Berkeley Buddhist Studies and Practice M.A.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Dharma Realm Buddhist University - Berkeley

Buddhist Studies & Practice M.A. Program

Core Faculty

	Heng Chih is a founding and current member of Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (DRBA) and an active translator and editor of Buddhist Text Translation Society (BTTS). She is the primary translator that translated the Surangama Sutra from Chinese into English in the early 1970s, and was one of the students who attended the first 10-week Surangama Retreat in America led by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua in the summer of 1968. She was ordained as a bhikshuni (fully ordained Buddhist nun) in 1969.
	Heng Sure – Assistant Director and Research Professor holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley and has a Masters from the University of California at Berkeley in Oriental Languages. He is actively involved in interfaith dialogue, lectures on the Buddhist Sutras and holds regular Avatamsaka Sutra and meditation classes. He was ordained a Buddhist Bhikshu in 1976.
	Chin He Shr – Practicum Instructor holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oviedo University in Spain. After working in labs in two different countries, he traveled through Asia before settling down at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to become a monk in 2004. He currently lives at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery where he leads practicum classes and translates sutras into Spanish.
	Snjezana Akpinar – Director and Research Professor holds a Doctorate in Turkish Studies from the University of Istanbul, Turkey, and an M.A. in Oriental Studies from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She is President of Dharma Realm Buddhist University. Her principal focus is on Middle Eastern Studies and comparative religion.
	Amelia Barili holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and a diploma on Classical Yoga from G.S. College of Yoga and Cultural Synthesis in India. In addition, she has studied Qigong and currently teaches courses on Qigong and Classical Yoga, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and Chanting of the Bhagavad Gita.
	Ron Epstein has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in Buddhist Studies, an M.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Washington, and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. Professor Epstein has been with Dharma Realm Buddhist University and the Institute of World Religions since their inception. He teaches Buddhist Study and Practice. His current interests include Buddhist-Christian dialogue and applied Buddhist Ethics.
	Shari Epstein - Dean of Academic Affairs holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Stanford University. Her research focuses on early Chinese thought.
	Douglas Powers – Assistant Director holds an M.A. from in Theology & Philosophy from the Graduate Theological Union and a B.A. and a M.A. from the University of the Redlands. He is Vice President of Dharma Realm Buddhist University and currently teaches Western Philosophy, political and economic theory, psychology, and theology.
	Steven Tainer studied philosophy of science in graduate school before switching to an intensive study of Buddhism with many Tibetan masters during the past thirty-eight years. He has a traditional Tibetan degree in Buddhist Philosophy, spent years on mountain retreats, and wrote many books on behalf of his teachers, including Time, Space, and Knowledge. He also studied Taoism and Confucianism for the past twenty-seven years, and co-authored Dragon’s Play.
	Martin Verhoeven holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He writes and lectures widely on the assimilation of Asian religion in the West, and on Buddhist ethics and practice. He was a Buddhist monk for 18 years and is currently Adjunct Professor of History and Phenomenology of Religions at the Pacific School of Religion, Graduate theological Union, in Berkeley. His principal focus is history, East-West studies, ethics, and comparative religion.

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