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Editors

Editor-in-Chief, Robert A.F. Thurman
Executive Editor, Thomas F. Yarnall

Editorial Board: Ry�ichi Ab�, Jay Garfield, David Gray, Laura Harrington, Thubten Jinpa, Joseph Loizzo, Gary Tubb, Vesna Wallace, Christian Wedemeyer, Chun-fang Yu

	Robert A.F. Thurman Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Religion Columbia University Robert A.F. Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, President of the Tibet House U.S., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, a non-profit affiliated with the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and dedicated to the publication of translations of important texts from the Tibetan Tanjur. Professor Thurman also translates important Tibetan and Sanskrit philosophical writings and lectures and writes on Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism; on Asian history, particularly the history of the monastic institution in the Asian civilization; and on critical philosophy, with a focus on the dialogue between the material and inner sciences of the world's religious traditions. Time chose Professor Thurman as one of its 25 most influential Americans in 1997, describing him as a "larger than life scholar-activist destined to convey the dharma, the precious teachings of Siddhartha, from Asia to America." The New York Times recently said Thurman "is considered the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism." But it's Thurman's unique take on the relevance of Buddhism to American culture and politics, and his wit and creativity in weaving ancient Buddhist wisdom and popular Western ideals, that make his knowledge entertaining and useful as well as informative. Professor Thurman's scholarly and popular writings focus on the "inner revolution" that individuals and societies successfully negotiate when they achieve enlightenment. He defines this inner revolution as accurate insight into the true nature of reality and determined compassion for the suffering beings. He also works toward what he terms a "Second Renaissance," which he sees currently taking place as Western culture goes beyond the 14th century European discovery of the natural sciences of the ancient Greeks that catalyzed the "first renaissance" to discover and apply in practice the advanced "inner science" of ancient Indian culture. This is evident in Professor Thurman's Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Real Happiness, which Publisher's Weekly chose as one of the best books of 1998, in which he argues that America is uniquely poised to realize the Buddha's vision of individualism and cultural harmony, that the happiness guaranteed by America's founders "should be ours and that there are methods for discovering which happiness is really reliable and satisfying, and then securing that in an enduring way without depriving others." Popularizing the Buddha's teachings is just one of Thurman's creative talents. He is a riveting speaker and an author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics and culture, including Circling the Sacred Mountain, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, Worlds of Transformation, and, most recently, Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well. He is credited with being at the forefront of making Tibetan art accessible and understandable in the West and, with distinguished art historians, he collaborated in curating several important traveling exhibitions, including "Wisdom and Compassion," "Mandala," and "Worlds of Transformation," which set a standard in the art world. Thurman's work and insights are grounded in more than 35 years of serious academic scholarship. He has a B.A., A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard and has studied in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India and the United States. A long-time advocate of Buddhist monasticism, in 1962, Thurman became the first American ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He gave up his robes after several years, however, when he discovered he could be most effective in the American equivalent of the monastery, the university. He is a popular professor in the Religion Department of Columbia University where he holds the Jey Tsong Khapa chair in Indo-Tibetan Studies. Students have described his classes as "life changing", and a college president recently said, "If I could be a student again, I�d want to be in his classes at Columbia." Thurman�s knowledge of Tibetan history and culture is often sought by policy makers. He has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Additionally, a plan he authored, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 1998 as an op-ed piece entitled "Freeing Tibet Is in China�s Interest" is regarded by many as a practical plausible blueprint for peacefully ending the human rights violations and cultural destruction in Tibet. Thurman�s charisma, wit, unique life story, long-time activism on behalf of Tibet, proximity to Hollywood, and optimistic messages about "real happiness" for everyone have also placed him front and center with the news media. He is regularly interviewed by newspapers and magazines throughout the world and has been profiled in numerous publications, such as The New York Times, People, and Time, and on many television programs including CNN News, Good Morning America, The News Hour, Larry King Live, and the Oprah Winfrey Show. His main hobbies are carpentry and landscaping. He is the husband of 34 years of Nena von Schlebrugge, the father of five children, Taya, Ganden, Uma, Dechen, and Mipam, and the grandfather of five, Dash, Caroline, Max, Maya, and Levan. To the top
	Thomas F. Yarnall Adjunct Assistant Professor, Religion Columbia University Bio to come. To the top
	Ry�ichi Ab� Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions, East Asian Languages and Civilizations Harvard University Ry�ichi Ab� acquired an undergraduate degree in Economics at Keio University and a master�s degree from School of Advanced International Affairs, the Johns Hopkins University. He then turned to Religious Studies and was awarded a M.Phil and Ph.D. from Columbia University. In 1991 he was appointed as an assistant professor at Columbia�s Department of Religion, and since 1998 served that department as Kao Associate Professor of Japanese Religions. In 2004 he moved to the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard and has been teaching wide-ranging graduate and undergraduate courses on East Asian Buddhism and premodern and early-modern Japanese religions. His research interests center around Buddhist theory of language, Buddhism and literature, history of Japanese esoteric Buddhism, Shinto-Buddhist interaction, and Buddhism and gender. His publications include Great Fool � Zen Master Ry�kan (University of Hawaii Press), The Weaving of Mantra �K�kai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse (Columbia University Press), �Word� (In Lopez ed, Critical Terms in Buddhist Studies, University of Chicago Press), �Miky� girei to kenmitsu bukky�� (In Imai Masaharu ed., Ch�sei bukky� no tenkai to sono kiban, Daiz� shuppan), and �Naraki mikky� no saikent�� (In Nemoto seiji et al. eds., Nara bukky� to zaichi shakai, Iwata shoin). To the top
	Jay Garfield Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy Smith College Jay Garfield teaches and pursues research in the philosophy of mind, foundations of cognitive science, logic, philosophy of language, Buddhist philosophy, cross-cultural hermeneutics, theoretical and applied ethics and epistemology. He is director of the logic program and teaches Logic 100 andPhilosophy 220 (Incompleteness and Inconsistency) regularly. Jay is also is director of the Five College Logic Program and the Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program, an exchange program between the Five Colleges and the Tibetan universities in India and so most Januaries takes groups of students to study Buddhist philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in India. Jay is also a member of the Graduate Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. Jay's most recent book is Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation (Oxford University Press 2002). He and the ven Prof Geshe Ngawang Samten are currently translating the Fourteenth-Fifteenth Century Tibetan Philosopher Tsong Khapa's commentary on Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika (Ocean of Reasoning). Jay is also working on projects on the development of the theory of mind in children with particular attention to the role of pretence in that process; the impact of teaching philosophy in primary schools on the development of citizenship values, the law of noncontradiction; and the history of Buddhist idealism in India and Tibet (especially the impact of Sthiramati). To the top
	David Gray Lecturer, Religious Studies Santa Clara University Bio to come. To the top
	Laura Harrington Title, Department Institution Bio to come. To the top
	Thubten Jinpa Chief Translator to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama Institution Bio to come. To the top
	Joseph Loizzo Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center Columbia University Joseph Loizzo specializes in ancient Tibetan & Ayurvedic approaches to combat the aging process. With years of experience, Dr. Loizzo believes in a holistic, mind-body approach to treatment of brain disorders. He is the director of the Center for Meditation and Healing at Columbia Presbyterian. Prior to this, Dr. Loizzo led the Indic Traditions of Health Care Project at the Columbia Dharma Hinduja Indic Research Center. Dr. Loizzo is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia and is a Mellon faculty fellow in Indian and Tibetan studies at the University. He has had over 20 years of research in the psychobiology of meditation with Herbert Benson and Robert Thurman. Dr. Loizzo has been featured on local and national television, radio and on the NY Times. He is a recipient of numerous academic awards and has been a pioneer in meditation and yoga lifestyle therapies. He is a member of the academic advisory board of Tibet House of New York and has lectured widely on the benefits and mechanisms of meditation. To the top
	Gary Tubb Dharam Hinduja Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit Teaching and Indic Research, Religion Columbia University Gary Tubb studied Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard University (AB 1973, AM 1976, PHD 1979) and in India, and has taught at Harvard, Brown, Vassar, and Columbia. He offers courses on Sanskrit language and literature and on the literary, religious, and philosophical traditions of India. In his research he is especially interested in Sanskrit literary theory and related scholastic traditions, and he has written primarily on Sanskrit poetry and poetics. To the top
	Vesna Wallace Title, Religious Studies University of California at Berkeley Bio to come. To the top
	Christian Wedemeyer Assistant Professor of the History of Religions, Divinity School University of Chicago Christian Wedemeyer's scholarly work centers primarily on the history, literature, philosophy, and praxis of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism(s). Within this very general domain, the focus of his research has been the esoteric Buddhist traditions of the Mahayoga Tantras. His approach to the field of Buddhist Studies encourages a critical attention to issues of epistemology and ideology with regard to the practice(s) of modern scholarly inquiry. He has written on the modern historiography of Tantric Buddhism, the question of "antinomianism" in Indian esoteric Buddhism, textual criticism and strategies of legitimating authority in classical Tibetan scholasticism, and the semiology of esoteric Buddhist ritual. He is currently completing work on a text-critical study of one of the principal Indian works on esoteric praxis: Aryadeva's "Lamp which Integrates the Practices": The Gradual Path of Vajrayana Buddhism according to the Esoteric Communion Noble Tradition (Critical Sanskrit and Tibetan editions, annotated En glish translation, and study), to be published by the American Institute of Buddhist Studies in collaboration with Columbia University Press. A collaborative, edited volume (with Ronald M. Davidson), Studies in Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, is forthcoming from E. J. Brill in 2005. His work has appeared in History of Religions, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of the American Oriental Society, The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions, and Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Representative courses include: "Indian Buddhism," "Tibetan Buddhism," "Issues in Indian Esoteric Buddhism," "Ritual in South Asian Buddhism," "Tibetan Auto/biography," "Studies in Buddhism: The Classics," "Studies in Buddhism: The Moderns," and "Representation and Ideology in the Study of South Asian Religions." To the top
	Chun-fang Yu Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Religion Columbia University Chun-fang Yu was born in China and educated in Taiwan. She graduated from Tunghai University in 1959 with a double major in English Literature and Chinese Philosophy. She came to the States for graduate study and received a M.A. degree in English from Smith College in 1961 and Ph.D. degree in Religion from Columbia University in 1973. Before coming to Columbia, she taught at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, from 1972 until 2004, serving the chair of the Religion Department since 2000. Her primary field of specialization is Chinese Buddhism and Chinese religions. She is interested in the impact of Buddhist thought and practice on Chinese society as well as the impact of Chinese religious traditons on the domestication of Buddhism in China. She is the author of The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis (Columbia University Press, 1981), Kuan-yin, the Chinese Transformation of Avalokitesvara (Columbia University Press, 2001), and the co-editor of Pilgrims and Sacred S ites in China (Univ of California Press, 1992). She is completing a study of Buddhist nuns in contemporary Taiwan, focusing on the roles they have played in the revival of Buddhism in Taiwan during the last three decades. To the top

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