_without_Self,_Dharma_without_Atman Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman]) +
Alan J. Berkowitz was the Susan W. Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages and Professor of Chinese at Swarthmore.
Berkowitz, who chaired Asian Studies and served as the Chinese section head for 15 years, joined the Swarthmore faculty in 1989 when Chinese was the smallest section of Modern Languages & Literatures (MLL). As the sole professor of Chinese, he exercised wise leadership and worked tirelessly to make the fledgling section into a vibrant program and became its first tenured professor. Chinese is now the second largest program in MLL after Spanish. ([https://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/memory-alan-berkowitz Source Accessed June 2, 2023]) +
Dr. Stephen Berkwitz is an expert in religious studies with a special focus on South Asian religions. Since 2001, Berkwitz has published dozens of publications relating to Buddhism and South Asian culture. His books include Routledge Handbook of Theravada Buddhism, co-ed. w/ Ashley Thompson (Routledge, 2022) and Buddhist Poetry and Colonialism: Alagiyavanna and the Portuguese in Sri Lanka (Oxford University Press, 2013).
He is the department head of religious studies at Missouri State University. He serves as series editor for the Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism series, as well as on the editorial board of the journals "Religion," "Journal of Global Buddhism" and "Buddhist Studies Review." Berkwitz has received several fellowships to conduct research in Sri Lanka, Germany and Portugal, and he holds several professional memberships relating to Asian Studies and Buddhism. +
Lopön Helen Berliner has been a student of Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche since 1994. From 1970-87, she was a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition; and has been fortunate to receive teachings and empowerments from masters of the four great lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. Earlier training in wisdom traditions, East and West, provided the foundation for her path. Ever grateful for the celebration of dharma in the western world, she has worked as editor and/or indexer of books by authors including Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Ane Pema Chödren, and others. Lopön Helen has degrees in fine arts and psychology, a master’s in Buddhist Studies specializing in environmental psychology, and is the author of ''Enlightened by Design''. As a teacher of Buddhism and contemplative disciplines for over forty years, she delights in sharing the magic, challenges, and ubiquitous potential of the path of practice. ([https://mindroloselling.org/programs-classes/lopons/ Source Accessed Jan 7, 2021]) +
Christian Bernert (MA) comes from Austria where he studied Tibetology at the University of Vienna until 2009. He embarked on the Buddhist path in 1999 under the guidance of Khenchen Amipa Rinpoche. Since 2001 he has been studying at IBA, where he currently works as language program coordinator and translator. Christian is a founding member of the Chödung Karmo Translation Group. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/the-2014-tt-conference/ Source Accessed Jul 20, 2020])
His dissertation was published as a book-length translation: ''Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature: A Commentary on the Fourth Chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga'' (v v.1.27-95[a]). Kathmandu: Vajra Books, 2018. +
Alexander Berzin (born 1944) grew up in New Jersey, USA. He began his study of Buddhism in 1962 at Rutgers and then Princeton Universities, and received his PhD in 1972 from Harvard University jointly between the Departments of Sanskrit and Indian Studies and Far Eastern Languages (Chinese). Inspired by the process through which Buddhism was transmitted from one Asian civilization to another and how it was translated and adopted, his focus has been, ever since, on bridging traditional Buddhist and modern Western cultures.
Dr. Berzin was resident in India for 29 years, first as a Fulbright Scholar and then with the Translation Bureau, which he helped to found, at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in Dharamsala. While in India, he furthered his studies with masters from all four Tibetan Buddhist traditions; however, his main teachers have been His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. Practicing under their supervision, he completed the major meditation retreats of the Gelug tradition.
For nine years, he was the principal interpreter for Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, accompanying him on his foreign tours and training under him to be a Buddhist teacher in his own right. He has served as occasional interpreter for H.H. the Dalai Lama and has organized several international projects for him. These have included Tibetan medical aid for victims of the Chernobyl radiation disaster; preparation of basic Buddhist texts in colloquial Mongolian to help with the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia; and initiation of a Buddhist-Muslim dialogue in universities in the Islamic world.
Since 1980, Dr. Berzin has traveled the world, lecturing on Buddhism in universities and Buddhist centers in over 70 countries. He was one of the first to teach Buddhism in most of the communist world, throughout Latin America and large parts of Africa. Throughout his travels, he has consistently tried to demystify Buddhism and show the practical application of its teachings in daily life.
A prolific author and translator, Dr. Berzin has published 17 books, including Relating to a Spiritual Teacher, Taking the Kalachakra Initiation, Developing Balanced Sensitivity, and with H.H. the Dalai Lama, The Gelug-Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra.
At the end of 1998, Dr. Berzin returned to the West with about 30,000 pages of unpublished manuscripts of books, articles, and translations he had prepared, transcriptions of teachings of the great masters that he had translated, and notes from all the teachings he had received from these masters. Convinced of the benefit of this material for others and determined that it not be lost, he named it the “Berzin Archives” and settled in Berlin, Germany. There, with the encouragement of H. H. the Dalai Lama, he set out to make this vast material freely available to the world on the Internet, in as many languages as possible.
Thus, the Berzin Archives website went online in December 2001. It has expanded to include Dr. Berzin’s ongoing lectures and is now available in 21 languages. For many of them, especially the six Islamic world languages, it is the pioneering work in the field. The present version of the [https://studybuddhism.com/ website] is the next step in Dr. Berzin’s lifelong commitment to building a bridge between the traditional Buddhist and modern worlds. By guiding the teachings across the bridge and showing their relevance to modern life, his vision has been that they would help to bring emotional balance to the world.
([https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019])
Click here for a list of Alexander Berzin's [https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin/published-works-of-dr-berzin publications]
Professor Bessenger earned her masters and doctorate degrees from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
As an undergraduate she designed a major in Anthropology and Asian studies to complete her degree at Mills College in Oakland, California, during which time she also participated in the School for International Training's Tibetan Studies study abroad program. Her doctoral training is in the History of Religions, with areas of expertise in Buddhist Studies, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Hinduism and Chinese religions.
Dr. Bessenger lived for a year at Tibet University in Lhasa, Tibet, and received a Fulbright-Hayes to conduct research among Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal. Her current research is on the Tibetan saint Sonam Peldren; this research is culminating in a book, tentatively titled Echoes of Enlightenment: The Lives of Sonam Peldren, under contract with Oxford University Press.
At Randolph College Dr. Bessenger teaches courses in the history and the auto/biographical culture of Buddhism, gender and Buddhism, the history and visual culture of Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhist culture, and Chinese religions. She enjoys exposing Randolph students to Asian religious thought, and is fascinated by the many ways human beings publicly and privately think about and negotiate this thing called "religion."
Source [http://web.randolphcollege.edu/academics/majors/view_faculty.asp?department=relg] +
Jonathan Best received his PhD from Harvard University in 1976; unusual for its time it was a joint degree from the Department of Fine Arts and the Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations. Subsequently he has taught East Asian art history at the University of Virginia and Wesleyan University, but his research and publications—all focused on early Korea—have addressed religious history, diplomatic and political history, as well as art history. His current research project is an investigation of the manifold chronological problems in the earliest chronicles of Korea and Japan, the ''Samguk sagi'' and the ''Nihon shoki''. Having retired from teaching at Wesleyan in July 2014, he is now happily focused on this intriguing and multidimensional historiographic puzzle. In part preparatory to the four-volume study projected as the culmination of this research program, he published ''A History of the Early Korean Kingdom of Paekche—together with an annotated translation of the Paekche Annals of the Samguk sagi'' (Harvard University East Asia Center, 2006). In addition to enjoying all the rights and privileges attendant to being an emeritus professor at Wesleyan, he is currently an Associate in Research at Yale, a member of the Steering Committee for the Early Korea Project at Harvard (now the Cambridge Institute for the Study of Korea or CISK), and a Member of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. ([https://ceas.yale.edu/people/jonathan-best Source Accessed Sept 10, 2020]) +
Stephan V. Beyer, Ph.D., J.D., is a well-known writer and speaker on shamanism and spirituality. He is also a community builder, peacemaker, and carrier of council. He has been trained and certified in many areas of circle processes, mediation, and nonviolence and has offered peacemaking workshops to a wide variety of audiences, from therapists to theologians, and at Montessori, charter, alternative, and public schools. He has served as a Lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice at Chicago State University, teaching undergraduate courses and graduate seminars in restorative justice and in the theory and practice of nonviolent resistance. He lives in Chicago. ([https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Stephan-V-Beyer/1382842937 Source Accessed May 11, 2021]) +
Durga Mohan Bhattacharya was an Indian scholar of Sanskrit. He had served as a professor of Sanskrit at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta.
He was a key figure in reviving many manuscripts of the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā and its ancillary literature like the Āṅgirasakalpa after painstaking search over years in Orissa and south-west Bengal. Durgamohan Bhattacharya's discovery of a living tradition of the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā, unknown until then, was hailed in the Indological world as epoch making. Ludwig Alsdorf went so far as to say that it was the greatest event in Indology. Bhattacharya died in 1965 leaving his edition of the text incomplete. This task was completed by his son Dipak, whose critical edition of the first 18 kāṇḍas was published by the Asiatic Society, Calcutta in three volumes in 1997, 2008 and 2011.
'''Early Life'''<br>
In the early 1900 he with other members of his family, migrated to Sahanagar, Lalbag in the district of Murshidabad. The family was poor and could not send its young children to an English medium school. His early education was derived from tols and chatuspathis, where the main subjects taught were Bengali and Sanskrit, the medium of education primarily being Bengali. Durgamohan was an exceptionally brilliant student and by the year 1915 he had appeared at several Sanskrit Upadhi examinations and topped the list of candidates for the several examinations on Sanskrit conducted by the Government of Bengal. He acquired the highest degrees in Kavya, Sankhya and Purana and got the title of Bhagavataratna.
Durgamohan with his widowed mother (Sarada) and only younger brother moved to his maternal uncle's house in Calcutta. Coming to know about the keen desire of Durgamohan to study English, his senior maternal uncle took him to Suresh Chandra Kundu, then the headmaster of Town School, Calcutta, an institution of great reputation. It was an immense task for Durgamohan to achieve as he had already reached the age of 16 and he was required to complete the normal course of ten years in a single year. He successfully completed the task and in 1917 he sat for the Entrance Examination of the University of Calcutta and was declared successful, obtaining a place in the First Division of successful candidates.
The Intermediate Examination (F.A.) was achieved in 1919 at the Vidyasagar College, the B.A. Examination with a First Class honours Degree in Sanskrit from the Scottish Church College was gained in 1921 and the master's degree in Sanskrit was obtained in 1923 from the University of Calcutta.
'''Career'''<br>
After completing his studies in the University, Durgamohan decided to take up the educational line as his field of activities. Having served as a Professor of Sanskrit in the Narasinha Dutt College of Howrah for some time, he joined the Scottish Church College as a professor of Sanskrit and Bengali and eventually became the head of the department of Sanskrit in the early thirties. In 1952 he was inducted in the West Bengal Senior Educational Service as Professor of Vedic Language, Literature and Culture in the Postgraduate Training and Research Department of the Sanskrit College, which position he occupied till the date of his death.
He used to be invited by learned societies like the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the Asiatic Society of Bombay, the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, and others to deliver talks on specific topics particularly the Vedas. He was awarded gold medals by the Asiatic Societies for his services in the field of Sanskrit.
'''Work on Paippalāda-Saṃhitā'''<br>
He had come to infer from many sources that of the four Vedas, the Atharva Veda and its practice had not become extinct in India as many scholars of repute used to hold and propagate. To prove his conviction in this regard he visited a large number of places all over India, and, ultimately a few years before his death, he was able to locate a place in Orissa, Guhiapal to be precise where he found the Atharva Veda to be actively practiced and there he discovered several Oriya manuscripts in which the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā, one of the nine versions of the Atharva Veda was faithfully reproduced. The discovery was made known to the world and the belief about the extinction of the practice of Atharva Veda was proved incorrect. He was hailed for his painstaking effort and perseverance in the unearthing of the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā as an epoch making discovery.
He started serious work on the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā, and publications also started which received acclamations from scholars all over the world. But unfortunately Durgamohan fell ill with cancer and died on 12 November 1965. His task was completed by his son Dipak Bhattacharya whose critical edition of the first 18 kāṇḍas published by the Asiatic Society, Calcutta came out in three volumes in 1997, 2008 and 2011. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durga_Mohan_Bhattacharyya Adapted from Source Mar 25, 2022])
Kamaleswar Bhattacharya (born on August 29, 1928, died March 16, 2014) is a French Indianist and Sanskritist of Indian origin.
Kamaleswar Bhattacharya was born in August 1928 in a small village north of Dhaka, capital of present-day Bangladesh, he was educated in Calcutta, Paris and at the Sanskrit University of Varanasi. In September 1955, with a French government academic group, he came to France to work in the Indology sector. In February 1962 he obtained a doctorate of letters (State doctorate) with the "very honorable mention". Domiciled in France in Brunoy, he died on March 16, 2014 in Dhaka.
'''Area of advanced research '''<br>
His two important researches, ''Brahmanic religions in ancient Cambodia, according to Epigraphy and Iconography'' (1961) and ''Researches on the Vocabulary of Sanskrit Inscriptions of Cambodia'' (1964-1991), are considered by scholars of the sector as classics and exemplars of Khmerology. He checked and corrected for the editions the translations of the Cambodian Sanskrit inscriptions of Auguste Barth, Abel Bergaigne, Louis Finot and George Coedès, great French Sanskritists. He is one of the few scholars with acquired knowledge for such a difficult mission.
'''Great specialist in Buddhism'''<br>
After receiving his state doctorate, he turned to more classical branches of Indology, in particular philosophy. His long association with Louis Renou (1956 - 1966) formed his philological point of view and guided all his research. His book ''The Ātman - Brahman in Ancient Buddhism'' (1973), based on extensive studies of the Pali Canon and Sanskrit sources, is the result of his extensive research on Cambodia. And then he touched on late Buddhist philosophy including Madhyamaka philosophy and some aspects of Buddhist epistemology. His translation of ''Vigrahavyāvartanī'' with annotations and his articles on the grammatical elements of Nāgārjuna's thought can serve as models for scholars of future generations.
'''Rare logician of modern times'''<br>
For the past forty years he has published extensively on various aspects of Indian thought: philosophy, logic, semantics and poetry. He has amply completed his annotated translation concerning the Navya-Nyāya (New Logic), the Siddhañta lakṣaṇa prakaraṇa of the Tattvacintāmaṇi of Gangesa with the Dīdhiti of Raghunātha Śiromaṇi and the Țīkā of Jagadīśa Tarkālamkāra. He also published his edition of the ''Tattvacintāmaṇiprabhā'' (Anumānakhaṇḍa) of the Yajñapati Upādhyāya. This is the first commentary of the well-known ''Tattvacintāmaṇi''. In his research on the texts, he emphasized the close relationship between the science of grammar and philosophical thought in India.
'''Distinguished researcher and professor'''<br>
During his career, he held important chairs and received honorary awards. Thanks to the support of Louis Renou, he entered in 1960 as a research associate at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris where he retired in September 1996 to the rank of first-class research director. During this period he also taught as a visiting professor at Brown University (1967-1969), the University of Toronto (1977-1979), Viśva-Bhāratī University, Santiniketan (1980), and Adyar Library and Research. Center, Madras (1994-1995). After his retirement he was a Mercator-Gast professor at the University of Bonn in Germany. ([https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamaleswar_Bhattacharya Source Accessed Feb 23, 2023])
Vidhusekhar Bhattacharya was born in a traditional Sanskrit Pandit family at Harischandrapur village in MaIda district in 1878. In 1905, with the approval of Rabindranath, Bhupendranath Sanyal invited Vidhusekhar to join the asrama. His primary duty was to teach Sanskrit to Rathindranath and Santosh Majumdar, but he also taught the little boys of the school. Rabindranath was impressed with his knowledge in Sanskrit and encouraged him to learn Pali for a fruitful understanding of the Buddhist period. In 1919 when the regular teaching and higher studies programme was launched, Vidhusekhar took charge of the studies in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit. Later he became Principal of Vidya Bhavana college of higher studies and research. When Visva-Bharati was founded, Vidhusekhar selected the Vedic verse which was to become the motto: ''Yatra visvam bhavatyekaniam''. From 1936 to 1942, he was Professor of Sanskrit at Calcutta University and held the Asutosh Chair. In 1936 he was given the title Mahamahopadhyaya by the government. In 1957 Visva-Bharati conferred on him ''Desikottama'' in recognition of his contribution to Indological studies. ([http://www.visvabharati.ac.in/VidhusekharBhattacharyaSastri.html Source Accessed Jan 20, 2021]) +
Born on 6 January 1897 in a family devoted to Sanskrit learning, Bhattacharyya had his first lessons in Sanskrit with his father Maha-mahopadhyaya Haraprasad Shastri-a great scholar in different branches of Sanskrit literature and an ar,tiquarian. In 1919 he took a first class M.A. in Sanskrit from Calcutta University and in 1925 Ph. D., the first such. from Dacca University. While his father had guided him through the different branches of Sanskrit literature, young Bhattacharyya had in Professor Alfred Foucher his preceptor in matters relating to ancient art forms and archaeology of India. He spent some years studying Sanskrit manuscripts in Nepal. While just thirty he made his mark as a scholar of Tantra and Pratima.
In 1924 Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad, a great patron of learning and scholarship, took Bhattacharyya to Baroda to be the General Editor of Gaekwad's Oriental Series and after three years made him the Director of Oriental Institute. Baroda. As the General Editor of the Oriental Series and the Director of the Oriental Institute, Bhattacharyya showed extraordinary organizing abilities as well as erudition. Part of his time was devoted to lectures to degree students. The Gaekwad recognized his merits by conferring on him the titles of Rajya Ratna and Jnana Jyoti. He retired in 1952.
Among his publications are: ''The Indian Buddhist Iconography'' (Oxford 1924; revised edition Calcutta 1958); ''Sadhanamala'' (Vol. I Baroda 1925 and Vol. II Baroda 1928); ''Twn Vajrayana Works'' (Baroda 1929); ''Guhyasamaja Tantra'' (Baroda 1931}; ''An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism'' (Oxford 1932); and ''Nispannayogavali'' (Baroda 1949).
In his study of the Tantras Bhattacharyya began with no particular sympathy for the mystic practices and rituals as is evident from his earlier writings. With the progress of his studies in Brahmanical. Jain and Buddhist sources he came to an acceptance of the higher values of the Tantras. While he was among the first to assert that the Hindu Tantra borrowed much from the Vajrayana and even debased many Vajrayana practices. Bhattacharyya very firmly held that later Mahayana pantheon deliberately and consciously incorporated a number of Hindu deities. From medieval Hindu tradition he identified the Mahayana deity Prajna with the Hindu deity Sakti. He was as firm on this as about the nomenclature Ohyani Buddha being ancient and correct.
The symposium on Tantras opened in this number of the Bulletin will no doubt be poorer because Bhattacharyya can no longer join issue. He had also advised us to organize in our pages a probe into the nomenclature Dhyani Buddha. Namgyal Institute of Tibetology benefited much from his advice regarding identification of images and figures on scrolls. The publication RGYAN-DRUG MCHOG-GNYIS had his guidance as our next publication on iconography was to have the same.
In retirement that is since 1 952 Bhattacharyya spent his time on finding remedies and systematic cure for physical and mental ailments in the Tantric lore. A large number of difficult cases were cured. Bhattacharyya c!aimed to have freely used Hindu and Buddhist. Indian and Tibetan, formulae and spells He published some books on tele-therapy: The Science of Tridosha (New York 1951), Gem Therapy (Calcutta 1958: 1963). and Magnet Dowsing (Calcutta 1960), For strictly academic class he wrote a paper entitled "Scientific Background of the Buddhist Tantras" in Buddha Jayanti Special Number of the ''Indian Historical Quarterly'' (Calcutta 1956).
As an academician of highest discipline and as an authority on Indian esoteric systems and iconography Bhattacharyya was held in esteem in connected circles all over the world. Those who came into intimate contact with him found him more a Bodhisattva than a Pandita. ([https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_01_02_obituary.pdf Source Accessed Feb 24, 2024])
Venerable Saddhāloka was born in Germany in 1938. His mother passed away at his age of two; he then grew up in the loves of his father and paternal grandparents. Since childhood, he already had the character of a nature lover; he honoured the life of every creature around such as leaves, grass, and small animals like birds, livestock, and poultry. Being studious, he read a lot of books at a young age, especially the books concerning the Buddha's teachings.
In 1964, he was officially ordained as a novice (sāmaṇera) of the Theravāda tradition in the United Kingdom. His preceptor (upajjhāya) was a Sri Lankan master, Venerable Saddhātissa. He studied Buddhism in England for two years, then continued his study at Buddhist Centre in Canada for one year. Later, he went to Thailand to acquire more knowledge of Buddhist doctrine and some languages, Thai, Pāli, and Sanskrit, in order to study Buddhism directly from authentic scriptures. He also had a chance to practice meditation. He was staying in Thailand for a couple of years and was fully ordained as a bhikkhu there in 1967 with Venerable Buddhadāsa as his preceptor.
In 1969, he made up his decision to go to China to continue his studies, however he was not granted an entry visa at that time, so that he kept staying in Hong Kong. While being in Hong Kong, he taught Buddhism and treated patients with Chinese herbal medicines.
During 1970s, Venerable Saddhāloka translated Buddhist texts from Chinese language into English for a Buddhist magazine, Visakhapūjā. Some of his works are known as: The Question of Deva, The Discourse on the Foundation of Mindfulness (Chu Ching Nien), The Twelve Kings of Birth and Death: A Dialogue Between And Ha-Shan Shih-te (B.E. 2509 - 2516), v.v...
From 1982 to 1997, Venerable Saddhāloka, having compassion for the Vietnamese boatpeople being desperate and hopeless in closed camps and detention centers, did not mind long roads going back and forth to the centers with heavy loads of foods, beverages, medicines, books, etc. Everyday he got up in the early morning at three o’ clock to prepare then bring the goods to the people in needs. With bare-feet and shaved-head, on sunny or raining days, he patiently kept his routine, visiting the suffering people. In hot afternoons in summer seasons, his brown robes got wet with sweats, but his gentle smiles were always blown on his lips. For 16 years long, he was not only taking his great care of material needs for the detained refugees but also concerning about their spiritual practice, helping them learning the Buddha’s teachings and preserving Vietnamese culture. Therefore, Vietnamese boatpeople in Hong Kong affectionately call him as "Thay Tay Duc." ([https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/saddhaloka.pdf Source Accessed Aug 10, 2021])
Sumanapal Bhikkhu studies Buddhist Philosophy and Manuscriptology, History, and Philosophy. +
Shelly Bhoil is a Brazil-based writer from India. Her works include a poetry book ''An Ember from Her Pyre'' (Writers Workshop), and two reference books on Tibet—(co-editor) ''Negotiating Dispossession: Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage'' and (editor) ''Resistant Hybridities: New Narratives of Exile Tibet'' (forthcoming)—published by Lexington Books. ([http://lifeandlegends.com/katyayani-translated-by-shelly-bhoil/ Source Accessed Mar 10, 2023]) +
Somtso Bhum is a PhD candidate at Northwestern University. +
Nalini Bhushan's research addresses questions in the philosophy of mind and language, aesthetics, the philosophy of science, and 19th- and 20th-century Indian philosophy.
Bhushan is co-editor of Of Minds and Molecules: New Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry (Oxford University Press, 2000) and author of several articles in that field. She has also published articles in aesthetics and the philosophy of mind and language.
Bhushan is currently at work on several projects, including a recently completed book on the history of Indian philosophy in the 19th and 20th century (Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance, Oxford University Press, 2017); several essays on topics such as conceptions of suffering and evil in Colonial India; reworkings of scientific concepts, such as causality in Indian modernity; philosophical ideas in the work of American modernist novelist Willa Cather; and the work of modern Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil.
She teaches courses on Nietzsche, aesthetics, the philosophy of language, mind and science, cosmopolitanism and Indian philosophy. In addition to being a faculty member of the philosophy department, she is a member of the South Asia Concentration at Smith. ([https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/nalini-bhushan Source Accessed Feb 13, 2023]) +
Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia is currently a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at Grinnell College. He received his PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Delhi, and his current book project focuses on the modern history of Buddhism in Sikkim in a global context. +
Bhamaha (Sanskrit: भामह, Bhāmaha) (c. 7th century) was a Sanskrit poetician believed to be contemporaneous with Daṇḍin. He is noted for writing a work called the ''Kāvyālaṃkāra'' (Sanskrit: काव्यालङ्कार, Kāvyālaṃkāra) ("The ornaments of poetry"). For centuries, he was known only by reputation, until manuscripts of the ''Kāvyālaṃkāra came to the attention of scholars in the early 1900s. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhamaha Source Accessed Jan 24, 2024]) +
Ester Bianchi holds a Ph.D. in ‘Indian and East-Asian Civilization’ from the University of Venice (co-tutorial Ph.D. received from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses of Paris). She is currently associate professor of Chinese Literature, Chinese Religions and Philosophy, and Society and Culture of China at the University of Perugia (Italy); in the past, she has also been in charge of classes of Chinese Language (modern and classical) and Sinology. She is external associated researcher of the Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités CNRS-EPHE (2012-) and, together with Daniela Campo, directs the research project “當代中國、臺灣的戒律復興 – Vinaya Revival in 20th Century China and Taiwan” (funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, August 2015-July 2018).
Her studies focus on the religions of China, and particularly on Buddhism, both in imperial and in modern and contemporary time; her research is centered on Sino-Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese Buddhist monasticism and, more recently, the revival of Buddhist monastic discipline in China.
Ester Bianchi is the author of ''The Iron Statue Monastery, Tiexiangsi: A Buddhist Nunnery of Tibetan Tradition in Contemporary China'' (Firenze 2001), of a general book on the history, practices and cultural traditions of Daoism (Milano 2009), and of the first Italian translation of the ''Gaoseng Faxian zhuan (Faxian: un pellegrino cinese nell’India del V secolo'', Perugia, 2012-13).
Her main publications include the following articles: “Subtle erudition and compassionate devotion: Longlian (1909-2006), the most outstanding bhiksuni in modern China” (in D. Ownby, V. Goossaert, Ji Zhe, eds., ''Making Saints in Modern China'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016- 2017, pp. 272-311), “Chinese Chantings of the Names of Mañjuśrī: The ''Zhenshi ming jing'' 真實名經 in Late Imperial and Modern China” (in V. Durand-Dastès ed., ''Empreintes du Tantrisme en Chine et en Asie Orientale. Imaginaires, rituals, influences'', Leuven-Paris-Bristol: Peeters 2015, pp. 117-138), “A Religion-Oriented ‘Tibet Fever’. Tibetan Buddhist Practices Among the Han Chinese in Contemporary PRC” (in Dramdul and F. Sferra eds., ''From Mediterranean to Himalaya. A Festschrift to Commemorate the 120th Birthday of the Italian Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci'' – 从地中海到喜马拉雅: 意大利著名藏学家朱塞佩·图齐 诞辰120周年纪念文集, Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House 2014, pp. 347-374), “Yamāntaka-Vajrabhairava in Modern China. Analysis of 20th Century Translations from Tibetan” (in G. Orofino, S. Vita eds., ''Buddhist Asia'' 2, Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies 2010, pp. 99-140), “The ‘Chinese ''lama''<i>'</i> Nenghai (1886-1967). Doctrinal tradition and teaching strategies of a Gelukpa master in Republican China” (in M. Kapstein ed., ''Buddhism Between Tibet and China'', Boston: Wisdom Publications 2009, pp. 295-346), “Protecting Beijing: The Tibetan Image of Yamāntaka-Vajrabhairava in Late Imperial and Republican China” (in M. Esposito ed., ''Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries'', Paris: l’École Française de l’Extrême Orient 2008, pp. 329-356), and “The Tantric Rebirth Movement in Modern China. Esoteric Buddhism re-vivified by the Japanese and Tibetan Traditions” (''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungarica'' 57, 1, 2004, pp. 31-54). ([https://vinayarevival.com/ester-bianchi/ Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023])
Desmond Biddulph CBE is President of The Buddhist Society, London (est. 1924) and editor of their journal ''The Middle Way''. He is a Jungian therapist with a medical practice in London, co-author of ''The Teachings of the Buddha'', and an international lecturer. +
Associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University. He is a specialist on early Japanese Zen whose major work to date is Dōgen's Manuals of Zen Meditation, which was corecipient of the 1990 Hiromi Arisawa Memorial Award from the Association of American University Presses with the Japan Foundation. +
Ina Bieler is a translator and assistant at The Garchen Buddhist Institute in Chino Valley, Arizona. She is a member of the Garchen Buddhist Institute Translation Group. +
Victor A. van Bijlert is Lecturer in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Religion and Theology, at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=HlP3zgEACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=2 Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]) +
Raoul Birnbaum works in the interdisciplinary field of Buddhist studies, with special focus on China. Trained in visual studies, history of religions, and ethnography, his research is rooted in historical approaches. These studies have concentrated on three great themes in the history of Chinese Buddhist life: the major deity cults, visions of the landscape intertwined with religion, and close examination of dimensions of the lives of individuals within this religious field. Following an earlier focus on medieval times in China, in recent decades he has concentrated on significant figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as the 17th-century figures and phenomena to which they often turned as the models and sources for their practical and conceptual foundations.
The largest on-going project focuses on the artist-monk Hongyi 弘一大師 (1880-1942), a remarkably complex, inventive, and influential figure in Chinese Buddhist worlds. A project on one of his contemporaries, the prominent lay Buddhist Gao Henian 高鶴年 (1872–1962), is on the horizon. And in a comparative vein as a project parallel to the Hongyi studies, he has been investigating the many worlds of St. Francis, with field research in that medieval saint's Umbrian homeland.
Birnbaum's work has been strongly influenced by intensive field study over several decades within Chinese Buddhist monastic communities and across a wide variety of the mountain sites that form the backbone of this tradition’s conceptual geography. ([https://havc.ucsc.edu/faculty/raoul-birnbaum Source Accessed Aug 9, 2021]) +
Anders holds a Bachelors degree from Naropa University and joined the Centre for Buddhist Studies in 2006. At CBS Anders graduated with a BA in Buddhist Studies in 2010 and afterwards joined the MA program.
His thesis supervisor was Dr. Karin Meyers and the external reader was Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes from the University of Vienna, Austria.
Anders also secured a Tsadra foundation scholarship for his MA studies and recently took ordination. ([http://ryi-student-blog.blogspot.com/2012/12/congratulations-anders-bjonback.html Source Accessed Aug 12, 2020]) +
Lachen Jel (bla chen dpyal) was one of the Ten Men of U and Tsang during the later spread of the doctrine in Tibet. His outer activity and inner spiritual accomplishment was unrivaled. He became the head ornament of all scholars. He possessed all inconceivable great superior qualities of Body, Speech and Mind. Even a being dwelling on the bhumis had difficulty communicating with him, needless to say ordinary beings. For the ordinary beings, buddha activity was too difficult to fathom; however he realized it effortlessly.
His first greatness was his heavenly descended caste. He renowned as Jel (dpyal) after descending from heaven, therefore his second greatness was meaning of the name. His third greatness was his noble mother lineage— his mother traveled to Five-Peaks Mountain, and was related to the King of China. The fourth greatness— he was the dharmic minister of the manifested Dharma Kings (chos rgyal gyi chos slun), and the grandchild of the ruler of gods and humans. His fifth greatness was his phenomenal transmission— he received the great, middle and small transmission from the manifested Dharma King. His sixth greatness was that he had the most eminent interdependent causes and conditions—for example, the virtuous royal-brother bestowed him the sacred shrine. His seventh greatness was that he appropriately approached the Secret Mantrayana, the profound tantric doctrine, and Vajra Vehicle, and he was the escort of the King with signs of realization and magical powers. His eighth greatness was his well-learned knowledge— he built many temples in center of Myang Ro (myang ro) village in Tsang and visited the noble land of India. He overcame countless difficulties and requested extraordinary teachings from perfected and authentic scholars, and also brought the practice to completion. His ninth greatness was being able to auto-translate the excellent doctrine—he requested numerous sutras and tantras from perfected and authentic scholars and translated them properly; also he attained mastery in meditative power by attaining the imperishable breath of dharmic sky-goers. Since he became a being of the field of forbearance, he benefited all beings for as long as samsara is not emptied—this continuous lineage of the ten directions illuminating the demonstration that transcended all directions, was his tenth greatness. (Source: [[Dpyal gyi gdung rabs za ra tshags dang gang gA'i chu rgyun gnyis gcig tu bris pa kun gsal me long bzhugs so|དཔྱལ་གྱི་གདུང་རབས་ཟ་ར་ཚགས་དང་གང་གཱའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན་གཉིས་གཅིག་ཏུ་བྲིས་པ་ཀུན་གསལ་མེ་ལོང་]])
Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, is a Zen teacher with Boundless Way Zen, a school of Zen Buddhism with practice centers throughout New England and beyond. She is one of the resident teachers at Boundless Way Temple (Mugendo-ji) in Worcester, MA.
Background: Melissa was born in 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were secular Jews, who taught her from an early age to have a deep appreciation of art, theater, music (especially jazz) and leftist politics. In order to understand a spontaneous spiritual experience she had when she was nine years old, Melissa began a life-long exploration of religion and psychology.
Education, Work and Family: Melissa is a 1976 graduate of Wesleyan University, with a BA magna cum laude in Anthropology and Music. She went on to earn an MA in Counseling Psychology from Vermont College of Norwich University in 1991, specializing in grief counseling. In 1993, after careers as a vocalist, pianist, music teacher and psychotherapist, she joined the staff of the Center for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Until 2012 she was a member of the teaching staff, the Associate Director of the Stress Reduction Clinic, and a Director of professional training programs at the Center. She met her husband David Dae An Rynick, Roshi in 1977, and they married in 1982. Their daughter, Rachel Blacker Rynick, was born in 1986.
Zen training and teaching: In 1981 she and David began studying Zen with the independent teacher Richard Clarke, a former student of Philip Kapleau, Roshi. After twenty years of study with Dr. Clarke she became the student of James Myoun Ford, Roshi, a dharma heir of Jiyu Kennett, Roshi and John Tarrant, Roshi. She was ordained a Soto Zen priest (unsui) in 2004 and completed shuso training in 2005. Advancing through the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum she received Dharma transmission from James Ford in April of 2006, and was elected a guiding teacher of Boundless Way Zen. After hosting a Zen meditation group in their home for 20 years, Melissa and David founded Boundless Way Temple in 2009. Melissa received inka shomei from James Ford in July, 2010.
Melissa is co-editor of ''The Book of Mu'', published by Wisdom Publications in April of 2011, and her writing appears in ''Best Buddhist Writing'', 2012, published by Shambhala Publications and ''The Hidden Lamp'', published by Wisdom in 2013 . . . She is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
([http://www.melissablacker.com/biography/ Source Accessed Jul 20, 2020])
Joy Blakeslee, M.A. Ed, J.D., is a writer and teacher who specializes in human rights, history, and literacy. Blakeslee has worked in civil rights law, as a teacher for the New York Department of Education, and as an independent researcher. She has visited India many times, and is profoundly impressed by the strength, determination, and spirituality of the Tibetan people. She is currently co-writing a book with Dr. Gloria Frelix about post–Civil Rights era Mississippi, and corporate, environmental racism. Blakeslee lives in Florida. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/product/voice-remembers/ Wisdom Publications]) +
Kristin Blancke is an independent researcher in Tibetan Buddhism, working many years on the Italian translation of the ''Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa'' by Tsang Nyon Heruka. In her research she evaluates earlier texts about the life and teachings of Milarepa, so as to be able to get a more 'realistic' picture of this great teacher. ([https://independent.academia.edu/kristinblancke Adapted from Source March 19, 2024]) +
Helena Blankleder holds a degree in Modern Languages. She completed two three-year retreats at Chanteloube, France (1980-1985 and 1986-1989). She is a professional translator and a member of the Padmakara Translation Group, Dordogne, France. Helena has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2001. +
Blezer was trained in Indian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the department for languages and cultures of South and Central Asia at Leiden University (MA 1992). His background and training is in philology or text-critical and text-historical work. His intellectual proclivities are toward ‘history of ideas’ and his present methodo-logical expertise, besides philology, lies in what he styles ‘textual archaeology’ and a narratological approach to history. In his writing he bears a distinctly European Buddhological fingerprint. In his research work he has increasingly sought communication with native scholarship and expertise and works in close collaboration with traditional scholars, monks and tantric (esoteric) specialists. This (mutual!) exchange he maintains by regular fieldwork trips and also by inviting informants to work (and students to study) with him at his institute of affiliation. (Source: [https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/henk-blezer#tab-2 Leiden University] +
Jongang Lama. See [http://rimebuddhism.com/community/affiliated-monasteries/tibet/tashi-chothang-monastery/ Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute] +
He was born in the upper Nyang region of Tsang. His mother died early and he was brought up by a nun who was a student of one of the great masters of this time, Tshechogling Yeshe Gyaltsen. Losal Tenkyong was then eventually recognized as the incarnation of Drubwang Losal Tsengyen (1727-1802). His education was rather eclectic and he studied with the great Gelugpa masters of his day, such as Ngulchu Dharmabhadra (1772-1851) and the masters of his own Zhalu monastery (zhwa lu) as well masters of Ngor and Sakya. He became a noted ritual expert and especially excelled in his practice of the Kalacakra. Several of his works are included in such collections as the "rgyud sde kun btus" and "sgrub thabs kun btus". In his personal practice he also emphasized the Shangpa Kagyu teachings very much. Even though he is not mentioned in any Shangpa lineage supplication, he was of instrumental importance for the survival of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition and even authored some important empowerment and instruction manuals which are still in use today. As the abbot of the famous Kadampa monastery of Zhalu in western Tibet, originally founded by the fourteenth century scholar and historian Buton Rinchen Drub (1290-1364), he eventually managed to achieve the unsealing of the printing blocks of Taranatha's works at Jonang monastery, which contain so many Shangpa materials of crucial importance. He was a close friend and associate of both Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, and passed on a large number of transmissions to them, especially to Jamyang Khyentse, who received the full Shangpa Kagyu transmissions from him. (Source: [http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Shalu_Ribug_Tulku_Losal_Tenkyong RYwiki]) +
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]) +
Anne-Marie Blondeau is directeur détudes emeritus at the École pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sciences religieuses), Paris. +
Dr. Alfred Bloom has long been a pioneer in putting Shin Buddhism in modern context, showing its relevance to men and women of every age and culture. He began his life as a fundamentalist Christian, drawn to missionary work when, at the age of eighteen, he was sent to serve with the Army of Occupation in Japan. Hearing Amida Buddha used to interpret the Christian term "grace" roused his curiousity. When he returned to seminary, he became a liberal with an increasing interest in Buddhism.
In 1957, he returned to Japan for two years on a Fulbright, studying the life and thought of the radical thirteenth century monk Shinran, founder of Shin Buddhist tradition. From 1959 to 1961, he was at Harvard University, completing his doctorate and serving as the first proctor at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. For several years he taught religious studies at the University of Oregon, joining the Religion Department of the University of Hawaii in 1970. (Source: ''The Promise of Boundless Compassion: Shin Buddhism For Today'', book jacket) +
Mark Blows was a member of the Australian College of Clinical Psychologists and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. +
Robert Bluck teaches world religions as an Associate Lecturer at the Open University. He has been a practising Buddhist for over thirty years, and has conducted doctoral research into the teachings, practice and development of different forms of Buddhism in Britain. (Source: [https://www.routledge.com/British-Buddhism-Teachings-Practice-and-Development/Bluck/p/book/9780415483087 Routledge]) +
Mark Blum, Professor and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, received his M.A. in Japanese Literature from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in Pure Land Buddhism throughout East Asia, with a focus on the Japanese medieval period. He also works in the area of Japanese Buddhist reponses to modernism, Buddhist conceptions of death in China and Japan, historical consciousness in Buddhist thought, and the impact of the Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra) in East Asian Buddhism. He is the author of ''The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism'' (2002), and co-editor of ''Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism'' (2005) and ''Cultivating Spirituality'' (2011), and his translation from Chinese of ''The Nirvana Sutra: Volume 1'' (2013). He is currently working on completing ''Think Buddha, Say Buddha: A History of Nenbutsu Thought, Practice, and Culture''. ([http://ealc.berkeley.edu/faculty/blum-mark Source Accessed May 31, 2019]) +
Virginia Blum is the resident translator at Drong Ngur Jangchubling Buddhist Center, and has been translating and interpreting the Dharma since 2006 assisting Buddhist teachers around the world. Virginia is fluent in both Tibetan and Spanish and has been engaged in Buddhist meditation and study since 1999. She has studied Tibetan language in a number of immersive programs, including a two-year translation training program at Songsten Library in Dehradun, India, the Tibetan Summer Intensive Training at Rangjung Yeshe in Kathmandu, Nepal, as well as the Tibetan Language Intensive Training Course at the University of Virginia. She regularly participates in extended meditation retreats of both Tibetan and Theravada Buddhist traditions and is currently participating in The Community Dharma Leader Training Program at Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center. ([https://dnjus.org/resident-translator/ Source Accessed June 24, 2021]) +
Born in Los Angeles, Jim grew up in Southern California. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of San Diego and continued to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he finished his MA and PhD under the direction of the Tibetan Buddhist scholar/practitioner Geshe Lhundub Sopa. His graduate studies focused on the work of the Indian teacher Śāntarakṣita.
Both in his career as Associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University and as Professor of Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College, Jim displayed the rare combination of deep commitment to teaching and rigorous engagement as a research scholar. Even more unusually, Jim was able to produce scholarly texts that were valued equally by the academy and by Buddhist communities. He published analytical and translation works on Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism based upon this research, including The Ornament of The Middle Way: A Study of the Madhyamaka Thought of Śāntarakṣita (2004) and Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning (2004). With Geshe Sopa, he completed a translation of the 4th Chapter of the ''Lamrim Chenmo'', and was pursuing the publication of a translation of Śāntarakṣita’s ''Madhyamakālaṃkāravṛtti''.
Jim was a strong advocate for institutions of higher education that strive to integrate the knowledge base of Buddhist philosophy with meditative practice and service to the community. In 2004, Jim invited Yangsi Rinpoche to Portland, Oregon to speak to interested persons. In 2005, Jim began working alongside Yangsi Rinpoche, Namdrol Adams, and Angie Garcia on the founding of Maitripa Institute, soon to become Maitripa College, which seeks to embody those ideals. . . .
His main teachers were His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche, Jangtse Choje Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Yangsi Rinpoche, and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. ([https://maitripa.org/jim-blumenthal/ Source adapted from an obituary written by Namdrol Miranda Adams, Damcho Diana Finnegan, and Jim's wife, Tiffany)]
Also known as Po-yüan or Po Fa-tsu. A priest and a translator of Buddhist texts during the late Western Chin dynasty (265–316) in China. He built a Buddhist monastery at Ch'ang-an, where he translated and lectured on Buddhist scriptures. In 305 he set out for Lung-yu, where he intended to live in retirement. He was killed along the way, however, because of his refusal to work for Chang Fu, the local governor of Ch'in-chou, and also because of accusations lodged by someone he had defeated in debate. The Buddha's Parinirvāna Sutra, one of the Hinayana versions of the Nirvana Sutra, was translated by Fa-tsu. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/F/14 Source Accessed Sep 3, 2021]) +
(Chokle Namgyal) (1376-1451). The twenty-third abbot of Bo dong E monastery, founded in about 1049 by the Bka' gdams geshe (dge bshes) Mu dra pa chen po, and the founder of the Bo dong tradition. His collected works, said to number thirty-six titles, include his huge encyclopedic work ''De nyid 'dus pa'' ("Compendium of the Principles"); it alone runs to 137 volumes in the incomplete edition published by the Tibet House in Delhi. Phyogs las rnam rgyal (who is sometimes confused with Jo nang pa Phyogs las rnam rgyal who lived some fifty years earlier) was a teacher of Dge 'dun grub (retroactively named the first Dalai Lama) and Mkhas grub Dge legs dpal bzang, both students of Tsong kha pa. Among his disciples was the king of Gung thang, Lha dbang rgyal mtshan (1404–1463), whose daughter Chos kyi sgron me (1422–1455) became a nun after the death of her daughter and then the head of Bsam lding (Samding) monastery, which her father founded for her. The monastery is the only Tibetan monastery whose abbot is traditionally a woman; incarnations are said to be those of the goddess Vajravārāhī (T. Rdo rje phag mo), "Sow-Headed Goddess." (Source: "Bo dong Phyogs las rnam rgyal." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 139. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Bodong Sangye Gönpo was a Tibetan yogi adept in the practice of Siṃhamukhā. Though he initially practiced the teaching cycle of this deity associated with Bari Lotsāwa, through his practice he was able to encounter Siṃhamukhā and received empowerment for her practice from Guru Rinpoche. This became the basis for the Siṃhamukhā cycle known as the Bodong Tradition of the Aural Lineage of the Profound Secret of the Lion Faced [Ḍākinī] (''bo dong lugs zab gsang seng gdong snyan brgyud). +
Bhikkhu Bodhi (born December 10, 1944), born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhikkhu_Bodhi Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]) +
A renowned Indian translator and monk (to be distinguished from a subsequent Bodhiruci [s.v.] who was active in China two centuries later during the Tang dynasty). Bodhiruci left north India for Luoyang, the Northern Wei capital, in 508. He is said to have been well versed in the Tripiṭaka and talented at incantations. Bodhiruci stayed at the monastery of Yongningsi in Luoyang from 508 to 512 and with the help of Buddhaśānta (d.u.) and others translated over thirty Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises, most of which reflect the latest developments in Indian Mahāyāna, and especially Yogācāra. His translations include the ''Dharmasaṃgīti'', ''Shidijing lun'', ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', ''Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'', and the ''Wuliangshou jing youpotishe yuansheng ji'', attributed to Vasubandhu. Bodhiruci’s translation of the ''Shidijing lun'', otherwise known more simply as the ''Di lun'', fostered the formation of a group of Yogācāra specialists in China that later historians retroactively call the Di lun zong. According to a story in the ''Lidai fabao ji'', a jealous Bodhiruci, assisted by a monk from Shaolinsi on Songshan named Guangtong (also known as Huiguang, 468–537), is said to have attempted on numerous occasions to poison the founder of the Chan school, Bodhidharma, and eventually succeeded. Bodhiruci is also said to have played an instrumental role in converting the Chinese monk Tanluan from Daoist longevity practices to the pure land teachings of the ''Guan Wuliangshou jing''. (Source: "Bodhiruci." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 133. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
William M. Bodiford is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on religion in the cultures of Japan and East Asia, and Buddhist Studies. In addition to UCLA, he also has taught at Davidson College (Davidson, North Carolina), the University of Iowa (Iowa City, Iowa), Meiji Gakuin University (Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan), and ICU (International Christian University; Tokyo, Japan).
He received his Ph.D. from Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut) in the Department of Religious Studies, where he specialized in Buddhist Studies under the direction of Professor Stanley Weinstein. In addition to Yale, he also received graduate training at the Institute of Health and Sport Science (Taiiku Kagaku Kenkyuka), Tsukuba University (Tsukuba, Japan), where he studied the intellectual history of martial arts in Japan under the direction of Professor Watanabe Ichiro, and at the Graduate School of Buddhist Studies, Komazawa University (Tokyo, Japan), where he studied Asian Religions under the direction of Professors Kagamishima Genryu and Ishikawa Rikizan.
His research spans the medieval, early modern, and contemporary periods of Japanese history. Currently he is investigating religion during the Tokugawa period, especially those aspects of Japanese culture associated with manuscripts, printing, secrecy, education, and proselytizing. Although many of his publications focus on Zen Buddhism (especially Soto Zen), he also researches Tendai and Vinaya Buddhist traditions, Shinto, folklore and popular religions, as well as Japanese martial arts and traditional approaches to health and physical culture.
He is a member of the editorial boards of "Cursor Mundi: Viator Studies of the Medieval and Early Modern World" (UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies), "Studies in East Asian Buddhism" and "Classics in East Asian Buddhism" (Kuroda Institute). ([https://www.alc.ucla.edu/person/william-m-bodiford/ Source Accessed June 30, 2021])
Benjamin Bogin is an Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Skidmore College. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. (Buddhist Studies) from the University of Michigan and spent six years living in Kathmandu, Nepal where he directed study-abroad programs in the Himalayas for American students. His primary research interests are Tibetan Buddhist autobiography and the intersections of visual art, narrative, and sacred geography in Buddhist cultures. He lives in Ballston Spa, NY. +
Sara Boin-Webb is the official translator of Lamotte's work. Her success is attested by the publication of her English-language renderings of Lamotte's ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'' (''The Teaching of Vimalakīrti'', London 1976) and ''Histoire du bouddhisme indien'' (''History of Indian Buddhism'', Louvain 1988), as well as several other works from the French. She is Assistant Editor of the ''Buddhist Studies Review''. (Source: Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra: The Concentration of Heroic Progress) +
Bokar Tulku Rinpoche (1940 – 17 August 2004) was heart-son of the Second Kalu Rinpoche and a holder of the Karma Kagyü and Shangpa Kagyü lineages.
Bokar Rinpoche was born in western Tíbet not far from Mount Kailash, in 1940 (Iron Dragon year) to a family of nomadic herders. When Rinpoche was four years old, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa recognized him as the reincarnation of the previous Bokar Tulku, Karma Sherab Ösel.
Bokar Rinpoche was trained at the monastery founded by the previous Bokar incarnation. He continued his studies at Tsurphu Monastery in central Tibet, main seat of the Karmapas. While still a teenager, he assumed full responsibilities for the Bokar monastic community. Then, due to the Communist oppression in Tibet, Bokar Rinpoche fled into exile at the age of 20. In India, he became a close disciple of Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche.
Under Kalu Rinpoche's guidance in Sonada, Bokar Rinpoche twice completed the traditional three-year retreat. During the first one, he followed the practices of the Shangpa Kagyu; the second was based on the practices of the Karma Kagyu.
In Mirik, India, Bokar Rinpoche founded a retreat center that is an important centre for Kalachakra practice, now called Bokar Ngedhon Choekhor Ling.
Brief bio available at [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1iaW9ncmFwaHktQm9rYXI= bokarmonastery.org]
Also see [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1wdWJsaWNhdGlvbnM= Bokar Publications] +
Stephen R. Bokenkamp specializes in the study of medieval Chinese Daoism, with a special emphasis on its literatures and its relations with Buddhism. He is author of "Early Daoist Scriptures and Ancestors and Anxiety" as well as more than 35 articles and book chapters on Daoism and literature. Among his awards are the Guggenheim Award for the Translation of a medieval Daoist text and a National Endowment for the Humanities Translation grants. In addition to his position at Arizona State, he has taught at Indiana University, Stanford University, and short courses for graduate students at Princeton and Fudan Universities. He was also part of the National 985 project at the Institute of Religious Studies, Sichuan University from 2006-2013.
柏夷（加州大學伯克萊分校博士，1986年）教授，專長于中國六朝隋唐道教史，特別關注中古道教文獻和佛道關係。在其漫長的學術生涯中，他出版了《早期道教經典》和《祖先與焦慮》兩部專著以及超過三十五篇學術論文。他的研究貢獻為其贏得了許多榮譽和獎項，比如古根海姆獎、美國國家人文基金會基金等等。除了在亞利桑那州立大學任教之外，他此前曾任教于印第安納大學、斯坦福大學，並在普林斯頓大學、復旦大學為研究生開設短期密集討論班。他也是2006-2013年四川大學國家九八五項目工程特聘海外專家。([https://search.asu.edu/profile/1078874 Source Accessed June 20, 2023]) +
Jerry has been a nembutsu follower for some twenty-five years or so, closely connected with the San Francisco Buddhist Temple most of that time. The late Rev. Ken Yamaguchi took him on as his unofficial assistant many years ago and opened the door to many wonderful experiences that the average lay follower would not have. He has, for most of that time, and continues now, to be an active lay speaker, mostly in the small Shinsu temple in Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge - from time to time, he speaks at other temples. ([http://www.nembutsu.info/poets/ Source Accessed Mar 21, 2023]) +
Prof. Bollée had a long-standing relationship with the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg, where he habilitated in 1977 under Prof. Berger (studies on Sūyagaḍa 1977, Steiner, Wiesbaden) and taught for over two decades (1975-1997). During this time he also represented Prof. Sontheimer and Prof. Berger.
His teaching and research focused on Jainism and early Buddhism, with a special interest in Central Indian texts that had not yet been translated. In search of such texts, he also repeatedly went on research trips to South and Southeast Asia, for example to (present-day) Myanmar and Thailand in the early 1960s. He was happy to share this rich wealth of experience with his students in order to awaken their enthusiasm for South and Southeast Asian cultures and religions, in addition to providing a sound philological education.
Beginning with his dissertation on Ṣaḍviṃśa-brāhmaṇa (Utrecht, 1956), Prof. Bollée published numerous editions, translations, and indexes, including ''Vyavahāra bhāṣya pīṭhikā'' (2006, Hindi Granth Karyalay, Mumbai), Samantabhadra Deva's ''Ratnakaraṇḍaka Śrāvakācāra'' (2010, Sundara Prakashana, Bangalore) and ''A Cultural Encyclopaedia of the Kathāsaritsāgara in Keywords'' (2015, Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg).
As a tireless academic, Prof. Bollée was scientifically active until the last day. Two of his works: ''Stylistic Repetition in Bāṇaʼs Harṣacaritam and Kādambarī'' (Feb. 2020) and the revised 2nd edition of his monograph ''Gone to the Dogs in Ancient India'' (Mar. 2020) are published this year by CrossAsia-Repository . . .
Prof. Dr. Willem Bollée received the prestigious Acārya Hemacandra Sūrī Award in recognition of his achievements and merits in the field of Jainism (2004) and [the] Prakrit Jñānabhāratī International Award (2005). ([https://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=158094 Source Accessed July 24, 2023]) +
Allan R. Bomhard (born 1943) is an American linguist.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was educated at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Hunter College, and the City University of New York, and served in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1966. He currently resides in Florence, South Carolina. He has studied the controversial hypotheses about the underlying unity among the proposed Nostratic and Eurasiatic language families. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_R._Bomhard Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]) +
Nicolas Bommarito is currently an Assistant Professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Before that, He worked at SUNY Buffalo and was a Bersoff Fellow at NYU. He has studied at Brown University, Tibet University, and University of Michigan. His research focuses on questions in virtue ethics, moral psychology, and Buddhist philosophy. ([https://www.nicbommarito.com/philosophy Adapted from Source Jan 18, 2021]) +
George D. Bond (Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1972) is an associate
professor in the Department of the History and Literature of Religion
at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Word of the Buddha:
The Tipi.taka and Its Interpretation in Theraviida Buddhism and coeditor
of Sainthood in World Religions.
Source: [[Buddhist Hermeneutics]] +
Jenny Bondurant is a Buddhist teacher who leads workshops and retreats for people from all walks of life and traditions. She has practiced meditation for over thirty years and began teaching under the direction of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, with whom she studied until his death. Her teacher is now Anam Thubten, who has ordained her as a teacher in his lineage. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. ([https://www.inquiringmind.com/article/3101_33_bondurant_3-beautiful-loser-shantideva-and-the-way-of-the-bodhisavttva/ Source Accessed Jan 5, 2022]) +
Grigory Maksimovich Bongard-Levin (Russian: Григорий Максимович Бонгард-Левин) (1933–2008) was a Russian historian specializing on Ancient India and the history of Central Asia. He also published on the history of Russian emigration. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1988. In 2006 he was awarded India's third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan which ranked below Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan for his contribution in the field of Ancient India history. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Bongard-Levin Source Accessed May 11, 2022]) +
Dr. Martin J. Boord (Rig-’dzin rdo-rje)
As one of Rinpoche’s (Chimed Rigdzin Rinpoche?) senior students, Martin Boord is well known already to many people within the Khordong sangha.
Visiting India and Nepal as a teenager in 1967, Martin became a devoted Buddhist and immediately embarked on the study of Sanskrit in order to read the original texts. Receiving teachings from many of the great Tibetan masters of all schools who had become settled in India following the takeover of their country by Chinese communists, he studied the doctrines of both sūtra and tantra. Over the years, he carefully surveyed the entire Buddhist Tripiṭaka with the lamas of Tibet before immersing himself fully in the guhyamantra practices of the Nyingma school under the guidance of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche and Lama Khamtrul Yeshe Dorje, the renowned “weather man” of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. It was whilst on a pilgrimage with Yeshe Dorje to Sarnath in 1973 that Martin first met with the Khordong Terchen Tulku, Lama Chhimed Rigdzin, with whom he immediately began to form a close bond of attachment.
Subsequently, Martin invited Lama Chhimed Rigdzin to Great Britain in order to inaugurate his new Dharma Centre, granting empowerments and teaching the Byang-gter Dorje Phurpa (Northern Treasures Vajrakīla) for the first time in the west.
Later, moving from Europe back to India, this master and disciple together translated a number of Byang-gter texts, including hundreds of pages of Vajrakīla Sādhana (practice texts), which have remained the major focus of Martin’s life.
Taking the Byang-gter Phurpa as his theme, Martin went on to study at the School of Oriental & African Studies at the University to London, for which he was awarded a BA in Religious Studies (Buddhism), followed by the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1992. His doctoral thesis was subsequently published as The Cult of the Deity Vajrakīla, by the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Tring, 1993.
Having completed his studies at SOAS, he was awarded a scholarship from the Stein-Arnold Exploration Fund which enabled him to return to India in order to research the sacred geography of Sikkim, one of the seven “hidden lands” of Rigzin Godem. This work was eventually published in the Bulletin of Tibetology.
Reading Sanskrit and Tibetan languages, as well as having studied Tibetan art for many years, Martin has acted as a consultant to the Ashmolean Museum, one of the oldest public museums in Europe, helping to identify and arrange their holdings of Tibetan cultural artefacts and paintings, and he continues to work on similar projects at different times when called to do so. The British Museum, for example, requested his assistance when they were offered a collection of Tibetan phurba for purchase, about which they had no specialist knowledge, and he has collaborated with the makers of documentary films for television, etc.
Having spent many years developing his understanding of the Dharma in meditation retreats, in 1998 Martin was invited by Lama Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche to accompany him as an assistant teacher on his European Dharma tour, in order to give teachings on the Deity Vajrakīla as part of the Pfauenhof retreat in Germany. This was so successful that the invitation was repeated in the following years, so that Martin again gave Vajrakīla teachings in Berlin in 1999 and he accompanied Rinpoche to Oxford, Wales and Vienna in the year 2000, where he taught many aspects of the Vajrayāna path, as well as his special subject — the deity Vajrakīla. Since then Martin has given innumerable teachings on many aspects of the Byang-gter tradition, throughout Europe and the USA.
He now lives and works in Oxford, pursuing his research interests with like-minded academics and Dharma practitioners at the Oriental Institute, reading manuscripts at the Indian Institute Library and working on an ad hoc basis as Academic Visitor with those studying for doctorates in Buddhist Studies, etc.
In recent years, he has completed a translation of the most illustrious commentary on Phurba practice, known as The Black 100,000 Words (Phur ‘grel ‘bum nag). This important text is a report of a group retreat that was undertaken by the three masters, Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra and Silamanju, in Nepal in the 8th century. It was transmitted in Tibet by Padmasambhava to Yeshe Tsogyal and the translation of this text is now available from edition khordong (published 2002). He has also expanded his work on the Northern Treasures texts to include further research on the Hidden Lands of Rigzin Godem, as well as the ritual cycle of the Greatly Compassionate Avalokiteśvara. His text on the Byang-gter funeral ceremonies of Avalokiteśvara will shortly become available from Wandel Verlag.
About events with Martin Boord please visit our Khordong website in english: http://www.khordong.de/alt/Engl
Summary of Publications:
Forthcoming (Editor) The Guhyagarbha Tantra and its Commentary Moonbeams, translated by Gyurme Dorje
2017 A Cloudburst of Blessings The water initiation and other rites of empowerment for the practice of the Northern Treasures Vajrakīla. Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, volume four. edition khordong im Wandel Verlag, berlin, 2017
2015 A Blaze of Fire in the Dark Homa rituals for the fulfilment of vows and the performance of deeds of great benefit. Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, volume three. edition khordong im Wandel Verlag, berlin, 2015
2014 The Path of Secret Mantra: Teachings of the Northern Treasures Five Nails
Pema Tinley’s guide to vajrayāna practice. Explanation of Rigzin Godem’s Jangter Ngöndro Zer Nga (byang gter sngon ‘gro gzer lnga) according to the commentary by Rigzin Pema Tinley, translation and oral transmission by Khenpo Chowang, edited by Martin Boord. edition khordong at Wandel Verlag, Berlin, 2014
2013 Gathering the Elements. The Cult of the Wrathful Deity Vajrakila (Vajrakila Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, Volume One), revision and re-publishing of The Cult of the Deity Vajrakīla, 1993
2012 Illuminating Sunshine: Buddhist funeral rituals of Avalokiteśvara
2011 Editor The Five Nails – A Commentary on the Northern Treasures Accumulation Praxis edition khordong by Wandel Verlag, Berlin 2011
2010 A Roll of Thunder from the Void
(Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, Volume 2)
2010 (Index) Jokhang: Tibet’s most sacred Buddhist temple, Edition Hansjorg Mayer
2006 Meditations on the Great Guru Padmasambhava, Khordong Newsletter, Berlin
2006 Entering the Maṇḍala Gates, Tiger’s Nest Dharma Diary for 2007, Sussex
2005 Editor (Tibetan & Sanskrit) The Complete Tibetan Book of the Dead, translated by Gyurme Dorje, Penguin Books, London
2003 A Bolt of Lightning From the Blue, edition khordong, Berlin
2003 “The symbolism of the gCod drum, by ’Gyur-med blo-gsal” (English translation)
in Dzogchen Journal, London
2003 “A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Hidden Land of Sikkim: Proclaimed as a Treasure by Rig-’dzin rgod-ldem” in Bulletin of Tibetology 39(1), Gangtok
1999 (with Stephen Hodge) The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead, Thorsons, London
1998 A India, Pórtico do Norte Exhibition catalogue (contributor) Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela
1998 “Maṇḍala Meaning & Method: Ritual delineation of sacred space in tantric Buddhism” in Performance Research Vol.3, No.3, Winter 1998, Routledge/ARC, London
1998 Editor (Tibetan) High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture, by Hugh Richardson, Serindia Publications, London
1998 East Asian Books, Tibetan MSS, Catalogue 19, Sam Fogg Rare Books, London
1998 “Tibet” & “Mongolia” in Encyclopaedia of World Mythology, The Foundry Creative Media Company Limited, London
1996 Manuscripts from the Himalayas and the Indian Subcontinent, Tibetan MSS, Catalogue 17, Sam Fogg Rare Books, London
1996 (with Losang Norbu Tsonawa) Overview of Buddhist Tantra by Panchen Sonam Dragpa, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala
1996 Maṇḍala Meaning & Method, Kailash Editions, London (unpublished)
1994 “Buddhism” in Sacred Space, edited by John Holm with Jean Bowker, Pinter Publishers, London, New York
1993 The Cult of the Deity Vajrakīla (Buddhica Britannica Series Continua IV), The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Tring.
This book is re-published as Volume One of Vajrakila Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition: Gathering the Elements. The Cult of the Wrathful Deity Vajrakila)
1993 “Tibet and Mongolia” in World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide, Roy Willis, Simon & Schuster, London
NOTE from Martin: Over the years I have had many book reviews published in The Middle Way (journal of the Buddhist Society, London) and other such journals and, of course, I did a fair amount of work with C.R. Lama, the details of which I have forgotten. These include:
:Padmasambhava’s teachings on the downfalls of tobacco
:The Dragon Roar that fulfills all wishes (Protector text)
:The Violent Storm of Meteoric Vajras (sādhana of rDo rje gro lod)
:A Gentle Rainfall of Honey (sādhana of Guru mTshan brgyad)
([https://www.wandel-verlag.de/en/dr-martin-j-boord-rig-dzin-rdo-rje/ Source: Wandel Verlag Berlin Accessed July 1, 2021])
Jens W. Borgland is a historian of religion, philologist and Sanskrit critic, with a broad interest in Indian religion, philosophy and language. His scientific activity mainly deals with illuminating the history of Indian religion - with a special focus on Indian Buddhism - through philological studies of sources in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Chinese. He is particularly interested in Buddhist monastic rules (vinaya) and Sanskrit manuscripts of texts belonging to the Mūlasarvāstivāda school. ([https://katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N17-743 Source Accessed Sep 10, 2021]) +
Otgon Borjigin teaches Mongolian Historical Documents at Northwest University for Nationalities in Lanzhou. +
Frederik David Kan Bosch (Potchefstroom, Transvaal, 17 June 1887 - Leiden, 20 July 1967) was an archaeological scientist and restorer of the Borobudur and Prambanan on Java from 1915 to 1936. ([https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_David_Kan_Bosch Source Accessed Sep 14, 2021]) +
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]) +
Daniel Boucher's scholarly focus is Buddhist studies, particularly the early development of the cluster of Indian Buddhist movements called the Mahayana and their transmission to China in the first few centuries of the Common Era. His related interests include translation as a religious genre, with special focus on the earliest translations of Buddhist texts into Chinese; Buddhist Middle Indo-Aryan, particularly the role of Gandhari Prakrit in the earliest transmission of Buddhism to Central Asia and China; art historical, epigraphical, and archeological materials as sources for the study of religion; and history, theory, and methods in the academic study of religion. ([https://religious-studies.cornell.edu/daniel-boucher Source Accessed May 20, 2021]) +
Sandy Boucher, M.A., has practiced, written about, and taught both Vipassana meditation and writing for 35 years. Her books focus particularly on women's contribution to Buddhism and participation in Buddhist institutions. She leads retreats exploring Creativity, the Feminine Divine, and Healing.
Her latest book is ''She Appears! Encounters with Kwan Yin Goddess of Compassion'', a compendium of writings and artwork exploring a Western envisioning of the Celestial Bodhisattva of Compassion Kwan Yin. ([https://www.spiritrock.org/sandy-boucher#:~:text=Sandy%20Boucher%2C%20M.A.%2C%20has,the%20Feminine%20Divine%2C%20and%20Healing. Source Accessed Mar 22, 2023]) +
Marie-Stella Boussemart is a Gelugpa nun and a member of the Ganden Ling Congregation, founded by the Venerable Dagpo Rinpoche, with whom she has studied since 1973 and for whom she has served as a French interpreter since 1979. Holder of a doctorate in Tibetan (Inalco), she has translated numerous works. She was president of the Buddhist Union of France from May 2012 to March 2015. ([https://bouddhanews.fr/journaliste/ms-boussemart/ Source Accessed Apr 30, 2021]) +
Born in Montreal, Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette is what he likes to call ‘French-Canadian’: a Québécois. However, his studies have turned him into quite a globetrotter. He obtained his PhD (2018) in Indian Philosophies from the Institute for Indology and Tibetology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, in Munich, Germany, where he was a member of the Distant Worlds: Munich Graduate School for Ancient Studies, in the division researching on 'coexistence'. He was then invited as a Fellow Researcher in Leiden, Holland, after receiving a Gonda Fellowship, following which he moved on to Ghent, in Belgium, where he was awarded a prestigious FWO Post-Doctoral Research Grant.
He received his first M.A. in Sciences of Religions at Laval University (2011), in Quebec City, and his second one in Sanskrit Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (2013), in Delhi. He began his studies with Journalism (Arts and Technologies of Media) in college (2002), and Classical Studies (Ancient Greco-Roman worlds) at the BA level (2005).
His current areas of research focus on early developments in Indian philosophical doxography and list-making. He is also theorizing the Indian intellectual dimensions of spiritual life, especially in the scholastic aspect of their expression. In brief, he has taken interest in what he describes as the ‘yoga of reason’, or the ‘path of knowledge’, pursued by the ‘nerds’ among yogins.
Working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Eva De Clercq, he is associated with the South Asia Network Ghent. ([https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/karlstephan.bouthillette Source Accessed May 24, 2021]) +
Acharya Emily Bower started meditating and studying with the Shambhala community in 1987 in Berkeley, California. She went on to live on staff at Karme Chöling for three years, and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts to work as a book editor specializing in Buddhism, yoga, and other spiritual traditions.
She worked for Shambhala Publications for a total of ten years. She is fortunate to have been able to work on books with many spiritual teachers, including Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
She lives and works now in Los Angeles as a book editor and publishing consultant, and is a co-founder of Dharma Spring, a curated online Buddhist bookshop, launching in 2017. She is an editor for 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, an international non-profit initiative to translate all of the Buddha’s words into modern languages and to make them available to everyone, free of charge.
In her service as a senior teacher in the Shambhala community, she leads both extended retreats and weekend programs. She especially enjoys presenting on themes that bring practical application to our wisdom traditions. ([https://shambhalaonline.org/acharya-emily-bower/ Source Accessed Mar 18, 2022]) +
Jens Braarvig’s main subject is the history, literature and languages of Buddhism.
Among his publications on Buddhism are “The Akṣayamatinirdesasūtra and The Tradition of Imperishability in Buddhist Thought,” the main topic of which is the morality of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and ”Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection,” containing a rather recent find of manuscript fragments from Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
He also works with other Indian religious and philosophical traditions, as well as Greek and Mesopotamian religion in a comparative perspective and in a general setting of global and macrohistoric cultural study. His studies are based on comparative and philological methods, and he works with a number of classical and archaic languages from the Mediterranean areas, from early Middle Eastern cultures, as well as classical languages of South, Central and East Asia.
He is also developing methodologies for making philological reasearch relevant for cultural studies, and he has thus created an analytical internet tool – as now available on the internet as Bibliotheca Polyglotta – for understanding the role of linguae francae and multilingualsm in the global diffusion of knowledge.
He is also active as an editor and organizer of popular science. ([https://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/people/aca/study-of-religion/tenured/braarvig/ Source Accessed Aug 30, 2021]) +
Tara Brach’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. The result is a distinctive voice in Western Buddhism, one that offers a wise and caring approach to freeing ourselves and society from suffering.
As an undergraduate at Clark University, Tara pursued a double major in psychology and political science. During this time, while working as a grass roots organizer for tenants’ rights, she also began attending yoga classes and exploring Eastern approaches to inner transformation. After college, she lived for ten years in an ashram—a spiritual community—where she practiced and taught both yoga and concentrative meditation. When she left the ashram and attended her first Buddhist Insight Meditation retreat, led by Joseph Goldstein, she realized she was home. “I had found wisdom teachings and practices that train the heart and mind in unconditional and loving presence,” she explains. “I knew that this was a path of true freedom.”
Over the following years, Tara earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Fielding Institute, with a dissertation exploring meditation as a therapeutic modality in treating addiction. She went on to complete a five-year Buddhist teacher training program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Working as both a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher, she found herself naturally blending these two powerful traditions—introducing meditation to her therapy clients and sharing western psychological insights with meditation students. This synthesis has evolved, in more recent years, into Tara’s groundbreaking work in training psychotherapists to integrate mindfulness strategies into their clinical work.
In 1998, Tara founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC (IMCW), which is now one of the largest and most dynamic non-residential meditation centers in the United States. She gives presentations, teaches classes, offers workshops, and leads silent meditation retreats at IMCW and at conferences and retreat centers in the United States and Europe. Tara’s podcast receives over 3 million downloads each month. Her themes reveal the possibility of emotional healing and spiritual awakening through mindful, loving awareness as well as the alleviation of suffering in the larger world by practicing compassion in action. She has fostered efforts to bring principles and practices of mindfulness to issues of racial injustice, equity and inclusivity; peace; environmental sustainability, as well as to prisons and schools.
She and Jack Kornfield lead the Awareness Training Institute (ATI) which offers online courses on mindfulness and compassion, as well as the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP).
In addition to numerous articles, videos, and hundreds of recorded talks, Tara is the author of the books ''Radical Acceptance'' (Bantam, 2003), ''True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart'' (Bantam, 2013), ''Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of R.A.I.N.'' (Viking, 2019) and ''Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness'' (SoundsTrue, 6/2021). She has a son, Narayan, and lives in Great Falls, VA, with her husband, Jonathan Foust and their dog, kd. ([https://www.tarabrach.com/about/ Source Accessed Jan 19, 2022])
Drakar Lobzang Palden Tendzin Nyendrak (Brag dkar blo bzang dpal ldan bstan 'dzin snyan grags 1866–1928) of Trehor Kardzé wrote a refutation of Mipam Rinpoche's commentary on the ninth chapter of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''. He was also a disciple of the Longchen Nyingtik master Ragang Chöpa, and a teacher of Amdo Geshe Jampal Rolwé Lodrö. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Drakkar_Lobzang_Palden Adapted from Source Oct 4, 2022]) +
Khenpo Drayab Lodrö Gyaltsen (Tib. བྲག་གཡབ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་, Wyl. brag g.yab blo gros rgyal mtshan) (d. early 1960s?) - He came from Drayab Sakya Monastery. His main teachers were Öntö Khyenrab Chökyi Özer, Gapa Khenpo Jamgyal and Gatön Ngawang Lekpa and Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He was the fifth khenpo at Dzongsar Shedra, from ca. 1939-1943.
He taught just like Öntö Khyenrab Chökyi Özer, who, it is said, taught exactly like Khenpo Shenga. He spent many years in prison, were he was tortured, but he taught his fellow inmates whenever he had an opportunity.
<h5>Writings</h5>
He composed a commentary on the ninth chapter of the ''Bodhicharyavatara''. He also wrote a commentary to Sakya Pandita's ''Treasury of Valid Reasoning'', which has not survived. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Drayab_Lodr%C3%B6 Rigpa Wiki]) +