Scholars, Translators, Practitioners: What Is Our Role in Transmission?
The theme of translator as cultural broker emerges in this plenary session as panelists discuss how lineage is transmitted through both written translation and oral interpretation. Karl Brunnhölzl outlines the formal elements of a modern translation pointing toward the need for standardization of practical skills based on understanding the intended audience of a translation. Asserting the skills of practice and reflection as two essential tools for translators, Willa Miller brings forth the importance of how meaning is embodied and not merely a cognitive process. Richard Barron speaks about finding the right word to evoke meaning and context, and Larry Mermelstein brings to light the essential quality of fluency in both the source and target cultures in order to be an effective translator. Alexander Berzin rallies the translation community to utilize internet and multimedia resources to enhance study and practice.
Event: TT Conference 2014 – Plenary Session
Date: October 4, 2014 – 2:00 pm
Speakers: Alex Berzin, Karl Brunnholzl, Larry Mermelstein, Richard Barron, Willa Miller
Topics: Practitioner, Scholar, Translator, Transmission
Willa Miller
Harvard University
L. Willa Miller, PhD is a Buddhist teacher and scholar. She has practiced Buddhism since 1980, eventually training in both monastic and academic contexts. She is the founder and spiritual director of Natural Dharma Fellowship in Boston and its retreat center Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, NH, and is also currently Visiting Lecturer on Buddhist Ministry at Harvard Divinity School. She has been an interpreter and translator in Dharma contexts for many years. Her books include Essence of Ambrosia (a translation of Taranatha’s lam rim), and The Arts of Contemplative Care (Wisdom Publications). She has also written for Buddhadharma, Journal of the International Association for Buddhist Studies, and other journals. She has completed two three-year retreats. www.naturaldharma.org
Richard Barron (Chokyi Nyima)
Tsadra Foundation Fellow
Richard Barron (Chökyi Nyima) has been a student of Buddhism for more than forty years. He undertook a three-year retreat from 1976 to 1980, and has served as interpreter for lamas from all four schools of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He has been involved in a long-term project to translate the Seven Treasuries of Longchenpa into English; the fifth volume, The Treasury of Words and Meanings (Tshig don mdzod) will be published in 2014. Richard has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2000, and is currently working on the Foundation’s DNZ Project, translating the two volumes of teachings from the Nyingma tradition.
Alex Berzin
The Berzin Archives
Alexander Berzin began his study of Buddhism in 1962 and received his PhD from Harvard in 1972. He was resident in India for twenty-nine years, primarily with the Translation Bureau at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in Dharamsala. He has studied with masters from all four Tibetan Buddhist traditions; however, his main teachers have been His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. He was the principal interpreter for Serkong Rinpoche for nine years and has served as occasional interpreter for the Dalai Lama. An international lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism since 1980, he has published seventeen books and is the author and executive director of www.berzinarchives.com, an encyclopedic website containing his collected translations, books, and lectures on Tibetan Buddhism, history, culture, and Buddhist-Muslim relations. The website currently contains nineteen language sections, with two more underway. He has been living in Berlin, Germany since 1999.
Karl Brunnhölzl
Nitartha Translation Network
Karl was originally trained, and worked, as a physician for twenty years. He took Buddhist refuge vows in 1984, and received his Buddhist and Tibetan language training mainly at Marpa Institute For Translators in Kathmandu, Nepal. He also studied at Hamburg University, Germany. Karl has served as a translator, interpreter, and Buddhist teacher mainly in Europe, India, and Nepal, and has acted as one of the main translators and teachers at Nitartha Institute. In addition, he regularly taught at Gampo Abbey’s Vidyadhara Institute. He is the author of several books on Buddhism, such as The Center of the Sunlit Sky, Straight from the Heart, In Praise of Dharmadhātu, Gone Beyond, Mining For Wisdom Within Delusion, and The Heart Attack Sutra. He currently lives in Seattle. He also teaches weekend seminars and Nitartha Institute courses in Nalandabodhi centers, mainly in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Larry Mermelstein
Nālandā Translation Committee
Beginning in 1971, Larry Mermelstein became a close student of the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and scholar, and he is empowered as a senior teacher, or acharya, by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He has been the Executive Director of the Nalanda Translation Committee since 1978, the same year he became an editor at Shambhala Publications, where he continues to serve as a consulting editor. He was among the founding administrators and later a language teacher (Sanskrit and Tibetan) at Naropa University, and he was a member of the Vajradhatu/Shambhala International board of directors for many years.
