Jules B. Levinson

Jules B. Levinson graduated from Princeton University in 1975 with a B.A. in English. Following a year in Washington, D.C., working for the House of Representatives and for the National Endowment for the Humanities, Jules earned an M.Ed. in Secondary School English at the University of Virginia. In 1976, Jules began studying the Buddhist religion and the Tibetan language at the University of Virginia under the guidance of Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins and the eminent Tibetan lamas invited by the University’s Center for South Asian Studies. This group of accomplished scholars included Lati Rinpoche, Denma Lochö Rinpoche, Geshe Gedün Lodrö, Gyümay Kensur Jambel Shenpen, and Kensur Yeshe Tupden. Six years of classes at the University were followed in 1983 by a year of study in India divided among Tibet House in New Delhi, Dharamsala, and Drebung Loseling Monastic University in Karnataka. After returning from India, Jules attended the 1984 Vajradhatu Seminary at Bedford Springs, PA, a three month program of meditation and study taught by Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, his primary teacher.

“The translation of these texts enriches not only the lives of students and scholars of the Buddhist tradition but also those of people from diverse backgrounds.”

From 1985 until 1991, Jules taught courses in Buddhist Studies, the religions of Asia, and Tibetan language at Naropa University, Stanford University, and the University of Virginia.

From 1991 to 1995, Jules lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and worked for the Nalanda Translation Committee. While in Halifax, Jules completed a dissertation, The Metaphors of Liberation, based upon study and research conducted in Virginia and India, and in 1994 he received a doctoral degree in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. At the end of 1995, Jules took a position at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, where for two years he taught courses in the religions of Asia. Leaving Hamline at the end of 1997, Jules accompanied Chögyam Trungpa’s eldest son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, on extended journeys to India and Nepal, where they were able to study the paths of bodhisattvas, the views of the Middle Way School (madhyamika), and the practice of tantra under the guidance of Khenpo Namdröl Tsering, a senior teacher at the Ngagyür Nyingma Institute established by Penor Rinpoche.

Read Jules' article on Shedra Education.

Since 1988, Jules has served frequently as a translator for Thrangu Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsültrim Gyatso Rinpoche, his principal living teachers. Together with Lama Chöying Namgyal and Sangye Khandro, he has established the Light of Berotsana Translation Group for the translation of critical and profound works drawn from the Kagyü and Nyingma traditions of textual study and contemplative practice. Presently, he lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he translates with Light of Berotsana and teaches in the Department of Religion at Naropa University. In 2002, Snow Lion published his Essential Practice, a translation of lectures given by Thrangu Rinpoche on the Indian master Kamalashila’s Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School.

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