Documents for "Buddhism: Biographies":

• Bodhidharma see Zen Buddhism.

• Chih-i 538-97, Chinese Buddhist scholar and founder of the T'ien-t'ai (in Japan, called Tendai, or Lotus) school of Buddhism. Chih-i produced a conceptual framework that integrated varying Indian...

• Chuang-tzu or Chuang-tze , c.369-c.286 BC, Chinese Taoist writer. Little is known about his life. He was a native of the state of Meng, on the border of present-day Shandong and Henan provinces, and is said to have lived as...

• Confucius Chinese K'ung Ch'iu or K'ung Fu-tzu [Master K'ung], c.551-479? BC, Chinese sage. Positive evidence concerning the life of Confucius is scanty; modern scholars base their accounts largely on the Analects, a collection of sayings and short dialogues apparently collected by his disciples, and discard most of the later legends. Confucius was born in the feudal state of Lu, in modern Shandong prov...

• Dōgen 1200-1253, Zen master (see Zen Buddhism ) and founder of the Sōtō Zen school in Japan. After studying in China, he received the seal of enlightenment and succession to the Ts'ao-tung (Sōtō) school. In 1236 he established the first...

• Dalai Lama [Tibetan,=oceanic teacher], title of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Believed like his predecessors to be the incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, 1935-, was installed in 1940. In 1959, following a Tibetan revolt...

• Gautama see Buddha.

• Hsüan-tsang 605?-664, Chinese Buddhist scholar and translator. He early entered monastic life and later traveled in China, teaching and studying. Between 629 and 645 he made a pilgrimage to India in search of...

• Hui-neng see Zen Buddhism.

• Kobo-Daishi see Kukai.

• Kukai or Kobo-Daishi , 774-835, Japanese priest, scholar, and artist, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" sect of Buddhism. Of aristocratic birth, he studied the Chinese classics as a young man, but left the university and became a wandering ascetic, eventually making a commitment to Buddhism. He was...

• Kumarajiva 344-413, Buddhist scholar and missionary, b. Kucha, in what is now Xinjiang, China. When his mother, a Kuchean princess, became a nun, he followed her into monastic life at the age of seven. He...

• Mahavira see Jainism.

• Mencius Mandarin Meng-tzu, 371?-288? BC, Chinese Confucian philosopher. The principal source for Mencius' life is his own writings. He was born in the ancient state of Ch'ao, in modern Shandong prov. He lost his father as a...

• Meng-tse see Mencius.

• Milarepa 1040-1143, saint and poet of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the second patriarch of the Kargyupa sect, the first being Milarepa's guru Marpa (1012-97), who studied under Naropa, the Bengali master of Tantra, at Nalanda. Milarepa's autobiography...

• Nagarjuna see Madhyamika.

• Nichiren [Jap.,=sun lotus], 1222-82, Japanese Buddhist priest, founder of Nichiren Buddhism. Of humble birth, Nichiren (whose given name was Zennichimaro) early became a monk, and traveled to many temples...

• Siddhartha see Buddha.

• Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro 1870-1966, Japanese Buddhist scholar, educated at Tokyo Univ. After studying (1897-1909) in the United States, he became a lecturer at Tokyo Univ.; he later taught at leading universities in...