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A list of all pages that have property "Bio" with value "A student of Khenchen Pema Tsewang Gyatso. A teacher of The Fifth Druktrül, Pema Tutop Dorje; The Fourth Tertön Wangchen Gyepai Dorje; Jikme Yeshe Nyingpo, and so forth.". Since there have been only a few results, also nearby values are displayed.

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  • Kapleau, P.  + (Philip Kapleau (August 20, 1912 – May 6, 2Philip Kapleau (August 20, 1912 – May 6, 2004) was an American teacher of Zen Buddhism in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition, which is rooted in Japanese Sōtō and incorporates Rinzai-school koan-study. He also strongly advocated for Buddhist vegetarianism. [(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kapleau Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023])lip_Kapleau Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023]))
  • Foucaux, P.  + (Philippe Édouard Foucaux (15 September 181Philippe Édouard Foucaux (15 September 1811 – 20 May 1894) was a French tibetologist. He published the first Tibetan grammar in French and occupied the first chair of Tibetan Studies in Europe.</br></br>He was born in the town of Angers on 15 September to [a] merchant family. At the age of 27, he left for Paris to study Indology with Eugène Burnouf. After becoming aware of the work of Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, he studied Tibetan by himself for two years. After this he was appointed as a Tibetan teacher at the École des langues orientales where he gave his inaugural lecture on January 31, 1842. Funding for the position was canceled but Foucaux continued to instruct his students thereafter on a pro bono basis. Some of his most well-known students include Léon Feer [fr], William Woodville Rockhill, and Alexandra David-Néel.</br></br>Foucaux was a member of the Sociéte d'Ethnographie. After France became the Second Empire, Foucaux was elected as a member of the Collège de France. Foucaux was married to Mary Summer, born Marie Filon, who also did work as a buddhologist. He was a corresponding member of the American Oriental Society from 1865. A number of Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese manuscripts and printed books from his library were acquired by the National Library of France and are preserved there. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_%C3%89douard_Foucaux Source Accessed July 29, 2021])rd_Foucaux Source Accessed July 29, 2021]))
  • Thub bstan bshad sgrub rgya mtsho  + (Rago Choktrul Tupten Shedrup Gyatso (Wyl. Rago Choktrul Tupten Shedrup Gyatso (Wyl. ''rag mgo mchog sprul thub bstan bshad sgrub rgya mtsho'') (1879–1972) — a prolific author of the Palyul tradition.</br></br><h5>Texts</h5></br></br>Vines of Amṛta: A Prayer to the Lineage of the Bodhicaryāvatāra (''spyod 'jug brgyud pa'i gsol 'debs bdud rtsi'i 'khri shing''). English translation: [https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/rago-choktrul-tupten-shedrup-gyatso/bodhicaryavatara-lineage-prayer Vines of Amṛta: A Prayer to the Lineage of the Bodhicaryāvatāra], translated by Adam Pearcey, 2019.</br></br>The Short Commentary on the Tantra of Twenty-one Homages to Tara called The Treasure Vase of Benefit and Happiness (''sgrol ma phyag 'tshal nyer gcig rgyud kyi 'grel chung phan bde'i gter bum mchog sbyin''). English translation: [https://www.tibetanbuddhistaltar.org/tag/21-homages-to-tara/ The Short Commentary on the Twenty-One Homages to Tara called The Treasure Vase of Benefit and Happiness], translated by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey, 2004.</br></br>Lute of Lotus Flowers: A Concise Fulfillment for the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse ([https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW21957 ''klong chen snying gi thig le las/ yum bka' bde chen rgyal mo'i skong bsdus pad+ma'i rgyud mangs'']) ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rago_Choktrul_Tupten_Shedrup_Gyatso Source Accessed Feb 9 2023])rul_Tupten_Shedrup_Gyatso Source Accessed Feb 9 2023]))
  • Rak ra thub bstan chos dar  + (Rakra Rinpoche (Rakra Thubten Choedar) wasRakra Rinpoche (Rakra Thubten Choedar) was born in 1925 (Fire Ox Year) to Gyurme Gyatso Tethong, then Governor of Derge (Derge chikyap) and Dolma Tsering nee Rong Dikyiling (d/o Dikyiling Sawang Tsering Rabten). The boy was named Rigzin Namgyal by Khenchen Ngawang Samten Lodroe (1868-1931) of the Great Monastery of Derge. At the age of two he was recognized as the 6th Rakra incarnate of Pakshoe monastery in Kham. His father was initially against having his child become a lama, but after the 13th Dalai Lama himself recognized the incarnation, Gyurme Gyatso had to give up his son. His Holiness named the boy Rakra Thubten Choedar.</br></br>Rakra was first schooled at Pakshoe monastery, but from 1935 he started his formal education at Drepung monastery, specifically Gomang college, Ghungru khamtsen (fraternity). He was a bright child and a fast learner. He was also very lucky to have as his principal teacher a geshe (doctor of divinity) who combined profound erudition with an unusual liberal disposition. This geshe seemed to have left a deep impression on the young Rakra. ([https://tibetanwhoswho.wordpress.com/2018/12/09/rakra-rinpoche/ Source Accessed Feb 10, 2023])a-rinpoche/ Source Accessed Feb 10, 2023]))
  • Ra se dkon mchog rgya mtsho  + (Rase Konchog Gyatso was born in 1968 in thRase Konchog Gyatso was born in 1968 in the village below the monastery of Drikung Thil in Tibet. Dagpo (or Gampo) Chenga is the 8th reincarnation of the heart son of Gampopa (1079-1153).</br></br>From his young age Dagpo Chenga revealed a virtuous personality as well as a sharp mind. He studied at Drikung Buddhist College and at the Tibetan College in Lhasa. Dagpo Chenga also attended the Medical and Astrological College. He studied the Ten Aspects of Knowledge, as well as natural sciences, social sciences, and history and became very erudite in many fields of knowledge. Already as a young student he began writing papers on many subjects of Tibetan history and Tibetan Buddhism under his name Rase Konchog Gyatso. Among his books is also a seven-volume publication entitled A Faithful Speech that shows how to develop, improve and spread the Dharma tradition of the Drikung Kagyu in the future. Dagpo Chenga is considered one of the most learned lamas of the Drikung tradition. ([https://www.garchen.de/index.php/en/spiritual-guidance/visiting-teachers Source Accessed Oct 6, 2022])ing-teachers Source Accessed Oct 6, 2022]))
  • Cardenas, K.  + (Reverend Konin Cardenas, also known as VenReverend Konin Cardenas, also known as Ven. Dhammadipa, started the practice of Zen in 1987 and was ordained as a nun in 2007. She has trained at Hosshinji in Japan, at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and at the Zen Center in San Francisco. She received Dharma Transmission in the Shunryu Suzuki lineage. Ven. Dhammadipa serves as the Principal Teacher of Ekan Zen Studies Center, a virtual sangha. She currently resides in Aloka Vihara Monastery of the Forest, a Theravada training center for nuns.</br></br>Konin Cardenas, también conocida como Ven. Dhammadipa, comenzó la práctica del Zen en 1987 y fue ordenada en 2007. Entrenó en el Templo Hosshinji en Japón, en el monasterio Zen de Tassajara y en el Centro Zen de San Francisco. Recibió la transmisión del Dharma en el linaje Shunryu Suzuki. Sirve como Maestra Principal de Ekan Centro de Estudios Zen, una Sangha virtual, y actualmente reside en Aloka Vihara Monasterio del Bosque, un centro de entrenamiento Theravada para monjas Budistas. ([https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/ven-dhammadipa-konin-cardenas Source Accessed April 25, 2024])-cardenas Source Accessed April 25, 2024]))
  • Reynolds, F.  + (Reynolds, who died on Jan. 9 at age 88, waReynolds, who died on Jan. 9 at age 88, was a leading expert in Theravada Buddhism, a religion predominantly practiced in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. He is remembered not only for his lasting impact on the field, but for his work as a teacher and mentor during his 34 years on the UChicago faculty. . . .<br></br>      An ordained Baptist minister, Reynolds, AM’63, PhD’71, spent three years teaching at a university in Thailand before becoming a UChicago graduate student. His experience working with Christians, Buddhists and Muslims in Bangkok led him to seek a non-sectarian, empirically oriented approach to religious studies.<br></br>      In 1967, Reynolds joined the faculty at the University of Chicago, where his interests ranged from Thai civic religion to religious studies in the liberal arts. But Reynolds was held in particularly high regard for his work to deepen knowledge of Theravada Buddhism.<br></br>      Reynolds held editorial responsibilities for various academic publications, including a decades-long stint as co-editor of the ''History of Religions Journal''. Along with wife Mani Bloch he published a translation of a 14th-century Thai Buddhist cosmology, ''The Three Worlds of King Ruang'' (1982).<br></br>      He retired in 2001 as Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions and Buddhist Studies in the Divinity School and the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations.<br></br>      In 2010, Reynolds received the Norman Maclean Faculty Award from UChicago in recognition of his outstanding contributions to teaching and to the student experience of life on campus. Reynolds’ mentorship extended to colleagues as well, with Doniger calling him “the finest teacher I’ve ever known.” ([https://news.uchicago.edu/story/frank-e-reynolds-leading-scholar-buddhism-and-revered-teacher-1930-2019 Adapted from Source Sept 16, 2020]))
  • Barron, R.  + (Richard Barron is a Canadian-born translatRichard Barron is a Canadian-born translator who specializes in the writings of Longchenpa. He has served as an interpreter for many lamas from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, including his first teacher, Kalu Rinpoche. He completed a traditional three-year retreat at Kagyu Ling in France and later became a close disciple of the late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. He was engaged in a long-term project to translate ''The Seven Treasuries'' of Longchenpa.</br></br>His other translations include ''Buddhahood Without Meditation'', ''The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul: A Gem of Many Colors'', and ''A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage'' by Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. ''The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul'' was his first translation in the Tsadra Foundation Series published by Snow Lion Publications.eries published by Snow Lion Publications.)
  • Aitken, R.  + (Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi (JRobert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi (June 19, 1917 – August 5, 2010) was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959 together with his wife, Anne Hopkins Aitken. Aitken received Dharma transmission from Koun Yamada in 1985 but decided to live as a layperson. He was a socialist advocating social justice for homosexuals, women and Native Hawaiians throughout his life, and was one of the original founders of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baker_Aitken Source Accessed Feb 10, 2023])aker_Aitken Source Accessed Feb 10, 2023]))
  • Devenish, R.  + (Rodney P. Devenish (Karma Kunzang Palden RRodney P. Devenish (Karma Kunzang Palden Rinpoche) and his wife Lisa Devenish are co-founders of the Hermitage, and Lama has been teaching meditation there from the start, personally guiding individuals as they develop their meditation practice. His specialty is the Kagyü teaching of Mahāmudrā, which he received chiefly from his root master Karma Namgyal Rinpoche, but also from Trungpa Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche and a number of other Lamas. From those Lamas, and from His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, he received an array of Kagyü empowerments--particularly the Marpa lineage full crown empowerments of Śrī Vajradhara and Hevajra-ḍākiṇī-jālasaṃvara. Having completed both the Kagyü and Nyingma preliminary practices, he has further received the crowning empowerment of the Gūhyagarbha from Penor Rinpoche, late head of the Nyingmapa school, the Mindrolling Vajrasattva-cycle and Dzogchen instruction from Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche, and the transmission of Vajrakīlāya from Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche (1933-2004). The Chöd practice of Jigme Lingpa was given by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche. During a ten year period as a celibate Buddhist monk, Lama Rodney spent his long winters in isolated meditation retreat in the snowy wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, where he completed the Kagyü practices given him by his teacher Namgyal Rinpoche, with particular focus on the Six Yogas of Nāropa and Mahāmudrā.</br></br>As a Western Lama inspired by the broad interests of his teacher Karma Namgyal Rinpoche, Lama's teaching style is ecumenical and universalist, while remaining deeply rooted in the Kagyü tradition. Originally trained as an artist, he has studied many subjects extensively, including analytical psychology, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, comparative religion, philosophy and classical metaphysics. He takes a non-dogmatic approach, believing that the essence of Dharma chiefly consists of personal self-enquiry, investigation of the nature of consciousness and the world in which we find ourselves, coupled with a persistent effort to establish love in the heart. Many students at the Hermitage have found Lama's method especially conducive for the rapid induction of blissful one-pointedness, the deep meditative state known as Samādhi. Students practice on their own, in the midst of nature, supported by frequent personal interviews with the teacher.uent personal interviews with the teacher.)
  • Conlon, R.  + (Ryan Conlon is a doctoral student of ClassRyan Conlon is a doctoral student of Classical Indology at Hamburg University, where he studies Sanskrit and Tibetan tantric literature. From 2006 to 2019 he studied in Nepal at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute and in the Sangye Yeshe Shedra of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. He has contributed translations to the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, Samye Translations, and the scholarly collective known as the Yakherds.cholarly collective known as the Yakherds.)
  • Amṛtākara  + (Said to be a teacher from Kashmir, Amṛtākara wrote the ''Catuḥstavasamāsārtha'', a commentary on the ''Catuḥstava'' (Four Hymns) of Nāgārjuna.)
  • Harding, S.  + (Sarah Harding was born in Malibu in 1951 aSarah Harding was born in Malibu in 1951 and educated in Los Angeles, California. She studied English literature and anthropology at Prescott College in Arizona and earned a degree in Religious Studies from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Sarah spent three years traveling through Europe, Africa, and Asia, and while abroad, she studied Tibetan language and culture for two years in Darjeeling, India, and in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 1974, Sarah returned to the United States to continue her studies in Tibetan culture and language. Her interests in Tibetan and Buddhist studies culminated in her participation in the first traditional three-year meditation and study retreat for Westerners, which was conducted entirely in Tibetan, under the guidance of Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, near Dijon, France.</br></br>Between 1980 and 1992, Sarah served as a resident Dharma teacher and translator in Los Angeles and later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has done extensive oral translation internationally for such renowned teachers as Kalu Rinpoche, Chagdud Tulku, Tenga Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, and Gangteng Rinpoche. Sarah is a founding member of the International Buddhist Translation Committee and a member of the Nalanda Translation Committee. Her prolific career as a translator includes more than thirty-five translations of traditional Buddhist texts, as well as the Tibetan Language Correspondence Course, co-authored with Jeremy Morrelli. From 1992 she was a faculty member in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University and is recently retired. Sarah continues to make her home in Boulder, where she is currently working on her next book. She has been a Tsadra Fellow since 2000. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=eBhgB0Xqr24C&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=Sarah+Harding+was+born+in+Malibu+in+1951+and+educated+in+Los+Angeles,+California.+She+studied+English+literature+and+anthropology+at+Prescott+College+in+Arizona+and+earned+a+degree+in+Religious+Studies+from+Naropa+University+in+Boulder,+Colorado.+Sarah+spent+three+years+traveling+through+Europe,+Africa,+and+Asia,+and+while+abroad,+she+studied+Tibetan+language+and+culture+for+two+years+in+Darjeeling,+India,+and+in+Kathmandu,+Nepal.+In+1974,+Sarah+returned+to+the+United+States+to+continue+her+studies+in+Tibetan+culture+and+language.+Her+interests+in+Tibetan+and+Buddhist+studies+culminated+in+her+participation+in+the+first+traditional+three-year+meditation+and+study+retreat+for+Westerners,+which+was+conducted+entirely+in+Tibetan,+under+the+guidance+of+Venerable+Kalu+Rinpoche,+near+Dijon,+France.&source=bl&ots=aeYb7bOnh-&sig=ACfU3U0wbLUpmQYmQ8kGJrpCPhiuFrEe9g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihnZCTuuHqAhXIbc0KHZQ_AP8Q6AEwAXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sarah%20Harding%20was%20born%20in%20Malibu%20in%201951%20and%20educated%20in%20Los%20Angeles%2C%20California.%20She%20studied%20English%20literature%20and%20anthropology%20at%20Prescott%20College%20in%20Arizona%20and%20earned%20a%20degree%20in%20Religious%20Studies%20from%20Naropa%20University%20in%20Boulder%2C%20Colorado.%20Sarah%20spent%20three%20years%20traveling%20through%20Europe%2C%20Africa%2C%20and%20Asia%2C%20and%20while%20abroad%2C%20she%20studied%20Tibetan%20language%20and%20culture%20for%20two%20years%20in%20Darjeeling%2C%20India%2C%20and%20in%20Kathmandu%2C%20Nepal.%20In%201974%2C%20Sarah%20returned%20to%20the%20United%20States%20to%20continue%20her%20studies%20in%20Tibetan%20culture%20and%20language.%20Her%20interests%20in%20Tibetan%20and%20Buddhist%20studies%20culminated%20in%20her%20participation%20in%20the%20first%20traditional%20three-year%20meditation%20and%20study%20retreat%20for%20Westerners%2C%20which%20was%20conducted%20entirely%20in%20Tibetan%2C%20under%20the%20guidance%20of%20Venerable%20Kalu%20Rinpoche%2C%20near%20Dijon%2C%20France.&f=false Adapted from Source July 22, 2020])</br></br>'''Online Publications''': </br>*[http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/2016/07/13/pha-dampa-sangye-and-the-alphabet-goddess/ Pha Dampa Sangye and the Alphabet Goddess: A Preliminary Study of the Sources of the Zhije Tradition]. Presented by Sarah Harding at the 2016 meeting of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS) in Bergen, Norway</br>*[http://magazine.naropa.edu/wisdom-traditions-fall-2017/features/glorious-naropa.php Nāropa’s Life of Liberation and Spiritual Song]</br>*[http://tsadra-wp.tsadra.org/2014/04/28/did-machik-really-teach-chod/ Did Machik Lapdrön Really Teach Chöd? A Survey of the Early Sources]eally-teach-chod/ Did Machik Lapdrön Really Teach Chöd? A Survey of the Early Sources])
  • Sengzhao  + (Sengzhao. (J. Sōjō; K. Sǔngjo 僧肇) (374-414Sengzhao. (J. Sōjō; K. Sǔngjo 僧肇) (374-414). Influential early Chinese monk and exegete, whose writings helped to popularize the works of the Madhyamaka school in China. Sengzhao is said to have been born into an impoverished family but was able to support himself by working as a copyist. Thanks to his trade, he was able to read through much of traditional Chinese literature and philosophy, including such Daoist classics as the ''Zhuangzi'' and ''Laozi'', and is said to have resolved to become a monk after reading the ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa''. He later became a disciple of Kumārajīva and served as the Chinese-language stylist</br>for Kumārajīva’s translations. After Yao Xing (r. 394-416) of the Latter Qin dynasty (384-417) destroyed the state of Liang in 401, Sengzhao followed his teacher to Chang’an, where he and his colleague Sengrui (352-436) were appointed as two of the main assistants in Kumārajīva’s translation bureau there. Yao</br>Xing ordered them to elucidate the scriptures Kumārajīva had translated, so Sengzhao subsequently wrote his ''Bore wuzhi lun'' to explicate the ''Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'' that Kumārajīva and his team had translated in 404. This and other influential treatises by Sengzhao were later compiled together as the Zhao lun. Sengzhao’s treatises and his commentary on the ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'' played a crucial role in the development of Mahāyāna thought in China. Sengzhao is treated retrospectively as a vaunt Courier in the San lun zong, the Chinese analogue of the Madhyamaka school, which was formally established some two centuries later by Jizang (549-623). The influential ''Baozang lun'' is also attributed to Sengzhao, although that treatise is probably a later work of the early Chan tradition. (Source: "Sengzhao." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 794. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • Okumura, S.  + (Shohaku Okumura was born in Osaka, Japan iShohaku Okumura was born in Osaka, Japan in 1948. He is an ordained priest and Dharma successor of Kōshō Uchiyama Roshi in the lineage of Kōdō Sawaki Roshi. He is a graduate of Komazawa University and has practiced at Antaiji with Kōshō Uchiyama Roshi, Zuioji with Narasaki Ikkō Roshi in Japan, and Pioneer Valley Zendo in Massachusetts. He taught at Kyoto Sōtō Zen Center in Japan and Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis. He was the director of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center (previously called Soto Zen Education Center) in San Francisco from 1997 to 2010.</br></br>His previously published books of translation include ''Dōgen’s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Kōroku''; ''Shikantaza: An Introduction to Zazen''; ''Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki: Sayings of Eihei Dōgen Zenji''; ''Heart of Zen: Practice without Gaining-mind'' (previously titled ''Dōgen Zen''); ''Zen Teachings of "Homeless" Kōdō''; ''Opening the Hand of Thought''; ''The Whole Hearted Way: A Translation of Eihei Dōgen’s Bendōwa with Commentary by Kōshō Uchiyama Roshi''; and ''Dōgen’s Pure Standards for the Zen Community: A Translation of Eihei Shingi''. Okumura is also the editor of ''Dōgen Zen and Its Relevance for Our Time''; ''Soto Zen: An Introduction to Zazen''; and ''Nothing is Hidden: Essays on Zen Master Dōgen’s Instructions for the Cook''.</br></br>He is the founding teacher of the Sanshin Zen Community, based in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives with his family. (''Realizing Genjokoan'', about the author)''Realizing Genjokoan'', about the author))
  • Thrangu Rinpoche  + (Short Biography of the Ninth Khenchen ThraShort Biography of the Ninth Khenchen Thrangu Tulku, Karma Lodrö Lungrik Maway Senge: </br></br></br>The Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche was born in Kham, Tibet, in 1933. At the age of five, he was formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku. He entered Thrangu monastery, where, from the ages of seven to sixteen, he studied reading, writing, grammar, poetry, and astrology, memorized ritual texts, and completed two preliminary retreats. At sixteen, under the direction of Khenpo Lodro Rabsel, he began the study of the three vehicles of Buddhism while in retreat. At twenty-three he received full ordination from the Karmapa.</br>Because of the Chinese military takeover of Tibet, Thrangu Rinpoche, then twenty-seven, was forced to flee to India in 1959. He was called to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, where the Karmapa has his seat in exile. Because of his great scholarship and unending diligence, he was given the task of preserving the teachings of the Kagyu lineage; the lineage of Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa, so that one thousand years of profound Buddhist teachings would not be lost.</br></br>He continued his studies in exile, and at the age of thirty-five he took the geshe examination before 1500 monks at Buxador monastic refugee camp in Bengal and was awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa. Upon his return to Rumtek, he was awarded the highest Khenchen degree. Because many of the Buddhist texts in Tibet were destroyed, Thrangu Rinpoche helped in beginning the recovery of these texts from Tibetan monasteries outside of Tibet. He was named Abbot of Rumtek monastery and the Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies at Rumtek. Thrangu Rinpoche, along with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, was one of the principal teachers at the Institute, training all the younger tulkus of the lineage, including The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who was in the first class. He was also the personal tutor of the four principal Karma Kagyu tulkus: Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Thrangu Rinpoche established the fundamental curriculum of the Karma Kagyu lineage taught at Rumtek. In addition, he taught with Khenpo Karthar, who had been a teacher at Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery in Tibet before 1959, and who is now head of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York, the seat of His Holiness Karmapa in North America.</br></br>After twenty years at Rumtek, in 1976 Thrangu Rinpoche founded the small monastery of Thrangu Tashi Choling in Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal. Since then, he has founded a retreat center and college at Namo Buddha, east of the Kathmandu Valley, and has established a school in Boudhanath for the general education of Tibetan lay children and young monks in Western subjects as well as in Buddhist studies. In Kathmandu, he built Tara Abbey, which offers a full dharma education for Tibetan nuns, training them to become khenpos or teachers. He has also established a free medical clinic in an impoverished area of Nepal.</br></br>Thrangu Rinpoche recently completed a large, beautiful monastery in Sarnath, India, overlooking the Deer Park where the Buddha gave his first teaching on the Four Noble Truths. This monastery is named Vajra Vidya after the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, and it is now the seat for the annual Kagyu conference led by His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa. In January of this year, His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to Sarnath to perform a ceremony in the Deer Park with the Karmapa, Thrangu Rinpoche, and other high lamas.</br></br>Around 1976, Thrangu Rinpoche began giving authentic Buddhist teachings in the West. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 1984 he spent several months in Tibet where he ordained over one hundred monks and nuns and visited several monasteries. In the United States, Thrangu Rinpoche has centers in Maine and California, and is currently building the Vajra Vidya Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. Highly qualified monks and nuns from Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery will give retreatants instruction in various intensive practices. He often visits and gives teachings in centers in New York, Connecticut, and Seattle, Washington. In Canada, he gives teachings in Vancouver and has a center in Edmonton. He is the Abbot of Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia. He conducts yearly Namo Buddha seminars in the United States, Canada, and Europe, which are also part of a meditation retreat.</br></br>Rinpoche has now taught in over twenty-five countries and has seventeen centers in twelve countries. He is especially known for making complex teachings accessible to Western students. Thrangu Rinpoche is a recognized master of Mahamudra meditation.</br></br>Because of his vast knowledge of the Dharma and his skill as a teacher, he was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa.</br></br>(Source: [http://www.rinpoche.com/bio1.htm Rinpoche.com, Official Site of the 9th Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche])</br></br>For ''The Life of Thrangu Rinpoche with Pictures'' [http://www.rinpoche.com/life_of_TR_11_11_2015.pdf Click here].com/life_of_TR_11_11_2015.pdf Click here])
  • Balsys, B.  + (Since the late 1960s Bodo Balsys has dedicSince the late 1960s Bodo Balsys has dedicated his life to understanding the nature of consciousness and sharing his unique insights with others. He is a writer, a poet, an artist, a meditation teacher and healer. He has studied extensively across multiple fields of life. These include Esoteric science, meditation, healing, cosmology, Christianity, Buddhism, natural science, art, politics and history.</br></br>Bodo has published multiple books. His first series, The Revelation (three volumes), was concerned with providing insights into fundamental esoteric subjects, and specifically providing an esoteric understanding of the Christian Bible. His more recent books focus on providing new insights into Buddhism and particularly their alignment with esoteric science. Bodo also holds a science degree from the University of Western Sydney. He is currently teaching at the School of Esoteric Sciences (near Sydney), which he established. ([https://www.universaldharma.com/about-us/our-teacher-bodo-balsys/ Source Accessed July 19, 2023])do-balsys/ Source Accessed July 19, 2023]))
  • Bsod nams dpal dren  + (Sonam Peldren (bsod nam dpal 'dren) was boSonam Peldren (bsod nam dpal 'dren) was born on the seventeenth day of the tenth month of the earth male-dragon year (either 1268 or 1328). Her mother was named Nezang Chotso (gnas bzang chos mtsho); her father was named Yondak Ngoli (yon bdag sngo li) and was a descendent of the Tong (stong) clan. She was born in a place called Tashipa Janggyab (bkra shis pa byang rgyab) in Dam Sho ('dam shod), in the Nol (snol) district of U (dbus), near the Nyenchen Tanglha mountain range (gnyen chen thang lha). Her birth name was Gego (ge god); sometime after her marriage at age seventeen she was renamed Sonam Peldren. She was the youngest of four children: she had two elder brothers named Azang (a 'zang) and Kunchog Gyab (dkon mchog skyabs), and one elder sister named Chokyi (chos skyid.)</br></br>Little is known of the years between Sonam Peldren's birth and her marriage at age sixteen other than that her mother passed away, her father remarried, and that she was a calm child liked by all. When Sonam Peldren was seventeen years old, her father arranged her marriage, choosing from among three available suitors: Chakdor Kyab (phyag dor skyabs), described simply as a nomad from Kham, and who is more commonly known by the name Rinchen Pel; Ga Yar ('ga' yar), also described only as a nomad from Kham; and Pelek (dpal legs), described as the chief scribe (dpon yig) from a wealthy local family in central Tibet. Sonam Peldren's father, with the strong approval of his wife and extended family, betrothed Sonam Peldren to the scribe Pelek.</br></br>Sonam Peldren, however, refused to marry the groom of her family's choice, and instead insisted that she marry Rinchen Pel, claiming that her union with Rinchen Pel was karmically predestined. Sonam Peldren's father, step-mother, sister, brothers, and several other relatives questioned Sonam Peldren's refusal to marry a wealthy man from central Tibet to marry instead a landless man from the "miserable region" (sdugs sa, sic) of Kham. Sonam Peldren's fiancé himself was appalled by the adamant refusal of his betrothed to follow her father's wishes, and eventually withdrew his offer of marriage. Sonam Peldren's family reluctantly returned the gifts received from the scribe and his family; after Rinchen Pel supplied his own gifts, the two were considered married. Following her death it was Rinchen Pel who would promote her teachings and visions, in part with a written narrative of her life.</br></br>The biography of Sonam Peldren records only general stories about the events in Sonam Peldren's life between her marriage at age sixteen and the final months of her life before her death at age forty-four. Sonam Peldren lived as a nomad and traveled with her husband and fellow nomads, first in the central Tibetan region of U-Tsang (dbus gtsang) until she was thirty years old, and then in the "eight valley" region (brgyad shod) of eastern Tibet until her death. Sonam Peldren and Rinchen Pel had four children: two sons named Sonam Dondrub (bsod nams don 'grub) and Tsukdor Gyab (gtsug tor skyabs) and two daughters named Gumril or Gumrim (gum ril/m) and Sonam Kyi (bsod nams skyid) The birth order of these children, and Sonam Peldren's age at their birth, is not known.</br></br>These years of travel are described in the biography as punctuated by Sonam Peldren's miracles and acts of generosity. For example, her biography recounts that Sonam Peldren gave nearly all of her clothing to beggars, opting to live in a simple cotton piece of clothing without shoes; it was said that while other members of her group developed frostbite underneath their thick clothing, Sonam Peldren, barefoot and wearing only a cotton tunic, walked unimpeded through the snow, melting it with her feet. </br></br>Other examples of miracles attributed to Sonam Peldren include the following: when traveling over a snowy mountain pass, she dug a tunnel through the snow covering the mountain pass and traveled straight through to the other side, shocking the other nomads who traveled around the peak by reaching their destination first; she broke up a knife fight by grabbing four men in each of her hands and holding them apart until they ceased quarreling; when a bandit stole most of the nomadic group's horses in the middle of the night, she leapt onto the nearest remaining horse, raced down the road after the fleeing animals, and, grabbing the animals' manes with her left and right hands, led them back to camp; she carried the carcass of a fallen yak up a steep mountainside and back to her nomad encampment for their consumption; when the ice over a river broke beneath the feet of a pack animal, she yanked the yak out of the freezing water by its tail, pulling it to safety; she flung a load of barley off the back of one pack animal and onto another when the animal became lodged in a narrow pass; when a pack animal stumbled and fell over a rocky cliff, she reached down and pulled it up to safety.</br></br>Without exception, the biography describes these episodes ending with Sonam Peldren glibly attributing her accomplishments to luck or fortuitous circumstances; for example, she explained that a huge wave had actually lifted the yak out of the freezing river. Also without exception, the biography records that her fellow nomads somehow failed to recognize Sonam Peldren's abilities.</br></br>In the final year of her life, when she and her fellow nomads were traveling in a Ya Nga near what is now the city of Chamda (bya / lcam mda') in today's Driru ('bri ru) county in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Sonam Peldren gave increasingly explicit religious interpretations of her actions to Rinchen Pel, and described her dreams, visions, and premonitions of death.</br></br>In particular, Sonam Peldren described recurring dreams and waking visions in which unnamed various female figures, each with their own retinue, appeared before her. Explaining that a plague would erupt in the nomad community if Sonam Peldren did not accompany them by the fifth month of that year, the female figures demanded that Sonam Peldren leave her nomad group and travel with them. Sonam Peldren interpreted these dreams and visions to mean that she would die in the fifth month.</br></br>Following these visions and for the next several months, Sonam Peldren claimed to experience visions, gave increasingly lengthy teachings to Rinchen Pel about the religious nature of her identity and daily activities, and continued to express a conviction that her death was imminent and that relics would be found in her cremation ashes. Many of her teachings, which took the form of spontaneous songs (mgur), focused on basic Buddhist doctrines of impermanence, non-attachment, and so forth. Other speeches made reference to esoteric Buddhist practices and philosophies, such as the Mahāmudrā and other doctrines typically associated with the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. These teachings were noteworthy given the absence of any religious training or practice up to that point, a topic which Sonam Peldren's husband, family, and community returned to repeatedly in their criticisms of her claims.</br></br>On the predicted day of the fifth month of the water mouse year, Sonam Peldren declared that she was ready to die. According to her husband's account, she first claimed to see multi-colored maṇḍalas of dākinīs and tutelary deities in the sky, then conducted an offering ritual, and declared that she was ready "to go." Crying "Heek!" her body was said to have shot into the sky, then to have come down and bounced five times, each time higher. Finally, her corpse glowed with white light; gods and goddesses of light poured from her body, and accompanied her consciousness as it departed for a Buddha realm. The corpse descended slowly to earth and landed in a seated posture on the ground. A red drop appeared in the right nostril and a white drop in the left; when Rinchen Pel wiped the drops away with a flat rock, images of a red sow and a deity wearing a tiger skin appeared on the surface of the stone. Rainbows were seen, and that night visions of palaces and various mandalas filled the sky.</br></br>The date of her death given in her biography is the twenty-third day of the fifth month of the water male-mouse year (1312 or 1372), meaning she would have been about forty-four years old.</br></br>Upon cremation Sonam Peldren's skeleton was said to be found covered with images: ḍākinīs and dharma protectors; multiple images of Vajravārahī (known as Dorje Pakmo in Tibetan), Vajrāpaṇī, the Buddha Śākyamuni, Tārā, Vairocana, Cakrasaṃvara, Vajrasattva, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, Maitreya, Vajrayoginī, Dīpaṃkara and Vajradhara. Also said to be visible were the thirty-two print and cursive letters of the Tibetan alphabet; multiple and variously-colored sows; an elephant, vajra, conch shell, fish, and bell; and the letter "Ah" as well as the syllable "Tam". On her pelvic bone were signs of the secret wisdom ḍākinī, a triangle, the syllable "Bam," a flower, two ḍākinīs, and three circles of mantras.</br></br>For Rinchen Pel, Sonam Peldren's miraculous death vindicated her claims of religious authority; others in her community were not convinced. Beginning seven months after her passing, Rinchen Pel claimed to experience nine posthumous encounters with Sonam Peldren. The nature of these encounters varied. In some, Rinchen Pel asked questions, such as why Sonam Peldren's body had been ugly, inferior, and female during her lifetime; what he was supposed to do with the vast quantity of relics produced from her corpse; how Sonam Peldren had accrued religious knowledge in her lifetime despite no visible study or practice of religion; and what the meaning had been of Sonam Peldren's strange dreams, visions, songs and religious pronouncements in the last months of her life.</br></br>In another posthumous vision, when Rinchen Pel retreated to a mountainside to petition Sonam Peldren for guidance about whether he should ordain as a monk, Sonam Peldren appeared and sang a verse about emptiness and the nature of mind. In two other visions, Sonam Peldren chastised Rinchen Pel for neglecting her relics, using them to get material gain for himself, and for letting others' doubts about the authenticity of the relics affect his presentation and explanation of them, an accusation which Rinchen Pel denied. In yet other visions, Sonam Peldren simply appeared in the form of Dorje Pakmo before Rinchen Pel, along with rainbows, ḍākinīs, unusual birds, Sanskrit letters on mountain peaks.</br></br>Today Sonam Peldren is remembered as an exemplary female practitioner. A nunnery in Driru named Ya Nga Chamda Ganden Khacho Ling Nunnery (ya nga bya mda' btsun dgon dga' ldan mkha' phyod gling), called either Khacho Ling or Ganden Khacho Ling for short, stands on her death site; this nunnery contains a large wall mural depicting events from the lives of both Sonam Peldren and Rinchen Pel. Resident nuns perform and offering ritual to Sonam Peldren three times a month.</br></br>Her legacy was strong enough that by the sixteenth or seventeenth century a text describing the history of Tibet's only female reincarnation lineage, the Samding Dorje Pakmo (bsam lding rdo rje phag mo), could name her as an early figure in the lineage, both an incarnation of Dorje Pakmo and a pre-incarnation of Chokyi Drolma, the First Samding Dorje Pakmo (bsam sdings rdo rje phag mo 01 chos kyi sgron ma, 1422-1467/1468). However, it is worthwhile to point out that at Ganden Khacho Ling she is not regarded as belonging to the Samding Dorje Pakmo incarnation line, nor is she considered to have been an incarnation of Dorje Pakmo.</br></br>At least one twentieth-century woman claimed to be an incarnation of Sonam Peldren: Khandro Kunsang (mkha' 'gro kun bzang, d. 2004), a woman affiliated with the Kagyu tradition who gained great regional fame as a tantric practitioner and healer.</br></br>Source [http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/bsod-nam-dpal-dren//13196]iographies/view/bsod-nam-dpal-dren//13196])
  • Mang, S.  + (Stefan Mang, a student of Tibetan BuddhismStefan Mang, a student of Tibetan Buddhism since 2004, has been studying Buddhist philosophy and literary Tibetan since 2010 at Rigpa Shedra East in Nepal. From 2011 until 2018 he studied at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, where he completed his BA and MA degrees. He works with Lhasey Lotsawa Translations and Publications, their Nekhor project, Lotsawa House, and 84000. (Source: [https://samyeinstitute.org/instructors/stefan-mang/ Samye Institute, Accessed August 28, 2023].)mye Institute, Accessed August 28, 2023].))
  • Bardor Rinpoche, 1st  + (Terchen Barway Dorje (1st Bardor Rinpoche,Terchen Barway Dorje (1st Bardor Rinpoche, 1836-1918) was a student of the 9th Tai Situ Rinpoche, the 14th Karmapa, Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, and many other masters of his time.</br></br>Initially associated with Surmang Monastery of which he was a recognized tulku (Shartse Rinpoche of Surmang), Terchen Barway Dorje devoted a good portion of his life to reviving of the lost teachings of the Barom Kagyu. He was also known as a revealer of terma (treasures) of which he discovered nine volumes.</br></br>The treasures discovered by Terchen Barway Dorje had been concealed by two of Guru Rinpoche’s principal disciples—Nupchen Sangye Yeshe and Yeshe Tsogyal. Terchen Barway Dorje was an emanation of both of them.</br></br>Toward the end of his life, Terchen Barway Dorje founded Raktrul Monastery in eastern Tibet.</br></br>The writings of Terchen Barway Dorje consist of fourteen volumes. Of these, nine volumes are his revelations or termas, three volumes are his collective writings or compositions, one volume is his autobiography, and the one volume is his collective songs of instruction.</br></br>The autobiography of Terchen Barway Dorje has been translated into English and published by KTD Publications as ''Precious Essence: The Inner Autobiography of Terchen Barway Dorje''. His collective songs of instruction have been published as ''Treasury of Eloquence: The Songs of Barway Dorje''.of Eloquence: The Songs of Barway Dorje''.)
  • Dzogchen Ponlop, The 7th  + (The 7th Dzogchen Ponlop (Karma Sungrap NgeThe 7th Dzogchen Ponlop (Karma Sungrap Ngedön Tenpa Gyaltsen, born 1965) is an abbot of Dzogchen Monastery, founder and spiritual director of Nalandabodhi, founder of Nītārtha Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies, a leading Tibetan Buddhist scholar, and a meditation master. He is one of the highest tülkus in the Nyingma lineage and an accomplished Karma Kagyu lineage holder.</br></br>Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche was born in 1965 at Rumtek Monastery (Dharma Chakra Center) in Sikkim, India. His birth was prophesied by the supreme head of the Kagyu lineage, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, to Ponlop Rinpoche's parents, Dhamchö Yongdu, the General Secretary of the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, and his wife, Lekshey Drolma. Upon his birth, he was recognized by the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as the seventh in the line of Dzogchen Ponlop incarnations and was formally enthroned as the Seventh Dzogchen Ponlop at Rumtek Monastery in 1968.[1]</br></br>After receiving Buddhist refuge and bodhisattva vows from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dzogchen Ponlop was ordained as a novice monk in 1974. He subsequently received full ordination and became a bhikṣu, although he later returned his vows and is now a lay teacher.</br></br>Rinpoche received teachings and empowerments from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse, Kalu Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (chief Abbot of the Kagyu lineage), Alak Zenkar Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, his root guru.</br></br>Ponlop Rinpoche began studying Buddhist philosophy at the primary school in Rumtek at age 12. In 1979 (when Rinpoche was fourteen), the 16th Karmapa proclaimed Ponlop Rinpoche to be a heart son of the Gyalwang Karmapa and a holder of his Karma Kagyu lineage. In 1980 on his first trip to the West, he accompanied the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa to Europe, United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia. While serving as the Karmapa's attendant, he also gave dharma teachings and assisted in ceremonial roles during these travels.[2]</br></br>In 1981, he entered the monastic college at Rumtek, Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies where he studied the fields of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, logic, and debate. During his time at Rumtek, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche worked for the Students' Welfare Union, served as head librarian, and was the chief-editor of the Nalandakirti Journal, an annual publication which brings together Eastern and Western views on Buddhism. Rinpoche graduated in 1990 as Ka-rabjampa from Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies in Rumtek Monastery. (Ka-rabjampa means "one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures", the Kagyu equivalent of the Sakya and Gelug's geshe degree.) He simultaneously earned the degree of Acharya, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy, from Sampurnanant Sanskrit University. Dzogchen Ponlop has also completed studies in English and comparative religion at Columbia University in New York City. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen_Ponlop_Rinpoche Source Accessed Nov 19, 2019])</br></br>For further information about Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, visit his [https://dpr.info/ Official Website]t his [https://dpr.info/ Official Website])
  • Adeu Rinpoche  + (The Eighth Adeu Rinpoche was born on the fThe Eighth Adeu Rinpoche was born on the fourth day of the 12th Tibetan month in the Iron Horse year of the fifteenth calendrical cycle, in the middle of a freezing winter. As the 16th Karmapa and the Eighth Choegon Rinpoche recognized the child as the authentic reincarnation of the Seventh Adeu Rinpoche, he was taken to Tsechu Gompa for enthronement at the age of seven. Immediately after this, he began his traditional education in writing, calligraphy, poetry, astrology, mandala painting, spiritual practice and text recitation. At the same time, the young Adeu Rinpoche also received many teachings and pith-instructions based on the old and new traditions, but primarily on the Drukpa lineage from the Eighth Choegon Rinpoche, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and many other great masters. After this, Rinpoche entered into a seven-year retreat, during which he practised the sadhanas of different deities and trained in tsa-lung, following the Six Yogas of Naropa and the liberating Mahamudra mind-training practices. He also learnt philosophy. Adeu Rinpoche later wrote a precise commentary on the three sets of vows, the root of heart-essence of Nyingmapa lineage, and on the various mandala deities.</br></br>In 1958, all the sacred texts, statues and precious objects were completely destroyed, and Rinpoche was imprisoned for fifteen years. Although Adeu Rinpoche suffered a great deal, the period in prison gave him an opportunity to meet many accomplished masters, who had also been imprisoned, especially Khenpo Munsel from whom he received instructions on Dzogchen, and under whose guidance, he practised the rare and precious teachings of the aural lineage (Nyengyü) of the Nyingma school, and studied the various Nyingmapa terma teachings.</br></br>Adeu Rinpoche was an extremely important master of the Drukpa Kagyü lineage, especially following the Cultural Revolution, during which many great Drukpa lineage masters passed away. When teachings of the Drukpa lineage were faced with extinction, Adeu Rinpoche was the only remaining lineage holder of the Khampa tradition of the Drukpa lineage.</br></br>At the end of 1980, Adeu Rinpoche went to Tashi Jong in India to pass on the entire lineage of the Khampa Drukpa tradition to the present Khamtrul Rinpoche Dongyü Nyima, Choegon Rinpoche Choekyi Wangchuk and many other great tulkus of the Drukpa lineage.</br></br>In 1990, Adeu Rinpoche also gave the complete empowerments of the Drukpa lineage to the local tulkus in Nangchen. About 51 tulkus and 1600 monks and nuns were present to receive the empowerments and oral transmissions. In this way, Adeu Rinpoche became the main lineage master of the Khampa Drukpa tradition for all the Drukpa tulkus. Thereafter, Adeu Rinpoche went to Bhutan and exchanged initiations with Je Khenpo, Jigme Chodrak Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and many other enlightened masters, thus becoming a representative of the Drukpa lineage.</br></br>Adeu Rinpoche also took responsibility for restoring Tsechu Gompa, and at the same time collecting, correcting and editing all the Drukpa teachings, tantras and practices.</br></br>Adeu Rinpoche passed away in July 2007, in Nangchen, Tibet.</br></br>His reincarnation has recently been identified, in Tibet, by Choegon Rinpoche Chökyi Senge. (Source:[https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Adeu_Rinpoche])pawiki.org/index.php?title=Adeu_Rinpoche]))
  • Dhargyey, Ngawang  + (The Most Venerable Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey The Most Venerable Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey was born on the 13th of the fifth Tibetan month in the year of the Iron-Bird (1921) in the town of Yätsak (or Ya Chak) in the Trehor district of Tibet's eastern province Kham. He was soon enrolled in the large local Dhargyey Monastery of the Gelug tradition, where he took pre-novice ordination vows. Although he was enrolled there he studied mainly in the village Sakya monastery, Lona Gonpa where he received instruction in reading, writing, grammar etc, and learned numerous texts and practices by heart. His teachers there included two of his uncles, as well as Kushu Gonpä Rinpoche, who was a master of all the five major fields of learning.</br></br>Image of Gen RinpocheAt the age of eighteen Gen Rinpoche left his home country to further his spiritual education at Sera Monastery, the great monastic university in Lhasa. There he underwent extensive training in all the five divisions of Buddhist philosophical study: Logic, Perfection of Wisdom, the Middle View, Metaphysics, and Ethical Discipline. This was interspersed with periods of intensive retreat at some of the many hermitages near Sera. By the time he was nineteen he had already mastered his studies sufficiently to become a scriptural teacher, and he began to have many students of his own. At the age of 21, he took full ordination vows of a Bhikshu from the widely renowned Purchog Jamgön Rinpoche. He also received numerous teachings, initiations and commentaries from the great Lamas of that time such as Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang (His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Tutor), Bakri Dorje Chang, Lhatsün Dorje Chang, Gönsar Dorje Chang and others. His monastic teachers were the great scholar- practitioners Gen Sherab Wangchuk, Gen Chöntse, and the now Gyume Kensur Ugyän Tseten.</br></br>He studied in Sera in Tibet for twenty years until, in 1959, Chinese oppression forced him to leave Tibet. Two years earlier he had been appointed tutor to two high incarnate lamas, Lhagön Rinpoche and Thupten Rinpoche. The three escaped from Chinese occupied Tibet together taking a long and dangerous journey of nine months under Chinese gunfire and snowstorms until they reached the Mustang region of Nepal. From Mustang it was a comparatively easy journey to India, where they joined His Holiness the Dalai Lama and some of Gen Rinpoche's other teachers.</br></br>In India, after a brief pilgrimage to the sacred Buddhist sites, he took up his studies once again, and for several continued tutoring the tulkus (incarnate lamas). In the mid 1960s, he was chosen along with fifty-five other scholars to attend an Acarya course at Mussourie (north of Delhi). During his year in Mussourie, he and the other scholars wrote textbooks for the Tibetan refugee schools being established in India at that time. He then returned to Dalhousie where, over various periods, he continued to teach another seven incarnate lamas. He also finished his Geshe studies and, in oral examinations held at the Buxador refugee camp in Assam in eastern India (the seat of Sera monastery at that time) he gained the highest grade (First Class) Lharampa Geshe.</br></br>In 1971 he was asked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to start a teaching program for westerners at the newly constructed Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, northern India. Two of his incarnate lama disciples, Sharpa Rinpoche and Kamlung Rinpoche, acted as translators. He stayed there, teaching very extensively to thousands of Westerners, until 1984. During this time he himself received extensive and often exclusive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and from both of the tutors, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.</br></br>In 1982 he travelled to the West for the first time to take up a one-semester visiting professorship for at the University of Washington in Seattle. This was followed by a year-long extensive tour of Buddhist teaching centres all over North America, Europe and Australasia.</br></br>He spent six weeks in New Zealand during this tour, and at the end of the visit he was requested to establish a Buddhist centre here. In 1985 His Holiness advised Gen Rinpoche to come to New Zealand, initially for one and a half years, to establish a centre. After a six month tour of Australia, he arrived in Dunedin in mid 1985. Due to the success of the Buddhist centre he remained here, occasionally travelling to other parts of New Zealand and to Australia on teaching tours.</br></br>Gen Rinpoche was a wonderful teacher who loved to teach the great treatises, as well as experiential teachings which distilled their essence. He gave his last formal teaching in February 1995 in Dunedin. Gen Rinpoche entered into the death process on the 11th August 1995 (the 16th of the 6th Tibetan month) remaining in meditation for of three days.</br></br>His body was cremated with full traditional Tibetan funerary rites at Portobello, near Dunedin on 17th August (22nd of the 6th Tibetan month). Kushu Lhagön Rinpoche, one of Gen Rinpoche's tulku disciples, presided over the Great Offering to His Holy Body Ceremony at a specially built cremation stupa. ([https://dbc.dharmakara.net/GNDBiography.html Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023])graphy.html Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023]))
  • Bardor Rinpoche, 2nd  + (The first rebirth of Terchen Barway Dorje The first rebirth of Terchen Barway Dorje was recognized by the 15th Karmapa, but lived only a short time and, in fact, died before he was reached by the search party seeking him. The Karmapa later explained what happened: Terchen Barway Dorje had promised a great sinner named Changkyi Mingyur that he would not be reborn in a lower state. Changkyi Mingyur died shortly before the new incarnation of Terchen Barway Dorje was discovered and was about to be reborn in a lower state. In desperation, he called on Barway Dorje and it was therefore necessary for Bardor Rinpoche to depart his new body in order to fulfill his promise.</br></br>The 15th Karmapa decided to perform another recognition of the 2nd Barway Dorje, but before the time for recognition arrived, the 15th Gyalwang Karmapa departed this realm for the benefit of beings in other places.</br></br>For this reason, the rebirth of Terchen Barway Dorje—the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche—was recognized by the 11th Tai Situ Rinpoche, Padma Wangchok Gyalpo.</br></br>The 2nd Bardor Rinpoche was born at the end of 1920 and many auspicious signs accompanied his birth. He was enthroned at Raktrul Monastery at the age of five but received his training and transmissions at Surmang and Kyodrak monasteries.</br></br>In his thirteenth year, the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche met the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa. Because the Gyalwang Karmapa had been Bardor Rinpoche’s karmically destined guru in many lives, Bardor Rinpoche felt great devotion for the Karmapa upon meeting him.</br></br>The 2nd Bardor Rinpoche spent much of his life serving the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, although he occasionally traveled back to Raktrul Monastery to look after its needs. Toward the end of his life, he made an aspiration to be able to serve both the Karmapa and Raktrul Monastery in his future lives. As a result of that aspiration we now have two incarnations of the 3rd Bardor Rinpoche—one who has devoted most of his life to the service of both the 16th and 17th Karmapas and has founded Kunzang Palchen Ling in the US, and one who remains in Tibet and looks after Raktrul Monastery.</br></br>A detailed account of the life of the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche is available in English translation as ''The Light of Dawn'' composed by Karma Tupten. ([https://www.kunzang.org/treasure-lineage/2nd-bardor-rinpoche/ Source Accessed June 28, 2023])-rinpoche/ Source Accessed June 28, 2023]))
  • Sèngué, T.  + (This is the Dharma name and pen name of FrThis is the Dharma name and pen name of François Jacquemart.</br></br>Lama Cheuky Sèngué (François Jacquemart) was born in 1949 and had his first encounter with Tibetan Buddhism in 1976. He accomplished a 3-year Buddhist retreat in France in the beginning of the eighties. He became a close student of the late Bokar Rinpoche and served him as an interpreter for a long period.</br></br>In 1985, he founded (and still directs) Claire Lumière publications dedicated to Tibetan Buddhism, translating, editing, and publishing a considerable number of books in French, mainly for the Kagyu Lineage.</br></br>He is also in charge of a few small Dharma centres (Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, and Grenoble) and teaches in France and Spain.</br></br>His Holiness the Karmapa requested him to translate into French the Kagyu Monlam Books, a task which was completed under His direction at the Gyutö Monastery. ([https://karmapafoundation.eu/the-board/francois-jacquemart/ Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023])jacquemart/ Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]))
  • Losang, T.  + (Thubten Losang became interested in BuddhiThubten Losang became interested in Buddhism during the 1990s and sporadically read books on Buddhism and practiced sitting meditation. He first came to Sravasti Abbey in April 2013 for a Sharing the Dharma Day. After that, he began to visit the Abbey almost every month.</br></br>In the summer of 2014, he spent 10 days of every month at the Abbey to work in the forest and joined in the Exploring Monastic Life program. Receiving teachings from a qualified teacher (Ven. Chodron), being around other practitioners, being guided and inspired by the monastic community, and establishing a regular meditation schedule turned his sporadic and confused spiritual seeking into a serious and consistent practice.</br></br>Ven. Losang moved to the Abbey in December 2014 and took the anagarika precepts the following month. He received śrāmaṇera (novice) ordination on August 10, 2015. See his ordination photos. He received full ordination in Taiwan in 2017. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/sramanera-thubten-losang/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023])ten-losang/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023]))
  • Murti, T. R. V.  + (Tirupattur Ramaseshayyer Venkatachala MurtTirupattur Ramaseshayyer Venkatachala Murti (June 15, 1902 – March 1986) was an Indian academic, philosopher, writer and translator. He wrote several books on Oriental philosophy, particularly Indian philosophy and his works included commentaries and translations of Indian and Buddhist texts. He was an elected honorary member of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS), a society promoting scholarship in Buddhist studies. ''Studies in Indian Thought: Collected Papers'', ''The Central Philosophy of Buddhism'', and ''A Study of the Madhyamika System'' are some of his notable works. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1959, for his contributions to education and literature.</br></br>Murti dedicates his 1955 work, ''The Central Philosophy of Buddhism'', as follows: "To my revered teacher Professor S. Radhakrishnan". ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruppattur_R._Venkatachala_Murti Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023])</br></br>T. R. V Murti was an original and leading thinker among the Indian philosophers of the twentieth century. He had a brilliant philosophical mind, a love of analysis and argument, and a respect for texts, especially the ones with which he disagreed, as seen in his most important book, ''The Central Philosophy of Buddhism''. With both traditional "Shastri" training and a Western style Ph.D., Murti was able to bring both strengths to his writing and teaching. Murti knew everything by heart, all the Sutra texts, the Upanisads and other philosophical classics, Panini's grammar, and Patanjali's "Great Commentary" and other core texts. Upon that foundation, he evaluated doctrines and ideas. Though a philosopher of the classical type, he was also alive to the latest philosophical currents of his day and effectively related the wisdom of traditional teaching to contemporary questions. It was this last quality that made him a most sought after teacher by students from around the globe. Murti spoke with such eloquence and authority that few would dare to interrupt him. He represented the best of the Indian philosophical tradition to the world through his teaching at places such as Oxford, Copenhagen, Harvard, Hawaii, and McMaster University in Canada. ([http://www.coronetbooks.com/books/t/trvm0775.htm Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023])rvm0775.htm Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023]))
  • Tsoknyi Rinpoche  + (Tsoknyi Rinpoche (Wylie: Tshogs gnyis rin Tsoknyi Rinpoche (Wylie: Tshogs gnyis rin po che), or Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (born 13 March 1966), is a Nepalese Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author and the founder of the Pundarika Foundation. He is the third Tsoknyi Rinpoche, having been recognized by the 16th Karmapa as the reincarnation of Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche. He is a tulku of the Drukpa Kagyü and Nyingma traditions and the holder of the Ratna Lingpa and Tsoknyi lineages.</br></br>He began his education at Khampagar Monastery at Tashi Jong in Himachal Pradesh, India, at the age of thirteen. His main teachers are Khamtrul Rinpoche Dongyu Nyima, his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, and Adeu Rinpoche.</br></br>Rinpoche has overseen the Tergar Osel Ling Monastery, founded in Kathmandu, Nepal, by his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. His brothers are Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, and Mingyur Rinpoche, and his nephews are Phakchok Rinpoche and the reincarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, known popularly as Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche. He has overseen the monastery's operations and introduced studies for non-Tibetans. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsoknyi_Rinpoche Source Accessed November 18, 2019])npoche Source Accessed November 18, 2019]))
  • Pema Rigtsal  + (Tulku Pema Rigtsal Rinpoche is the SupremeTulku Pema Rigtsal Rinpoche is the Supreme Head of Namkha Khyung Dzong Monastery in Humla, Nepal ("upper Dudjom lineage" known as Namkha Khyung Dzong, formerly based at Mount Kailash in Tibet). At the age of three he was recognized by Dudjom Rinpoche as the reincarnation of “Chimed Rinpoche,” who is the emanation of the Great Indian Siddha “Dampa Sangye” and spiritual head of the renowned Shedphel Ling Monastery in Ngari, Tibet. In 1985 he reconstructed the Namkha Khyung Dzong Monastery in Humla, Nepal, and has taught the 13 major philosophical texts (Shungchen Chusum) for 24 years. His religious guidance has inspired hundreds of ascetics and other practitioners in Tibet.</br></br>Rinpoche has studied the Vajrayana tradition of the Nyingma lineage from renowned spiritual masters: Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche, and Domang Yangthang Rinpoche. ([https://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/mindfulness-meditation-with-tulku-pema-rigtsal-rinpoche-02-22-24/ Source Accessed January 23, 2024])</br></br>According to Rigpa Wiki: Tulku Pema Rigtsal gives teachings on the Dudjom Tersar Ngöndro, the ''The Words of My Perfect Teacher'', ''Bodhicharyavatara'', and the Richö, Nang Jang, Neluk Rangjung, and other Dudjom Tersar teachings, to the people of Humla and those from the Ngari part of Tibet.</br></br>Tulku Pema Rigtsal also holds Summer and Winter Dharma Teaching sessions every year for more than five hundred practitioners including monks, ngakpas (yogis) and nuns residing in Humla and Ngari, Tibet. Hundreds of hermits are practising in caves and solitary locations in Humla, Nepal and Ngari, Tibet under his instruction and guidance.</br></br>Among his writings, there are:</br>:a commentary on the Calling The Lama From Afar of Dudjom Rinpoche</br>:a biography of the Degyal Rinpoche (the first).</br>:his first book in Tibetan, entitled “Semkyi Sangwa Ngontu Phyungwa” (translated and published in English as [[The Great Secret of Mind]]).cret of Mind]]).)
  • Urgyen, Tulku  + (Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (Tib. སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཨོ་རTulku Urgyen Rinpoche (Tib. སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wyl. ''sprul sku o rgyan rin po che'') (1920–1996) was one of the greatest teachers of Dzogchen and Mahamudra in recent times, whose lineage is now continued by his sons, including Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche was born in Nangchen, in the province of Kham, eastern Tibet, in 1920. He began meditation practice at the early age of four, when he attended the teachings his father, Chime Dorje, would give to his many students. Already at four he had what is called a recognition of the nature of mind. Later he studied with his uncle Samten Gyatso, his root master, as well as with many other lamas of both Kagyü and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Among the lineage masters from whom he drew his inspiration were Milarepa and Longchen Rabjam—on merely hearing their names, tears would come to his eyes.</br></br>In his youth he practised intensively, and stayed in retreat for a total of twenty years. He had four sons, each of whom is now an important Buddhist master in his own right: Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche.</br></br>When he left Tibet he went to Sikkim and then settled in Nepal at Nagi Gompa Hermitage, in the mountains above the Kathmandu valley. He was the first lama to spread the Tibetan Buddhist teachings to Malaysia. In 1980 Tulku Urgyen went on a world tour encompassing Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, Great Britain, the USA, Hong Kong and Singapore. In his later years, however, he did not travel much and his many students, both Eastern and Western, would go to Nepal to visit him.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen accomplished a great deal in his life. He constructed and restored many temples, and established six monasteries and retreat centres in the Kathmandu region. He had over three hundred monks and nuns under his guidance. In particular he built a monastery and three-year retreat centre at the site of the sacred cave of Asura, the site of Padmasambhava’s famous retreat. He also re-established some traditional annual prayer gatherings in exile.</br></br>In his childhood he had been recognized by the Fifteenth Karmapa Khakhyap Dorje, as the reincarnation of the master Chöwang Tulku, and he was also an emanation of Nupchen Sangye Yeshe, one of the twenty-five main disciples of Padmasambhava. He was the lineage holder of many teaching transmissions, especially that of the terma teachings of his great grandfather Chokgyur Lingpa. He transmitted the Dzogchen Desum teachings to such masters as Sixteenth Karmapa, Dudjom Rinpoche, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as well as thousands of other disciples. Tulku Urgyen was especially close to the Karmapa—one of his root teachers—and to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, with both of whom there was a powerful bond of mutual respect.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen is the author of several books in English, including ''Repeating the Words of the Buddha'' and ''Rainbow Painting''. He also supervised many English translations of Tibetan texts and teachings carried out by his Western students, and gave the name Rangjung Yeshe to the publishing imprint established to make these and other Dharma works available in the West.</br></br>He was famed for his profound meditative realization and for the concise, lucid and humorous style with which he imparted the essence of the teachings. Using few words, he would point out the nature of mind, revealing a natural simplicity and wakefulness that enables the student to actually touch the heart of the Buddha’s wisdom mind. In this method of instruction, he was unmatched.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen passed away peacefully on 13th February 1996 (the 24th day of the 12th month of the Wood Pig year), at Nagi Gompa. At that time the sky overhead was clear and completely cloudless for two days, which is traditionally seen as a sign that a highly realized master is passing on.</br></br>The ''yangsi'' of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, named Urgyen Jigme Rabsel Dawa, was born in 2001. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Tulku_Urgyen_Rinpoche Rigpa Wiki])p?title=Tulku_Urgyen_Rinpoche Rigpa Wiki]))
  • Tarthang Tulku  + (Twenty-Four Years of Traditional Training Twenty-Four Years of Traditional Training in Tibet</br></br>Dharma Publishing was founded by Tarthang Rinpoche, commonly known as Tarthang Tulku. Rinpoche was born in in the mountains of Golok in the far northeast of Tibet as the son of Sogpo Tulku, Pema Gawey Dorje (b 1894), a highly respected physician and holder of the Nyingma Vidyadhara lineage. Before Rinpoche was two years old, he was recognized and given the name Kunga Gellek by the Sutrayana and Mantrayana master Tragyelung Tsultrim Dargye (b. 1866), who made predictions about Rinpoche’s future mission as a servant of the Dharma, and instructed his parents in the special treatment of young tulkus.</br></br>Rinpoche’s training began at a very early age, and his first teachers were his father and private tutors. After the age of nine, he resided at Tarthang Monastery where he was initiated into the teachings of the Palyul tradition by Tarthang Choktrul and given instruction in Mahayana view, meditation, and conduct by various expert khenpos. At the age of fifteen in the iron tiger year of 1950, Rinpoche departed from Tarthang Monastery to travel to the major monasteries of Kham in eastern Tibet. There he received blessings, teachings, and initiations from the greatest masters of the 20th century: Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, Zhechen Kongtrul, Adzom Gyelsey, Bodpa Tulku, and others, altogether thirty-one teachers. For the next ten years, until the age of 24, Rinpoche was given intensive training in the three Inner Yogas of Maha, Anu, and Ati.</br></br>Nine Years of Retreat, Research, and Publishing in India</br></br>In 1958 Rinpoche departed from his homeland, traveling through Bhutan into Sikkim following in the footsteps of his root guru, Khyentse Chokyi Lodro. The next several years were devoted to pilgrimage and retreat at holy places in India. In 1963 he was appointed by Dudjom Rinpoche as the representative of the Nyingma tradition and given the position of research fellow at Sanskrit University in Benares. In that same year, he set up one of the first Tibetan printing presses in exile and began his life’s work of preserving sacred art and texts. After six years at Sanskrit University and some twenty publications, Rinpoche decided that this was not enough, and departed for America to bring Dharma to the West.</br></br>Forty-three Years of Dharma Work in the West</br></br>Arriving in America in late 1968, Rinpoche chose California as his headquarters, and established the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center in early 1969. One of the first learned Tibetan exiles to take up residence in the West, he has lived continuously in America for over forty years. With the full support and blessings of Dudjom Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Tarthang Tulku began in the 1970s to unfold a vision of wisdom in action that would eventually encompass over twenty different organizations and make a significant impact on the transmission of Dharma to the West and the restoration of Dharma in Asia.</br></br>([http://dharmapublishing.com/about/our-founder/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015])founder/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015]))
  • Hammar, U.  + (Urban Hammar defended his doctoral thesis,Urban Hammar defended his doctoral thesis, "Studies in the Kālacakra Tantra: A History of the Kālacakra Tantra in Tibet and a Study of the Concept of the Ādibuddha, the Fourth Body of the Buddha, and the Supreme Unchanging," in 2005. He is now working on a text by one of the disciples of Dolpo-pa on the history of Kālacakra Tantra. Hammar is affiliated with the Department of History of Religions at Stockholm University and teaches Tibetan at the Department of Oriental Languages. (Source: ''As Long as Space Endures'', 476)Source: ''As Long as Space Endures'', 476))
  • Samten, T.  + (Ven. Samten met Ven. Chodron in 1996 when Ven. Samten met Ven. Chodron in 1996 when the future Ven. Chonyi, took the future Ven. Samten to a Dharma talk at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle. The talk on the kindness of others and the way it was presented is deeply etched in her mind. Four Cloud Mountain retreats with Ven. Chodron, eight months in India and Nepal studying the Dharma, one month of offering service at Sravasti Abbey, and a two month retreat at the Abbey in 2008 fueled the fire to ordain on August 26, 2010.</br></br>Ven. Samten’s full ordination took place in Taiwan in March 2012, when she became the Abbey’s sixth bhikshuni. </br></br>Right after finishing a Bachelor of Music degree, Ven. Samten moved to Edmonton, Canada to pursue training as a corporeal mime artist. Five years later, a return to university to obtain a Bachelor of Education degree opened the door to becoming a music teacher for the Edmonton Public School board. Concurrently, Ven. Samten became a founding member and performer with Kita No Taiko, Alberta’s first Japanese drum group.</br></br>Ven. Samten is responsible for thanking donors who make offerings online, assisting Ven. Tarpa with developing and facilitating the SAFE online learning courses, assisting with the forest thinning project, tracking down knapweed, maintaining the database, answering email questions, and photographing the amazing moments that are constantly happening at the Abbey. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/ven-thubten-samten/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023])ten-samten/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023]))
  • Flumerfelt, J.  + (Ven. Tenpa'i Gyaltsen, also known as Joe Flumerfelt is a student of Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö and works at the Tibetan Buddhist Rimé Institute in Australia.)
  • Chonyi, T.  + (Ven. Thubten Chonyi began attending classeVen. Thubten Chonyi began attending classes with Venerable Thubten Chodron at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle in 1996 and has practiced steadily under Venerable’s guidance ever since.</br></br>She was a founder of Friends of Sravasti Abbey, which formed in 2003 to support Ven. Chodron’s dream to start a monastery. She moved to the Abbey in 2007 and took śrāmaṇerikā and śikṣamāṇā precepts in May 2008. See photos of her ordination.</br></br>Along with Ven. Jigme, Ven. Chonyi received bhikshuni (full) ordination at Fo Guang Shan temple in Taiwan in 2011. See the photos.</br></br>At the Abbey, Ven. Chonyi is involved with publicity and inviting generosity. She also shares Buddha’s teachings at the Abbey, online, and, occasionally, at Buddhist centers in the US and abroad. She has co-taught meditation and Buddhist ideas at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane for 13 years, and especially enjoys interfaith exchange and bringing Buddhist values into social justice issues.</br></br>Ven. Chonyi’s formal education was in theatre at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA. She worked for many years as a performer, publicist, fundraiser, and producer in the performing arts. As a Reiki teacher and practitioner for 19 years, she co-founded two Reiki centers and the Reiki AIDS Project, and led classes and workshops in Europe and North America. She was communications director for the international The Reiki Alliance and served eight years as Managing Editor for ''Reiki Magazine International''. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/thubten-chonyi/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023])ten-chonyi/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023]))
  • Chodrak, Tenzin  + (Venerable Geshe Tenzin Chodrak (Dadul NamgVenerable Geshe Tenzin Chodrak (Dadul Namgyal) is a prominent scholar in Tibetan Buddhism. He has a doctorate (Geshe Lharampa) in Buddhism and Philosophy from the Drepung Monastic University earned in 1992. He also holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from Panjab University in Chandigarh, India.</br></br>Author of several articles on Buddhism, Geshe-la was also a professor of Philosophy at Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Sarnath, Varanasi, India for seven years. In addition, he has been the Spiritual Director of LSLK Tibetan Buddhist Center, Knoxville, USA.</br></br>Due to his facility in both Tibetan and English, he has served as interpreter and speaker for numerous conferences exploring the interface of Buddhism with modern science, Western philosophy and psychology, and other religious traditions on both a national and international level. His language ability has also enabled him to serve as an English language translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama throughout the world.</br></br>As a published author and translator, Geshe-la’s credits include a Tibetan translation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s ''Power of Compassion'', a language manual, ''Learn English through Tibetan'', and a critical work on Tsongkhapa’s ''Speech of Gold''. He also serves as a Board Member for Tibet House, New York.</br></br>From 2010 until recently, he had served as Senior Resident Teacher at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta. Around the same time, he began full-time position as Senior Translator/Interpreter with the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-based Ethics at Emory University, Atlanta. There he was working in producing a six-year bilingual (English and Tibetan) science curriculum and preparing additional research & pedagogy materials in Modern Science for use in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries.</br></br>Geshe-la visited several times, inspiring us with his passion for Madhyamaka philosophy and his sheer joy in sharing Buddha’s teachings. See photos of Geshe-la teaching at Sravasti Abbey in 2016.</br></br>The Sravasti Abbey community is delighted that Geshe-la is now a resident teacher at the Abbey. He brings his abundant knowledge, compassion, and humility and acts as an excellent role model for new monastics at the Abbey. Since joining our community, he has decided to go by his ordination name, Venerable Tenzin Chodrak. (Source: [https://sravastiabbey.org/advisory-member/geshe-dadul-namgyal/ sravastiabbey.org])mber/geshe-dadul-namgyal/ sravastiabbey.org]))
  • Jigme, T.  + (Venerable Jigme met Venerable Chodron in 1Venerable Jigme met Venerable Chodron in 1998 at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center. She took refuge in 1999 and attended Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle, where Ven. Chodron was the resident teacher. She moved to the Abbey in 2008 and took śrāmaṇerikā and śikṣamāṇā vows with Venerable Chodron as her preceptor in March 2009. In 2011, along with Ven. Chonyi, she received bhikshuni ordination at Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan.</br></br>Before moving to Sravasti Abbey, Venerable Jigme worked as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in private practice in Seattle. In her career as a nurse, she worked in hospitals, clinics and educational settings.</br></br>At the Abbey, Ven. Jigme manages the prison outreach program and support the health of the community. In addition, she is a photographer, technical consultant, thanks donors, and creates flyers and other graphics. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/ven-thubten-jigme/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023])bten-jigme/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023]))
  • Lodro, Tsultrim  + (Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö is a renowVenerable Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö is a renowned contemporary Nyingma teacher of Tibetan Buddhism based at Larung Gar (formally known as the Serthar Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Institute), where he serves as a standing Vice Principal. He is a native of Draggo (Ch: Luhuo) County in Sichuan Province. He is an influential public intellectual. Read more [https://www.luminouswisdom.org/index.php/biography/biography-2 here].org/index.php/biography/biography-2 here].)
  • Tsepal, T.  + (Venerable Tenzin Tsepal was a student of VVenerable Tenzin Tsepal was a student of Venerable Chodron’s in Seattle from 1995 to 1999 and attended the Life as a Western Buddhist Nun conference in Bodhgaya as a lay supporter. Her interest in ordination surfaced after she completed a three-month Vajrasattva retreat in 1998.</br></br>She then lived in India for two years while continuing to explore monastic life. In 2001, Ven. Tsepal received sramanerika ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She received bhikshuni ordination at Fu En Si Temple in Taiwan in 2019.</br></br>While Venerable Tsepal was in India, some Australian friends introduced her to the five-year Buddhist Studies Program at Chenrezig Institute (CI), an FPMT center north of Brisbane, Queensland where she subsequently lived and engaged in intensive residential study from 2002-2015. As the Western Teacher at CI, she tutored weekend teachings and retreats, and taught the Discovering Buddhism courses, but always had her eye on what was happening at the Abbey.</br></br>In January 2016, Venerable Tsepal returned to the U.S. to participate in Sravasti Abbey’s winter retreat, and subsequently joined the community the following September.</br></br>Prior to ordaining, Ven. Tsepal completed a degree in Dental Hygiene, and then pursued graduate school in hospital administration at the University of Washington. Not finding happiness in 60 hour work weeks, she was self-employed for 10 years as a Reiki teacher and practitioner.</br></br>At the Abbey, Venerable Tsepal leads the Guest Care team. She is also compiling and editing the many years of Venerable Chodron’s teachings on monastic training, and leads reviews of philosophical tenets for the community. She helps out with painting and forest work too. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/venerable-tenzin-tsepal/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023])zin-tsepal/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023]))
  • Scott, V.  + (Victoria R. M. Scott has an M.A. in BuddhiVictoria R. M. Scott has an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Yale University. She has freelance edited since 1984, with an emphasis on the history, religion, art, and literature of Tibet, China, Japan, and Korea; she also edits for scholars whose work delves into the history of Europe, Africa, and other parts of the world.</br></br>A longtime student of Her Eminence Jetsun Kusho and His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin, Victoria has edited all the Sapan Fund’s books to date (see Publications). She has also edited volumes published by the Library of Tibetan Classics, Dechen Ling Press, and Awakening Vajra Publications, as well as by Brill, Harvard, Stanford, and other academic presses. She edited ''Hermit of Go Cliffs'' (Wisdom, 2000), by Cyrus Stearns, and assisted with the publication of ''A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche'' (Wisdom, 2003), by David P. Jackson. ([https://www.sapanfund.org/pages/about.php Source Accessed Aug 8, 2023])es/about.php Source Accessed Aug 8, 2023]))
  • De Bary, W.  + (William Theodore de Bary (Chinese: 狄培理; piWilliam Theodore de Bary (Chinese: 狄培理; pinyin: Dí Péilǐ; August 9, 1919 – July 14, 2017) was an American Sinologist and scholar of East Asian philosophy who was a professor and administrator at Columbia University for nearly 70 years.</br></br>De Bary graduated from Columbia College in 1941, where he was a student in the first year of Columbia's famed Literature Humanities course. He then briefly took up graduate studies at Harvard University before leaving to serve in American military intelligence in the Pacific Theatre of World War Two. Upon his return, he resumed his studies at Columbia, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1953.</br></br>In order to create text books for the non-Western version of the Columbia humanities course, he drew together teams of scholars to translate original source material, ''Sources of Chinese Tradition'' (1960), ''Sources of Japanese Tradition'', and ''Sources of Indian Tradition''. His extensive publications made the case for the universality of Asian values and a tradition of democratic values in Confucianism. He is recognized as training the graduate students and mentoring the scholars who created the field of Neo-Confucian studies. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wm._Theodore_de_Bary Source Accessed July 18, 2023])re_de_Bary Source Accessed July 18, 2023]))
  • O'Hearn, P.  + (Yeshe Gyamtso completed two three-year retYeshe Gyamtso completed two three-year retreats in the 1980s at Kagyu Thubten Chöling in Wappingers Falls, NY. Since then he has taught, interpreted for several Tibetan Buddhist teachers, translated a number of biographies of Buddhist historical figures, and written two books on Buddhist practice. Recent translations include Luminous Clarity (2016), Shower of Blessings (2015), and Siddhas of Ga (2013). (Source: 2017 Translation & Transmission Conference)017 Translation & Transmission Conference))
  • Ye shes mtsho rgyal  + (Yeshe Tsogyal was the principal consort ofYeshe Tsogyal was the principal consort of Guru Padmasambhava. She was Vajravarahi in human form and also an emanation of Tara and Buddhalochana.</br>She was born as a princess in the clan of Kharchen. According to some accounts her father was called Namkha Yeshe and her mother was Gewa Bum. In other histories, such as the Zanglingma and the biography revealed by Taksham Nüden Dorje, her father is named as Kharchen Palgyi Wangchuk, who is otherwise said to have been her brother. Yet another version names her father as Tökar Lek and her mother as Gyalmo Tso.</br></br>She became the consort of King Trisong Detsen before being offered to Guru Rinpoche as a mandala offering during an empowerment. She specialized in the practice of Vajrakilaya and experienced visions of the deity and gained accomplishment. In Nepal, she paid a ransom for Acharya Salé and took him as her spiritual consort. Through the power of her unfailing memory, she collected all the teachings given by Guru Rinpoche in Tibet and concealed them as terma. At the end of her life, it is said, she flew through the air and went directly to Zangdokpalri. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Yeshe_Tsogyal Rigpa Wiki])index.php?title=Yeshe_Tsogyal Rigpa Wiki]))
  • Larson, Z.  + (Zach Larson is a practitioner in the LongcZach Larson is a practitioner in the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of the Nyingma School, who works as a translator, editor and author. He was born in 1978 in Wisconsin and received a BA in "Buddhism and Politics" at UW-Madison in 2001 after a year-long study-abroad program in Kathmandu, Nepal in which he met his first teacher, Changling Tulku Rinpoche of Shechen Monastery, with whom he studied the Longchen Nyinthig preliminaries for six months. While working on the research project "Nonviolence in Tibetan Culture: A glimpse at how Tibetans view and practice nonviolence in politics and daily life," he met and received profound blessings from Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche and offered to compile and translate teachings by him in the coming years. Chatral Rinpoche approved of the idea, and Larson returned to Wisconsin to study Tibetan language and Buddhism for three years at the UW-Madison Graduate School. He returned to Nepal in 2004 and compiled, edited, and translated Chatral Rinpoche's biography and teachings into the book ''Compassionate Action: The Teachings of Chatral Rinpoche'', which was published by Shechen Publications in New Delhi in 2005.</br></br>Larson attended the full Nyingma Kama Wang with Trulshik Rinpoche in the winter of 2004 in Boudha and received the Kunsang Lama'i Shelung empowerment from Tsetrul Rinpoche in January 2005.</br></br>Snow Lion Publications released an expanded and updated version of ''Compassionate Action'' in 2007. The book has since been translated into Spanish (2009), Indonesian (2009), and Russian (2010). ([https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Zachary_Larson Source Accessed Nov 21, 2023])hary_Larson Source Accessed Nov 21, 2023]))
  • Goddard, V.  + (Zuisei is a writer and lay Zen teacher basZuisei is a writer and lay Zen teacher based in Playa del Carmen in the south of Mexico. Zuisei lived and trained full time at Zen Mountain Monastery from 1995 to 2018, and was a monk for fourteen of those years. In 2018 she received ''shiho'' or dharma transmission (empowerment to teach) from Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, and after a short stint in New York City, moved back to Mexico, where she is originally from, and began teaching virtually.</br></br>She has served as the Teachings Editor at the Buddhist journal ''Tricycle'', and her dharma writing has been featured there as well as in ''Lion's Roar'', ''Buddhadharma'', and ''Parabola''. Her books include ''Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion'' and the children's book ''Weather Any Storm''. </br></br>As Ocean Mind Sangha's Guiding Teacher, Zuisei continues to welcome students for group and private teaching. ([https://www.oceanmindsangha.org/zuisei-goddard Source Accessed April 25, 2024])i-goddard Source Accessed April 25, 2024]))
  • Patel, P.  + ([Prabhubhai Bhikhabhai Patel] belonged to [Prabhubhai Bhikhabhai Patel] belonged to a peasant family of Kunabi caste and was born at Sarpor-Pardi of the district of Surat in 1906. He had one sister and five brothers, he himself being the fourth. His father was Sri Bhikhabhai and mother Srimati Benabai. His education began at the village school of Satem and</br>thence he was sent with his nephew Sri Govindaji Bhulabhai Patel, now a Homeopathic Physician at</br>Navasari, to the Central Boarding School of Supa. It was a village middle school. </br></br>After his reading up to Matriculation came the call of Mahatma Gandhi for triple boycott of schools and colleges, Government Law Courts and foreign cloths. This was in 1919. Having given up school he joined a National School at Surat and from that time till his death he used to put on ''khaddar'' [homespun cotton cloth of India].</br></br>After two years in 1921 he went to the Gujarat Vidyapith, the National University founded by Mahatma Gandhi, and plunged deep in Congress ideology. There he came under the influence of such leaders and thinkers as Principal A. T. Gidwani, Acharya J. B. Kripalani, Kaka Kalelkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and</br>Prof. Dharmananda Kausambi. The last-named teacher impressed upon him the glory of the ancient lore of</br>India.</br></br>Prabhubhai then come to Visva-bharati, Santiniketan with some other students from that part of the country. Indeed, it was owing to his personal influence that at that time a good number of Gujarati students came to Santiniketan and joined the different departments of Visva-bharati. In due time Prabhubhai was admitted to the Yidya-bhavana, the Research Department of the institution of which I was then the Principal. I had there the good fortune of teaching students coming not only from the different parts of the country, but also from such distant lands as Japan and Germany.</br></br>As a student Prabhubhai endeared himself to all his teachers and inmates of the Asrama including our revered Gurudeva, Rabindranath. He was very intelligent and promising. In the Vidya-bhavana he was one of those students who studied under my personal guidance and I felt fortunate and proud to have him as a pupil. His subject of study here was Buddhism with special reference to its Tibetan and Chinese sources.</br></br>Here in Yisva-bharati he lived for more than seven years and made it almost his permanent home. Once again come the call from Mahatma Gandhi, and Prabhubhai left his studies for the time being in order to serve his motherland and courted arrest and was imprisoned. This proved too much for him, for after two years of jail life he came out a total wreck in health. His robust constitution broke down and he developed hemiplagia from a little strain in his spine. Best of India's doctors, physicians, surgeons and specialists in nature-cure could do no better than giving some temporary relief. He removed to the house of his nephew Dr. G. B. Patel, already referred to, at Navasari. He was now a complete invalid, crippled and confined to his wheel-chair and bed, but his mind was clear till the end which came on the 30th December, 1942. He was taken to his village home where he breathed his last after an agony of red sores and now lies buried in his family land. He remained unmarried after the divorce from his wife with whom he was married at a very tender age according to the social custom prevailing there at the time. (Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya, foreword to ''Cittavisuddhiprakarana of Aryadeva'', vi–vii)tavisuddhiprakarana of Aryadeva'', vi–vii))
  • Tshe mchog gling ye shes rgyal mtshan  + ([https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A1%E[https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A1%E0%BD%BC%E0%BD%84%E0%BD%A6%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A0%E0%BD%9B%E0%BD%B2%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A1%E0%BD%BA%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A4%E0%BD%BA%E0%BD%A6%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A2%E0%BE%92%E0%BE%B1%E0%BD%A3%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%98%E0%BD%9A%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8B You can read a short Tibetan biography on the Bo Wiki here]. </br></br>First Tsechokling Yongdzin Tulku, Yeshe Gyeltsen (yongs 'dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan, 1713-1793) was an important scholar of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism and was a tutor of the 8th Dalai Lama Jampel Gyatsho (1758-1804).</br></br>He received his education in the monastery Trashilhünpo. In 1756 he founded the monastery Trashi Samtenling (bkra shis bsam gtan gling).</br></br>One of his most famous works is The Necklace of Clear Understanding, An Elucidation of Mind and Mental Factors (Tib. སེམས་དང་སེམས་བྱུང་གི་ཚུལ་གསལ་པར་སྟོན་པ་བློ་གསལ་མགུལ་རྒྱན་, Wyl. sems dang sems-byung gi tshul gsal-par ston-pa blo gsal mgul rgyan). A commentary on the Abhidharma topic of the mind and mental factors. This Tibetan text has been translated into English by Herbert Guenther & Leslie S. Kawamura, in a text entitled Mind in Buddhist Psychology. ([https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Yongdzin_Yeshe_Gyeltsen Source: Encyclopedia of Buddhism])</br></br>Six printings of his collected works (each in 19 or 25 volumes, depending on the printing, and [[Yongs 'dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan gyi gsung 'bum|32 volumes in modern book print]]) are cataloged on [https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:WA1022 BDRC.org].ary.bdrc.io/show/bdr:WA1022 BDRC.org].)
  • Mkhan chen zla zer  + (he was from Rahor, a branch of Dzogchen mohe was from Rahor, a branch of Dzogchen monastery founded by the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche in Gyalrong near Dergé. He was a student of Pöpa Tulku. He escaped from Tibet together with his former classmate Rahor Khenpo Tupten and went together with him to Sikkim via Bhutan.</br></br>He taught at Namdroling in South India, where he also compiled a collection of prayers and liturgies used in Nyingma rituals, and eventually returned to Tibet, where he taught at the Shri Singha Shedra at Dzogchen Monastery. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Daw%C3%A9_%C3%96zer Source Accessed on January 24, 2024])</br></br>'''Read more: '''</br>:Marilyn Silverstone, 'Five Nyingmapa Lamas in Sikkim', Kailash: A Journal of Himalayan Studies, 1973, vol. 1.1</br>:Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems, Padma Publishing, 2005, p. 480</br></br>'''Writings:'''</br>*དོན་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་པ་ལུང་རིགས་དོ་ཤལ་, don rnam 'grel pa lung rigs do shal (Necklace of Scripture and Reasoning: A Commentary on Mipham Rinpoche's Sword of Wisdom for Thoroughly Ascertaining Reality, ཤེས་རབ་རལ་གྲི་དོན་རྣམ་ངེས) (composed in 1982): https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW1KG4451</br>*ཆོས་སྤྱོད་བསྡུས་པ་ཕན་བདེའི་དགའ་སྟོན་, chos spyod bsdus pa phan bde'i dga' ston (editor)yod bsdus pa phan bde'i dga' ston (editor))
  • Śaṃkarasvāmin  + (Śaṃkarasvāmin. (T. Bde byed bdag po; C. ShŚaṃkarasvāmin. (T. Bde byed bdag po; C. Shangjieluozhu; J. Shökarashu; K. Sanggallaju 商羯羅主) (c. sixth Century CE). Sanskrit proper name of an Indian philosopher and logician, who was a student of the Indian logician Dignāga. Śaṃkarasvāmin is credited with the authorship of the ''Nyāyapraveśa'', or "Primer on Logic," which became an important work in many Asian schools. Some have argued, based on the Tibetan tradition, that the ''Nyāyapraveśa'' was actually written by Śaṃkarasvāmin's teacher Dignāga, and that the recension translated into Chinese is a version that Śaṃkarasvāmin later edited. The ''Nyāyapraveśa'' provides an introduction to the logical system of Dignāga, covering such subjects as valid and invalid methods of proof, methods of refutation, perception, erroneous perception, inference, and erroneous inference. Although Śaṃkarasvāmin's work was not as extensive, detailed, or original Dignāga's, it proved to be popular within the tradition, as attested by its extensive commentarial literature, including exegeses by non-Buddhists. Large parts of the work survive in the original Sanskrit. (Source: "Śaṃkarasvāmin." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 755. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • Ǔich'ǒn  + (Ǔich'ǒn. (C. Yitian) (1055-1101). Korean pǓich'ǒn. (C. Yitian) (1055-1101). Korean prince, monk, and bibliophile, and putative founder of the Ch’ōnt’ae chong (C. Tiantai zong) in Korea. Ǔich'ǒn was born the fourth son of the Koryǔ king Munjong (r. 1047-1082). In 1065, Ǔich'ǒn was ordained by the royal preceptor (wangsa) Kyǒngdǒk Nanwǒn (999-1066) at the royal monastery of Yǒngt’ongsa in the Koryǒ capital of Kaesǒng. Under Nanwǒn, Ǔich'ǒn studied</br>the teachings of the ''Avatamsakasūtra'' and its various commentaries. In 1067, at the age of twelve, Ǔich'ǒn was appointed 'saṃgha overseer' (K. sǔngt’ong; C. sengtong). Ǔich'ǒn is known on several occasions to have requested permission from his royal father to travel abroad to China, but the king consistently denied his request. Finally, in 1085, Ǔich'ǒn secretly boarded a Chinese trading ship and traveled to the mainland against his father’s wishes. Ǔich'ǒn is said to have spent about fourteen months abroad studying under various teachers. His father sent his friend and colleague Nakchin (1045-1114) after Ǔich'ǒn, but they ended up studying together with the Huayan teacher Jingyuan (1011-1088) of Huiyinsi in Hangzhou. Ǔich'ǒn and Nakchin returned to Korea in 1086 with numerous texts that Ǔich'ǒn acquired during his sojourn in China. While residing as the abbot of the new monastery of Hǔngwangsa in the capital, Ǔich'ǒn devoted his time to teaching his disciples and collecting works from across East Asia, including the Khitan Liao kingdom. He sent agents throughout the region to collect copies of the indigenous writings of East Asian Buddhists, which he considered to be the equal of works by the bodhisattva exegetes of the imported Indian scholastic tradition. A large monastic library known as Kyojang Togam was established at Hǔngwangsa to house the texts that Ǔich'ǒn collected. In 1090, Ǔich'ǒn published a bibliographical catalogue of the texts housed at Hǔngwangsa, entitled ''Sinp'yǒn chejong kyojang ch’ongnok'' ('Comprehensive Catalogue of the Doctrinal Repository of All the Schools'), which lists some 1,010 titles in 4,740 rolls. The Hǔngwangsa collection of texts was carved on woodblocks and titled the ''Koryǒ sokchanggyǒng'' ("Koryǒ Supplement to the Canon"), which was especially important for its inclusion of a broad cross section of the writings of East Asian Buddhist teachers. (The one exception was works associated with the Chan or Sǒn tradition, which Ǔich'ǒn refused to collect because of their "many heresies.") Unfortunately, the xylographs of the supplementary canon were burned during the Mongol invasion of Koryǒ in 1231, and many of the works included in the collection are now lost and known only</br>through their reference in Ǔich'ǒn’s catalogue. In 1097, Ǔich'ǒn was appointed the founding abbot of the new monastery of Kukch’ǒngsa (named after the renowned Chinese monastery of Guoqingsi on Mt. Tiantai). There, he began to teach Ch'ǒnt’ae thought and practice and is said to have attracted more than a</br>thousand students. Ǔich'ǒn seems to have seen the Tiantai/Ch’ǒnt’ae synthesis of meditation and doctrine as a possible means of reconciling the Sǒn and doctrinal (kyo) traditions in Korea. Ǔich'ǒn’s efforts have subsequently been regarded as the official foundation of the Ch’ǒnt’ae school in Korea; however, it seems Ǔich'ǒn was not actually attempting to start a new school, but merely to reestablish the study of Ch’ǒnt’ae texts in Korea. He was awarded the posthumous title of state preceptor (K. kuksa; C. Guoshi) Taegak (Great Enlightenment). (Source: "Ǔich'ǒn." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 935–36. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • 'jigs med rdo rje dpa' bo  + (A student of Khenchen Pema Tsewang Gyatso. A teacher of The Fifth Druktrül, Pema Tutop Dorje; The Fourth Tertön Wangchen Gyepai Dorje; Jikme Yeshe Nyingpo, and so forth.)
  • A paM gter ston chos dbyings rdo rje  + ('''Apang Terchen Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa (189'''Apang Terchen Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa (1895-1945)'''</br></br>Choktrul Lozang Tendzin of Trehor studied with the lord Kunga Palden and the Chö</br>master Dharma Seng-gé, and Apang Terchen in turn studied with Lozang Tendzin.</br>Apang Terchen, also known as Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa, was renowned as the rebirth of</br>Rigdzin Gödem. He was reputed to have been conceived in the following way: Traktung</br>Dudjom Lingpa focused his enlightened intent while resting in the basic space</br>of timeless awareness, whereupon Apang Terchen's mother experienced an intense</br>surge of delight. This caused all ordinary concepts based on confusion to be arrested</br>in her mind for a short time, and it was then that Apang Terchen was conceived in her</br>womb.2 From that moment on, his mother constantly had dreams that were amazing</br>omens. For example, she found herself among groups of dakinis enjoying the splendor</br>of ganachakras, or being bathed by many dakas and dakinis, or dwelling in pavilions</br>of light, illuminating the entire world with her radiance.</br></br>The child was born one morning at dawn, in the area of Serta in eastern Tibet, his</br>mother having experienced no discomfort. Her dwelling was filled with [2.188a] and</br>surrounded by light, as though the sun were shining brightly. There were also pavilions</br>of light, and a fragrance pervaded the entire area, although no one could tell</br>where it came from. Everyone saw numerous amazing signs on the child's body, such</br>as a tuft of vulture feathers adorning the crown of his head.3 The mother's brother,</br>Sönam Dorjé, asked, "What will become of this boy who has no father? How shameful</br>it would be if people saw these feathers!"4 But although he cut the feather tuft</br>off the child's head several times, it grew back on its own, just as before. This upset</br>Sönam Dorjé even more, and he berated his sister angrily, saying on numerous occasions,</br>"How could your child have no father? You must tell me who he is!" His</br>sister retorted, "With the truth of karma as my witness, I swear I have never lain with</br>a flesh-and-blood man of this world. This pregnancy might be a result of my own</br>karma." She became so extremely depressed that her fellow villagers couldn't bear it</br>and used various means to bring a halt to her brother's inappropriate behavior.</br></br>From an early age, this great master, Apang Terchen, felt an innate and unshakable</br>faith in Guru Rinpoché and had a clear and natural knowledge [2.188b] of the ''vajra guru'' </br>mantra and the Seven-Line Supplication. He learned how to read and write</br>simply upon being shown the letters and exhibited incredible signs of his spiritual potential</br>awakening. For example, his intelligence, which had been developed through</br>training in former lifetimes, was such that no one could compete with him. As he</br>grew up, he turned his attention toward seeking the quintessential meaning of life.</br>He studied at the feet of many teachers and mentors, including the Nyingtik master</br>Gyatsok Lama Damlo and Terchen Sogyal, studying many of the mainstream traditions</br>of the sutras and tantras, especially those of the kama and terma.</br></br>The most extraordinary lord of his spiritual family was Trehor Drakar Tulku,5</br>with whom he studied for a long time, receiving the complete range of empowerments,</br>oral transmissions, and pith instructions of the secret Nyingtik cycles of utter lucidity.</br>He went to solitary ravines throughout the region, making caves and overhangs</br>on cliffs his dwelling places, taking birds and wild animals as his companions, and</br>relying on the most ragged clothing and meager diet. He planted the victory banner</br>of spiritual practice, meditating for a long period of time. He was graced by visions of</br>an enormous array of his personal meditation deities, [2.189a] including Tara, Avalokiteshvara,</br>Mañjushri, Sarasvati, and Amitayus. He was not content to leave the</br>true nature of phenomena an object of intellectual speculation, and his realization</br>progressed in leaps and bounds.</br></br>Apang Terchen bound the eight classes of gods and demons — including such spirits</br>as Nyenchen Tanglha, Ma Pomra, and Sergyi Drong-ri Mukpo6 — to his service.</br>He communicated directly with Tsiu Marpo, the white form of Mahakala, Ganapati,</br>and other protective deities, like one person conversing with another, and enjoined</br>them to carry out his enlightened activities. So great was his might that he also bound</br>these protective deities to his service, causing lightning to strike and so forth, so that</br>those who had become his enemies were checked by very direct means, before years,</br>months, or even days had passed.</br></br>Notably, he beheld the great master of Orgyen in a vision and was blessed as the</br>regent of Guru Padmakara's three secret aspects. On the basis of a prophecy he received</br>at that time, Apang Terchen journeyed to amazing holy sites, such as Draklha</br>Gönpo in Gyalrong, Khandro Bumdzong in the lowlands of eastern Tibet, and Dorjé</br>Treldzong in Drakar, where he revealed countless terma caches consisting of teachings,</br>objects of wealth, and sacred substances. He revealed some of them in secret,</br>others in the presence of large crowds. In these ways, he revealed a huge trove of profound</br>termas. [2.189b] Those revealed publicly were brought forth in the presence of</br>many fortunate people and in conjunction with truly incredible omens, which freed</br>all present from the bonds of doubt and inspired unshakable faith in them. Apang</br>Terchen's fame as an undisputed siddha and tertön resounded throughout the land, as</br>though powerful enough to cause the earth to quake. His terma teachings are found</br>in the numerous volumes of his collected works and include ''The Hidden Treasure of Enlightened Mind: The Thirteen Red Deities'', </br>practices focusing on the Three Roots, cycles concerning guardian deities and the </br>principle of enlightened activity, and his large instruction manual on Dzogchen teachings.</br></br>Apang Terchen's students, from Dartsedo in the east, to Repkong in Amdo to the</br>north, to the three regions of Golok and other areas, included mentors who nurtured</br>the teachings and beings, masters such as those known as the "four great illuminators</br>of the teachings," the "four vajra ridgepoles,11 the "four named Gyatso," the "great</br>masters, the paired sun and moon," and Jangchub Dorjé (the custodian of Apang</br>Terchen's termas).7 He also taught important political figures who exerted great</br>influence over the people of their areas, including the "four great chieftains of the</br>region of Dza in the north," [2.190a] that is, Getsé Tsering Dorjé of Dza in the northern</br>reaches of eastern Tibet, Gönlha of Akyong in Golok, Mewa Namlo of the Mé</br>region of Golok, and the chieftain of Serta in Washul. Apang Terchen's students also</br>included countless monks, nuns, villagers, and lay tantric practitioners. He transmitted</br>his own termas and the great Nyingtik cycles of the Dzogchen teachings, and so</br>numerous were those he guided that he truly embodied the enlightened activity of</br>one who held sway over the three realms. In these times of spiritual degeneration, he</br>alleviated problems caused by disease, famine, border wars, and civil unrest. In such</br>ways, Apang Terchen rendered great service to the land of Tibet. His kindness to the</br>Tibetan people as a whole was truly extraordinary, for he worked to ensure a glorious</br>state of peace and well-being.</br></br>During a pilgrimage to Jowo Yizhin Norbu, the statue of the lord Shakyamuni in</br>Lhasa, Apang Terchen paid respect to many tens of thousands of ordained members</br>of the sangha, sponsoring ganachakras, making offerings, and offering meals, tea,</br>and donations at such monastic centers as Sera, Drepung, and Ganden. He sponsored</br>the gilding of statues in these centers and in such ways strove to reinforce his positive</br>qualities. Everyone could see that no matter how many avenues he found to extend</br>generosity, his resources of gold, silver, and other valuables [2.190b] continued to</br>increase, as though he had access to a treasure mine.</br></br>Among his heart children and intimate students were his sons, Gyurmé Dorjé,</br>Wangchen Nyima, and Dotrul Rinpoché; his daughter, Tare Lhamo; and the custodian</br>of his termas, Jangchub Dorjé. Until recently, Tare Lhamo lived in eastern Tibet,</br>maintaining the teachings.8</br></br>Thus did Apang Terchen benefit beings with his incredible compassion and activities.</br>As his life was nearing an end, he remarked, "For the sake of the teachings and</br>of beings, I must enter the bloodline of the glorious Sakya school." This fearless lion's</br>roar proved to be his last testament, spoken with an unobscured awareness of past,</br>present, and future. He then manifested incredible miracles and departed for the</br>great palace of Pema Ö.</br></br></br>Source: Richard Barron translation of Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage, Padma Publications, 2005, pages 488-491., Padma Publications, 2005, pages 488-491.)
  • Decleer, H.  + ('''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021)'''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021)'''</br>:by Andrew Quintman</br></br>With great sadness, we share news that our incomparable teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend Hubert Decleer passed away peacefully on Wednesday, August 25. He was at his home with his wife, the poet Nazneen Zafar, in Kathmandu, Nepal, near the Swayambhū Mahācaitya that had been his constant inspiration for nearly five decades. His health declined rapidly following a diagnosis of advanced-stage lung cancer in May, but he remained lucid and in high spirits and over the past weeks he was surrounded by family members and close friends. Through his final hours, he maintained his love of Himalayan scholarship and black coffee, and his deep and quiet commitment to Buddhist practice.</br></br>Hubert’s contributions to the study of Tibetan and Himalayan traditions are expansive, covering the religious, literary, and cultural histories of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and India. For nearly thirty-five years he directed and advised the School for International Training’s program for Tibetan Studies, an undergraduate study-abroad program that has served as a starting point for scholars currently working in fields as diverse as Anthropology, Art History, Education, Conservation, History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Public Policy. The countless scholars he inspired are connected by the undercurrent of Hubert's indelible "light touch" and all the subtle and formative lessons he imparted as a mentor and friend.</br></br>Hubert embodied a seemingly inexhaustible curiosity that spanned kaleidoscopic interests ranging from Chinese landscapes to Netherlandish still lifes, medieval Tibetan pilgrimage literature to French cinema, 1940s bebop to classical Hindustani vocal performance. With legendary hospitality, his home, informally dubbed “The Institute,” was an oasis for scholars, former students, artists, and musicians, who came to share a simple dinner of daal bhaat or a coffee on the terrace overlooking Swayambhū. The conversations that took place on that terrace often unearthed a text or image or reference that turned out to be the missing link in the visitor's current research project. When not discussing scholarship, Hubert inspired his friends to appreciate the intelligence and charm of animals—monkeys and crows especially—or to enjoy the marvels of a blossoming potted plum tree. His attentiveness to the world around him generated intense sensitivity and compassion. He was an accomplished painter and a captivating storyteller, ever ready with accounts of the artists’ scene in Europe or his numerous overland journeys to Asia. The stories from long ago flowed freely and very often revealed some important insight about the present moment, however discrete. </br></br>Hubert François Kamiel Decleer was born on August 22, 1940, in Ostend, Belgium. In 1946, he spent three months in Switzerland with a group of sixty children whose parents served in the Résistance. He completed his Latin-Greek Humaniora at the Royal Atheneum in Ostend in 1958, when he was awarded the Jacques Kets National Prize for biology by the Royal Zoo Society of Antwerp. He developed a keen interest in the arts, and during this period he also held his first exhibition of oil paintings and gouaches. In 1959 he finished his B.A. in History and Dutch Literature at the Regent School in Ghent. Between 1960 and 1963 he taught Dutch and History at the Hotel and Technical School in Ostend, punctuated by a period of military service near Köln, Germany in 1961–62. The highlight of his military career was the founding of a musical group (for which he played drums) that entertained officers’ balls with covers of Ray Charles and other hits of the day. </br></br>In 1963 Hubert made the first of his many trips to Asia, hitchhiking for thirteen months from Europe to India and through to Ceylon. Returning to Belgium in 1964, he then worked at the artists’ café La Chèvre Folle in Ostend, where he organized fortnightly exhibitions and occasional cultural events. For the following few years he worked fall and winter for a Belgian travel agency in Manchester and Liverpool, England, while spending summers as a tour guide in Italy, Central Europe, and Turkey. In 1967 he began working as a guide, lecturer, and interpreter for Penn Overland Tours, based in Hereford, England. In these roles he accompanied groups of British, American, Australian, and New Zealand tourists on luxury overland trips from London to Bombay, and later London to Calcutta—excursions that took two and a half months to complete. He made twenty-six overland journeys in the course of fourteen years, during which time he also organized and introduced local musical concerts in Turkey, Pakistan, India, and later Nepal. He likewise accompanied two month-long trips through Iran with specialized international groups as well as a number of overland trips through the USSR and Central Europe. In between his travels, Hubert wrote and presented radio scenarios for Belgian Radio and Television (including work on a prize-winning documentary on Nepal) and for the cultural program Woord. The experiences of hospitality and cultural translation that Hubert accumulated on his many journeys supported his work as a teacher and guide; he was always ready with a hint of how one might better navigate the awkward state of being a stranger in a new place. </br></br>With the birth of his daughter Cascia in 1972, Hubert’s travels paused for several years as he took a position tutoring at the Royal Atheneum in Ostend. He also worked as an art critic with a coastal weekly and lectured with concert tours of Nepalese classical musicians, cārya dancers, and the musicologist and performer Michel Dumont.</br></br>In 1975, during extended layovers between India journeys, Hubert began a two-year period of training in Buddhist Chinese at the University of Louvain with pioneering Indologist and scholar of Buddhist Studies Étienne Lamotte. He recalled being particularly moved by the Buddhist teachings on impermanence he encountered in his initial studies. He also worked as a bronze-caster apprentice and assistant to sculptor—and student of Lamotte—Roland Monteyne. He then resumed his overland journeying full time, leading trips from London to Kathmandu. These included annual three-month layovers in Nepal, where he began studying Tibetan and Sanskrit with local tutors. He was a participant in the first conference of the Seminar of Young Tibetologists held in Zürich in 1977. In 1980 he settled permanently in Kathmandu, where he continued his private studies for seven years. During this period he also taught French at the Alliance Française and briefly served as secretary to the Consul at the French Embassy in Kathmandu. </br></br>It was during the mid 1980s that Hubert began teaching American college students as a lecturer and fieldwork consultant for the Nepal Studies program of the School for International Training (then known as the Experiment in International Living) based in Kathmandu. In 1987 he was tasked with organizing SIT’s inaugural Tibetan Studies program, which ran in the fall of that year. Hubert served as the program’s academic director, a position he would hold for more than a decade. Under his direction, the Tibetan Studies program famously became SIT’s most nomadic college semester abroad, regularly traveling through India, Nepal, Bhutan, as well as western, central, and eastern Tibet. It was also during this period that Hubert produced some of his most memorable writings in the form of academic primers, assignments, and examinations. In 1999 Hubert stepped down as academic director to become the program’s senior faculty advisor, a position he held until his death.</br></br>Hubert taught and lectured across Europe and the United States in positions that included visiting lecturer at Middlebury College and Numata visiting faculty member at the University of Vienna. </br></br>Hubert’s writing covers broad swaths of geographical and historical territory, although he paid particular attention to the Buddhist traditions of Tibet and Nepal. His research focused on the transmission history of the Vajrabhairava tantras, traditional narrative accounts of the Swayambhū Purāṇa, the sacred geography of the Kathmandu Valley (his 2017 lecture on this topic, “Ambrosia for the Ears of Snowlanders,” is recorded here), and the biographies of the eleventh-century Bengali monk Atiśa. His style of presenting lectures was rooted in his work as a musician and lover of music—he prepared meticulously to be sure his talks were rhythmic, precise, and yet had an element of the spontaneous. One of his preferred mediums was the long-form book review, which incorporated new scholarship and original translations with erudite critiques of subjects ranging from Buddhist philosophy to art history and Tibetan music. His final publication, a forthcoming essay on an episode contained in the correspondence of the seventeenth-century Jesuit António de Andrade (translated by Michael Sweet and Leonard Zwilling in 2017), uses close readings of Tibetan historical sources and paintings to complicate and contextualize Andrade’s account of his mission to Tibet. This exemplifies the spirit and method of his review essays, which demonstrate his deep admiration of published scholarship through a meticulous consideration of the work and its sources, often leading to new discoveries. </br></br>In addition to Hubert’s published work, some of his most endearing and enduring writing has appeared informally, in the guise of photocopied packets intended for his students. Each new semester of the SIT Tibetan Studies program would traditionally begin with what is technically called “The Academic Director’s Introduction and Welcome Letter.” These documents would be mailed out to students several weeks prior to the program, and for most other programs they were intended to inform incoming participants of the basic travel itinerary, required readings, and how many pairs of socks to pack. The Tibetan Studies welcome letter began as a humble, one-page handwritten note, impeccably penned in Hubert’s unmistakable hand. </br></br>Hubert’s welcome letters evolved over the years, and they eventually morphed into collections of three or four original essays covering all manner of subjects related to Tibetan Studies, initial hints at how to approach cultural field studies, new research, and experiential education, as well as anecdotes from the previous semester illustrating major triumphs and minor disasters. The welcome letters became increasingly elaborate and in later years regularly reached fifty pages or more in length. The welcome letter for fall 1991, for example, included chapters titled “Scholarly Fever” and “The Field and the Armchair, and not ‘Stage-Struck’ in either.” By spring 1997, the welcome letter included original pieces of scholarship and translation, with a chapter on “The Case of the Royal Testaments” that presented innovative readings of the Maṇi bka’ ’bum. Only one element was missing from the welcome letter, a lacuna corrected in that same text of spring 1997, as noted by its title: Tibetan Studies Tales: An Academic Directors’ Welcome Letter—With Many Footnotes.</br></br>Hubert was adamant that even college students on a study-abroad program could undertake original and creative research, either for assignments in Dharamsala, in Kathmandu or the hilly regions of Nepal, or during independent-study projects themselves, which became the capstone of the semester. Expectations were high, sometimes seemingly impossibly high, but with just the right amount of background information and encouragement, the results were often triumphs. </br></br>Hubert regularly spent the months between semesters, or during the summer, producing another kind of SIT literature: the “assignment text.” These nearly always included extensive original translations of Tibetan materials and often extended background essays as well. They would usually end with a series of questions that would serve as the basis for a team research project. For fall 1994 there was “Cultural Neo-Colonialism in the Himalayas: The Politics of Enforced Religious Conversion”; later there was the assignment on the famous translator Rwa Lotsāwa called “The Melodious Drumsound All-Pervading: The Life and Complete Liberation of Majestic Lord Rwa Lotsāwa, the Yogin-Translator of Rwa, Mighty Lord in Magic Intervention.” There were extended translations of traditional pilgrimage guides for the Kathmandu Valley, including texts by the Fourth Khamtrul and the Sixth Zhamar hierarchs, for assignments where teams of students would race around the valley rim looking for an elusive footprint in stone or a guesthouse long in ruins that marked the turnoff of an old pilgrim’s trail. For many students these assignments were the first foray into field work methods, and Hubert's careful guidance helped them approach collaborations with local experts ethically and with deep respect for diverse forms of knowledge. </br></br>One semester there was a project titled “The Mystery of the IV Brother Images, ’Phags pa mched bzhi” focused on the famous set of statues in Tibet and Nepal and based on new Tibetan materials that had only just come to light. Another examined the “The Tibetan World ‘Translated’ in Western Comics.” Finally, there was a classic of the genre that examined the creative nonconformity of the Bhutanese mad yogin Drugpa Kunleg in light of the American iconoclast composer and musician Frank Zappa: “A Dose of Drugpa Kunleg for the post–1984 Era: Prolegomena to a Review Article of the Real Frank Zappa Book.”</br></br>Frank Zappa was, indeed, another of Hubert’s inspirations and his aforementioned review included the following passage: “If there’s one thing I do admire in FZ, it is precisely these ‘highest standards’ and utmost professional thoroughness that does not allow for any sloppiness (in the name of artistic freedom or spontaneous freedom)…. At the same time, each concert is really different, [and]…appears as a completely spontaneous event.” Hubert’s life as a scholar, teacher, and mentor was a consummate illustration of this highest ideal. </br></br>Hubert is survived by his wife Nazneen Zafar; his daughter Cascia Decleer, son-in-law Diarmuid Conaty, and grandsons Keanu and Kiran Conaty; his sister Annie Decleer and brother-in-law Patrick van Calenbergh; his brother Misjel Decleer and sister-in-law Martine Thomaere; his stepmother Agnès Decleer, and half-brother Luc Decleer. A traditional cremation ceremony at the Bijeśvarī Vajrayoginī temple near Swayambhū is planned for Friday.</br></br>Benjamin Bogin, Andrew Quintman, and Dominique Townsend</br></br>Portions of this biographical sketch draw on the introduction to [[Himalayan Passages]]: Newar and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hubert Decleer (Wisdom Publications, 2014))
  • Sperling, E.  + ('''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)'''''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)''' by Tenzin Dorjee. (''HIMALAYA''. Volume 37, Number 1, pp 149-150)</br></br>Professor Elliot Sperling’s death was a colossal tragedy by</br>every measure. He was only 66 years old, and he exuded</br>life, health, and purpose—the antithesis of death. After</br>retiring from a long professorship at Indiana University</br>in 2015, where he was director of the Tibetan Studies</br>program at the department of Central Eurasian Studies,</br>Sperling moved back to his native New York. He bought an</br>apartment in Jackson Heights, where he converted every</br>wall into meticulously arranged bookshelves—only the</br>windows were spared. He was clearly looking forward to</br>a busy retirement, living in what was basically a library</br>pretending to be an apartment.</br>Sperling was the world’s foremost authority on historical</br>Sino-Tibetan relations. For his landmark work “on the political, religious, cultural, and economic relations between</br>Tibet and China from the fourteenth through seventeenth</br>centuries,” he was awarded a MacArthur genius grant at</br>the age of 33.1</br></br>He accumulated a compact but enduring body of work that defined and shaped Tibetan studies</br>over the last three decades. No less important, he was also</br>a phenomenal teacher, storyteller, entertainer, whiskey connoisseur (he delighted in teaching us how to enjoy</br>the peaty Scotch whiskies), and a passionate advocate for</br>Tibetan and Uyghur causes.</br>Through his seminal writings on Tibet’s relations with</br>China during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, he</br>became arguably the first historian to use both Chinese</br>language archives and Tibetan language sources extensively, bringing to light the separation and independence that</br>characterized the relationship between the two nations.</br>Until he came along, most Western academics viewed</br>Tibet through Chinese eyes, largely because they could</br>not access Tibetan sources. Sperling, fluent in Tibetan as</br>well as Chinese, upended the old Sino-centric narrative</br>and transformed the field. Roberto Vitali, who organized a</br>festschrift for Sperling in 2014, writes that Sperling’s work</br>“will stay as milestones” in Tibetan studies.2 His writings</br>have become so central to the field that any scholar who</br>writes a paper about historical Sino-Tibetan relations cannot do so without paying homage to Sperling’s work. He is,</br>so to speak, the Hegel of Sino-Tibetan history.</br></br>One can imagine the joy many of us felt when Professor</br>Sperling chose to make his home in Jackson Heights, the</br>second (if unofficial) capital of the exile Tibetan world—</br>after Dharamsala, India. We saw him at demonstrations at</br>the Chinese consulate, art openings at Tibet House, poetry</br>nights at Little Tibet restaurant, and sometimes at dinner</br>parties in the neighborhood. At every gathering, he held</br>court as the intellectual life of the party. His friends and</br>students bombarded him with questions on topics ranging</br>from art to politics to linguistics, for his erudition was</br>not limited to history alone. Unfailingly generous and</br>eloquent, he supplied the most intriguing, insightful and</br>exhaustive answers to every question. Each conversation</br>with him was a scholarly seminar. Among the circle of</br>Tibetan activists and artists living in New York City,</br>Sperling quickly fell into a sort of second professorship, an</br>underground tenure without the trappings of university.</br>We weren’t about to let him retire so easily.</br>Some of Professor Sperling’s most influential early works</br>include: The 5th Karma-pa and Some Aspects of the Relationship</br>Between Tibet and the Early Ming (1980); The 1413 Ming</br>Embassy to Tsong-ka-pa and the Arrival of Byams-chen chos-rje</br>Shakya ye-shes at the Ming Court (1982); Did the Early Ming</br>Emperors Attempt to Implement a ‘Divide and Rule’ Policy in</br>Tibet? (1983); and The Ho Clan of Ho-chou: A Tibetan Family in</br>Service to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (1990) among others.</br>One of my personal favorites in his corpus is The 5th Karmapa and Some Aspects of the Relationship Between Tibet and the</br>Early Ming. In this text, Sperling argues that in the early</br>years following the collapse of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in</br>1367, the Ming rulers of China adopted a non-expansionist</br>foreign policy, displaying greater interest in drawing clear</br>boundaries to keep the ‘barbarians’ out of China than</br>in expanding its boundaries to encroach into non-Ming</br>territories. Ming China was initially conceived more as</br>an inward-looking state than an outward-looking empire,</br>partly in critique of the ruthless expansionism of their</br>predecessors, the Mongol Yuan rulers. In fact, Sperling</br>quotes from the very proclamation carried by the first</br>mission that Ming Taitsu, or the Hongwu Emperor, sent to</br>Tibet:</br></br>:Formerly, the hu people [i.e. the Mongols] usurped</br>:authority in China. For over a hundred years caps</br>:and sandals were in reversed positions. Of all</br>:hearts, which did not give rise to anger? In recent</br>:years, the hu rulers lost hold of the government….</br>:Your Tibetan state is located in the western lands.</br>:China is now united, but I am afraid that you have</br>:still not heard about this. Therefore this proclamation [is sent].3</br> </br>Sperling goes on to write that this “first mission is acknowledged by Chinese records to have met with no</br>success,” and that necessitated the dispatching of a second</br>mission.4</br></br>In ''Did the Early Ming Emperors Attempt to Implement a “Divide and Rule” Policy in Tibet?''5</br>Sperling defies decades of conventional wisdom with a bold argument when he writes:</br>:The Chinese court was never, in fact, able to mount</br>:a military expedition beyond the Sino-Tibetan</br>:frontier regions. This fact becomes strikingly</br>:obvious as one glances through both Tibetan and</br>:Chinese sources for the period in question…. Unable</br>:to protect its embassies or even to retaliate against</br>:attacks on them, China was hardly in a position to</br>:manifest the kind of power needed to implement a</br>:policy of “divide and rule” in Tibet.</br></br>For many Tibetans who care about seemingly inconsequential details of the murky Sino-Tibetan relations from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, a historical period that has become a domain of highly charged information battles between Dharamsala and Beijing, Sperling’s writings are like a constellation of bright lamps illuminating the tangled web of Sino-Tibetan history. He excavated critical pieces of Tibet’s deep past from the forbidding archives of antiquity, arranged them in a coherent narrative, and virtually placed in our hands several centuries of our own history.</br></br>Elliot Sperling’s academic stature would have allowed</br>him to be an ivory tower intellectual. Instead, he chose</br>to be a true ally of the Tibetan people and an unwavering</br>champion of Tibetan freedom. While he studied with</br>Taktser Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s elder brother, he</br>maintained lifelong friendships with the people he met</br>in Dharamsala: Tashi Tsering (the preeminent Tibetan</br>historian), Jamyang Norbu (the rebel intellectual and</br>award-winning author), Peter Brown (the ‘American</br>Khampa’ and a brother in the Tibetan struggle). Sperling</br>joined many of us in the trenches of activism, always</br>encouraging us to embark on bigger and bolder advocacy</br>campaigns for Tibet. Speaking in his Bronx-accented</br>Tibetan, he told us that if only Tibetans studied our history</br>more seriously, we would be able to believe that Tibet will</br>be free again.</br></br>A sharp and fearless critic of Beijing, Sperling neither</br>minced his words nor censored his writings under fear of</br>being banned from China. Even when he taught in Beijing</br>for a semester, where he developed a close friendship with</br>the Tibetan poet Woeser, he successfully avoided the trap</br>of self-censorship that has neutered so many scholars in </br>our time.6</br></br>While railing against Beijing’s atrocities in Tibet, he managed to be critical of Dharamsala’s excessively conciliatory stance toward Beijing.7</br></br>His provocative critiques of the Tibetan leadership sometimes made us uncomfortable, but that was exactly the impact he was seeking as a teacher who cared deeply about Tibet: to awaken and educate us by pushing us into our discomfort zone. “Having a teacher like Sperling was a bit like having access to a genius, a father, and some sort of bodhi all in one,” says Sara Conrad, a doctoral student at Indiana University who studied with Sperling for many years. “A walking encyclopedia, I felt I could learn a lot just being near him—and he took every opportunity to teach me. I benefited learning from him about Tibet and Tibetan of course, but also about parenthood and morality, music and comedy. In terms of academia he told me I must be able to live with myself after I write, and therefore it is always best to be honest.”</br></br>In recent years, Sperling took up the case of Ilham Tohti,</br>the Uyghur intellectual sentenced to life imprisonment</br>by Beijing. He played a key role in raising Tohti’s profile</br>as a prisoner of conscience, nominating him for human</br>rights awards. He took Tohti’s daughter, Jewher, under</br>his wing and oversaw her wellbeing and education. In</br>Jewher’s own words, Elliot Sperling became “like a second</br>father” to her. His friendship with Ilahm Tohti and Jewher</br>exemplified the compassion and generosity with which he</br>treated everyone. Sure, he made his mark in this world as a</br>scholar, but his monumental intellect was matched by his</br>unbounded kindness, altruism, and humanity.</br></br>“Professor Sperling was the moral compass of Tibetan studies,” said fellow historian Carole McGranahan at Sperling’s March 11 memorial in New York. His untimely death</br>has left an abyss in our hearts and a chasm in the world of Tibetology. Christophe Besuchet, a fellow activist, remarked that it is “as if a whole library had burned down.”</br></br>Even so, it is worth remembering that Sperling has already done far more than his fair share of good in the world, and he deserves a rest (or a break, if you consider it from a Buddhist perspective). In the course of 66 years, he lived multiple lifetimes—as a taxi driver, hippie, scholar, mentor, activist, father—each one more productive and meaningful than the last. He has engraved his spirit so deeply in the lives of so many of us that, in a way, he is still alive. And while one library has burned down, there are thousands of libraries where his words still live and breathe.</br></br>''Endnotes''<br> </br>1. MacArthur Foundation, <https://www.macfound.org/</br>fellows/236/> (accessed 6 March 2017).</br></br>2. Roberto Vitali, “For Elliot from a Friend,” International</br>Association for Tibetan Studies. Also see Trails of the Tibetan</br>Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling, edited by Roberto Vitali</br>(Amnye Machen Institute: 2014).</br></br>3. Elliot Sperling, “5th Karmapa and Some Aspects of</br>the Relationship Between Tibet and the Early Ming,” in</br>Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, eds., Tibetans Studies</br>in Honour of Hugh Richardson, Warminster, 1980 (published</br>in translation as Shiboling, “Wushi Gamaba yiji Xizang</br>he Mingchu de guanxi yaolue,” in Guowai Zangxue yanjiu</br>yiwenji, vol. 2, Lhasa, 1987), pp.279-289.</br></br>4. Ibid.</br></br>5. Elliot Sperling, “Divide and Rule Policy in Tibet,” in</br>Ernst Steinkellner, ed., Contributions on Tibetan Language,</br>History and Culture. Proceedings of the Csoma de Koros</br>Symposium Held at Velm-Vienna, Austria, 13-19 September</br>1981, Vienna, 1983, pp.339-356.</br></br>6. See Tsering Woeser, “A Chronicle of Elliot Sperling,”</br>in Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling,</br>Roberto Vitali eds., (published by Amnye Machen Institute,</br>2014).</br></br>7. He has criticized the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way</br>Approach’ to dealing with China as too conciliatory. See</br>his article Self-Delusion, <http://info-buddhism.com/SelfDelusion_Middle-Way-Approach_Dalai-Lama_Exile_CTA_</br>Sperling.html#f1>.</br></br>'''Tenzin Dorjee''' is a writer, activist, and a researcher at Tibet</br>Action Institute. His monograph The Tibetan Nonviolent</br>Struggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis was published</br>in 2015 by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.</br>His writings have been published in various forums including</br>Global Post, Courier International, Tibetan Review, Tibet</br>Times, and the CNN blog. He is a regular commentator</br>on Tibet-related issues for Radio Free Asia, Voice of</br>America, and Voice of Tibet. He served as the Executive</br>Director of Students for a Free Tibet from 2009 to 2013.</br>An earlier version of this obituary was published in the</br>Huffington Post <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/remembering-elliot-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.t-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.)
  • Akester, M.  + ('''SIT BIO: Matthew Akester, Lecturer and '''SIT BIO: Matthew Akester, Lecturer and Faculty Advisor'''<br></br>Matthew is a translator of classical and modern literary Tibetan with 25 years of fieldwork experience as an independent researcher throughout the Tibetan world. His discipline is history, both religious and political history, which corresponds with the program’s double specialization. Matthew's special interests include the history of Lhasa, the life and times of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, historical geography of central Tibet, and history and memoir in occupied Tibet. His published book-length translations include [[The Life of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo]] by Jamgon Kongtrul ([[Shechen Publications]] 2012); [[Memories of Life in Lhasa Under Chinese Rule]] by Tubten Khetsun ([[Columbia University Press]] 2008, Penguin India 2009); and [[The Temples of Lhasa]] (with [[Andre Alexander]], [[Serindia Publications]] 2005). In addition, he has worked as active consultant and contributor for the Tibet Information Network, Human Rights Watch, Tibet Heritage Fund, and [[Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center]]; as translator, editor, and advisor for countless publications on Tibet in English, French, and Tibetan; and as lecturer on contemporary Tibet for student programs including SIT in Nepal and India. ([http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/faculty_npt.cfm SOURCE])www.sit.edu/studyabroad/faculty_npt.cfm SOURCE]))
  • Erdene-Ochir, B.  + ('Baatra' Erdene-Ochir is a Ph.D. student i'Baatra' Erdene-Ochir is a Ph.D. student in Buddhist Studies. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from UCSB and a master's degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. He is interested in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophical polemics and the history of Buddhist scholastic traditions as well as monastic institutions in Tibet and Mongolia. ([https://www.religion.ucsb.edu/people/student/erdenebaatar-baatra-hehimhis-erdene-ochir/ Source Accessed June 9, 2021])dene-ochir/ Source Accessed June 9, 2021]))
  • Yin Shun  + ((Master) Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìnshùn Dǎoshī) ((Master) Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìnshùn Dǎoshī) (5 April 1906 – 4 June 2005) was a well-known Buddhist monk and scholar in the tradition of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism. Though he was particularly trained in the Three Treatise school, he was an advocate of the One Vehicle (or Ekayāna) as the ultimate and universal perspective of Buddhahood for all, and as such included all schools of Buddha Dharma, including the Five Vehicles and the Three Vehicles, within the meaning of the Mahāyāna as the One Vehicle. Yin Shun's research helped bring forth the ideal of "Humanistic" (human-realm) Buddhism, a leading mainstream Buddhist philosophy studied and upheld by many practitioners. His work also regenerated the interests in the long-ignored Āgamas among Chinese Buddhist society and his ideas are echoed by Theravadin teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi. As a contemporary master, he was most popularly known as the mentor of Cheng Yen (Pinyin: Zhengyan), the founder of Tzu-Chi Buddhist Foundation, as well as the teacher to several other prominent monastics.<br>      Although Master Yin Shun is closely associated with the Tzu-Chi Foundation, he has had a decisive influence on others of the new generation of Buddhist monks such as Sheng-yen of Dharma Drum Mountain and Hsing Yun of Fo Guang Shan, who are active in humanitarian aid, social work, environmentalism and academic research as well. He is considered to be one of the most influential figures of Taiwanese Buddhism, having influenced many of the leading Buddhist figures in modern Taiwan. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_Shun Source Accessed July 10, 2020])ed July 10, 2020]))
  • Gzhon nu rgyal mchog  + (1. (from kong sprul gsan yig @ v. 1, f. 161. (from kong sprul gsan yig @ v. 1, f. 16v)</br>important master in the bka' ma transmission lineage of the rgyud bzhi.</br></br>2. important bka' gdams/sa skya master in lineage of the blo sbyong teachings; he was involved with his student sems dpa' chen po dkon mchog rgyal mtshan in the compilation of the blo sbyong brgya rtsa. ([https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:P1943 Source Accessed June 12, 2022])/bdr:P1943 Source Accessed June 12, 2022]))
  • Zhiyan  + (A Chinese priest who was active as a transA Chinese priest who was active as a translator from the fourth through the fifth century. Chih-yen went to Kashmir to seek Buddhist scriptures and study Buddhist doctrines. He returned to Ch'ang-an with Buddhabhadra and translated fourteen sutras. Later he went again to India, where he died. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/C/45 Source Accessed Sep 1, 2021])Content/C/45 Source Accessed Sep 1, 2021]))
  • Ch'ien, H.  + (A diligent, student and cultivator, DharmaA diligent, student and cultivator, Dharma Master Heng Ch'ien has been one of the foremost students to sit at the feet of the Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua. He studied the Dharma Blossom Sutra for over five years, and has been explaining it for more than four. His understanding of the Sutra is deep and comprehensive, and his lectures have made the Sutra's principles clear and easy to understand. ([http://www.dharmasite.net/vbs28/28_7.htm Adapted from Source Oct 1, 2022])28_7.htm Adapted from Source Oct 1, 2022]))
  • Śaṅkara  + (A highly influential Vedāntic thinker and A highly influential Vedāntic thinker and exegete. Now credited with the founding of the Advaita Vedānta tradition, he has been promoted by many, particularly in the modern era, as the greatest Hindu philosopher. Nothing is known of his life beyond the hagiographies; these portray him as a brahmin from the small village of Kālati in Kerala who became a saṃnyāsin at the age of seven. According to the tradition, his guru was called Govindapāda and his paramaguru (his teacher's teacher) was Gauḍapāda. (Gauḍapāda was the reputed author of the earliest identifiable Advaita text, the Gauḍapādīya Kārikā, the basis of a commentary attributed to Śaṅkara.) The boy Śaṅkara moved to Vārāṇasī, where he acquired his own pupils, including Padmapāda and Sureśvara. Moving again, to Badrinātha, he composed the earliest surviving commentary on the Brahmasūtras, supposedly while still only twelve years old. Thereafter, he led the life of a peripatetic debater and teacher, before dying at the age of 32 in the Himālayas. During his period of wandering he is supposed to have founded an India-wide network of Advaitin monasteries, each with its associated order of saṃnyāsins, later identified as the Daśanāmis. There is some evidence, however, that these maṭhas may have been established much later in the history of Advaita, and it should be noted that while the Daśanāmis have a markedly Śaiva affiliation, it is likely that Śaṅkara himself was born into a smārta Vaiṣṇava family. Nevertheless, by around the 10th century ce, through the advocacy of his pupils, and various subcommentators, and the critical response of rival schools, Śaṅkara had become established as the major proponent of Advaita, and a large number of works, both philosophical and devotional began to be attributed to him. Most scholars now agree that only a small proportion of these texts should be unreservedly accepted as the work of the 8th-century Śaṅkara. Apart from one independent text, the Upadeśasāhasrī (‘Thousand Teachings’), these are all commentaries (bhāṣyas), namely: the Brahmasūtrabhāṣya (also known as the Śārīrakabhāṣya), bhāṣyas on the Bṛhadāraṅyaka and Taittirīya Upaniṣads, and (probably) the Bhagavadgītā, as well as the commentary on the Gauḍapādīya Kārikā (itself a commentary on the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad). Some scholars also regard commentaries on the other major Upaniṣads (with the possible exception of the Śvetāśvatara) as genuine. ([https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100440958 Source Accessed Mar 4, 2022])803100440958 Source Accessed Mar 4, 2022]))
  • Amtzis, J.  + (A long term student of the Dharma, Judith A long term student of the Dharma, Judith met both Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in 1976, and has lived in Asia since then, primarily in Kathmandu, Nepal. On the request of Holiness Penor Rinpoche, she collaborated with Khenpo Sonam Tsewang of Namdroling Monastery in Mysore to translate the Liberation Story of Namcho Migyur Dorje, the terton who discovered the treasures that make up the core of the Palyul tradition. This biography is entitled ''The All-Pervading Melodious Sound of Thunder'', and was written by the first Karma Chagme Rinpoche. ([http://levekunst.com/team_member/judith-amtzis/ Adapted from Source July 20, 2022])mtzis/ Adapted from Source July 20, 2022]))
  • Helm, A.  + (A long–term student of Chogyam Trungpa RinA long–term student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Ann joined the Nalanda Translation Committee in 1986. She studied Tibetan at Naropa University, mainly with Dzigar Kongtrul, and she taught Tibetan and Foundations of Buddhism at Naropa from 1991-2004. After 30 years in Boulder, Ann lived as a retreatant for eight years at Padma Samye Ling, the monastery in upstate New York of Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. From 1997 to 2014, she translated primarily with Ringu Tulku and for Dharma Samudra, the Khenpo Brothers’ publication group. In 2014 Ann moved to Portland, Oregon, where she continues her Buddhist practice and study under the guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. ([http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Ann_Helm Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020])hp/Ann_Helm Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020]))
  • Chodron, T.  + (A native of the U.S., Ven. Chodron, whose A native of the U.S., Ven. Chodron, whose Chinese Dharma name is De Lin, is particularly qualified to teach Western monastics. She trained in Asia for many years, receiving novice ordination from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in 1977 and full ordination in Taiwan in 1986. Her teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Lama Thubten Yeshe and many others.</br></br>In addition to founding Sravasti Abbey, Ven. Chodron is a well-known author and teacher. She has published many books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation, including four volumes (so far) in The Library of Wisdom and Compassion, co-authored with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with whom she has studied for nearly forty years. Find info on the first four volumes in the series here: Volume 1, ''Approaching the Buddhist Path''; Volume 2, ''The Foundation of Buddhist Practice''; Volume 3, ''Samsara, Nirvana, & Buddha Nature'', and Volume 4, ''Following in the Buddha’s Footsteps''.</br></br>Ven. Chodron teaches worldwide and is known for her practical (and humorous!) explanations of how to apply Buddhist teachings in daily life. She was resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle. Ven. Chodron is also actively involved in prison outreach and interfaith dialogue. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/thubten-chodron/ Source Accessed Nov 1, 2021])thubten-chodron/ Source Accessed Nov 1, 2021]))
  • Ware, J.  + (A specialist in the study of pre-Tang BuddA specialist in the study of pre-Tang Buddhism and Daoism, James Ware was the first student to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard in the field of Chinese studies. He completed his dissertation in 1932, on the representation of Buddhism in the historical chronicle of the Wei dynasty known as the Weishu. He then taught courses in the Chinese language and Chinese history at Harvard, and was, together with Serge Elisséeff, one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. In this capacity, he supervised the Chinese language program for much of the 1930s and 40s.</br></br>Much of the material for Ware’s early studies was drawn from the Weishu. He wrote on problems relating to the Toba rulers of the Wei, the history of Buddhism and Daoism in the Northern Dynasties, and the textual history of the ''Fanwang jing'' and other scriptures from the Buddhist canon. In the same years, he also published selected translations from several Buddhist sutras. He worked together with Serge Eliseeff to establish the ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' in 1936, and contributed numerous articles and book reviews to the journal over the course of the next decade. He also developed a series of Chinese language textbooks and wrote on aspects of modern Chinese linguistics.</br></br>In the latter years of his career, Ware turned his attention his attention to translating, primarily for a non-specialist audience. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he published selections from the Analects, Zhuangzi, and Mencius. His final significant work was a complete translation of Ge Hong’s fourth century ''Baopuzi'' (1967). ([https://ealc.fas.harvard.edu/james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021])james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021]))
  • Bower, E.  + (Acharya Emily Bower started meditating andAcharya 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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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])mily-bower/ Source Accessed Mar 18, 2022]))
  • Gyaltsen, Tenpa  + (Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen is core facultAcharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen is core faculty at Nitartha Institute and recently retired from [https://www.naropa.edu/faculty/acharya-gyaltsen.php Naropa University].</br></br>Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen was born in Trakar, Nepal, near the Tibetan border. He completed 10 years of traditional scholastic training at [http://www.rumtek.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=400&Itemid=612&lang=en Karma Shri Nalanda Institute] at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, India, graduating as acharya with honours (graduated in the same class as [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]]). This was followed by traditional yogic training in the first three-year retreat to be conducted at Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche's monastery in Pullahari, Nepal. </br></br>Following the advice of [[Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche]], Lama Tenpa taught at various Kagyu centers in Europe (Teksum Tashi Choling in Hamburg, Germany), at Nitartha, and centers in Canada. In 2004 he moved to Boulder, CO and began teaching at Naropa University. He retired from Naropa in 2020. </br></br>Learn more about Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen on the [https://nitarthainstitute.org/about/nitartha-faculty/ Nitartha faculty page] and at [https://nalandabodhi.org/teacher/acharya-lama-tenpa-gyaltsen/ Nalandabodhi].hi.org/teacher/acharya-lama-tenpa-gyaltsen/ Nalandabodhi].)
  • Pearcey, A.  + (Adam S. Pearcey is the founder-director ofAdam S. Pearcey is the founder-director of Lotsāwa House, a virtual library of translations from Tibetan. His publications include (as co-translator) Mind in Comfort and Ease by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Wisdom Publications, 2007); Ga Rabjampa’s ''To Dispel the Misery of the World'' (Wisdom Publications, 2012), which he translated at the suggestion of the late Khenchen Appey Rinpoche; and ''Beyond the Ordinary Mind: Dzogchen Advice from Rimé Masters'' (Snow Lion, 2018). A partial list of the many translations he has published online can be found [https://adamspearcey.com/translations/ here].</br></br>Adam first encountered Tibetan Buddhism in 1994 when he taught English at two monasteries near Darjeeling in India. He went on to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London; the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, where he also taught Tibetan and served as an interpreter; the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala; Oxford University, where he earned a Master’s degree in Oriental Studies; and again at SOAS, where he completed his PhD with a thesis entitled ''A Greater Perfection? Scholasticism, Comparativism and Issues of Sectarian Identity in Early 20th Century Writings on rDzogs-chen''.</br></br>In 2018 he was a senior teaching fellow at SOAS, lecturing on Buddhist philosophy and critical approaches to Buddhist Studies. ([https://adamspearcey.com/ Source Accessed Feb 10, 2020])earcey.com/ Source Accessed Feb 10, 2020]))
  • Krug, A.  + (Adam’s dissertation, "The Seven Siddhi TexAdam’s dissertation, "The Seven Siddhi Texts: The Oḍiyāna Mahāmudrā Lineage in its Indic and Tibetan Contexts," focuses on an early corpus of Vajrayāna Buddhist texts that came to be known in Nepal and Tibet as part of a larger canon of Indian works on ‘the great seal’ or ''mahāmudrā''. In addition to providing text-critical historical analyses of these works, his dissertation focuses on larger issues such as a revaluation of demonology as an analytic paradigm for critical historical research in South Asian religions, inter-sectarian dynamics in the formulation of the Vajrayāna, and practical canonicity and curriculum in tantric Buddhist textual communities. His recently published work is titled "Pakpa’s Verses on Governance in ''Advice to Prince Jibik Temür: A Jewel Rosary''," published in a special issue of ''Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie'' on Kingship, Ritual, and Narrative in Tibet and the Surrounding Cultural Area by The French Institute of Asian Studies (École française d’Extrême-Orient). He has received two U.S. State Department research grants through the Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Fellowship program and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, and is currently a lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. ([https://www.religion.ucsb.edu/people/student/adam-krug/ Source Accessed June18, 2021])/adam-krug/ Source Accessed June18, 2021]))
  • Ary, E.  + (Adjunct Professor chez ESSEC Business SchoAdjunct Professor chez ESSEC Business School. Geshe Khunawa, recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama; Discovered by Geshe Pema Gyaltsen. </br>Elijah Sacvan Ary was born in Vancouver, Canada. In 1979, at age seven, he was recognized as the reincarnation, or tulku, of a Tibetan scholar and spent his teenage years as a monk at Sera Monastery in South India. He went on to study at the University of Quebec in Montreal and the National Institute for Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Inalco) in Paris, and he earned his PhD in the Study of Religion from Harvard University. His writings have appeared in the books Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions, Oxford Bibliographies Online: Buddhism, Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies, and Blue Jean Buddha: Voices of Young Buddhists. He lives in Paris with his wife and teaches Buddhism and Tibetan religious history at several institutions. [http://www.wisdompubs.org/author/elijah-s-ary Source Accessed Jun 12, 2015]elijah-s-ary Source Accessed Jun 12, 2015])
  • A 'dzoms rgyal sras rig 'dzin 'gyur me rdo rje  + (Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje (Tib. ཨ་འཛོམ་རྒྱAdzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje (Tib. ཨ་འཛོམ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་འགྱུར་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. a 'dzom rgyal sras 'gyur med rdo rje) aka Agyur Rinpoche (Wyl. a 'gyur rin po che) (1895-1969) — the third son and student of Adzom Drukpa. He was recognized by Jamgön Kongtrul as an emanation of Orgyen Terdak Lingpa.</br></br>Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje was the third son and student of Adzom Drukpa Drodul Pawo Dorje. His mother was Tashi Lhamo (Tib. bkra shis lha mo), the daughter of a popular merchant named Budo (Tib. bum dos), who became Adzom Drukpa’s spiritual wife at the recommendation of Jamgön Kongtrul. While regarded as the incarnation of several eminent master, Adzom Gyalse was recognised as the incarnation of Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje. Adzom Drukpa oversaw the spiritual education of Adzom Gyalse and transmitted to him especially his own terma treasures and the teachings of the Great Perfection such as the Longchen Nyingtik and the Chetsün Nyingtik. These in turn became also the main focus of Adzom Gyalse’s study and practice. Thus Adzom Gyalse rose to become of the main holders of the lineage and transmission of the Great Perfection teachings.</br></br>Adzom Gyalse took over the legacy of his father and became responsible for, the by his father in 1886 established, Adzom Gar (Tib. A ’dzom gar).[2] Unlike his father, Adzom Gyalse took monastic ordination and remained a monk throughout his entire life. He further developed and expanded Adzom Gar and became its main teacher and holder. While Adzom Gyalse had the potential to become a great tertön he decided to focused instead on the preservation and continuation of existing practices and teachings.</br></br>In 1958, Adzom Gyalse was arrested and put in prison where he gave teachings to his fellow inmates. He passed away in 1969 with many miraculous signs, and left a letter predicting the date and place of his future rebirth and the names of his future parents. In accordance with this letter, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche recognised a child born in Bhutan in 1980 as the reincarnation of Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje. This child became a monk at Shechen Monastery and received numerous teachings and initiations from Khyentse Rinpoche. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Adzom_Gyalse_Gyurme_Dorje Source Accessed Sep 30, 2022])yurme_Dorje Source Accessed Sep 30, 2022]))
  • Finnegan, D.  + (After a career as a journalist based in NeAfter a career as a journalist based in New York and Hong Kong, Damchö Diana Finnegan ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1999. In 2009, she received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a thesis on gender and ethics in Sanskrit and Tibetan narratives about Buddha’s direct female disciples in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. </br> </br>After completing her dissertation she worked closely with the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, serving as co-editor on various publications, including ''Interconnected: Embracing Life in a Global Society'' and ''The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out''. </br></br>In 2007, she co-founded Dharmadatta Nuns’ Community (Comunidad Dharmadatta), a community of Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns, based first in India and later in Mexico. Together with the other Dharmadatta nuns, she leads a large Latin American community with a commitment to gender and environmental justice as part of its spiritual practice. </br></br>At the same time, Damchö continues to participate in academic circles, presenting at conferences, editing books, and engaging in various research projects. The most recent publication on which she collaborated, a translation from Sanskrit and Tibetan of the manual for conferring full ordination to women, is forthcoming from Hamburg University’s Numata Center for Buddhist Studies. </br> </br>Damchö has served as a board member of Maitripa College since its founding in 2005. ([https://maitripa.org/damcho-diana-finnegan/ Source Accessed Sep 23, 2021])a-finnegan/ Source Accessed Sep 23, 2021]))
  • Sodargye, Khenpo  + (After being ordained at Larung Gar SertharAfter being ordained at Larung Gar Serthar Buddhist Institute in 1985, Khenpo Sodargye relied on Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche as his root guru.</br></br>After intensive study of the five principle treatises on Madhyamaka, Prajnaparamita, Abhidharma, Vinaya, and Buddhist logic, Khenpo received direct transmissions of tantric teachings such as the Dzogchen, Kalachakra, and the Web of Magical Illusion from Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and gained unshakable faith in the Omniscient Longchenpa and Mipham Rinpoche. Through his practice, he obtained supreme realization of these teachings.</br></br>After engaging in classic Tibetan Buddhist debate and undergoing oral and written examination, he obtained his khenpo degree. Khenpo Sodargye was then placed in charge of the institute by Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and became Kyabje’s chief translator for Chinese disciples.’s chief translator for Chinese disciples.)
  • Sattizahn, E.  + (After meeting Suzuki Roshi in 1970, Rinso After meeting Suzuki Roshi in 1970, Rinso Ed Sattizahn lived at Tassajara from 1973 to 1977. He spent the next five years at City Center, serving as Zen Center's Vice President and President. From 1983 to 2000 Ed held various executive positions in the microcomputer software industry and developed familiarity with how the world works. In 2003, he served as Shuso (Head Student) at Green Gulch Farm, and in the same year co-founded Vimala Sangha in Mill Valley with Lew Richmond. Vimala Sangha is named after Vimalakirti, the famous householder disciple of the Buddha, and is dedicated to the practice of householder Zen in the tradition of Suzuki Roshi. Ed received Lay Entrustment in 2005, was ordained as a Zen priest in 2010, and received Dharma Transmission in 2012, all from Lew Richmond. Ed previously served on the Zen Center Board for six years (2006-2011) and as board chair for three years (2009-2011). In March 2014, Ed became Abiding Abbot at City Center, and in March 2019 stepped into the role of Central Abbot. He remains the guiding teacher at Vimala Sangha Mill Valley. ([https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/rinso-ed-sattizahn Source Accessed August 13, 2020])attizahn Source Accessed August 13, 2020]))
  • Fox, A.  + (Alan Fox is an Professor of Asian and CompAlan Fox is an Professor of Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy Department at the University of Delaware. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University in 1988, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan in 1986-87. He came to the University in 1990. He received the University of Delaware’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995 and 2006, and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Teacher Award in 1999. In 2006 he was named Delaware Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. In 2008 he was named a finalist for the National Inspiring Integrity Award, and in 2012 he was named a Teaching Fellow by the American Association of Philosophy Teachers. He is a former director of both the University Honors Program and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program, as well as advisor to the undergraduate Religious Studies Minor. He has also served as President of the Faculty Senate at both the College and University levels. He has published on Buddhism and Chinese Philosophy. His research is currently focused on Philosophical Daoism. ([https://udel.edu/~afox/ Source Accessed May 18, 2021]).edu/~afox/ Source Accessed May 18, 2021]))
  • Berzin, A.  + (Alexander Berzin (born 1944) grew up in NeAlexander 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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br>([https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019])</br></br>Click here for a list of Alexander Berzin's [https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin/published-works-of-dr-berzin publications]zin/published-works-of-dr-berzin publications])
  • Lokos, A.  + (Allan Lokos is the founder and guiding teaAllan Lokos is the founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center located on New York City's upper west side. He is the author of ''Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living'', ''Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living'', and ''Through the Flames: Overcoming Disaster Through Compassion, Patience, and Determination''. His writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, Tricycle magazine, Beliefnet, and several anthologies.</br></br>Among the places he has taught are Columbia University Teachers College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Marymount Manhattan College, The Rubin Museum of Art Brainwave Series, BuddhaFest, NY Insight Meditation Center, The NY Open Center, Tibet House US, and Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Lokos has practiced meditation since the mid-nineties and studied with such renowned teachers as Sharon Salzberg, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Joseph Goldstein, Andrew Olendzki, and Stephen Batchelor.</br></br>Earlier in this life Lokos enjoyed a successful career as a professional singer. He was in the original Broadway companies of Oliver!, Pickwick (musical), and the Stratford Festival/Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Lokos Source Accessed May 25, 2021])Allan_Lokos Source Accessed May 25, 2021]))
  • Graboski, A.  + (Allison Choying Zangmo is Anyen Rinpoche'sAllison Choying Zangmo is Anyen Rinpoche's personal translator and a longtime student of both Rinpoche and his root lama, Kyabje Tsara Dharmakirti. She has either translated or collaborated with Rinpoche on all of his books. She lives in Denver, Colorado.</br></br>She has received empowerments, transmissions and upadesha instructions in the Longchen Nyingthig tradition from Khenchen Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, as well as others of his main students, such as Khenpo Tashi from Do Kham Shedrup Ling. She also received an unusually direct lineage of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje’s chod from the realized chodpa Lama Damphel.</br></br>After moving to the US with Anyen Rinpoche, she received many other empowerments, transmissions and upadesha instructions in the Secret Mantryana tradition from eminent masters such as Taklong Tsetrul Rinpoche, Padma Dunbo, Yangtang Rinpoche, Khenpo Namdrol, Denpai Wangchuk, and Tulku Rolpai Dorje.</br></br>Allison Choying Zangmo works diligently for both Orgyen Khamdroling and the Phowa Foundation, as well as composing books and translations of traditional texts & sadhanas with Anyen Rinpoche, and spending a portion of each year in retreat. Although she never had any wish to teach Dharma in the west, based on encouragement by Anyen Rinpoche, Tulku Rolpai Dorje and Khenpo Tashi, she began teaching the dharma under Anyen Rinpoche's guidance in 2017. ([https://orgyenkhamdroling.org/rinpoche/allison Source: Orgyen Khamdroling])/rinpoche/allison Source: Orgyen Khamdroling]))
  • Lobsang Tharchin, Sermey Khensur  + (Also known as Geshe Lobsang Tharchin (1921Also known as Geshe Lobsang Tharchin (1921 - 2004). Full Obituary: http://www.acidharma.org/directors/kr_passing.html</br></br>(Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin) Khensur Rinpoche first came to the United States in April 1972; he continued to live and teach here for more than 30 years. He was one of the most senior Tibetan Buddhist masters to bring the holy teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to the west.</br></br>Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin was born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1921. He entered the Mey College of Sera Monastery at an early age and proceeded through the rigorous 25 year program of Buddhist monastic and philosophical studies. Upon successful completion of the public examination by the best scholars of the day, Rinpoche was awarded the highest degree of Hlarampa Geshe with honors. In 1954, he entered the Gyumed Tantric College, completed its course of study under strict monastic discipline, and shortly afterwards attained a high-ranking administrative position.In 1959, Rinpoche escaped to India along with His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and tens of thousands of other Tibetans. Actively involved in Tibetan resettlement, he compiled a series of textbooks for a Tibetan curriculum to be used in refugee schools and also taught in Darjeeling, Simla, and Mussoorie.</br></br>In 1972, Khen Rinpoche was chosen by H.H. the Dalai Lama to come to the United States to participate in a project involving the translation of Buddhist scriptures. Upon its completion, he was invited to serve as the Abbot of Rashi Gempil Ling Temple in New Jersey, a position that he held until his passing, on December 1, 2004. In 1975 Rinpoche founded the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center in Washington D.C., with a branch in New Jersey, as well as, the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Press. Over the years he has offered a vast range of Buddhist teachings.</br></br>In 1991, Khen Rinpoche was asked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to serve as Abbot of Sera Mey monastery in south India. After a brief appointment there, he returned to the United States, where he continued to teach and direct a number of projects dedicated to the restoration of Sera Mey Monastery in India and to the flourishing of the Mahayana Buddhist Dharma in the West unitl his passing in December of 2004. [http://mstcdharma.org/teachers-history-of-center/ Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center of Washington, DC]Sutra and Tantra Center of Washington, DC])
  • Vanaratna  + (Also known by his Tibetan name of nags kyiAlso known by his Tibetan name of nags kyi rin chen (1384-1468), a Bengali Paṇḍita and Māhasiddha, reportedly the "last great Indian Paṇdita to visit Tibet". He was born in Sadnagara, near present-day Chittagong. At age eight he received novice ordination from Buddhaghoṣa and Sujataratna. He took up his studies and perfected them very quickly. At age 20 he received full ordination from the same two masters, and went to Shri Lanka for six years, where he spent most of his time meditating in seclusion. Upon his return to India, he was greatly praised by the famous scholar Narāditya.</br></br>At Śrī Dhānya-kaṭaka mahā-caitya he met, in a vision, with Māhasiddha Shavaripa and received from him his unique transmission of the Sadaṅga-yoga, the Six-limbed Yoga of the Kālacakra tradition. Vanaratna eventually beheld a vision of Avalokiteśvara, who advised him to go to Tibet.</br></br>Vanaratna visited Tibet in 1426, 1433 and 1453 and spread the Kālacakra lineage and instructions of Paṇḍita Vibhūti-candra there, especially the Sadaṅga-yoga according to Anupamarakṣita, and many other teachings. He also assisted in the translation of many texts and treatises. Such famous Tibetan masters as Gö Lotsawa Shönnu Pal (1392-1481) and Thrimkang Lotsawa Sönam Gyatso (1424-1482) were his close students. He also spent time in Bhutan, where even nowadays there is a temple, near Paro, with a sacred statue of his and a rock that bears his name in old Bengali script. Vanaratna spent his final years in the Gopicandra Vihara in Patan/Kathmandu, now known as Pinthu Bahal, and passed away there. (Source: [https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Vanaratna RY wiki])i.tsadra.org/index.php/Vanaratna RY wiki]))
  • Carus, P.  + (An early supporter of Buddhism in America An early supporter of Buddhism in America and the proponent of the "religion of science": a faith that claimed to be purified of all superstition and irrationality and that, in harmony with science, would bring about solutions to the world's problems. Carus was born in Ilsenberg in Harz, Germany. He immigrated to America in 1884, settling in LaSalle, Illinois, where he assumed the editorship of the Open Court Publishing Company. He attended the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 and became friends with several of the Buddhist delegates, including Dharmapāla and Shaku Sōen, who were among the first to promote his writing.Later, Shaku Sōen's student, Daisetz Teitaro Susuki, woudld spend eleven years working with and for Carus in LaSalle. In 1894, Carus published ''The Gospel of Buddha according to Old Records'', an anthology of passages from Buddhist texts drawn from contemporary translations in English, French, and German, making particular use of translations from the Pāli by Thomas W. Rhys Davids, as well as translations of the life of the Buddha from Chinese and Tibetan sources. Second only to Edwin Arnold's ''Light of Asia'' in intellectual influence at the time, ''The Gospel'' was arranged like the Bible, with numbered chapters and verses and a table at the end that listed parallel passages from the New Testament. ''The Gospel'' was intended to highlight the many agreements between Buddhism and Christianity, thereby bringing out "that nobler Christianity which aspires to the cosmic religion of universal truth." Carus was free in his manipulation of his sources, writing in the preface that he had rearranged, retranslated, and added emendations and elaborations in order to make them more accessible to a Western audience; for this reason, the translated sources are not always easy to trace back to the original literature. He also makes it clear in the preface that his ultimate goal is to lead his readers to the Religion of Science. He believed that both Buddhism and Christianity, when understood correctly, would point the way to the Religion of Science. Although remembered today for his ''Gospel'', Carus wrote some seventy books and more than a thousand articles. His books include studies of Goethe, Schiller, Kant, and Chinese thought. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 2014, 168)inceton Dictionary of Buddhism, 2014, 168))
  • Bjonback, A.  + (Anders holds a Bachelors degree from NaropAnders 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.</br></br>His thesis supervisor was Dr. Karin Meyers and the external reader was Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes from the University of Vienna, Austria.</br></br>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])onback.html Source Accessed Aug 12, 2020]))
  • Doctor, A.  + (Andreas Doctor (PhD 2004, University of CaAndreas Doctor (PhD 2004, University of Calgary) is the director of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee and the editorial co-director of 84000.</br></br>For a number of years, Andreas has studied Buddhist history and philosophy under the guidance of Tibetan monks and lamas, mostly in Nepal at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. As a founding member of Rangjung Yeshe Institute, he spent fifteen years teaching at the Institute and for most of this period he served as director of studies at Kathmandu University’s Centre for Buddhist Studies, located at Rangjung Yeshe Institute.</br></br>As director of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, Andreas has participated in numerous translation projects, most recently in translating sūtras and tantras from the Tibetan canon. He is also a founding member of Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, Denmark. ([https://www.khyentsevision.org/team/dr-andreas-doctor/ Adapted from Source Oct 1, 2022])-doctor/ Adapted from Source Oct 1, 2022]))
  • Palmo, A. J.  + (Ani Jinpa Palmo (also [[Ani Jinba Palmo]]Ani Jinpa Palmo (also [[Ani Jinba Palmo]] or [[Eugenie De Jong]]) is a Dutch Buddhist nun who has studied Tibetan Buddhism since 1968 and was ordained in India in 1969. In the seventies she served as an interpreter for [[Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche]] and currently serves as an interpreter for Kyabje [[Trulshik Rinpoche]] while spending her winters in Nepal and India. During her summers in Europe and the US she occasionally serves as an interpreter for [[Khenpo Pema Sherab]] and [[Kunzang Dechen Lingpa]]. She has translated a number of Tibetan Buddhist books and also did numerous unpublished translations for private purposes.blished translations for private purposes.)
  • Chávez, A.  + (Ann Chávez is a long-time student of GesheAnn Chávez is a long-time student of Geshe Lhundub Sopa. She helped translate ''The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems'' by Nyima Chökyi Thuken, an extensive survey of Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical system found in Asia. ([https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-for-2013/january/like-a-waking-dream/ann-chavez/ Source Accessed June 19, 2020])nn-chavez/ Source Accessed June 19, 2020]))
  • Zilman, A.  + (Anna (a.k.a. Anya) holds a MA degree in BuAnna (a.k.a. Anya) holds a MA degree in Buddhist Studies from the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Her MA thesis was entitled: “Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and the Nonsectarian Movement: A Critical Look at Representations of 19th Century Tibetan Buddhism”.</br></br>Anna joined the BA program at RYI in 2007, and the Translator Training Program (TTP) in 2008 and has been teaching in RYI since 2009 as a language instructor in the TTP. She has been the a manager of the TTP since 2010. Anna also interprets for a variety of different teachers from Tibetan into English and Russian. ([https://www.ryi.org/faculty/anna-zilman Source Accessed Sept 30, 2020])nna-zilman Source Accessed Sept 30, 2020]))
  • Burchardi, A.  + (Anne Burchardi took refuge with Ven. Kalu Anne Burchardi took refuge with Ven. Kalu Rinpoche in 1976. </br>In 1978 she became a student of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and started her education as a Tibetan translator with him. </br></br>1978–1980 she was the secretary of Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Karma Drub Djy Ling, Copenhagen, Denmark. </br>1978-1979 she was secretary at The Ethnographical Department of The National Museum, Copenhagen. </br>In 1980 she became a member of The Translating Board of Kagyu Tekchen Shedra, International Educational Institute of Higher Learning, Bruxelles, Belgium. </br></br>She lived in Kathmandu from 1984–1992 and in 1986 she became Teacher at Marpa Institute for Translation, Kathmandu, Nepal. 1988–1991 she was secretary and course coordinator at Marpa Institute for Translation. From 1986 to 2015 she was interpreter for various Tibetan Lamas of the Kagyu, Nyingma, and Gelukpa lineages teaching Buddhism mainly in Europe and Asia, and occasionally in the USA and Canada.</br></br>1997–2002 she was Teaching Assistant in Tibetan Language Studies, at The Asian Insitute, University of Copenhagen. </br>1999–2015 she was Associate Professor in Tibetology, Department of Asian Studies, Institute of Cross Cultural & Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. </br>1999-2007 she was Research Librarian and Curator, Tibetan Section, Department of Orientalia & Judaica, The Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen. </br></br>2000 She was Consultant for Tibet, International Development Partners, DANIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Lhasa and Denmark.</br>2001-2015 she was Lecturer on Buddhism and Tibetan Culture at The Public University, Copenhagen & Aarhus.</br>2002–2010 she was Researcher and Consultant at The Twinning Library Project, between The National Library of Bhutan, Thimphu and The Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen.</br>2004–2005 she was Visiting Professor at Deparmnet of Religion, Naropa University, Boulder, CO.</br></br>2005–2015 she was Lecturer on Buddhism at Pende Ling, Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Copenhagen.</br>2007–2015 she was Lecturer on Buddhist Studies, The Buddhist University, Pende Ling, Copenhagen.</br></br>2010 She was for Consultant for Liason Office of Denmark, Thimphu, Bhutan, DANIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Copenhagen.</br>2011-2013 She was a Culture Guide in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet for Cramon Travels and for Kipling Travels.</br>2012–2020 She was a translator for the 84000 project.</br>(Source: Anne Burchardi Email, Jan 18, 2021.)project. (Source: Anne Burchardi Email, Jan 18, 2021.))
  • Drolma, C.  + (Anne Holland (Pema Chonyi Drolma), TibetanAnne Holland (Pema Chonyi Drolma), Tibetan Buddhist priest, translator, meditation guide and teacher.</br></br>Chönyi Drolma completed six years of retreat under the direction of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche and Lama Tharchin Rinpoché in 2012 at Pema Osel Ling. She translated the autobiography of Traktung Dudjom Lingpa into English, published as [[A Clear Mirror]], as well as the secret biography of [[Yeshe Tsogyal]] as [[The Life and Visions of Yeshe Tsogyal]]. She currently lives in Montreal where she continues to translate and take her lamas’ instructions to heart.</br></br>[http://www.jnanasukha.org/news-blog/translation-secret-biography Source Accessed 16 March, 2016]-biography Source Accessed 16 March, 2016])
  • Jack, A.  + (Anthony Abraham Jack (Ph.D., Harvard UniveAnthony Abraham Jack (Ph.D., Harvard University, 2016) is a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and an assistant professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He holds the Shutzer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.</br></br>His research documents the overlooked diversity among lower-income undergraduates: the ''Doubly Disadvantaged'' — those who enter college from local, typically distressed public high schools — and ''Privileged Poor'' — those who do so from boarding, day, and preparatory high schools. His scholarship appears in the ''Common Reader'', ''Du Bois Review'', ''Sociological Forum'', and ''Sociology of Education'' and has earned awards from the American Educational Studies Association, American Sociological Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Eastern Sociological Society, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Jack held fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation and was a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow. The National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan named him an Emerging Diversity Scholar. In May 2020, Muhlenberg College will award him an honorary doctorate for his work in transforming higher education.</br></br>The ''New York Times'', ''Boston Globe'', ''The Atlantic'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', ''The Huffington Post'', ''The Nation'', ''American Conservative Magazine'', ''The National Review'', ''Commentary Magazine'', ''The Washington Post'', ''Financial Times'', ''Times Higher Education'', ''Vice'', ''Vox'', and ''NPR'' have featured his research and writing as well as biographical profiles of his experiences as a first-generation college student. ''The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students'' is his first book. ([https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/anthony-jack Source Accessed Mar 22, 2021])nthony-jack Source Accessed Mar 22, 2021]))
  • Goldfield, A.  + (Ari Goldfield is a Buddhist teacher. He haAri Goldfield is a Buddhist teacher. He had the unique experience of being continuously in the training and service of his own teacher, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, for eleven years. From 1998-2009, Ari served as Khenpo Rinpoche’s translator and secretary, accompanying Rinpoche on seven round-the-world teaching tours. Ari received extensive instruction from Rinpoche in Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and teaching methods, and meditated under Rinpoche’s guidance in numerous retreats. In 2006, Khenpo Rinpoche sent Ari on his own tour to teach philosophy, meditation, and yogic exercise in Europe, North America, and Asia. In 2007, Ari moved with Rinpoche to Seattle, where he served and helped care for him until Rinpoche moved back to Nepal in 2009. Ari now teaches in Rinpoche’s Karma Kagyu lineage, with the blessings of the head of the lineage, H.H. the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and of Khenpo Rinpoche.</br></br>Ari is also a published translator and author of books, articles, and numerous songs of realization and texts on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. These include Khenpo Rinpoche’s books ''Stars of Wisdom'', ''The Sun of Wisdom'', and Rinpoche’s ''Song of the Eight Flashing Lances'' teaching, which appeared in ''The Best Buddhist Writing'' 2007. He is a contributing author of ''Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connections Between Yoga and Buddhism''.</br></br>Ari studied Buddhist texts in Tibetan and Sanskrit at Buddhist monasteries in Nepal and India, and at the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in India. In addition to translating for Khenpo Rinpoche, he has also served as translator for H.H. Karmapa, Tenga Rinpoche, and many other Tibetan teachers. From 2007–11, Ari served as president of the Marpa Foundation, a nonprofit organization initiated by Khenpo Rinpoche that supports Buddhist translation, nunneries in Bhutan and Nepal, and other Buddhist activities. Ari holds a BA from Harvard College and a JD from Harvard Law School, both with honors. ([https://insightla.org/teacher/ari-goldfield-2/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020])ldfield-2/ Source Accessed July 22, 2020]))
  • Engle, A.  + (Artemus B. Engle began studying the TibetaArtemus B. Engle began studying the Tibetan language in Howell, New Jersey in early 1971 at Labsum Shedrup Ling, the precursor of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center. In 1972 he became a student of Sera Mey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche, a relationship that spanned more than thirty years. In 1975 he enrolled in the Buddhist Studies program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and received a PhD in 1983. Since the mid-1980s he taught Tibetan language and Buddhist doctrine at the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center in Howell, New Jersey. In 2005 he became a Tsadra Foundation Translation Fellow and has worked primarily on the ''Pañcaskandhaprakarana'' and the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi''.aprakarana'' and the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi''.)
  • Baizhang Huaihai  + (Baizhang Huaihai (Chinese: 百丈懷海; pinyin: BBaizhang Huaihai (Chinese: 百丈懷海; pinyin: Bǎizhàng Huáihái; Wade-Giles: Pai-chang Huai-hai; Japanese: Hyakujō Ekai) (720–814) was a Zen master during the Tang Dynasty. A native of Fuzhou, he was a dharma heir of Mazu Daoyi (Wade-Giles: Ma-tsu Tao-i).[1] Baizhang's students included Huangbo, Linji and Puhua.</br></br>Hagiographic depictions of Baizhang depict him as a radical and iconoclastic figure, but these narratives derive from at least a century and a half after his death and were developed and elaborated during the Song dynasty.[2] As Mario Poceski writes, the earliest strata of sources (such as the ''Baizhang guanglu'' 百丈廣錄 ) about this figure provide a "divergent image of Baizhang as a sophisticated teacher of doctrine, who is at ease with both the philosophical and contemplative aspects of Buddhism."[3] Poceski summarizes this figure thus:</br></br>:The image of Baizhang conveyed by the Tang-era sources is that of a learned and sagacious monk who is well versed in both the theoretical and contemplative aspects of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Here we encounter Baizhang as a teacher of a particular Chan brand of Buddhist doctrine, formulated in a manner and idiom that are unique to him and to the Hongzhou school as a whole. Nonetheless, he also comes across as someone who is cognizant of major intellectual trends in Tang Buddhism, as well as deeply steeped in canonical texts and traditions. His discourses are filled with scriptural quotations and allusions. He also often resorts to technical Buddhist vocabulary, of the kind one usually finds in the texts of philosophically oriented schools of Chinese Buddhism such as Huayan, Faxiang, and Tiantai. Here the primary mode in which Baizhang communicates his teachings is the public Chan sermon, presented in the ritual framework of “ascending the [Dharma] hall [to preach]” (''shangtang'').[4]</br></br>Regarding his teachings, Poceski notes:</br></br>:A central idea that infuses most of Baizhang’s sermons is the ineffability or indescribability of reality. Ultimate reality cannot be predicated in terms of conventional conceptual categories, as it transcends the familiar realm of words and ideas. Nonetheless, it can be approached or realized—as it truly is, without any accretions or distortions—as it manifests at all times and in all places. That is done by means of intuitive knowledge, whose cultivation is one of the cornerstones of Chan soteriology. Since the essence of reality cannot be captured or conveyed via the mediums of words and letters, according to Baizhang it is pointless to get stuck in dogmatic assertions, or to attach to a particular doctrine or practice. Like everything else, the various Chan (or more broadly Buddhist) teachings are empty of self-nature. They simply constitute expedient tools in an ongoing process of cultivating detachment and transcendence that supposedly free the mind of mistaken views and distorted ways of perceiving reality; to put it differently, they belong to the well-known Buddhist category of “skillful means” (''fangbian'', or upāya in Sanskrit). Holding on rigidly or fetishizing a particular text, viewpoint, or method of practice—even the most profound and potent ones—can turn out to be counterproductive, as it becomes a source of attachment that impedes spiritual progress. The perfection of the Chan path of practice and realization, therefore, does not involve the attainment of some particular ability or knowledge. Rather, in Baizhang’s text it is depicted as a process of letting go of all views and attachment that interfere with the innate human ability to know reality and experience spiritual freedom.[5]</br></br>One of his doctrinal innovations is what are called the “three propositions” (sanju), which are three distinct stages of spiritual realization or progressive ways of knowing:[6]</br></br>*Thoroughgoing detachment from all things and affairs</br>*Nonabiding in the state of detachment</br>*Letting go of even the subtlest vestiges of self-referential awareness or knowledge of having transcended detachment.</br></br>Baizhang's teachings and sayings have been translated by Thomas Cleary in ''Sayings and Doings of Pai-Chang''.[7] The Wild fox koan is attributed to Baizhang. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baizhang_Huaihai Source Accessed July 15, 2021])ng_Huaihai Source Accessed July 15, 2021]))
  • Connelly, B.  + (Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and dhaBen Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. He also provides secular mindfulness training in a variety of contexts including police training, half-way houses, and correctional facilities, and is a professional musician. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Source: Amazon Author Page)</br></br>Learn more at the [https://www.mnzencenter.org/teachers.html Minnesota Zen Meditation Center website].</br></br>Watch a video of Ben talking about his book ''Vasubandhu’s Three Natures'': </br>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBK5k17eYDwttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBK5k17eYDw)
  • Ewing, B.  + (Ben Ewing is a member of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee and the Subashita Translation Group. He completed an MA thesis from Rangjung Yeshe Institute entitled "The Saraha of Tibet: How Mgur Shaped the Legacy of Lingchen Repa, Tibetan Siddha.")
  • Tri Hai, Bhikkhunī  + (Bhikkhuni Tri Hai (Tam Hy), one of Su Ba'sBhikkhuni Tri Hai (Tam Hy), one of Su Ba's outstanding disciples, was born Nguyen Phuoc Cong Tang Ton Nu Phung Khanh in Hue on March 9, 1938, to an aristocratic family of devout Buddhists who were descendants of the Minh Mang emperor (reigned 1820-40). Phung Khanh excelled in her studies. After she graduated from high school at the age of seventeen, she wanted to renounce the household life, but first she became a high school teacher in Da Nang. After that, she went to the United States where, from 1962 to 1963, she took graduate courses in the English Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. After completing her studies in late 1963, she returned to Vietnam. In 1964, she finally renounced the household life and became a nun under Bhikkhunī Dieu Khong at Hong An Temple in Hue. As a novice nun, she was chosen to become an assistant to Bhikkhu Minh Chau at Van Hanh University, the first Buddhist university in Vietnam. In 1968, she took the ''sikkhamana'' precepts in Nha Trang. She was selected to be the librarian at Van Hanh University and the manager of the School of Youth for Social Service. In 1970, she became fully ordained in Da Nang and was given the monastic name Tri Hai. At Van Hanh University, she lectured to both monastics and laypeople, translated, and also undertook many charitable activities. For example, the humanitarian organization Oxfam asked her to head the Vietnam Oxfam Association, which she directed from 1965 to 1975. She also taught Levels III to V of the Majjhima Nikāya in English at the Vietnam Buddhist Academy and Van Hanh Temple.</br> </br>When in Hue, Bhikkhunī Tri Hai lectured on the ''Canh Sach'' (Guishan's Admonitions) at Dieu Hy and Hong An Temples. During ''vassa'' each year, she was invited to lecture at Phuoc Hoa Temple in Hoc Mon and Dai Giac Temple in Soc Trang. From 1996 to 1999, she taught the ''bhikkhunī vinaya'' and the ''bodhisattva'' precepts at the Intermediate Buddhist School (Thien Phuoc Temple) in Long An Province. At the ordination ceremonies at Thien Phuoc Temple in Long An, she was invited to lecture on the ''bhikkhunī vinaya'', where she gave the examinations and was head of the exam group. In 2003, she was the vice-master at the ordination ceremony at Tu Nghiem Temple. At the time of her death, she was the director of finances and vice president of the Vietnam Buddhist University in Ho Chi Minh City.</br> </br>Bhikkhunī Tri Hai was a Dharma master, teacher, translator, poet, editor, and publisher. She knew English, French, Chinese, Pali, and some German. She has more than one hundred published works, including introductory works for Buddhist students, a Pali-English-Vietnamese dictionary, works introducing Tibetan Buddhism, and works on contemporary philosophers such as Gandhi, Krishnamurti, Tagore, and Erich Fromm. For decades, she was involved in charitable works throughout Vietnam. Tragically, on December 7, 2003, while returning from a charitable mission in Phan Thiet Province, she and two other nuns (Sa Di Phuoc Tinh and Bhikkhunī Tue Nha) were killed in a traffic accident. Bhikkhunī Tri Hai was sixty-six years old and had been a nun for thirty-three years.</br></br>At the memorial service and afterward, letters, poems, and couplets of praise and remembrance poured in from all over Vietnam and around the world for Bhikkhunī Tri Hai, an eminent nun of Vietnam and a beacon of wisdom and compassion. She is buried at Dieu Khong Temple in Hoc Mon District, outside Ho Chi Minh City. The Dieu Khong Temple that she built in 2003 is now home to six nuns. Two of them, Bhikkhunīs Tue Dung and Tue Nguyen, are currently building a new temple complex and continue Tri Hai's charitable activities: visiting hospitalized cancer patients during the Lunar New Year to give donations ("red envelopes") and giving aid to the elderly, sick, handicapped, and orphaned.</br> </br>Bhikkhunī Tue Dung became a nun in 1980 after hearing Tri Hai speak in 1979 on the ''Diamond Sutra''. She has completed some translations from English and French into Vietnamese. Each year on the death anniversary of Tri Hai, Tue Dung publishes a manuscript or republishes a work by Tri Hai, for example, the Majjhima Nikāya, translated from Pāli by Thich Minh Chau, abridged and annotated by Tri Hai. (Elise Anne DeVido, "Eminent Nuns in Hue, Vietnam," in ''Eminent Buddhist Women'', edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, 77–78)en'', edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, 77–78))
  • Dharmamitra, Bhikshu  + (Bhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name "HengBhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name "Heng Shou" - 釋恆授) is a Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the earliest American disciples (since 1968) of the late Guiyang Ch'an patriarch, Dharma teacher, and pioneer of Buddhism in the West, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (宣化上人). He has a total of 34 years in robes during two periods as a monastic (1969‒1975 & 1991 to the present). Dharmamitra's principal educational foundations as a translator of Sino-Buddhist Classical Chinese lie in four years of intensive monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahāyāna texts in a small-group setting under Master Hsuan Hua (1968-1972), undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University, a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen University Language Center near Taipei, two years of course work at the University of Washington's Department of Asian Languages and Literature (1988-90), and an additional three years of auditing graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again at UW's Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra has devoted his energies primarily to study and translation of classic Mahāyāna texts with a special interest in works by rya Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles, including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the "Flower Adornment Sutra"), Nāgārjuna's 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika Vibhāṣā ("Treatise on the Ten Grounds"), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra (the "Ten Grounds Sutra") . . . ([https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Bhikshu-Dharmamitra# Source Accessed July 15, 2021])u-Dharmamitra# Source Accessed July 15, 2021]))
  • Little, H.  + (Binks devoted much of his life to the studBinks devoted much of his life to the study and teaching of religion. Before coming to Williams, he taught religion at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., and served as a teaching assistant at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D.</br></br>At Williams, he contributed greatly to the life of the college, both inside and outside the classroom. In the 20 years during which he chaired the Department of Religion, starting in 1967, rapid growth of departmental enrollments, followed by new faculty appointments, set the stage for the development of an exciting and rigorous introductory religion course that was both highly popular at Williams and emulated nationally.</br></br>An intellectual who cared deeply about his students, Binks was intensely curious about developments in the full range of liberal arts disciplines. “Almost immediately following his faculty appointment in the Department of Religion, it became apparent that Binks Little had the potential to become a significant leader in his department and in the college generally,” says John Chandler, Williams president, emeritus, who served as dean of the faculty and religion department chair when Binks joined Williams.</br></br>Binks was also the first-ever chair of the Committee of Undergraduate Life when it was conceived in the late 1960s. Under his leadership, the committee recommended and the college implemented major revisions of protocols governing residential life. He also paved the way for student membership on standing committees that, up until then, were strictly composed of faculty. “Binks had a great memory for students and a complete devotion to them,” says Mark C. Taylor, Cluett Professor of Humanities, emeritus.</br></br>Binks became a full professor in 1974. That year he was appointed the managing editor of the American Academy of Religion Dissertation Series, a publishing venture organized to make outstanding doctoral research in the study of religion readily available to the wider scholarly community.</br></br>Shortly before he retired from Williams, Binks participated for two years in an experimental faculty development program, mentoring second-year faculty across the academic divisions and coordinating and directing periodic seminars and conferences that addressed the myriad challenges faced by new faculty members.</br></br>Born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1932, Binks grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and Pasadena, Calif., and attended Deerfield Academy. He graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and earned a B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1957, having spent the 1954-55 academic year at the University of Edinburgh. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1965. ([https://president.williams.edu/writings-and-remarks/articles-2/the-passing-of-professor-h-ganse-binks-little/ Source Accessed Apr 21, 2022])nks-little/ Source Accessed Apr 21, 2022]))
  • Phuntsok, Tulku Orgyen  + (Birth and Recognition: Tulku Orgyen PhunBirth and Recognition: </br></br>Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok was born in Pemakö, in northeastern India, as the son of Lama Rigdzin Phuntsok. He was recognized at a young age by Dudjom Rinpoche as the reincarnation of Togden Kunzang Longrol, his father’s root guru. Togden Kunzang Longrol was a great Dzogchen yogi from the Powo region who had been a main disciple of Dudjom Rinpoche, and who had been influential in spreading the dharma and the Dudjom Tersar lineage both in Tibet and in upper and lower Pemakö.</br></br>Training: </br></br>Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok spent his early years in retreat in Pemakö, at his own monastery, under the blessings of his first root teacher, the great master Tulku Dawa Rinpoche. Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok underwent vigorous training in multiple fields of study, including various ritual sadhana performances from different terma lineages, with an emphasis on the Dudjom Tersar lineage, all under the care of his previous incarnation’s disciples, including his father Lama Rigzin Phuntsok.</br></br>At the age of 15, Tulku Orgyen commenced advanced studies in southern India at Namdroling Monastery, the largest Nyingma monastery in India, established by Penor Rinpoche. There, Tulku Orgyen completed a nine-year-long program of study, obtaining the degree of Khenpo. While appointed to a teaching position for the duration of his final three years at the monastery, he taught various Buddhist philosophies to monks. Over the course of his nine years of study, he also received empowerments and transmissions from many masters of the Nyingma lineage such as Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche, Lama Rigdzin Phuntsok, Penor Rinpoche, and Tulku Dawa Rinpoche.</br>Upon completion of his studies at Namdroling monastery, Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok returned to his retreat land in Pemakö, where he engaged in solitary retreat and completed the requisite practices to become a qualified Vajra master in this lineage.</br></br>Activity:</br></br>Since late 1999, Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok has assisted his uncle and teacher, Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche, by giving teachings, leading practices and retreats, and undertaking various other Dharma activities at Vairotsana Foundation Centers in California and New Mexico and in various cities in North America and Asia. In order to gain a western education and perspective, Tulku Orgyen studied and guest lectured at the University of California, Santa Barbara.</br></br>Currently, Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok splits his time between North America and Asia, spending winters in Pemakö where he oversees reconstruction of the temple. he oversees reconstruction of the temple.)
  • Bokar Rinpoche  + (Bokar Tulku Rinpoche (1940 – 17 August 200Bokar 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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>In Mirik, India, Bokar Rinpoche founded a retreat center that is an important centre for Kalachakra practice, now called Bokar Ngedhon Choekhor Ling. </br></br>Brief bio available at [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1iaW9ncmFwaHktQm9rYXI= bokarmonastery.org]</br></br>Also see [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1wdWJsaWNhdGlvbnM= Bokar Publications]FnZT1wdWJsaWNhdGlvbnM= Bokar Publications])
  • Loden, Thubten  + (Born in 1924, Geshe Loden became a monk atBorn in 1924, Geshe Loden became a monk at seven years old. After completing extensive Buddhist philosophy studies, he received the Geshe Lharampa degree from Sera Je Monastery in Tibet, and an Acharya degree from Varanasi's Sanskrit university in India. He was also awarded a Master's qualification in Vajrayana Buddhism after many years study at Gyudmed Tantric College. Geshe Loden originally came to Australia in 1976 at the invitation of Lama Thubten Yeshe to be the resident teacher at Chenrezig Institute, Queensland, where he remained for three years before leaving to start his own organization.<br>      Geshe Loden has written many books on Tibetan Buddhism, including: ''Great Treasury of Mahamudra'' (2009); ''Essence of the Path to Enlightenment'' (1997); ''Meditations on the Path to Enlightenment'' (1996); ''The Fundamental Potential for Enlightenment'' (1996); and ''Path to Enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism'' (1993). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geshe_Acharya_Thubten_Loden Source Accessed Jul 27, 2020])sed Jul 27, 2020]))
  • Tegchok, Jampa  + (Born in 1930, Khensur Jampa Tegchok becameBorn in 1930, Khensur Jampa Tegchok became a monk at the age of eight. He studied major Buddhist treatises at Sera Monastic University in Tibet for fourteen years before fleeing his homeland in 1959. The former abbot of the Jé College of Sera Monastic University in India, he was also a beloved teacher at several FPMT centers including the Masters Program at Instituto Lama Tsongkhapa in Italy, Land of Medicine Buddha in California, and Nalanda Monastery in France. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/khensur-jampa-tegchok/ Wisdom Publications])ensur-jampa-tegchok/ Wisdom Publications]))