Property:Bio
From Buddha-Nature
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Khenpo David Karma Choephel studied Buddhist philosophy at the Vajra Vidya Institute in Namo Buddha, Nepal, and Sarnath, India. He currently serves as Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s main English-language translator, and also translates for the Gyalwang Karmapa and the Kagyu Monlam.
His published translations include ''Ngondro for Our Current Day'' by the Gyalwang Karmapa, ''Heart of the Dharma'' by Khenchen Trangu Rinpoche, ''Jewels from the Treasury, Vasubandhu’s Verses on the Treasury of Abhidharma'', with commentary by the Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, all published by KTD Publications; and ''Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar'' by Thrangu Rinpoche, published by Shambhala Publications. His most recent translation, ''The Torch of True Meaning: Instructions and the Practice Text for the Mahamudra Preliminaries'' by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye and the Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, was taught by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, ''A Collection of Commentaries on The Four-Session Guru Yoga'', Compiled by the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, both published by KTD Publications. ([http://www.ktdpublications.com/david-karma-choephel/ Source Accessed Feb 12, 2020]) +
Potprecha Cholvijarn, also known as Achan Jak, holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Bristol, in the UK. He is the author of '''Nibbana as Self or not-Self: Some Contemporary Thai Discussions''', ‘Meditation Manual of King Taksin of Thonburi’ and ‘Ayutthaya period meditation manual from Wat Pradusongtham’. He is currently a special lecturer at the Thai Studies Centre, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. (Personal Communication, March 28, 2022.) +
Lama Chönam, Chöying Namgyal, was born in Golog, eastern Tibet, in 1964. His root master, Khenpo Münsel, was a direct disciple of Khenpo Ngagchung and was one of the great authentic Dzogchen masters of the 20th century. Since coming to the United States in 1992, Lama Chönam lived near and studied extensively with Kyabjé Thinley Norbu Rinpoche and has engaged in extensive studies under the guidance of Khenchen Namdrol Rinpoche. A co-founder of Light of Berotsana, Lama Chönam assists in translating classical Tibetan literature into English, helps beginning translators meet the highest standard of excellence, and teaches dharma and Tibetan language. (Source: [https://www.berotsana.org/pages/lama-chonam Light of Berotsana] Official Communication, June 14, 2024.) +
Chone Drakpa Shedrub was a Geluk scholar and yogi famous for his knowledge of sutra and tantra, who stood out even among the most learned scholars of his time. Educated at Sera and based at Chone, where he did most of his teaching, he authored many commentaries on sutra and tantra, which are collected in eleven volumes. +
Ann 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]) +
Khenmo Trinlay Chödron is a senior student of Khenchen Rinpoche. She teaches at the Tibetan Meditation Center in Fredrick, Maryland, as well as at affiliated centers in the United States and Sweden. ([https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/khenmo-trinlay-chodron.html Source Accessed Sept 4 2020]) +
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche is a world-renowned teacher and meditation master in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Tibet in 1951 as the oldest son of his mother Kunsang Dechen, a devoted Buddhist practitioner, and his father Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, an accomplished master of Buddhist meditation. As a young child, Chokyi Nyima—"Sun of the Dharma"—was recognized as the 7th incarnation of the Tibetan meditation master Gar Drubchen.
In 1959, following the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Rinpoche's family fled to India where Rinpoche spent his youth studying under some of Tibetan Buddhism’s most illustrious masters, such as His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, and his father, Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.
In 1974, Rinpoche left India to join his parents in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he assisted them in establishing Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. Upon its completion in 1976, H.H. the Karmapa enthroned Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche as the monastery's abbot. To this day, Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling remains the heart of Rinpoche’s ever-growing mandala of activity. (Source: [https://shedrub.org/about-us/ Shedrub.org]) +
Thomas Cleary passed away on June 20, 2021. https://www.shambhala.com/remembering-thomas-cleary
:Of his passing, renowned Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman wrote on Facebook:
::“There is no doubt in my mind that Thomas Cleary is the greatest translator of Buddhist texts from Chinese or Japanese into English of our generation, and that he will be so known by grateful Buddhist practitioners and scholars in future centuries. Single-handedly he has gone a long way toward building the beginnings of a Buddhist canon in English.”
Cleary became interested in Buddhism when he was a teenager; his researches into Buddhist thought began with a desire to learn during this time of his life. When he began translating, he chose either untranslated works or—as in the case of Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War''—books whose extant translations were "too limited".
Cleary earned a Ph.D in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Since completing his doctoral studies, Cleary has had little involvement with the academic world. In a rare interview, Cleary stated: "There is too much oppression in a university setting . . . I want to stay independent and reach those who want to learn directly through my books."
Cleary's brother Jonathon also completed his doctoral work in EALC at Harvard. The two brothers worked together to translate the koan collection ''The Blue Cliff Record''; Shambhala published the translation in 1977.
Thomas Cleary's most widely disseminated translation has been of Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' (''Sunzi Bingfa'').
He also translated the monumental ''Avatamsaka Sutra'' (also called ''Huayan Jing'', or the ''Flower Ornament Scripture'').
Another major translation was of the commentaries of the 18th century Taoist sage Liu Yiming, who explains the metaphoric coding of the main Taoist texts dealing with the transformation of consciousness, and the fusion of the human mind with the mind of Tao.
In 2000, Cleary's various translations of Taoist texts were collected into four volumes by Shambhala Publications as ''The Taoist Classics''. Following the success of these publications, a five-volume collection of Buddhist translations was collected as ''Classics of Buddhism and Zen''. Another translation from the Muslim wisdom tradition is ''Living and Dying with Grace''. In 1993 Cleary published a translation of Miyamoto Musashi's ''Book of Five Rings''. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cleary Source Accessed Sept 18, 2020])
Alan Cole is the author of a number of books in the field of Religious/Buddhist Studies, including ''Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism'' (Stanford University Press 1998), ''Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature'' (University of California Press 2005), ''Fathering Your Father: The Zen of Fabrication in Tang Buddhism'' (University of California Press 2009), ''Fetishizing Tradition: Desire and Reinvention in Buddhist and Christian Narratives'' (SUNY Press, 2015), and, most recently, ''Patriarchs on Paper: A Critical History of Medieval Chan Literature'' (University of California Press, 2016). He was Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis & Clark College from 2006–2012 and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at National University of Singapore from 2013–2014. ([https://independent.academia.edu/ColeAlan/CurriculumVitae Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Dr. James William Coleman was born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal State Northridge (then called San Fernando Valley State College) and his master's and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His areas of specialization were criminology and the sociology of religion. . . .
His dissertation was an attempt to explain the process by which heroin addicts were able to give up drugs and change their lives, but his interest in criminology soon shifted to white collar crime. He first published ''The Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White Collar Crime'' in 1985, and it eventually went to six editions. His textbook, ''Social Problems'', which he originally co-authored with his dissertation advisor, Donald R. Cressey, and later with Harold R. Kerbo, Professor Emeritus, first came out in 1980 and had a total of 10 editions.
Later in his career, Coleman's interest turned back to the sociology of religion, and more specifically, to the amazing growth of Buddhism in the west. He published ''The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition'' in 1991, and continues to be involved with Buddhist theory and practice. He edited the talks of Reb Anderson Roshi into a booked entitled ''The Third Turning of the Wheel: The Wisdom of the Samdhnirmocana Sutra'', which was published in 2012. His latest book, ''The Buddha’s Dream of Liberation: Freedom, Emptiness and Awakened Nature'' came out in June 2017. ([https://socialsciences.calpoly.edu/newsletter-2017/coleman-retires Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Steven Collins (1951-2018) was Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities in the University of Chicago’s Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and in the Divinity School’s History of Religions program. A world-renowned scholar of the Pali Buddhist traditions of south and southeast Asia, he contributed greatly to the University of Chicago’s unusual strength in Buddhist studies. ([https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/memory-steven-collins Source Accessed Jan 17, 2020]) +
Paul Condon is an associate professor of psychology at Southern Oregon University. He has also served as a visiting lecturer for the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, and is a fellow of the Mind & Life Institute. His research examines the relational basis for empathy, compassion, wellbeing, and prosocial action, and the influence of compassion and mindfulness training on those capacities. His writing and teaching also explore the use of diverse scientific theories in dialogue with contemplative traditions to inform meditation practices of compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom. Paul teaches meditation practices adapted from the Tibetan Nyingma and Kagyu traditions for multi-faith and secular application. ([https://paulcondon.org/ Source Accessed April 25, 2024]) +
Edward Conze (1904-1979) was born in London and educated in Germany. He gained his Ph.D from Cologne University in 1928, and then studied Indian and European comparative philosophy at the Universities of Bonn and Hamburg. From 1933 until 1960 he lectured in psychology, philosophy and comparative religion at London and Oxford Universities. Between 1963 and 1973 he held a number of academic appointments in England, Germany and the USA, and was also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster, as well as Vice-President of the Buddhist Society. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Edward_Conze Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020]) +
Francis Dojun Cook was born and raised in a very small town in upstate New York in 1930. He was lucky to be an ordinary kid with ordinary parents. By means of true grit and luck, he managed to acquire several academic degrees and learn something about Buddhism. More luck in the form of a Fulbright Fellowship enabled him to study in Kyoto, Japan, for a year and a half, where he would have learned more had he not spent so much time admiring temple gardens. He now teaches Buddhism at the University of California, Riverside, and is director of translations at the Institute for Transcultural Studies in Los Angeles. He remains ordinary, but to his credit it can be said that he raised four good kids, has a great love for animals, and cooks pretty well. A sign that at last he is becoming more intelligent is that he became a student of Maezumi Roshi several years ago, the best thing he ever did. He is also the author of ''Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra'', and of various articles on Buddhism in scholarly journals. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/francis-dojun-cook/ Source Accessed Mar 18, 2021]) +
Philippe Cornu (b. 1957) began studying Tibetan at the age of 18 and became a Buddhist in 1978. He was one of the first Rigpa students in France and has studied and practised Tibetan Buddhism with Dudjom Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and other teachers of the Nyingma tradition.
Philippe is an author and translator from Tibetan into French of several books on the Nyingma school and Dzogchen. He has also devoted a large part of his career to teaching and transmitting Buddhist philosophy in French speaking universities such as the French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), and at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), as well as in different Buddhist centres. He joined Rigpa's new Vision Board in 2019. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Philippe_Cornu Source Accessed June 10, 2021]) +
Jamie is a graduate student in Tibetan Studies at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, where he is currently completing his MA thesis on the life of Gö Lotsawa Shönu Pal. Jamie provides administrative support for the Translation Teams and is our source text researcher and catalogue curator.
Jamie’s research focuses mainly on the philosophical literature of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the different Tibetan Madhyamaka interpretations, Tibetan biography writing, the Kadam teachings on mind training (blo sbyong), and experiential songs (mgur). He has also contributed to several translation projects, such as Study Buddhism (Berzin Archives) and 84000.
Jamie currently lives in Vienna, where he has found the ideal environment to spend his free time pursuing his interest in classical music and playing the double bass. ([https://www.khyentsevision.org/team/jamie-creek/ Source Accessed Sep 7, 2021]) +
Cuong Tu Nguyen received his PhD from Harvard University (specializing in Indian Buddhism). His works on Vietnamese Buddhism include "Rethinking Vietnamese Buddhist History: Is the ''Then Uyen Tap Anh'' a 'Transmission of the Lamp Text'?" "Tran Thai Tong and Khoa Hu Lue: A Study of Syncretic Ch'an in 13th Century Vietnam," and ''Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study and Translation of the Thien Uyen Tap Anh.'' With A. Charles Muller he co-edited ''Wonhyo's Philosophy of Mind'', Volume II, (University of Hawai'i Press). He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at George Mason University. +
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Daehaeng Kun Sunim (대행, 大行; 1927–2012) was a Korean Buddhist nun and Seon (禪) master. She taught monks as well as nuns, and helped to increase the participation of young people and men in Korean Buddhism. She made laypeople a particular focus of her efforts, and broke out of traditional models of spiritual practice, teaching so that anyone could practice, regardless of monastic status or gender. She was also a major force for the advancement of Bhikkunis (nuns), heavily supporting traditional nuns’ colleges as well as the modern Bhikkuni Council of Korea. The temple she founded, Hanmaum Seon Center, grew to have 15 branches in Korea, with another 10 branches in other countries. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daehaeng Source Accessed Nov 24, 2020]) +
Cortland J. Dahl received a Ph.D. in Mind, Brain and Contemplative Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also completed an MA degree in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language at Naropa University. He has worked as an instructor at Kathmandu University's Center for Buddhist Studies, located in Kathmandu, as well as an interpreter for various lamas, including Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. He currently serves as president of Tergar International and as a senior instructor in the Tergar Meditation Community. He lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin. +
Born in 1974, he joined the main Sakya Monastery in North India as a young boy and learned prayers and rituals. He also received empowerments, teachings, and training in the sūtra and tantric teachings in the Sakya tradition. In 1991, he joined Sakya College in Dehradun and pursued higher education in Buddhist Studies, after which he taught in the same college for some years. In 2002, according to the wishes of H.H. Sakya Trichen Rinpoche, he was appointed as the Sakya lecturer in the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. He has served there as a lecturer for over 22 years and was conferred the Khenpo title by H.H. Sakya Trichen and his sons. He has regularly participated in conferences and seminars and has written articles on the wheel of Dharma, Sakya meditation practice, store consciousness, the luminous nature of the mind, the two truths, the view and Middle Way theory in the Sakya tradition, lower and higher abhidharma, bodhicitta, the twelve links of dependent origination, the four tenet systems, etc. +
