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Christian Coseru is an associate professor of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the College of Charleston. He works in the fields of philosophy of mind, Phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Indian and Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with Western philosophy and cognitive science. He has recently published a book, ''Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy'' (OUP, 2012) that develops a view of Buddhist epistemology, in the tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakirti, as continuous with the phenomenological methods and insights of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, as well as with naturalistic approaches to epistemology and philosophy of mind. In 2012 he co-directed (with Jay Garfield and Evan Thompson) an NEH Summer Institute exploring the convergence of analytic, phenomenological, and Buddhist perspectives in the investigation of consciousness. He is currently completing a book manuscript on the intersections between perceptual and affective consciousness, tentatively entitled ''Sense, Self-Awareness, and Subjectivity''.
Before joining the Philosophy Department at the College of Charleston, he taught in the Centre for Asian Societies and Histories at the Australian National University. He received his Ph.D. from the Australian National University in 2005; He also holds a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy from the University of Bucharest. While at ANU, he also worked on a proof of concept model for parsing Sanskrit based on the Interlingua System (the project was funded by an ARC grant). He has and continues to travel extensively for research. He spent four and a half years in India in the mid 1990s pursuing studies in Sanskrit and Indian Philosophy. While in India, he was affiliated with several research institutes, including the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (1995-1996), the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and De Nobili College in Pune (1993), and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi (1995-1997). He was a visiting scholar at Queens' College, Cambridge University in 2000, and at the Institut de Civilisation Indienne, Paris in 2001. ([https://www.christiancoseru.com/about Adapted from Source Nov 25,, 2024])
Robina Courtin (born 20 December 1944, in Melbourne, Australia) is a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition and lineage of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 1996 she founded the Liberation Prison Project, which she ran until 2009.
Courtin was raised Catholic, and in her youth was interested in becoming a Carmelite nun. In her young adulthood, she trained as a classical singer while living in London during the late 1960s. She became a feminist activist and worked on behalf of prisoners' rights in the early 1970s. In 1972 she moved back to Melbourne. Courtin began studying martial arts in 1974, living in New York City and, again, back in Melbourne. In 1976, she took a Buddhist course taught by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa in Queensland.
In 1978 Courtin ordained at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala. She was Editorial Director of Wisdom Publications until 1987 and Editor of Mandala until 2000. She left Mandala to teach and to develop the Liberation Prison Project.
Robina Courtin's work has been featured in two documentary films, Christine Lundberg's On the Road Home (1998) and Amiel Courtin–Wilson's Chasing Buddha (2000), and in Vicki Mackenzie's book ''Why Buddhism?'' (2003). Her nephew's film, Chasing Buddha, documents Courtin's life and her work with death row inmates in the Kentucky State Penitentiary. In 2000, the film was nominated for best direction in a documentary by the Australian Film Institute.
In 2001, Courtin created Chasing Buddha Pilgrimage, which lead pilgrimages to Buddhist holy sites in India, Nepal, and Tibet to raise money for the Liberation Prison Project, an association engaged for the Tibetan cause. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robina_Courtin Source Accessed Nov 18, 2020]) +
Edward Byles Cowell, FBA (23 January 1826 – 9 February 1903) was a noted translator of Persian poetry and the first professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge University.
Cowell was born in Ipswich, the son of Charles Cowell and Marianne Byles. Elizabeth "Beth" Cowell, the painter, was his sister.
He became interested in Oriental languages at the age of fifteen, when he found a copy of Sir William Jones's works (including his ''Persian Grammar'') in the public library. Self-taught, he began translating and publishing Hafez within the year.
On the death of his father in 1842 he took over the family business. He married in 1845, and in 1850 entered Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied and catalogued Persian manuscripts for the Bodleian Library. From 1856 to 1867 he lived in Calcutta as professor of English history at Presidency College. He was also as principal of Sanskrit College from 1858 to 1864. In this year he discovered a manuscript of Omar Khayyám's quatrains in the Asiatic Society's library and sent a copy to London for his friend and student, Edward Fitzgerald, who then produced the famous English translations (the ''Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam'', 1859). He also published, unsigned, an introduction to Khayyám with translations of thirty quatrains in the ''Calcutta Review'' (1858).
Having studied Hindustani, Bengali, and Sanskrit with Indian scholars, he returned to England to take up an appointment as the first professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge. He was professor from 1867 until his death in 1903. He was made an honorary member of the German Oriental Society (DMG) in 1895, was awarded the Royal Asiatic Society's first gold medal in 1898, and in 1902 became a founding member of the British Academy. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Byles_Cowell Source Accessed Mar 22, 2021]) +
The Cowherds are scholars of Buddhist studies from the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. They are united by a commitment to rigorous philosophical analysis as an approach to understanding Buddhist metaphysics and epistemology, and to the union of philology and philosophy in the service of greater understanding of the Buddhist tradition and its insights.
They are: Amber Carpenter, Charles Goodman, Stephen Jenkins, Georges Dreyfus, Bronwyn Finnigan, Jay L. Garfield, Guy Martin Newland, Graham Priest, Mark Siderits, Koji Tanaka, Sonam Thakchoe, Tom Tillemans, and Jan Westerhoff. +
Dan Cozort grew up in North Dakota, where he ran cross-country and track and was a successful debater and extemporaneous speaker. At Brown University he majored in religious studies, specializing in Christian theology and ethics. At the graduate school of the University of Virginia, he specialized in Buddhism, learned Tibetan and Sanskrit, and began his collaboration with Tibetan lamas. He did a year of fieldwork in India, traveling broadly and staying in Tibetan monasteries. His teaching career began with a two-year appointment at Bates College in Maine. Coming to Dickinson in 1988, he proposed that the College join the South India Term Abroad consortium, which he directed in Madurai, south India, in 1992-93. In 1991 he organized the Festival of Tibet at Dickinson, which included an art exhibit he curated and was the initial occasion in which Tibetan monks constructed a Buddhist sand painting in the Trout Gallery. The monks returned in 1995 to construct another; he collaborated with Prof. Lonna Malmsheimer on a film to document it. In 2000 he began to teach in the Norwich Humanities Programme in England and in 2003-2005 he was its resident director. Prof. Cozort’s teaching is principally in the area of comparative religion, where he offers courses on Buddhism and Hinduism. However, he has also taught about Native American religions, about love and sex in relation to religion, about happiness, and has taught a variety of courses in the theory of religious studies. Currently, in addition to introductory courses, he frequently offers “Contemplative Practices in Asia,” “Buddhism and the Environment,” and “Spiritual Dimensions of Healing,” a course on the relation of religion and medicine. He is the author of six books: Highest Yoga tantra, Buddhist Philosophy, Unique Tenets of the Middle Way Consequence School, Sand Mandala of Vajrabhairava, Sadhana of Mahakala, and Enlightenment Through Imagination. He also edited the Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics.He has also written numerous book chapters and articles and a film script. From 2006 to 2019, he was the Editor of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics. ([https://www.dickinson.edu/site/custom_scripts/dc_faculty_profile_index.php?fac=cozort Source Accessed Apr 14, 2021])
Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng (23 November 1872 – 15 January 1945) was an author and sinologist. He was a member of the Byng baronets family, landowners in Essex.
His father was Lt. Col. Alfred Molyneaux Cranmer-Byng and his mother was Caroline Mary Tufnell. His brother Hugh Edward Cranmer-Byng (1873–1949) was also an author and playwright. Both brothers were brought up at Quendon Hall in Newport, Essex. Launcelot was educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Cambridge. From around 1912, the two brothers were associated with the 'Warwick Circle' at Easton Lodge, whose other members included H. G. Wells, Ramsay MacDonald and the folk song collector Cecil Sharp.
Cranmer-Byng is best known for The Never Ending Wrong (1902), The Odes of Confucius (1908) and Lute of Jade: Selections from the Classical Poets of China (1909). Salma (1923), was a play in three acts with a Persian setting, produced in Birmingham. A Feast of Lanterns (1936), published as part of John Murray's long-running Wisdom of the East series, of which he was a founder and editor, is a later anthology of ancient Chinese poetry, introduced and translated by Cranmer-Byng.
His translations of Chinese poetry were set to music by composers including Granville Bantock (Songs from the Chinese Poets), Rebecca Clarke, Bernard van Dieren, Harry Farjeon (The Lute of Jade song cycle, 1917), Charles Tomlinson Griffes (Five Poems of Ancient China and Japan, 1917) and Peter Warlock ('Along the Stream' from Saudades, 1923).
Cranmer-Byng served in World War I as a captain. His first wife died in 1913 and he married Daisy Elaine Beach in 1916. There was one son, John Launcelot Cranmer-Byng (1919–1999). They lived at Horham Hall[3] and at Foley Mill, Thaxted in Essex. Cranmer-Byng, a long-term county Alderman and Justice of the peace, died at Great Easton, near Dunmow, at the age of 72. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launcelot_Cranmer-Byng Source Accessed Nov 25, 2024]) +
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]) +
Kate Crosby joined King’s as Professor of Buddhist Studies in April 2013. She came to King’s from SOAS where she was Director of the Centre of Buddhist Studies and Seiyu Kiriyama Reader in Buddhist Studies. Before that she held posts in Buddhism, Pali and Sanskrit at the universities of Edinburgh, Lancaster and Cardiff, as well as teaching in Oxford at a number of colleges and the Oriental Institute. She has held visiting professorships at the Universities of McGill, Montreal, Dongguk, Seoul and the Buddhist Institute, Phnom Penh. She studied Sanskrit, Pali and other Buddhist languages, Indian religions and Buddhism at Oxford (MA and D.Phil., St. Hugh’s and St. Peter’s). She also studied at the universities of Hamburg and Kelaniya (Sri Lanka), as a Commonwealth Scholar, and with traditional teachers in Pune, Varanasi and Kathmandu.
In addition to textual work using mainly classical languages, as well as some in mixed Pali-Sinhala, she has conducted fieldwork in most Theravada countries. She is co-editor of the international peer-review journal ''Contemporary Buddhism'' and a member of the Theravada Civilizations Project. ([https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/kate-crosby Source Accessed Jan 7, 2021]) +
Lama David Curtis founded the Tibetan Language Institute in 1996. Since then he has taught Tibetan language and Buddhism courses full-time, specializing in the development of Dharma-centered learning materials and instruction for Western students.
He is motivated by a desire to help others participate in the dharma in more meaningful ways; in puja, in private meditation practice, in meditational retreats, as Tibetan interpreters.
As president and executive director of TLI and Big Sky Mind, David strives to fulfill the TLI mission of helping to preserve the Tibetan language and culture through the teaching of the Tibetan language and instruction in meditation. ([https://www.tibetanlanguage.org/about/david-curtis/ Source Accessed Jan 20, 2025]) +
Along with her husband, Joshua W. C. Cutler, Diana Cutler serves as co-director of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center (TBLC) in Washington, N.J. +
As Editor-in-Chief of the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee, Cutler spent 12 years overseeing a team of a dozen scholars in editing and translating ''The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment'', the early 15th-century work by Tsong-kha-pa. Along with his wife, Diana, Cutler serves as co-director of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center (TBLC) in Washington, N.J. +
Christoph Cüppers studied Indology and Tibetology at the University of Hamburg following seven years at the University of Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie. From 1983 to 1988, he served as Deputy Director and Director at the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project. Since 1995, he is Director of the Lumbini International Research Institute. In his research, he focuses on the history of 17th century Tibet, Tibetan law and the state administration, as well as on cultural exchanges between Tibetan and Nepal. (Source: ''Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry'') +
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His Eminence Loden Sherab Dagyab Kyabgön Rinpoche was born in East Tibet in 1940. At the age of four he was recognized as the 9th Kyabgon (protector) of the region of Dagyab. Rinpoche is one of the highest tulkus in Tibet. In 1959, Rinpoche escaped with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to India. From 1964 to 1966, he directed Tibet House in New Delhi, an internationally recognized institute for the preservation and support of Tibetan culture.
H.E. Dagyab Rinpoche came to Germany in 1966 in response to an invitation from Bonn University to work as a Tibetologist at its Institute for Central Asian Studies. In the 1980’s, due to the explicit request of people interested in Buddhism, he became active as a spiritual teacher for Europeans. The Buddhist community, Chödzong, came into being as a result of this collaboration and together with Rinpoche founded Tibet Haus Germany. ([https://www.jewelheart.org/about-h-e-dagyab-kyabgon-rinpoche/ Source Accessed Jan 5, 2026]) +
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. +
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He is the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, the child, then named Lhamo Dhondup, was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.
The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are realized beings inspired by a wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings, who have vowed to be reborn in the world to help humanity. (Read more [https://dalailama.com/ here]). +
Gendün Drub was a close disciple of Tsongkhapa, after first ordaining and training in the great Kadam monastery of Nartang. Gendün Drub was instrumental in spreading the new Geluk tradition in Tsang; he founded the great monastery Tashilhunpo in 1447 and was its first abbot, until 1484. He was posthumously identified as the First Dalai Lama, a previous incarnation of the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso, who first held the title. Gendün Drub was identified as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion believed to be embodied in the Dalai Lama incarnation line. +
The life of the Seventh Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso spanned a troubled period in Tibetan history, during which the Land of Snows was transformed from the battleground of competing Mongol factions into a protectorate of the Manchu Qing dynasty. Trained as a monk-scholar, the turmoil that surrounded his youth and early adulthood had effectively excluded him from an active political role until the events of 1747-1750 propelled him to head the Tibetan government at the age of forty-three. It may be said that the institution of the Dalai Lama, given its characteristic religio-political foundations under the leadership of the Great Fifth, assumed its mature form under the Seventh, whose relations with the Manchus set the pattern for Sino-Tibetan affairs throughout the remainder of the Qing dynasty. ([https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Seventh-Dalai-Lama-Kelzang-Gyatso/3107 Source Accessed Feb 3, 2022]) +
Catherine Dalton is an oral interpreter and a translator for the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. She has published a number of translations with Dharmachakra, including several for 84000. Catherine studied and taught at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal for a number of years, and is the co-director of the Dharmachakra Center for Translation and Translation Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, CA. She holds an MA in Buddhist Studies from Kathmandu University, and is currently a doctoral student in Buddhist Studies at UC Berkeley. (Source: [https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/the-2014-tt-conference/ 2014 Translation & Transmission Conference Program]) +
A master born in Khal Kha (Mongolia). His teachers included Blo bzang dge legs bstan 'dzin, Tshe dbang skyabs mchog, Bsod nams rgya mtsho, and Chos kyi rdo rje. His students included Skal bzang ye shes, Blo bzang bstan 'dzin dpal 'byor, Blo bzang yon tan, and Bsod nams rgya mtsho. +
Venerable Geshe Dorji Damdul is presently Director - Tibet House, New Delhi. He has undertaken several projects for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, serving as the primary translator for many of his works. Born in 1968, Geshe Dorji Damdul earned his Geshe Lharampa Degree in 2002 from Drepung Loseling Monastic University.
He has a most fantastic analytical mind, and his skillful technique ensures that most practitioners understand the wisdom rooted behind their practice. Geshe La regularly gives teachings at Tibet House and Deer Park Institute. ([https://vidyaloke.in/home/resource-library/our_gurus_and_masters.php Source Accessed Oct 27, 2021]) +
