Approaches to Transmission in the West: A Discussion with Contemporary Shedra Students
There are significant barriers to western people looking to study at the highest level in the Tibetan Buddhist world. Would you enroll in a Tibetan monastic college in India or Nepal? Meet four westerners who did just that, many of whom still continue their decade of rigorous study today. This public session was facilitated by Robert Miller, who was director of education at a monastery in India, and features four western students from Tibetan monastic colleges: Katrin Querl (Drikung Kagyu College, Dehra Dun), Simon Houlton (Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Dharamsala), Matt Weiss (Sera Je Monastic University, Bylakuppe), and Gerd Klintschar (Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Kathmandu).
Event: TT Conference 2017 – Translator's Craft Session
Date: June 2, 2017 – 2:30 pm
Speakers: Gerd Klintschar, Katrin Querl, Matt Weiss, Robert Miller (Lozang Zopa), Simon Houlton
Topics: Innovation, New Voices, Priorities, Shedra Students, Technology, Transmission
Robert Miller
Berkeley
Robert Miller began working as an interpreter in 2000 under the guidance of Gyume Khensur Rinpoche, Geshe Tashi Tsering at Chenrezig Institute in Australia. In 2007, Garje Khamtrul Rinpoche appointed him Director of Education at Lhundrub Chime Gatsal Ling, a Nyingma monastery near Dharamsala. Since resigning his position in 2015, Robert has begun a PhD with the Group in Buddhist Studies at the University of California-Berkeley. His most recent translations, done under the auspices of 84000, include several chapters from the Vinayavastu, a massive work on monastic community life found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya.
Matt Weiss
Sera Je
Matt has had a long-time interest in Tibetan Buddhism and began formally studying Tibetan language and debate manuals in 1997. From 2007 to 2014 he lived in Sera Jhe monastery, enrolled in the Geshe program for six years. In addition, while studying in Sera Jhe, he taught physics to monks as part of a science initiative. During his studies in India he became very interested in Madhyamaka and its approach to systematic philosophy and this continues to be a topic of personal interest and research. Before traveling to India he earned a bachelor's degree in physics and masters degree in applied mathematics.
Katrin Querl
Drikung Kagyu
Katrin Querl holds a Master’s degree in Tibetology, Indology, and Religious Studies from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. From 2011 to 2017 she studied Buddhist philosophy at the Kagyu College in Dehradun, India where she completed the first six years of the traditional monastic curriculum. Katrin is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (ISTB) at the University of Vienna, writing her thesis on Tibetan presentations of the Three Wheels of Dharma (chos ‘khor rim pa gsum). She also collaborates with several translation projects such as the Vikramashila Translation Project, the Rinchenpal Translation Project, and the Buddhist Translation Studies project (BTS) at the University of Vienna.
Gerd Klintschar
Rangjung Yeshe Institute
Gerd Klintschar earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of Graz and went on to work in the pharmaceutical industry in development and marketing. He began his involvement with Buddhism in the late nineties. In 2008 he moved to Nepal to complete both BA and MA degrees in Buddhist Studies at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute. After completing these programs he moved on to study in the monastic college of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, where he is currently in his fifth year.
Simon Houlton
Institute of Buddhist Dialectics
Simon began studying the Dharma in India in 1996. In 2000 he joined the Dharma and Tibetan language classes at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives and then lived for three years in Drepung Loseling monastery in South India improving his Tibetan and learning the basics of debate. In 2007 he enrolled as a full-time student at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in McLeod Ganj and is now in the Abhidharma class, having completed ten years of the 16-year Rime Geshe degree of study. His interests lie in how to study in a nonsectarian manner and the larger project of transmission of Buddhism to the west.
