Khyentse Foundation Announces Appointment of Lecturer KF-Macready in Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Sydney

The Khyentse Foundation (KF), a non-profit organization founded by revered Bhutanese lama, filmmaker and author Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, has announced the appointment of Professor Flavio A. Geisshuesler as KF-Macready Lecturer in Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Sydney. .

“This teaching position, the sixth in a series of KFs, is made possible through the Lynne Macready Education Fund, which the Khyentse Foundation has established to support Buddhist education and practice in Australia,” the foundation said in an announcement. shared with BDG. “A longtime student of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Lynne sadly passed away in 2015 and generously bequeathed part of her estate to the foundation.

Born in Switzerland, Professor Geisshuesler holds two doctorates in the history of religions, from the University of Bern (2018) and the University of Virginia (2019). He has recently focused on the study of contemplative practices in Indo-Tibetan religions, particularly the Dzogchen tradition. After the completion of his second doctorate, Professor Geisshuesler served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Departments of Comparative Religion and Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, supported by a number of fellowships, including a Postdoctoral Fellowship of two years of the Khyentse Foundation. in 2019.

“Flavio has published a lot,” noted the Khyentse Foundation. “His completed manuscript for a book titled Tibetan Sky Gazing Meditation and the Prehistory of Great Perfection Buddhism, based on his doctoral research, is currently in press with Bloomsbury Academic. Building on his earlier study of Dzogchen, his current research project, The Tantric Brain: A New Paradigm for Meditation Researchengages a broader range of contemplative systems in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism from an interdisciplinary perspective that includes textual, anthropological, and cognitive approaches.

The Khyentse Foundation was founded by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in 2001 with the aim of promoting the teachings of the Buddha and supporting all traditions of Buddhist study and practice. The foundation's activities include major text preservation and translation projects, support for monastic colleges in Asia, a worldwide scholarship and awards program, the development of Buddhist studies at major universities, training and development Buddhist teachers and the development of new Dharma-inspired education for children.

"I am very pleased with Flavio's appointment," said Dr Mark Allon, associate professor of South Asian Buddhist studies at the University of Sydney. “He is an enthusiastic and energetic young scholar who already has a sophisticated understanding of Tibetan Buddhism in its many permutations. In addition to being fluent in classical and spoken Tibetan, he is also fluent in Sanskrit, which is an important language for the study of Tibetan Buddhism and for Buddhist studies in general. This will allow her to teach Sanskrit in our program, which was one of the job requirements. I am also happy that his interests include the meditative traditions of Tibet, as we have wanted to develop a Buddhist meditation course for some time. In short, Flavio will be a great addition to our Buddhist studies program.

Achievements of the Khyentse Foundation over the past 20 years include over 15 million pages of Buddhist texts preserved and made available online; the education provided to the children of more than 1 families; support for Buddhist studies at more than 000 major universities through endowed chairs and professorships, support for graduates, and the establishment of centers for Buddhist studies; more than $35 million in sponsorship for Buddhist teacher training awarded; sacred Buddhist texts translated into more than 15 languages, through the efforts of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, the Kumarajiva Project, and the Khyentse Vision Project; more than $1,8 million in funding awarded to support Buddhism in its home countries, including local partnerships to revitalize interest in Buddhism in India; more than 2 scholarships and awards in recognition of excellence in Buddhist study and practice; supporting over 000 monks and nuns to maintain the tradition of Buddhist scholarship in a monastic setting; and over 3 open-access Ashoka and Trisong scholarships distributed to support Dharma and wellness programs.

"Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's vision is to establish an endowed academic chair in Buddhist studies at a major university on every continent, and KF-Macready Lecturer in Tibetan Buddhism is just one of six academic positions to term that KF is currently supporting around the world. world,” explained the Khyentse Foundation. “The first two KF Chairs in Buddhist Studies were established at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006 and at the University of Michigan, in 2018. In recent years, we have sponsored four additional long-term faculty positions : at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany; at the International Buddhist College, Thailand; and the new post at the University of Sydney.

Born in Bhutan in 1961, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is the son of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche and was a close student of master Nyingma Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991). He is recognized as the third incarnation of the 1820th century Tibetan terton Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1892–1893), founder of the Khyentse lineage, and the immediate incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1959–XNUMX).

In addition to the Khyentse Foundation, his projects include Siddhartha's Intent, an international collective of Buddhist groups supporting Rinpoche's Buddhadharma activities by organizing teachings and retreats, distributing and archiving recorded teachings, and transcribing, editing and translating manuscripts and practice texts; 84000, a global non-profit initiative to translate the words of the Buddha and make them accessible to everyone; Lotus Outreach, which runs a series of projects aimed at ensuring the education, health and safety of vulnerable women and children in developing countries; and Lhomon Society, which promotes sustainable development in Bhutan through education.

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Hebrew University of Jerusalem appoints Professor Khyentse in Buddhist Studies (BDG)

The Khyentse Foundation funds a chair in Tibetan Buddhist studies in Munich (BDG)

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