COMMON BUDDHIST TEXT:
GUIDANCE AND INSIGHT FROM THE BUDDHA
Chief Editor: Venerable Brahmapundit
Editor: Peter Harvey
Translators: Tamás Agócs, Peter Harvey, Dharmacär ï Sraddhäpa, P.D. Premasiri, G.A Somaratne, Venerable Thich Tue Sy


Workshop / PRIVATE EVENT; INVITEES ONLY

CBT is a project on the compilation of Buddhist teachings of the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions. These teachings exist in many different countries around the world and appear in various languages, including, but not restricted to, Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan. These teachings will be translated into English in order to create a single Common Buddhist Text (CBT) printed by Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University. It will contain at least 400 pages in A4 size.

The project began from 1st June 2012 till 30th May 2014.



The CBT text is to be finalized in 2015. Therefore, in order to ensure confidence in the accuracy regarding the compiled texts found in the CBT, the closed-door meeting with invited Thai and foreign scholars is arranged during the 12th of International Buddhist Conference on the United Nations Day of Vesak 2558/2015

The Most Venerable Dr. Pategama Gnanarama
Singapore
The Most Venerable Dr. Pategama Gnanarama has been the resident monk and Chief Religious Advisor to Ti-Sarana Buddhist Association since 1993. He is a well-acclaimed Buddhist scholar in the academic world with many English and Sinhala publications to his credit. A graduate of University of Ceylon and University of London, he holds the distinction of two post-graduate degrees from Sri Jayawardhanapura University of Sri Lanka and University of Magadh, India. He has gained experience and recognition having been attached to educational institutions at various levels from High School to Universities in Sri Lanka and abroad.

The Most Venerable Dr. Pategama Gnanarama is concurrently the incumbent Chief Priest of Purvaramaya, Gunasingha Pura in Sri Lanka as well as the Principal of the Buddhist and Pali College, Singapore.

Venerable Professor Geshe Ngawang Samten
India
Ven. Professor Geshe Ngawang Samten (b. 1956) is a Professor of Indian Buddhist Philosophy of Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi, and had served as the Vice Chancellor of the University for the last more than one decade.. He is educated both in the modern system as well as in the traditional Tibetan monastic system. He has important publications to his credit. and the most recent one is The Ocean of Reasoning, (Oxford University Press, New York) an annotated English translation of the most comprehensive commentary on Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamaka Karika by the Tibetan master-philosopher Tsong-Kha-Pa. He has scores of papers in various learned anthologies published in India and abroad.

He has been Visiting Professor in various Universities and colleges in USA, Australia, Europe, Russia an various Asian countries. He has also been instrumental in promoting Buddhist Studies in India. He is on numerous bodies of Universities and other academic organizations within and outside India, and expert committees of the Ministries of Government of India. In 2009, he was decorated with Padma Shri by the President of India in recognition of his distinguished services in the fields of education and literature.

Professor Lewis Lancaster
USA
Lewis Lancaster is Emeritus Professor of the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and has served as President, Adjunct Professor, and Chair of the dissertation committee at University of the West since 1992. He graduated from Roanoke College (B.A.) in 1954 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Roanoke in 2007. He is also a 1958 graduate of USC-ST (M.Th.) and a 1968 graduate of the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D.). He received an Honorary Doctorate of Buddhist Studies from Vietnam Buddhist University in 2011.

Professor Lancaster has published over 55 articles and reviews and has edited or authored numerous books including Prajnaparamita and Related Systems, The Korean Buddhist Canon, Buddhist Scriptures, Early Ch’an in China and Tibet, and Assimilation of Buddhism in Korea. He also founded the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative to use the computer-based technology to map the spread of Buddhism from the remote past to the present. In 2008 he gave the Burke Lectureship on Religion & Society. Professor Lancaster is the research advisor for the Buddha's Birthday Education Project. He was the Chair of Buddhist Studies at UC, Berkeley, USA and Editor of the Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series.

Professor Lancaster is the research adviser for the Buddha's Birthday Education Project, which has documented and hosted art exhibitions of the celebration of the Buddha's birthday in Chinese Buddhism throughout history.

Professor Lancaster was a key figure in the creation of descriptive catalogue and digitization of the Korean Buddhist Canon. He was awarded the 2014 Grand Award from the Korean Buddhist Order for his contribution to Buddhism.

Professor Sumanapala Galmangoda
Sri Lanka
Prof. Dr. Sumanapala Galmangoda is a Senior Professor and the Director of Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies in University of Kelaniya and is also the Head of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies in University of Kelaniya. He has 25 years of experience in teaching Pali, Sanskrit, Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Culture and Buddhist Psychology in the University level and 20 years of experience as a supervisor in Buddhist studies leading to the degrees MA, MPhil and PhD. He is the acting director of the Ayurvedic Institute of the University of Kelaniya. He founded the Ayurvedic section of the Papiliyana Sunetra Mahadhevi Pirivena and has 3 years of experience in conducting the Buddhist Ayurvedic Counseling programme in Sri Lanka with the assistance of the World Health Organization’s South East Asia Centre. He does extensive research on the ability of Buddhist Ayurvedic practices in curing mental illnesses.

Professor Christopher Key Chapple
USA
Prof. Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at LMU, where he directs the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies. He began his studies of Tibetan and Sanskrit as an undergraduate, and has published more than one hundred articles and more than a dozen books. Chris currently serves as a Steward of the InsightLA Benedict Canyon project and on the advisory boards of the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale), the Ahimsa Center (Pomona), and the Green Yoga Association (Oakland).

Professor Oliver Abenayaka
Sri Lanka
Formerly, Head of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka; Director of Research, Professor of Buddhist Philosophy and the Dean of the Faculty of Buddhist Studies, Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka.

Presently, the Chairman of the National Library and Documentation Services Board, Government of Sri Lanka. Co-editor of “2600 years of Sambuddhatva – A Journey of Buddhism”, published by the Government of Sri Lanka.

Geoffrey Michael Bamford
UK
CHAIR of the Society for the Wider Understanding of the Buddhist Tradition (So-Wide)

Geoffrey Bamford gained a 1st class degree in Sanskrit and Pali from Oxford University in 1970, then did 4 years’ postgraduate work, both in Oxford (at Wolfson College) and in Sri Lanka and India (on a Commonwealth Scholarship). From 1974 he was had a business career; from 1986 to 2000, he ran an independent consultancy specialising in cross-cultural communication issues. Since 2003/4, he has worked full-time for this project pro bono. Due to the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies becoming more established and employing administrative support staff, Geoffrey is reducing his involvement and spending more time with his family in Devon.

Keith Munnings
UK
Chairman, Buddhist Healthcare Chaplaincy Group and member of MFGHC

Keith Munnings has worked as a Buddhist Healthcare Chaplain in England for the past 9 years, providing spiritual and religious care for those who are sick or dying. He has been involved in developing an endorsing process for Buddhist Healthcare Chaplains working within the NHS and other healthcare settings and had developed and taught programmes to prepare Buddhists from different traditions to take up this work. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Healthcare Faith and Belief Group, a national body comprising chaplains from the major world faiths working together to better respond to patient and staff needs within healthcare settings and to assure public institutions of the good standing of potential chaplains. He also works as a University Chaplain and has started working with patients in a semi-secure context. Keith’s career has been as a practising secondary teacher and now as a teacher trainer. He practices within the Samatha tradition and has taught Samatha meditation for the past thirty years.

H.E. János Jelen
Hungary
Chairman of the Board of Trustees Royal Angkor Foundation, Budapest, Hungary
Secretary of the Board of Trustees Dhammadipa Foundation, Budapest, Hungary

H.E. Janos JELEN was a former diplomat for 25 years and ambassador to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. He has been elected for the second time by the Senate of the Dharma Gate Buddhist College to serve as the Rector, approved by the Dharma Gate Buddhist Church and also by the Prime Minister of Hungary to serve until April 14, 2019. He graduated in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1978 and specialized on diplomacy. He also served in the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) as Deputy-Director of the Civil Administration of Siem Reap province in 1992/1993. He took refuge in the Dhamma from the Most Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh in 2013 and since he is a member of the Hungarian sangha under Master Jan Boswijk. He is a lecturer at the DGBC, reading about the history of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan. He is also one of the founders of the Dhammapada Foundation, Hungary that intends to establish the first Theravada monastery in Hungary. He is currently a member of ExCo of ICDV.

Professor Dr. László Fórizs
Hungary
1987: M.A. from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest (Bp.); 1997: Ph.D. from Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN. Post-Graduate Studies at ELTE, Bp.

Work
1997–2000: Chair, Dept. of Buddhist Studies, DBC, Bp; 2004–2006: Guest lecturer, Graduate School, Dept. of Philosophy and Hist. of Sci., Bp. University of Technology; 2008– Professor, DBC, Bp.; 2015– Director, East-West Research Institute, Budapest; 2012-Editor in chief, Wheel-Tracks (Keréknyomok), Journal of DBC, Bp.

Conferences
Participation with invited papers in all the four previous World Sanskrit Conferences. Helsinki, 2003; Edinburgh, 2006, Kyoto, 2009; New Delhi, 2012. Vedic, Sanskrit and Buddhist subjects (the Rigveda, Dïrghatamas, Vedic rituals, Nägärjuna's philosophy)

Publications
Many articles and translations, incl. selected hymns from the Rgveda; Early Upanisads; Dhammapada and Yogasütra; as well as A. N. Whitehead: Process and Reality (with G. Karsai)

Memberships
2009– International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS); 2006– Hungarian Philosophical Society; 1994–1997;
2012–2015: National Accreditational Committee of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences Plus
Erudite-Scholar in Residence, Programme of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, 2011–12, Dept. of Sanskrit, Kerala University, Kariavattom, India

Professor Georges Nguyen
France
Professor Georges Nguyen , 74 years old (born in Vietnam), French nationality, living in France.
Dharma name : Prajnanando (Tue Lac in Vietnamese)
Ancien student of Nalanda Pálì Institute, Magadh University, Darbhanga University, Patna University (Archaeology), India, and Paris University.
Ancien Secretary of The Vietnamese Theravádin Sangha Council (before 1966).
Retired journalist and Emeritus Professor of Oriental philosophy, since 2005.
Writer and Translater of 22 books in Vietnamese and in French, of which “THE REBIRTH EXPLAINED BY SCIENCE” and "THE KARMA COLLECTVE" in Vietnamese, are very appreciated.
Founder of The Buddhist website Paris, named “tuelac.net” (in Vietnamese).
Teaching actually the Buddhism concerning the Abhidharma.

Rev. Sam Haycraft
USA
Rev. Sam Haycraft, International Order of Buddhist Ministers. Dharma lecture and Meditation Teacher, Hu Kuo Temple Anaheim, CA. IOBM Ordination; Rosemead Buddhist Monastery, Rosemead, CA 1995. LLB San Francisco Law School 1965.

Professor Dr. Chamnong Adivadhanasit
Thailand

Professor Vachara Hamjitaeran
Thailand
Pali 9, B.A. with the first class honour, B.Ed. (Educational Administration) with the first class honour, M.A. (Philosophy) with the gold medal, Ph.D. (Philosophy)

Experience
Head of Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, Chairperson of M.A. Program in Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University

Fields of Interest/Specialization
Buddhism, Buddhist Philosophy

Dr. Sarah Shaw
UK
Sarah Shaw went to Manchester University, where she did a doctorate in English. After studying Pali and Sanskrit at Oxford she started teaching and writing on Buddhist subjects.

She has written several books on meditation, in theory and practice, and jätaka literature. She has published a new book this year, The Spirit of Buddhist Meditation, with Yale University Press. She is a member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and Wolfson College. She is a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies.

Dr. Patricia Gaden
France


© 2015 undv.org / United Nations Day of Vesak
More information please contact:
ICDV & IABU Office 401,Zone D, D400 4th floor, School Building,
Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University Lamsai, Wang Noi, Ayutthaya 13170
Tel: + 662 623 6323, 66 35 248 098 Fax: + 66 35 248 099
Email: vesak.undv@gmail.com