Table of Contents
Buddhist Masters
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Buddhist Masters (Masters of the Buddha-Dharma-Sangha): Venerable Master Shen-Kai - Founder of Jen Chen Buddhism (Buddhahood Lineage World Humanity Vehicle Buddhism), Rāhula, Shantideva, Huineng, Da Xin De Ben Shr, Hakuin Ekaku, Hsu Yun, Ajahn Mun, Gosok Rinpoche, Longchen Rabjampa, Dagri Rinpoche, Kyabje Choden Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Je Tsongkhapa, 14th Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama, 5th Dalai Lama, 13th Dalai Lama, Gelug, Lama Yeshe, Hsuan Hua, Godrakpa - The Hermit of Go Cliffs, Trijang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, Nagarjuna, Aśvaghoṣa, Pabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo, Padmasambhāva, Yeshe Tsogyal, Śāntarakṣita, Kamalaśīla, Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, Ralpacan, Atiśa, Tilopa, Naropa, Niguma, Sukhasiddhi, Milarepa, Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche, Dudjom Lingpa, [Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatso, Marpa Lotsawa, Rangjung Dorje, 3rd Karmapa Lama, Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, Taranatha, Sakya Pandita, Gorampa, Samding Dorje Phagmo, Bodhidharma, Garchen Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche, Geshe Lama Konchog, Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu, Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Chah, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Tashi Tsering (Jamyang Buddhist Centre), Thích Nhất Hạnh, Ajahn Amaro, Ajahn Pasanno, Heng Sure, S. N. Goenka, John Daido Loori, Red Pine (author). (navbar_buddhist_masters - See also navbar_sangha, navbar_buddhist_dharma_centers, navbar_buddhism)
Venerable Master Shen-Kai - Founder of Jen Chen Buddhism (Buddhahood Lineage World Humanity Vehicle Buddhism)
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Rāhula
Rahul (Pāli) or Rāhula (Sanskrit; born c. 534 BCE or 451 BCE) was the only son of Siddhārtha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha, and his wife, princess Yaśodharā. He is mentioned in numerous Buddhist texts, from the early period onward. Accounts about Rāhula indicate a mutual impact between Prince Siddhārtha's life and the lives of his family members. According to the Pāli tradition, Rāhula was born on the day of Prince Siddhārtha's renunciation, and was therefore named Rāhula, meaning a fetter on the path to enlightenment. According to the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition, and numerous other later sources, however, Rāhula was only conceived on the day of Prince Siddhartha's renunciation, and was born six years later, when Prince Siddhārtha became enlightened as the Buddha. This long gestation period was explained by bad karma from previous lives of both Yaśodharā and of Rāhula himself, although more naturalistic reasons are also given. As a result of the late birth, Yaśodharā needed to prove that Rāhula was really Prince Siddhārtha's son, which she eventually did successfully by an act of truth. Historian H.W. Schumann has argued that Prince Siddhārtha conceived Rāhula and waited for his birth, to be able to leave the palace with the king and queen's permission, but Orientalist Noël Péri considered it more likely that Rāhula was born after Prince Siddhārtha left his palace.
12 years after Rahula's birth, the Buddha returned to his hometown, where Yaśodharā had Rāhula ask the Buddha for the throne of the Śākya clan. The Buddha responded by having Rāhula ordained as the first Buddhist novice monk. He taught the young novice about truth, self-reflection, and not-self, eventually leading to Rāhula's enlightenment. Although early accounts state that Rāhula died before the Buddha did, later tradition has it that Rāhula was one of the disciples that outlived the Buddha, guarding the Buddha's Dispensation until the rising of the next Buddha. Rāhula is known in Buddhist texts for his eagerness for learning, and was honored by novice monks and nuns throughout Buddhist history. His accounts have led to a perspective in Buddhism of seeing children as hindrances to the spiritual life on the one hand, and as people with potential for enlightenment on the other hand.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Shantideva
Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; Chinese: 寂天; Tibetan: ཞི་བ་ལྷ།, THL: Zhiwa Lha; Mongolian: Шантидэва гэгээн; Vietnamese: Tịch Thiên) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Abhayadatta Sri also lists Shantideva as one of the eighty-four mahasiddhas and is known as Bhusuku Pa (布苏固巴).
Two works of Shantideva are extant, the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra and the Śikṣāsamuccaya, both of which were written with the intention of being training manuals for one who intends to follow the path of the bodhisattva. The Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra in particular was the subject of both Indian and Tibetan commentaries during the period it was written and has also received large amounts of attention from both academics and lay practitioners in recent years as well including a commentary written by the 14th Dalai Lama.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Huineng
Dajian Huineng (traditional Chinese: 大鑒惠能; pinyin: Dàjiàn Huìnéng; Wade–Giles: Ta⁴-chien⁴ Hui⁴-nêng²; Japanese: Daikan Enō; Korean: Daegam Hyeneung; February 27, 638 – August 28, 713), also commonly known as the Sixth Patriarch or Sixth Ancestor of Chan (traditional Chinese: 禪宗六祖), is a semi-legendary but central figure in the early history of Chinese Chan Buddhism. According to tradition he was an uneducated layman who suddenly attained awakening (Chinese: 見性, jianxing) upon hearing the Diamond Sutra. Despite his lack of formal training, he demonstrated his understanding to the fifth patriarch, Daman Hongren, who then supposedly chose Huineng as his true successor instead of his publicly known selection of Yuquan Shenxiu.
Twentieth century scholarship revealed that the story of Huineng's Buddhist career was likely invented by the monk Heze Shenhui, who claimed to be one of Huineng's disciples and was highly critical of Shenxiu's teaching.
Huineng is regarded as the founder of the "Sudden Enlightenment" Southern Chan school of Buddhism, which focuses on an immediate and direct attainment of Buddhist enlightenment. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (六祖壇經), which is said to be a record of his teachings, is a highly influential text in the East Asian Buddhist tradition.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Hakuin Ekaku
Hakuin Ekaku (白隠 慧鶴, January 19, 1686 – January 18, 1769) was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism, who regarded bodhicitta, working for the benefit of others, as the ultimate concern of Zen-training. While never having received formal dharma transmission, he is regarded as the reviver of the Japanese Rinzai school from a period of stagnation, focusing on rigorous training methods integrating meditation and koan practice.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Xuyun
Xuyun or Hsu Yun (simplified Chinese: 虚云; traditional Chinese: 虛雲; pinyin: Xūyún; 5 September 1840? – 13 October 1959) was a renowned Chinese Chan Buddhist master and an influential Buddhist teacher of the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Ajahn Mun
Mun Bhuridatta (Thai: มั่น ภูริทตฺโต, RTGS: Man Phurithatto; Lao: ຫຼວງປູ່ມັ່ນ ພູຣິທັຕໂຕ; 1870–1949) was a Thai bhikkhu from Isan region who is credited, along with his mentor, Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo, with establishing the Thai Forest Tradition or "Kammaṭṭhāna tradition" that subsequently spread throughout Thailand and to several countries abroad.
Kyabje Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje
Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (Tibetan: བདུད་འཇོམས་འཇིགས་བྲལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ།, Wylie: bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje, THL Düjom Jikdrel Yéshé Dorjé) was known simply as Dudjom Rinpoche (10 June 1904 – 17 January 1987). He is considered by many Tibetan Buddhists to be from an important Tulku lineage of Terton Dudul Dorje (1615–1672), and was recognized as the incarnation of Terton Dudjom Lingpa (1835–1904), a renowned treasure revealer. He was a direct incarnation of both Padmasambhava and Dudjom Lingpa. He was a Nyingma householder, a yogi, and a Vajrayana and Dzogchen master. According to his secretary Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal and many others, he was revered as "His Holiness" (Kyabje) and as a "Master of Masters".
In order to protect and preserve Tibetan Buddhist teachings and continue Tibetan culture in exile, Dudjom Rinpoche was appointed as the first head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, by the 14th Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration in the early 1960s, in India. He gave important Nyingma lineage empowerments and teachings at his monasteries Zangdok Palri and Jangsa Gompa in Kalimpong, and at Tso Pema in Rewalsar which were attended by thousands of people. In 1965, Dudjom Rinpoche organized a conference for participants to discuss the preservation of teachings of the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug schools.
In Tibet by 1955, Dudjom Rinpoche had travelled extensively to teach and was revered as a highly realized master by renown lamas, such as Zhechen Kongtrul and Tulku Urgyen, as well as by Tibetan Buddhist laypeople. They still consider him to be the "Greatest Terton of Our Time", and a holder of all the teachings of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as that of the Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug schools. Dudjom Rinpoche was also a prolific author. The treatise The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, was written by him in 1962 and 1996. Translated into two volumes, it is considered as a source of authority. He also authored the Political History of Tibet in 1979, and the History of the Dharma. Teachers from various schools confirmed that the terma texts revealed by Dudjom Rinpoche are still being used as practice texts.
In addition to the above, Rinpoche also reconstructed monasteries in Tibet, and built numerous monasteries in India and Nepal after his exile from Tibet in 1957. In his lifetime, Dudjom Rinpoche continued travelling throughout the world to give teachings. He had a center in Hong Kong, and established centers both in France and in the United States. His activities and dharma centers brought the Vajrayana and the Nyingma teachings to the western worlds. Khenpo Dongyal credit this Great Master as being responsible for a "renaissance in Tibetan studies".
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Longchenpa
Longchen Rabjam Drimé Özer (Tibetan: ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་པ་དྲི་མེད་འོད་ཟེར།, Wylie: klong chen rab 'byams pa dri med 'od zer), commonly abbreviated to Longchenpa (1308–1364, an honorific meaning "The Vast Expanse") was a Tibetan scholar-yogi of the Nyingma school ('Old School') of Tibetan Buddhism. According to tibetologist David Germano, Longchenpa's work led to the dominance of the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of Dzogchen (Great Perfection) over the other Dzogchen traditions. He is also responsible for the scholastic systematization of Dzogchen thought within the context of the wider Tibetan Vajrayana tradition of philosophy which was highly developed at the time among the Sarma schools. Germano also notes that Longchenpa's work is "generally taken to be the definitive expression of the Great Perfection with its precise terminological distinctions, systematic scope, and integration with the normative Buddhist scholasticism that became dominant in Tibet during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."
Longchenpa is known for his voluminous writings, including the highly influential Seven Treasuries and his compilation of Dzogchen scripture and commentaries, the Nyingthig Yabshi (The Inner Essence in Four Parts). Longchenpa was also a terton (treasure revealer) and some of his works, like the Khadro Yangtig, are considered terma (revealed treasure texts). Longchenpa's oeuvre (of over 270 texts) encapsulates the core of Nyingma thought and praxis and is a critical link between the school's exoteric (or sutra) and esoteric (i.e. tantric) teachings. Longchenpa's work also unified the various Dzogchen traditions of his time into a single system. Longchenpa is known for his skill as a poet and his works are written in a unique literary voice which was widely admired and imitated by later Nyingma figures.
Longchenpa was the abbot of Samye, one of Tibet's most important monasteries and the first Buddhist monastery established in the Himalayas. However, he spent most of his life travelling or in retreat.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Kyabje Choden Rinpoche
(Kyabje) Choden Rinpoche (Tibetan: སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཆོས་ལྡན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ, Wylie: (skyabs-rje) chos-ldan rin-po-che; in full, Tibetan: བློ་བཟང་རྒྱལ་བསྟན་འཇིགས་བྲལ་དབང་ཕྱུག, Wylie: blo-bzang rgyal-bstan 'jigs-bral dbang-phyug) (May 31, (Tibetan New Year) 1930 Rong-bo district, Kham, eastern Tibet – September 11, 2015) was a contemporary yogi-scholar of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism and a reincarnation ('sprul-sku') of the Choden lineage, the historical abbots of Rabten Monastery (Tibetan: རབ་བརྟེན་དགོན་པ, Wylie: (rab-brten dgon-pa) in Rong-bo district, Kham.
The late Choden Rinpoche, Losang Gyalten Jigdrel Wangchuk (lit. "Teaching of the victorious Losang [blo-bzang rgyal-bstan], fearless [jig-bral] sovereign [dbang-phyug]") has been known amongst his peers and students as "master of the five sciences" (viz. medicine, craftsmanship, logic, grammar and the inner science of Buddhism), as extraordinary scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, yogic practitioner, and for being gentle, kind and compassionate. Kyabje Choden Rinpoche was a lineage-holder of rare and sought-after transmissions of the Tantrayana.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Thubten Zopa Rinpoche
Thubten Zopa Rinpoche (Tibetan: ཐུབ་བསྟན་བཟོད་པ་, Wylie: Thub-bstan Bzod-pa; born Dawa Chötar, 3 December 1945 – 13 April 2023) was a Tibetan Buddhist lama in the Gelug school. He is known for founding the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition and Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Je Tsongkhapa
Tsongkhapa (Tibetan: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་, [tsoŋˈkʰapa], meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley", c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
His philosophical works are a grand synthesis of the Buddhist epistemological tradition of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, the Cittamatra philosophy of the mind, and the madhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti.
Central to his philosophical and soteriological teachings is "a radical view of emptiness" which sees all phenomena as devoid of intrinsic nature. This view of emptiness is not a kind of nihilism or a total denial of existence. Instead, it sees phenomena as existing "interdependently, relationally, non-essentially, conventionally" (which Tsongkhapa terms "mere existence").
Tsongkhapa emphasized the importance of philosophical reasoning in the path to liberation. According to Tsongkhapa, meditation must be paired with rigorous reasoning in order "to push the mind and precipitate a breakthrough in cognitive fluency and insight."
- Snippet from Wikipedia: 14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, also known as Tenzin Gyatso; né Lhamo Thondup; is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. Before 1959, he served as both the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, and subsequently established and led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India. The adherents of Tibetan Buddhism consider the Dalai Lama a living Bodhisattva, specifically an emanation of Avalokiteśvara (in Sanskrit) or Chenrezig (in Tibetan), the Bodhisattva of Compassion, a belief central to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the institution of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, whose name means Ocean of Wisdom, is known to Tibetans as Gyalwa Rinpoche, The Precious Jewel-like Buddha-Master, Kundun, The Presence, and Yizhin Norbu, The Wish-Fulfilling Gem. His devotees, as well as much of the Western world, often call him His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the style employed on his website. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa.
The 14th Dalai Lama was born to a farming family in Taktser (Hongya Village), in the traditional Tibetan region of Amdo, at the time a Chinese frontier district. He was selected as the tulku of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937, and formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in 1939. As with the recognition process for his predecessor, a Golden Urn selection process was waived and approved by the Central Government of the Republic of China. His enthronement ceremony was held in Lhasa on 22 February 1940. At the time of his selection, a form of Tibetan government called Ganden Phodrang administered the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü-Tsang, Kham and Amdo. As Chinese forces re-entered and annexed Tibet, Ganden Phodrang invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties on 17 November 1950 (at 15 years of age) until his exile in 1959.
During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama escaped to India, where he continues to live. On 29 April 1959, the Dalai Lama established the independent Tibetan government in exile in the north Indian hill station of Mussoorie, which then moved in May 1960 to Dharamshala, where he resides. He retired as political head in 2011 to make way for a democratic government, the Central Tibetan Administration. The Dalai Lama advocates for the welfare of Tibetans and since the early 1970s has called for the Middle Way Approach with China to peacefully resolve the issue of Tibet. This policy, adopted democratically by the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan people through long discussions, seeks to find a middle ground, "a practical approach and mutually beneficial to both Tibetans and Chinese, in which Tibetans can preserve their culture and religion and uphold their identity," and China's assertion of sovereignty over Tibet, aiming to address the interests of both parties through dialogue and communication and for Tibet to remain a part of China.
The Dalai Lama travels worldwide to give Tibetan Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism teachings, and his Kalachakra teachings and initiations are international events. He also attends conferences on a wide range of subjects, including the relationship between religion and science, meets with other world leaders, religious leaders, philosophers, and scientists, online and in-person. His work includes focus on the environment, economics, women's rights, nonviolence, interfaith dialogue, physics, astronomy, Buddhism and science, cognitive neuroscience, reproductive health and sexuality. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Time magazine named the Dalai Lama Gandhi's spiritual heir to nonviolence. The 12th General Assembly of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace in New Delhi unanimously recognized the Dalai Lama's contributions to global peace, his lifelong efforts in uniting Buddhist communities worldwide, and bestowed upon him the title of “Universal Supreme Leader of the Buddhist World.” They also designated July 6th, his birthday, as the Universal Day of Compassion.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (UK: , US: ; Tibetan: ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་, Wylie: Tā la'i bla ma [táːlɛː láma]) is a title given by Altan Khan, the first Shunyi King of Ming China, in A.D. 1578 at Yanghua Monastery to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of its four major schools. The 14th and incumbent Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, who lives in exile as a refugee in India. Dalai Lamas are tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.
Since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Dalai Lama has been a symbol of unification of the state of Tibet. The Dalai Lama was an important figure of the Geluk tradition, which was dominant in Central Tibet, but his religious authority went beyond sectarian boundaries, representing Buddhist values and traditions above any specific school. The Dalai Lama's traditional function as an ecumenical figure has been taken up by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, who has worked to overcome sectarian and other divisions in the exile community and become a symbol of Tibetan nationhood for Tibetans in Tibet and in exile.
From 1642 until 1705 and from 1750 to the 1950s, the Dalai Lamas or their regents headed the Tibetan government (or Ganden Phodrang) in Lhasa, which governed all or most of the Tibetan Plateau with varying degrees of autonomy. This Tibetan government enjoyed the patronage and protection of Mongol kings of the Khoshut and Dzungar Khanates (1642–1720) and then the emperors of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1720–1912). The 13th Dalai Lama supported Tibetan independence, as did the 14th before changing his position in the 1980s. The Dalai Lamas headed the Tibetan government until 1951.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: 5th Dalai Lama
The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (Tibetan: ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: Ngag-dbang blo-bzang rgya-mtsho; Tibetan pronunciation: [ŋɑ̀wɑ̀ŋ lɔ́psɑ̀ŋ cɑ̀t͡só]; 1617–1682) was recognized as the 5th Dalai Lama, and he became the first Dalai Lama to hold both Tibet's political and spiritual leadership roles. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being the key religious and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet. He is credited with unifying all of Tibet under the Ganden Phodrang, after Gushri Khan's successful military interventions. As an independent head of state, he established priest and patron relations with both Mongolia and the Qing dynasty simultaneously, and had positive relations with other neighboring countries. He began the custom of meeting early European explorers. The 5th Dalai Lama built the Potala Palace, and also wrote 24 volumes' worth of scholarly and religious works on a wide range of subjects.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: 13th Dalai Lama
The 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso (full given name: Ngawang Lobsang Thupten Gyatso Jigdral Chokley Namgyal; abbreviated to Thubten Gyatso) (Tibetan: ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: Thub Bstan Rgya Mtsho; 12 February 1876 – 17 December 1933) was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet, enthroned during a turbulent modern era. He presided during the Collapse of the Qing Dynasty, and is referred to as "the Great Thirteenth", responsible for redeclaring Tibet's national independence, and for his national reform and modernization initiatives.
In 1878, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. He was escorted to Lhasa and given his pre-novice vows by the Panchen Lama, Tenpai Wangchuk, and given the name "Ngawang Lobsang Thupten Gyatso Jigdral Chokley Namgyal". In 1879, he was enthroned at the Potala Palace, but did not assume political power until 1895, after he had reached his maturity.
Thubten Gyatso was an intellectual reformer and skillful politician. He was responsible for countering the British expedition to Tibet, restoring discipline in monastic life, and increasing the number of lay officials to avoid excessive power being placed in the hands of the monks.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Gelug
The Gelug (, also Geluk; lit. 'virtuous') is the newest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), a Tibetan philosopher, tantric yogi and lama and further expanded and developed by his disciples (such as Khedrup Je, Gyaltsap Je, Dulzin Drakpa Gyaltsen, and Gendün Drubpa).
The Gelug school is alternatively known as Kadam (bKa’-gdams gsar-pa), since it sees itself as a continuation of the Kadam tradition of Atisha (c. 11th century). The school of New Kadam, or New Kadampa is an offshoot of the Gelug-tradition. Furthermore, it is also called the Ganden school, after the first monastery established by Tsongkhapa. The Ganden Tripa ("Ganden Throne Holder") is the official head of the school, though its most influential political figure is the Dalai Lama ("Ocean Teacher"). Allying themselves with the Mongol Khans, the Gelug school emerged as the dominant Buddhist school in Tibet and Mongolia since the end of the 16th century (religiously and politically). Another alternative name for this tradition is the Yellow Hat school or sect.
Doctrinally, the Gelug school promotes a unique form of prasangika Madhyamaka based on the works of Tsongkhapa. According to John Powers, Tsongkhapa's work "contains a comprehensive view of Buddhist philosophy and practice that integrates sutra and tantra, analytical reasoning, and yogic meditation."
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Trijang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso
The Third Trijang Rinpoche, Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (1901–1981) was a Gelugpa Lama and a direct disciple of Pabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo. He succeeded Ling Rinpoche as the junior tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama when the Dalai Lama was nineteen years old. He was also a lama of many Gelug lamas who taught in the West including Zong Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten, Lama Yeshe, Kelsang Gyatso, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Trijang Rinpoche's oral teachings were recorded by Zimey Rinpoche in a book called the Yellow Book.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna (Sanskrit: नागार्जुन, Nāgārjuna; c. 150 – c. 250 CE) was an Indian monk and Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher of the Madhyamaka (Centrism, Middle Way) school. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers. Jan Westerhoff considers him to be "one of the greatest thinkers in the history of Asian philosophy."
Nāgārjuna is widely considered to be the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy and a defender of the Mahāyāna movement. His Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Root Verses on Madhyamaka, MMK) is the most important text on the Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness. The MMK inspired a large number of commentaries in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean and Japanese and continues to be studied today.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Aśvaghoṣa
Aśvaghoṣa, also transliterated Ashvaghosha (Sanskrit: [ˌɐɕʋɐˈɡʱoːʂɐ], अश्वघोष; lit. "Having a Horse-Voice"; Tibetan: སློབ་དཔོན་དཔའ་བོ།, Wylie: slob dpon dpa' bo; Chinese: 馬鳴菩薩; pinyin: Mǎmíng púsà; lit. 'Bodhisattva with a Horse-Voice') (c. 80 – c. 150 CE), was a Buddhist philosopher, dramatist, poet, musician, and orator from India. He was born in Saketa, today known as Ayodhya.
He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. It seems probable that he was the contemporary and spiritual adviser of Kanishka in the first century of our era. He was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivaled the contemporary Ramayana. Whereas much of Buddhist literature prior to the time of Aśvaghoṣa had been composed in Pāli and Prakrit, Aśvaghoṣa wrote in Classical Sanskrit. He may have been associated with the Sarvāstivāda or the Mahasanghika schools.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Pabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo
Pabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo (Tibetan: ཕ་བོང་ཁ་པ་བདེ་ཆེན་སྙིང་པོ, Wylie: pha bong kha pa bde chen snying po; 1878–1941) was a Gelug lama of the modern era of Tibetan Buddhism. He attained his Geshe degree at Sera Mey Monastic University, Lhasa, and became a teacher in Tibet. He teaches lay people. Pabongkha was offered the regency of the present Dalai Lama but declined the request because "he strongly disliked political affairs."
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from medieval India who taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries). According to some early Tibetan sources like the Testament of Ba, he came to Tibet in the 8th century and helped construct Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. However, little more is known about the actual historical figure other than his ties to Vajrayana and Indian Buddhism.
Padmasambhava later came to be viewed as a central figure in the transmission of Buddhism to Tibet. Starting from around the 12th century, hagiographies concerning Padmasambhava were written. These works expanded the profile and activities of Padmasambhava, now seen as taming all the Tibetan spirits and gods, and concealing various secret texts (terma) for future tertöns. Nyangral Nyima Özer (1124–1192) was the author of the Zangling-ma (Jeweled Rosary), the earliest biography of Padmasambhava. He has been called "one of the main architects of the Padmasambhava mythos – who first linked Padmasambhava to the Great Perfection in a high-profile manner."
In modern Tibetan Buddhism, Padmasambhava is considered to be a Buddha that was foretold by Buddha Shakyamuni. According to traditional hagiographies, his students include the great female masters Yeshe Tsogyal and Mandarava. The contemporary Nyingma school considers Padmasambhava to be a founding figure. The Nyingma school also traditionally holds that its Dzogchen lineage has its origins in Garab Dorje through a lineage of transmission to Padmasambhava.
In Tibetan Buddhism, the teachings of Padmasambava are said to include an oral lineage (kama), and a lineage of the hidden treasure texts (termas). Tibetan Buddhism holds that Padmasambhava's termas are discovered by fortunate beings and tertöns (treasure finders) when conditions are ripe for their reception. Padmasambhava is said to appear to tertöns in visionary encounters, and his form is visualized during guru yoga practice, particularly in the Nyingma school. Padmasambhava is widely venerated by Buddhists in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, the Himalayan states of India, and in countries around the world.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Yeshe Tsogyal
Yeshe Tsogyal (c. 757 or 777 – 817 CE), also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge", "Knowledge Lake Empress" (Wylie: ye shes mtsho rgyal, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ), or by her Sanskrit name Jñānasāgarā "Knowledge Ocean", or by her clan name "Lady Kharchen", attained enlightenment in her lifetime and is considered the Mother of Tibetan Buddhism. Yeshe Tsogyal is the highest woman in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage. Some sources say she, as Princess of Karchen, was either a wife or consort of Tri Songdetsen, emperor of Tibet, when she began studying Buddhism with Padmasambhava, who became her main karmamudrā consort. Padmasambhava is a founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and is considered as a second buddha of our era. She is known to have revealed terma with Padmasambhava and was also the main scribe for these terma. Later, Yeshe Tsogyal also hid many of Padmasambhava's terma on her own, under the instructions of Padmasambhava for future generations.
Born a princess in the region of Kharchen, Tibet, in about 777 CE, she fled from arranged marriages until captured for Tri Songdetsen. Yeshe Tsogyal lived for approximately 99 years and is a preeminent figure in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and a role model for contemporary spiritual practitioners. Although often referred to as being Padamasambhava's main consort, Yeshe Tsogyal was primarily a spiritual master and teacher in her own right.
Based on her spiritual accomplishments, the Nyingma and Karma Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism recognize Yeshe Tsogyal as a female Buddha. The translators of Lady of the Lotus-Born, the namtar, or spiritual biography, that Yeshe Tsogyal left as a terma, observe:
As Dodrup Tenpai Nyima makes clear, beings able to reveal Termas must have at least the realization of the Perfection Stage practices. On the other hand, the one who originates the Treasures must have the supreme attainment of Buddhahood. Lady of the Lotus-Born is thus a testimony of Yeshe Tsogyal's enlightenment.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Śāntarakṣita
Śāntarakṣita (Sanskrit: शान्तरक्षित; Tibetan: ཞི་བ་འཚོ, Wylie: zhi ba tsho, 725–788), whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particularly for the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Śāntarakṣita was a philosopher of the Madhyamaka school who studied at Nalanda monastery under Jñānagarbha, and became the founder of Samye, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.
Śāntarakṣita defended a synthetic philosophy which combined Madhyamaka, Yogācāra and the logico-epistemology of Dharmakirti into a novel Madhyamaka philosophical system. This philosophical approach is known as Yogācāra-Mādhyamika or Yogācāra-Svatantrika-Mādhyamika in Tibetan Buddhism. Unlike other Madhyamaka philosophers, Śāntarakṣita accepted Yogācāra doctrines like mind-only (cittamatra) and self-reflective awareness (svasamvedana), but only on the level of conventional truth. According to James Blumenthal, this synthesis is the final major development in Indian Buddhist philosophy before the disappearance of Buddhism from India (c. 12-13th centuries).
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Kamalaśīla
Kamalaśīla (Skt. Kamalaśīla; Tib. པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་, Pemé Ngang Tsul; Wyl. pad+ma'i ngang tshul) (c. 740-795) was an Indian Buddhist monk of Nalanda Mahavihara who accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at the request of Trisong Detsen.
Kamalaśīla was a pivotal figure in the development of Indian Mahayana thought and made a number of original contributions in this field that demonstrated his knowledge of both Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophies. In addition to this, his role as a missionary for Indian Buddhism and his supposed victory in the Debate of Samye helped shape the formation of Tibetan Buddhism. His works spanned several genres and touched upon different schools of Buddhism including Madhyamaka as well as the traditions espoused by Dignāga and Dharmakirti.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Songtsen Gampo
Songtsen Gampo (Classical Tibetan: [sroŋpt͡san zɡampo], pronounced [sɔ́ŋt͡sɛ̃ ɡʌ̀mpo]) (Tibetan: སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ, Wylie: srong btsan sgam po, ZYPY: Songzän Gambo; 569–649/650), also Songzan Ganbu (Chinese: 松贊干布; pinyin: Sōngzàn Gānbù), was the 33rd Tibetan king of the Yarlung dynasty and the founder of the Tibetan Empire. The first of three Dharma Kings of Tibet, he formally introduced Buddhism to Tibet and built the Jokhang with the influence of his Nepali queen Bhrikuti, of Nepal's Licchavi dynasty. He unified several Tibetan kingdoms, conquered lands adjacent to Tibet, and moved the capital to the Red Fort in Lhasa. His minister Thonmi Sambhota created the Tibetan script and Classical Tibetan, the first literary and spoken language of Tibet.
His mother, the queen, is identified as Driza Thökar (Tibetan: འབྲི་བཟའ་ཐོད་དཀར་, Wylie: 'bri bza' thod dkar, ZYPY: Zhisa Tögar). The exact date of his birth and his enthronement are not certain, and in Tibetan accounts it is generally accepted that he was born in an Ox year of the Tibetan calendar. He ascended the throne at age thirteen, circa 618.
There are difficulties with the ascension dates, and several earlier dates for the birth of Songtsen Gampo have been suggested, including 569, 593 or 605.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Trisong Detsen
Tri Songdetsen (Tibetan: ཁྲོ་སྲོང་ལྡེ་བརྩན། ཁྲི་སྲོང་ལྡེ་བཙན, Wylie: khri srong lde brtsan/btsan, ZYPY: Chisong Dêzän, Lhasa dialect: [ʈʂʰisoŋ tetsɛ̃]) was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and the establishment of the Nyingma or "Ancient" school of Tibetan Buddhism.
The empire Tri Songdetsen inherited had declined somewhat from its greatest extent under the first Dharma King, Songtsen Gampo. Disintegration continued when, in 694, Tibet lost control of several cities in Turkestan and, in 703, Nepal broke into rebellion. Meanwhile, Arab forces vied for influence along the western borderlands of the Tibetan empire. Nevertheless, Tri Songdetsen became imperial Tibet's greatest ruler and an unparalleled Buddhist benefactor.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Ralpacan
Tritsuk Detsen (Tibetan: ཁྲི་གཙུག་ལྡེ་བཙན, Wylie: khri gtsug lde btshan), better known by his nickname Ralpachen (Tibetan: རལ་པ་ཅན, Wylie: ral pa chen) (c. 806 CE–838), was the 40th king of the Yarlung Dynasty of Tibet. He reigned after the death of his father, Sadnalegs, in c. 815, and grew the empire to its largest extent. He was murdered by his younger brother Langdarma in 838. Ralpachen is one of Tibet's three Dharma Kings, and referred to as "son of God" in the ancient Tibetan chronicle Testament of Ba.
Ralpachen was the second eldest of five brothers. The eldest, Prince Tsangma, took Tibetan Buddhist vows with the Nyingma school. The third, U Dumtsen known as Langdarma, is referred to in the sources as "unfit to reign". The younger two brothers both died young.
Ralpachen is considered a very important king in the history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, as one of the three Dharma Kings (chosgyal) of the Yarlung Dynasty, which include Songtsen Gampo the 33rd king, Trisong Detsen the 37th king, and Ralpachen. All three kings respectively contributed in bringing Mahayana Buddhism to Tibet, in revealing the Vajrayana through Guru Padmasambhava, and in supporting the growth of Buddhism, the building of monasteries, and the flourishing of Buddhism with imperial patronage.
The Tibetan Empire during the reign of Ralpachen grew to its largest extent, and the military battles with the Chinese Empire led to the 821-823 Tibet-China treaty. Three stelae were inscribed with the terms, and one of each was built in Lhasa at the Jokhang Monastery, in Chang'an, and at the agreed border.
The death of Ralpachen in 838 ended the imperial patronage of Tibetan Buddhism, which had begun about eighty years earlier around 755 with Padmasambhava, Shantirakshita and Trisong Detsen. Afterwards, Langdarma, Ralpachen's brother and successor, proceeded to nearly destroy Buddhism in Tibet, together with the 13 Buddhist monasteries, and their ordained monastics, which were built during the reign of Trisong Detsen.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Atiśa
Atīśa (c. 982–1054) was a Buddhist religious leader and master. He is generally associated with his work carried out at the Vikramashila monastery in Bihar. He was one of the major figures in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra. He is recognised as one of the greatest figures of medieval Buddhism. Atiśa's chief disciple, Dromtön, was the founder of the Kadam school, one of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism, later supplanted by the Gelug tradition in the 14th century which adopted its teachings and absorbed its monasteries.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Tilopa
Tilopa (Prakrit; Sanskrit: Talika or Tilopadā; 988–1069) was an Indian Buddhist tantric mahasiddha who lived along the Ganges River. He practised Anuttarayoga Tantra, a set of spiritual practices intended to accelerate the process of attaining Buddhahood. He became a holder of all the tantric lineages, possibly the only person in his day to do so. In addition to the way of insight and Mahamudra, Tilopa learned and passed on the Way of Methods (today known as the Six Yogas of Naropa) and guru yoga. Naropa is considered his main student.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Naropa
Nāropā (Prakrit; Sanskrit: Nāropāda, Naḍapāda or Abhayakirti) was an Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, of Niguma. As an Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa's instructions inform Vajrayana, particularly his six yogas of Naropa relevant to the completion stage of anuttarayogatantra. He was also one of the "gatekeepers" of Vikramashila monastery which is located in Bihar.
Although some accounts relate that Naropa was the personal teacher of Marpa Lotsawa, other accounts suggest that Marpa held Naropa's lineage through intermediary disciples only.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Niguma
Niguma is considered one of the most important and influential yoginis and Vajrayana teachers of the 10th or 11th century in India. She was a dakini, and one of the two female founders of the Shangpa Kagyu school of Vajrayana Buddhism, along with dakini Sukhasiddhi. Her birth name was Shrijnana (or Palgyi Yéshé in Tibetan). Like many of the mahasiddhas and Tantric practitioners of the time, Niguma was known by several names both during her lifetime and afterwards. She was called Yogini Vimalashri, or Vajradhara Niguma, or Jñana (wisdom) Dakini Adorned with Bone (ornaments), or The Sister referring to her purported relationship to the great Buddhist teacher and adept Naropa. She was also sometimes called Nigupta, which is explained by the historical Buddhist scholar Taranatha as follows: "The name Nigu accords with the Indian language, which is Nigupta, and is said to mean 'truly secret' or 'truly hidden.' In fact, it is the code-language of the dakinis of timeless awareness."
There is often confusion between the biographical details of Niguma's life and spiritual accomplishments and that of the renowned Vajrayana teacher and mahasiddha Naropa. While the biographical information for Niguma is scarce, what is available often offers details that are identical with the biography of Naropa. While not much can be confirmed about the historical details of Niguma's life, what does remain is the corpus of her teachings and her impact on the founding of the Shangpa Kagyu Buddhist spiritual lineage, known as one of the "“Eight Great Chariots of the Practice Lineages” (Wylie, sgrub brgyud shing rta chen po brgyad), meaning one of the eight great Buddhist spiritual traditions that eventually were transmitted from India to Tibet. The importance of the dakini Niguma as a spiritual practitioner, teacher, and lineage founder continues to the present day.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Sukhasiddhi
Sukhasiddhi (flourished 11th Century) was an Indian teacher of Vajrayana Buddhism, a yogini and master of meditation. She was born in west Kashmir to a large, poor family. A mother of three sons and three daughters, she once gave a beggar the only food in the house and was expelled from home.
She traveled to Oḍḍiyāna, thought to be the land of dakas and dakinis, and there she met Virupa, a mahasiddha who became her guru. Very quickly Sukhasiddhi became completely realized and together with Niguma, as well as Rāhula, Maitripada and Vajrasapana, was the root teacher of the Tibetan yogi Khungpo Naljor, who founded the Shangpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Milarepa
Jetsun Milarepa (Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ, Wylie: rje btsun mi la ras pa, 1028/40–1111/23) was a Tibetan siddha, who was famously known as a murderer when he was a young man, before turning to Buddhism and becoming a highly accomplished Buddhist disciple. He is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and spiritual poets, whose teachings are known among several schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is also famous for the feat of climbing Mount Kailash.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Jigme Lingpa
Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798) was a Tibetan tertön of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the promulgator of the Longchen Nyingthig, the Heart Essence teachings of Longchenpa, from whom, according to tradition, he received a vision in which the teachings were revealed. The Longchen Nyingthik eventually became the most famous and widely practiced cycle of Dzogchen teachings.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Patrul Rinpoche
Patrul Rinpoche (Tibetan: དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ, Wylie: dpal sprul rin po che) (1808–1887) was a teacher and author from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Dudjom Lingpa
Dudjom Lingpa (1835–1904) was a Tibetan Nyingma school meditation master, spiritual teacher and tertön. He was a recognized reincarnation of Rigdzen Düddul Dorje, and therefore of Khye'u Chung Lotsawa who was among the twenty-five heart students of Guru Padmasambhava. Raised in Amdo, Tibet, he had no formal education, nor did he take ordination as a monk or belong to an established Buddhist monastery. Instead, he received direct teachings through visionary experiences with the Nyingma school masters Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal, and with other Buddhas and realized beings. His subsequent reincarnation is the highly revered Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche.
Dudjom Lingpa was met with great skepticism by many of his contemporaries, and he stands out from his era's norm for Tibetan Buddhist teachers. The skepticism was due to the fact that, despite not studying under any established Buddhist teachers of his time, he claimed to receive teachings on meditation and spiritual practice directly from non-physical masters like Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal, as well as Bodhisattvas such as Avalokitesvara and Manjushri. It was not until his disciples started showing clear signs of spiritual maturity, that he was accepted by his contemporaries as an authentic teacher and tertön.
Today, his teachings of the Dudjom Tersar and his literary works, especially those on non-meditation Dzogchen, are highly regarded within the Nyingma school tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. His deeply popular cycle of Chöd practices on the black wrathful female deity Tröma Nagmo, a form of Vajravarahi, resulted from a series of visions of and transmissions from Machik Labdron and Padampa Sangye.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatso
Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatso, or Mipham Jamyang Namgyal Gyamtso (1846–1912) (also known as "Mipham the Great") was a very influential philosopher and polymath of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He wrote over 32 volumes on topics such as painting, poetics, sculpture, alchemy, medicine, logic, philosophy and tantra. Mipham's works are still central to the scholastic curriculum in Nyingma monasteries today. Mipham is also considered to be one of the leading figures in the Rimé (non-sectarian) movement in Tibet.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Marpa Lotsawa
Marpa Lotsāwa (མར་པ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས་, 1012–1097), sometimes known fully as Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (Wylie: mar pa chos kyi blo gros) or commonly as Marpa the Translator (Marpa Lotsāwa), was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher credited with the transmission of many Vajrayana teachings from India, including the teachings and lineages of Mahamudra. Due to this, the Kagyu lineage, which he founded, is often called Marpa Kagyu in his honour.
Although some accounts relate that the Mahasiddha Naropa was the personal teacher of Marpa, other accounts suggest that Marpa held Naropa's lineage through intermediary disciples only. Either way, Marpa was a personal student of the Mahasiddha Maitripa and of the dakini Niguma.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje
The 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (Tibetan: རང་འབྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wylie: rang 'byung rdo rje) (1284–1339) was the 3rd Gyalwa Karmapa and head of the Karma Kagyu school, the largest school within the Kagyu tradition. He was an important figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, who helped to spread Buddha-nature teachings in Tibet.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen
Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen (Tibetan: དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་, Wylie: dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan) (1292–1361), known simply as Dölpopa, was a Tibetan Buddhist master. Known as "The Buddha from Dölpo," a region in modern Nepal, he was the principal exponent of the shentong teachings, and an influential member of the Jonang tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Taranatha
Tāranātha (1575–1634) was a Lama of the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is widely considered its most remarkable scholar and exponent.
Taranatha was born in Tibet, supposedly on the birthday of Padmasambhava. His original name was Kun-dga'-snying-po, the Sanskrit equivalent of which is Anandagarbha. However, he adopted Taranatha, the Sanskrit name by which he was generally known, as an indication of the value he placed on his Sanskrit scholarship in an era when mastery of the language had become much less common in Tibet than it had once been. He was also paying homage to his Indian teacher, Buddhaguptanatha.
His exceptional qualities are said to have been recognized by others at a young age, as is often the case with great masters. He studied under such masters as Je Draktopa, Yeshe Wangpo, Kunga Tashi and Jampa Lhundrup, although his primary teacher was Buddhaguptanatha.
Taranatha was recognized by Khenchen Lungrik Gyatso as the rebirth of Krishnacarya and the Khenchen's own teacher, Jetsun Kunga Drolchok.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Sakya Pandita
Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་པཎ་ཌི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན, Wylie: Sa skya Paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan ) (1182 – 28 November 1251) was a Tibetan spiritual leader and Buddhist scholar and the fourth of the Five Sakya Forefathers (Wylie: sa skya gong ma lnga). Künga Gyeltsen is generally known simply as Sakya Pandita (or Sapan for short), a title given to him in recognition of his scholarly achievements and knowledge of Sanskrit. He is held in the tradition to have been an emanation of Manjusri, the embodiment of the wisdom of all the Buddhas.
Sakya Pandita was also known as a great scholar in Tibet, India, Mongolia and China and was proficient in the five great sciences of Buddhist philosophy, medicine, grammar, dialectics and sacred Sanskrit literature as well as the minor sciences of rhetoric, synonymies, poetry, music, dancing and astrology. He is considered to be the fourth Sakya Forefather and sixth Sakya Trizin and one of the most important figures in the Sakya lineage.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Gorampa
Gorampa Sonam Senge (Wylie: go rams pa bsod nams seng ge, 1429–1489) was an important philosopher in the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the author of a vast collection of commentaries on sutra and tantra whose work was influential throughout Tibetan Buddhism. Gorampa is particularly known for his writings on madhyamaka philosophy, especially his critique of the madhyamaka views of Tsongkhapa and Dolpopa. Gorampa defended the mainly anti-realist interpretation of madhyamaka held by the Sakya school (which sees conventional truth as a false illusion).
Gorampa was the student of Rongtön (Rongtön Shéja Künrig, Wylie: rong ston shes bya kun rig), Byams chen rab ’byams pa Sangs rgyas ’phel (1411–85), Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang po (1382–1456), Gung ru Shes rab bzang po (1411–75). He founded the Thuptén Namgyél Monastery in Tanag (Wylie: rta nag thub bstan rnam rgyal gling), which is just north of Shigatse.
Gorampa's works were very influential in Sakya and also outside of the Sakya school. He was a major rival which Gelug scholastics responded to centuries after his death. His work was also a major source for the madhyamaka views of Mipham (1846–1912). His works were suppressed by Gelug state institutions for his polemical treatment of Tsongkhapa's views. In the 20th century, they were re-published by Jamgyal Rinpoche with permission from the 13th Dalai Lama. His work is widely studied today in Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma scholasticism.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Samding Dorje Phagmo
The Samding Dorje Phagmo (Wylie: བསམ་སྡིང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ) is the highest female incarnation in Tibet and the third highest-ranking person in the hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. She was listed among the highest-ranking reincarnations at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, recognized by the Tibetan government and acknowledged by the emperors of Qing China. In her first incarnation, as Chökyi Drönma (1422 CE–1455 CE), she was the student and consort of the famous polymath Thang Tong Gyalpo, who first identified her as an emanation of Vajravārāhī, and the consort of Bodong Panchen. The seat of the Samding Dorje Phagmo is at Samding Monastery, in Tibet.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to a 17th-century apocryphal story found in a manual called Yijin Jing, he began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin kungfu. He is known as Dámó in China and as Daruma in Japan. His name means "dharma of awakening (bodhi)" in Sanskrit.
Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend and unreliable details.
According to the principal Chinese sources, Bodhidharma came from the Western Regions, which typically refers to Central Asia but can also include the Indian subcontinent, and is described as either a "Persian Central Asian" or a "South Indian [...] the third son of a great Indian king." Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as an ill-tempered, large-nosed, profusely-bearded, wide-eyed non-Chinese person. He is referred to as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (Chinese: 碧眼胡; pinyin: Bìyǎnhú) in Chan texts.
Aside from the Chinese accounts, several popular traditions also exist regarding Bodhidharma's origins.
The accounts also differ on the date of his arrival, with one early account claiming that he arrived during the Liu Song dynasty (420–479 CE) and later accounts dating his arrival to the Liang dynasty (502–557 CE). Bodhidharma was primarily active in the territory of the Northern Wei (386–534 CE). Modern scholarship dates him to about the early 5th century CE.
Bodhidharma's teachings and practice centered on meditation and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. The Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) identifies Bodhidharma as the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism in an uninterrupted line that extends back to the Gautama Buddha himself.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Garchen Rinpoche
The Eighth Garchen Rinpoche (Tib. མགར་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wyl. mgar chen rin po che), also called Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche (Tib. མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wyl. mgar chen khri sprul rin po che), is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher in the Drikung Kagyu lineage. Born April 1936 in Nangchen, Kham, he is believed to be an incarnation of Siddha Gar Chodingpa, a heart-disciple of Jigten Sumgön, founder of the Drikung Kagyu lineage in the thirteenth century CE. He is also believed to have incarnated as Mahasiddha Aryadeva in ancient India - the lotus-born disciple of Nagarjuna himself. He was known as Lonpo Gar, the minister of Tibetan dharma king Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century CE.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Penor Rinpoche
Kyabjé 3rd Drubwang Padma Norbu, Lekshe Chokyi Drayang widely known as Penor Rinpoche (Tibetan: པདྨ་ནོར་བུ་, Wylie: pad ma nor bu, 30 Jan 1933 – 27 Mar 2009), is the 11th throneholder of the Palyul Lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, and the 3rd Drubwang Padma Norbu. He is recognized as the incarnation of Vimalamitra. By the age of 17, he had received the corpus of Payul lineage teachings including Dzogchen teachings, and became a renowned Dzogchen master. He began his escape from Tibet in 1959 with 300 people, and only 30 arrived in India. While working alongside laborers, He rebuilt Palyul Monastery in Karnataka, India, where more than 5,000 Nyingma school monks and nuns study.
He was one of a very few teachers left from his generation who received all his traditional training in Tibet under the guidance of fully enlightened masters. His rebuilding of the Palyul tradition in exile has grown to include monasteries, nunneries, and retreat centers in Tibet, India, and Nepal with numerous western projects such as the Palyul Retreat Center in New Youk state.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Geshe Lama Konchog
Geshe Lama Konchog, born Lobsang Puntsog (1927– October 15, 2001), was a Tibetan Buddhist lama of the Gelug school, who had thousands of followers around the world. Konchog was recognized by the Dalai Lama to be a Mahasiddha, or realized guru.
Konchog spent a total of 26 years(Edit: from Ref link below "His students have known that he meditated in caves for twenty-five years") in isolated mountain retreat, seeking illumination. Beginning in 1985, he resided at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. He also traveled around the world teaching.
Konchog died at the age of 74 in 2001. Tenzin Nyudrup (Phuntsok Rinpoche) was recognized by the Dalai Lama to be Konchog's reincarnation. Konchog's funeral rites, and the search for his subsequent reincarnation by his close disciple Tenzin Zopa, are documented in the 2008 film, Unmistaken Child.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche
Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche (Standard Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་ཕུན་ཚོགས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་) (born October 28, 2002), also called Tenzin Nyudrup, is the recognised reincarnation of the Tibetan Mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog, who died in 2001.
His early life and discovery as a reincarnated lama is documented in the 2008 English-language documentary film, Unmistaken Child.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Namkhai Norbu
Namkhai Norbu (Tibetan: ནམ་མཁའི་ནོར་བུ་, Wylie: nam mkha’i nor bu; 8 December 1938 – 27 September 2018) was a Tibetan Buddhist master of Dzogchen and a professor of Tibetan and Mongolian language and literature at Naples Eastern University. He was a leading authority on Tibetan culture, particularly in the fields of history, literature, traditional religions (Tibetan Buddhism and Bon), and Traditional Tibetan medicine, having written numerous books and scholarly articles on these subjects.
When he was two years old, Norbu was recognized as the mindstream emanation, a tulku, of the Dzogchen teacher Adzom Drugpa (1842–1924). At five, he was also recognized as a mindstream emanation of an emanation of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594–1651). At the age of sixteen, he met master Rigdzin Changchub Dorje (1863–1963), who became his main Dzogchen teacher.
In 1960, he went to Italy at the invitation of Giuseppe Tucci and served as Professor of Tibetan and Mongolian Language and Literature from 1964 to 1992 at Naples Eastern University. In 1983, he hosted the first International Convention on Tibetan Medicine, held in Venice, Italy.
In 1976, Norbu began to give Dzogchen instruction in the West, first in Italy, then in numerous other countries. He became a respected spiritual authority among many practitioners, and created centers for the study of Dzogchen worldwide. Norbu taught Dzogchen for more than fifty years and was considered by the Tibetan government in exile as "the foremost living Dzogchen" teacher at the time of his death, in 2018. Norbu founded the Dzogchen Community, which today has centers around the world, including in the US, Mexico, Australia, Russia, and China.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Ajahn Sumedho
Ajahn Sumedho (born Robert Karr Jackman on July 27, 1934) is an American Buddhist monk. He was ordained in 1967, and was instrumental in establishing Wat Pa Nanachat in Thailand and the Cittaviveka and Amaravati monasteries in England. One of the most senior Western representatives of the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravāda Buddhism, Sumedho is considered a seminal figure in the transmission of the Buddha's teachings to the West.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Chah (17 June 1918 – 16 January 1992) was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition.
Respected and loved in his own country as a man of great wisdom, he was also instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West. Beginning in 1979 with the founding of Cittaviveka (commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) in the United Kingdom, the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah has spread throughout Europe, the United States and the British Commonwealth. The dhamma talks of Ajahn Chah have been recorded, transcribed and translated into several languages.
More than one million people, including the Thai royal family, attended Ajahn Chah's funeral in January 1993 held a year after his death due to the "hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend". He left behind a legacy of dhamma talks, students, and monasteries.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (Tibet: ཡོངས་དགེ་མི་འགྱུར་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། Wylie: yongs dge mi 'gyur rin po che) is a Tibetan teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He has written five books and oversees the Tergar Meditation Community, an international network of Buddhist meditation centers.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Tashi Tsering (Jamyang Buddhist Centre)
Serme Khen Rinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsering BEM (Tibetan: བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཚེ་རིང་, Wylie: Bkra-shis Tse-ring) (born 1958) is abbot of Sera Mey Monastic University in India. From 1994 to 2018, he was the resident Tibetan Buddhist teacher at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London.
Tsering was born in Purang, Tibet in 1958, and his parents escaped to India in 1959. He entered Sera Mey Monastic University in South India when he was 13 years old, and graduated with a Lharampa Geshe degree 16 years later. Geshe Tashi then entered the Higher Tantric College (Gyuto) for a year of study.
Tsering's teaching career began at Sera, after which he taught the monks at Kopan Monastery, Nepal for a year. He went on to the Gandhi Foundation College in Nagpur, India and then moved to Europe, initially to Nalanda Monastery in the South of France.
From 1994 to 2018, Tsering was resident teacher at Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London. In 2017 he received a masters degree in social anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
In the west, Tsering teaches in English and is renowned for his warmth, clarity and humour. Besides Jamyang, he has been a regular guest teacher at other Buddhist centres in the UK and around the world. He is also the creator and original teacher of the Foundation of Buddhist Thought Course, a two-year course which gives an overview of Tibetan Buddhist study and practice.
In March 2018 it was announced that Geshe Tashi Tsering had been asked by the Dalai Lama to become abbot of Sera Mey Monastic University in India. He was enthroned as abbot on 17 June 2018.
In June 2019 he was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen's birthday honours list for services to Buddhism in the UK.
In March 2024 it was announced that Geshi Tashi Tsering would step down as abbot of Sera Mey to become the Director of the Dalai Lama Centre for Tibetan and Ancient Indian Wisdom in Bodhgaya.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Thích Nhất Hạnh
Thích Nhất Hạnh ( TIK NAHT HAHN; Vietnamese: [tʰǐk̟ ɲə̌t hâjŋ̟ˀ] , Huế dialect: [tʰɨt̚˦˧˥ ɲək̚˦˧˥ hɛɲ˨˩ʔ]; born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo; 11 October 1926 – 22 January 2022) was a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet and teacher, who founded the Plum Village Tradition, historically recognized as the main inspiration for engaged Buddhism. Known as the "father of mindfulness", Nhất Hạnh was a major influence on Western practices of Buddhism.
In the mid-1960s, Nhất Hạnh co-founded the School of Youth for Social Services and created the Order of Interbeing. He was exiled from South Vietnam in 1966 after expressing opposition to the war and refusing to take sides. In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Nhất Hạnh established dozens of monasteries and practice centers and spent many years living at the Plum Village Monastery, which he founded in 1982 in southwest France near Thénac, traveling internationally to give retreats and talks. Nhất Hạnh promoted deep listening as a nonviolent solution to conflict and sought to raise awareness of the interconnectedness of environments that sustain and promote peace. He coined the term "engaged Buddhism" in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.
After a 39-year exile, Nhất Hạnh was permitted to visit Vietnam in 2005. In 2018, he returned to Vietnam to his "root temple", Từ Hiếu Temple, near Huế, where he lived until his death in 2022, at the age of 95.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Ajahn Amaro
Ajahn Amaro (born 2 September 1956) is a Theravāda Buddhist monk and teacher, and abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in South East England. The centre, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics, is inspired by the Thai Forest Tradition and the teachings of the late Ajahn Chah. Its chief priorities are the practice and teaching of Buddhist ethics, together with traditional concentration and insight meditation techniques, as an effective way of dissolving suffering.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Ajahn Pasanno
Ajahn Pasanno (born Reed Perry, Manitoba, Canada, July 26, 1949) is the most senior Western disciple of Ven. Ajahn Chah in the United States, and most senior in the world after Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Khemadhammo. For many years he was the abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat International Forest Monastery in Northeast Thailand. In the late 1990s, Ajahn Pasanno moved to California to head the new Abhayagiri Monastery. With more than 40 years as a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk), Ajahn Pasanno has been instrumental in training many monks in Thailand and the United States and has been supportive of training for women.
On December 5, 2015, at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaeo) in Bangkok, Ajahn Pasanno received the honorary ecclesiastical title “Chao Khun” and name “Phra Bodhinyanavidesa” from the Crown Prince of Thailand, on behalf of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The title “Chao Khun” is given periodically to monks in the Thai tradition who have distinguished themselves with their contributions to the monastic tradition. This high honour is particularly significant as Western monks are rarely awarded this special recognition.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Heng Sure
Heng Sure (恆實法師, Pinyin: Héng Shí, birth name Christopher R. Clowery; born October 31, 1949) is an American Chan Buddhist monk and a senior disciple of Venerable Hsuan Hua. He is the managing director of Berkeley Buddhist monastery and president of the board of directors of Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. Heng Sure is also a banjoist and a folk musician. He has released several albums of Buddhist folk music including "Paramita: American Buddhist Folk Songs" (2008). Heng Sure has also been active in interfaith organizations, especially the Institute for World Religions.
He is probably best known for a pilgrimage he made for two years and six months from 1977 to 1979. Called a three steps, one bow pilgrimage, Heng Sure and his companion Heng Chau (Martin Verhoeven), bowed from South Pasadena to Ukiah, California, a distance of 800 miles, seeking world peace.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, he attended DeVilbiss High School, Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and the University of California at Berkeley from 1971 to 1976. During his time at the university, Heng Sure was active in theatre. At an early age, Heng Sure learned Chinese from studying the language in high school and by means of his sister, who worked at the U.S. Information Agency.
After receiving his master's degree in Oriental languages, he met his teacher, Hsuan Hua, who would later ordain him in 1976 at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, as "Heng Sure" a Dharma name which means "Constantly Real." Heng Sure earned an MA degree in Oriental Languages from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976 and a PhD in religion from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, in 2003.
In October 2018, he participated in the Fifth World Buddhist Forum held in Putian, Fujian Province of China, and at the closing ceremony, read with the patriarchal Zongxing the Declaration of the Fifth World Buddhist Forum.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: S. N. Goenka
Satya Narayana Goenka (ISO 15919: Satynārāyaṇ Goynkā; Burmese: ဦးဂိုအင်ကာ; MLCTS: u: gui ang ka; 30 January 1924 – 29 September 2013) was an Indian teacher of vipassanā meditation. Born in Burma to an Indian business family, he moved to India in 1969 and started teaching meditation. His teaching emphasized that the Buddha's path to liberation was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific in character. He became an influential teacher and played an important role in establishing non-commercial Vipassana meditation centers globally. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2012, an award given for distinguished service of high order.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: John Daido Loori
John Daido Loori (June 14, 1931 – October 9, 2009) was a Zen Buddhist rōshi who served as the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and was the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order and CEO of Dharma Communications. Daido Loori received shiho (dharma transmission) from Taizan Maezumi in 1986 and also received a Dendo Kyoshi certificate formally from the Soto school of Japan in 1994. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. In 1996 he gave dharma transmission to his student Bonnie Myotai Treace, in 1997 to Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, and in 2009 to Konrad Ryushin Marchaj. In addition to his role as a Zen Buddhist priest, Loori was an exhibited photographer and author of more than twenty books and was an avid naturalist.
In October 2009, he stepped down as abbot citing health issues. Days later, Zen Mountain Monastery announced that his death was imminent. On October 9, 2009, at 7:30 a.m. he died of lung cancer in Mount Tremper, New York.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Red Pine (author)
Bill Porter (born October 3, 1943) is an American author who translates under the pen-name Red Pine (Chinese: 赤松; pinyin: Chì Sōng). He is a translator of Chinese texts, primarily Taoist and Buddhist, including poetry and sūtras. In 2018, he won the American Academy of Arts & Letters Thornton Wilder Prize for translation.
Monasteries and Dharma Centers
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Nalanda mahavihara
Nalanda (IAST: Nālandā, pronounced [naːlən̪d̪aː]) was a renowned Buddhist mahavihara (great monastery) in ancient and medieval Magadha (modern-day Bihar), eastern India. Widely considered to be among the greatest centres of learning in the ancient world, it was located near the city of Rajagriha (now Rajgir), roughly 90 kilometres (56 mi) southeast of Pataliputra (now Patna). Operating from 427 CE until around 1400 CE, Nalanda played a vital role in promoting the patronage of arts and academics during the 5th and 6th century CE, a period that has since been described as the "Golden Age of India" by scholars.
Nalanda was established by emperor Kumaragupta I of the Gupta Empire around 427 CE, and was supported by numerous Indian and Javanese patrons – both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Nalanda continued to thrive with the support of the rulers of the Pala Empire (r. 750–1161 CE). After the fall of the Palas, the monks of Nalanda were patronised by the Pithipatis of Bodh Gaya. Nalanda was likely attacked by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji (c. 1200), but it managed to remain operational for decades (or possibly even centuries) following the raids.
Over some 750 years, Nalanda's faculty included some of the most revered scholars of Mahayana Buddhism. The historian William Dalrymple, said of Nalanda that "at its apex, it was the undisputed scholarly centre of the Mahayana Buddhist world". The faculty and students associated with the monastery included Dharmapala, Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Chandrakirti, Xuanzang, Śīlabhadra and Vajrabodhi. The curriculum of Nalanda included major Buddhist philosophies like Madhyamaka, Yogachara and Sarvastivada, as well as other subjects like the Vedas, grammar, medicine, logic, mathematics, astronomy and alchemy. The mahavihara had a renowned library that was a key source for the Sanskrit texts that were transmitted to East Asia by pilgrims like Xuanzang and Yijing. Many texts composed at Nalanda played an important role in the development of Mahayana and Vajrayana. They include the works of Dharmakirti, the Sanskrit text Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra of Shantideva, and the Mahavairocana Tantra.
The ancient site of Nalanda is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2010, the Government of India passed a resolution to revive the ancient university, and a contemporary institute, Nālandā University, was established at Rajgir. It has been listed as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) was founded in 1975 by Gelugpa Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who began teaching Tibetan Buddhism to Western students in Nepal. The FPMT has grown to encompass over 138 dharma centers, projects, and services in 34 countries. Lama Yeshe led the organization until his death in 1984, followed by Lama Zopa until his death in 2023. The FPMT is now without a spiritual director; meetings on the organization's structure and future are planned.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (traditional Chinese: 萬佛聖城; ; pinyin: Wànfó Shèngchéng; Vietnamese: Chùa Vạn Phật Thánh Thành) is an international Buddhist community and monastery founded by Hsuan Hua, an important figure in Western Buddhism. It is one of the first Chan Buddhist temples in the United States, and one of the largest Buddhist communities in the Western Hemisphere.
The city is situated in Talmage, California, a rural community in southeastern Mendocino County about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Ukiah and 110 miles (180 km) north of San Francisco. It was one of the first Buddhist monasteries built in the United States. The temple follows the Guiyang school of Chan Buddhism, one of the Five Houses of Chan. The city is noted for its close adherence to the vinaya, the austere, traditional Buddhist monastic code.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Dharma Realm Buddhist Association
The Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (shortened to DRBA, Chinese: 法界佛教總會, PY: Fajie Fojiao Zonghui, formerly known as the Sino-American Buddhist Association) is an international, non-profit Buddhist organization founded by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua in 1959 to bring the orthodox teachings of the Buddha to the entire world. DRBA has branch monasteries in many countries and cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Vancouver, as well as in Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Berkeley Buddhist Monastery
The Berkeley Buddhist Monastery is a Chan Buddhist monastery in Berkeley, California affiliated with the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and led by Heng Sure. It is the site of the Institute for World Religions, founded by Hsuan Hua.
The Monastery opened in 1994. It is located in a building which was once a Nazarene church. The monastery holds public lectures, meditation sessions, meditation classes, and daily ceremonies, in English and Chinese, and occasionally in Vietnamese. The abbot Heng Sure, is a supporter of vegetarianism and of the use of the English language and Western musical styles in Buddhist liturgy.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
Amaravati is a Theravada Buddhist monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in South East England. Established in 1984 by Ajahn Sumedho as an extension of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, the monastery has its roots in the Thai Forest Tradition. It takes inspiration from the teachings of the community's founder, the late Ajahn Chah. Its chief priorities are the training and support of a resident monastic community, and the facilitation for monastic and lay people alike of the practice of the Buddha's teachings.
It is not to be confused with the ancient Amaravati Stupa in India.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery
Abhayagiri is a Theravadin Buddhist monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition in Redwood Valley, California. Its chief priorities are the teaching of Buddhist ethics, together with traditional concentration and insight meditation (also known as the Noble Eightfold Path), as an effective way of completely uprooting suffering and discontent. Abhayagiri means 'fearless mountain' in the Pali language.
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