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John Myrdhin Reynolds, whose initiated name is Vajranatha (or Rigdzin Dorje Gonpo) was born in 1942 and is a scholar, linguist, author, translator, mystic and initiated ngagpa of the Nyingmapa.
Reynolds has made a special study of Dzogchen and the Buddhist Tantras, both in their own context and in comparison with Gnosticism and other Western mystical traditions. This has fruited in Reynolds translating many original Tibetan texts of the Nyingmapa and Kagyupa into English. He has also studied the Bön traditions of Dzogchen and has translated some Bön literature as well.
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Reynolds studied History of Religions, Anthropology, Arabic, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, at the University of California at Berkeley, and at the University of Washington at Seattle.
At Columbia University Reynolds pursued Islamic Studies under Arthur Jeffrey along with Iranian Studies under J. Duchesne-Guillemin. Reynolds did his PhD research in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Buddhist Philosophy under Edward Conze, the lauded scholar of the Buddhist Prajnaparamita literature.
Post PhD, Reynolds spent circa ten years in India and Nepal doing fieldwork research at a number of Hindu Ashrams in South India and at Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in Darjeeling, Nepal and Kalimpong. At these Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, Reynolds studied and researched the rituals, literature and meditation practices of the Kagyupa and Nyingmapa. Reynolds' Lama teachers included Dezhung Rinpoche, Kangyur Rinpoche, Chatral Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, Gyalwa Karmapa, and Lama Gonpo Tseten amongst others.
In Nepal, Reynolds researched the techniques and folklore of Himalayan shamanism, including rites of soul retrieval and exorcism, employed and practiced among ngakpa lamas belonging to the Nyingmapa school. The mode of this research was experiential and participatory.
Reynolds has continued his researching and has lectured widely in India, America and Europe. Reynolds has taught History of Religions and Buddhist Studies at Shanti Ashram (South India), at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), at the University of California Santa Cruz and at the College of New Rochelle in New York City.
Reynolds has been initiated into both the Nyingmapa and the Kagyudpa Schools of Tibetan Buddhism and in 1974 in Kalimpong, Reynolds received ordination from Dudjom Rinpoche as a Ngakpa or Buddhist Tantric Yogin of the Nyingmapa order, receiving the name Vajranatha (Rigdzin Dorje Gonpo). With the direction of Dudjom Rinpoche, Reynolds commenced research into the Ngakpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism welling from Padmasambhava and Nubchen Sangye Yeshe in the 8th century CE.
Reynolds has worked closely with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche on a number of translations of important Dzogchen texts. Since 1989, he has worked closely with Lopön Tenzin Namdak, widely considered as the foremost scholar of the Bönpo tradition outside of Tibet. With the Lopön (teacher or master), he has collaborated on the translation of a large number of ancient and rare Bönpo Dzogchen texts into English, including the Zhang-zhung Nyan-gyud (refer Zhangzhung), and also the Ma Gyud, the Bönpo Mother Tantra. As his principal focus, Reynolds continues his research into the historical origins of Dzogchen in both the Nyingmapa and the Bön traditions, and especially into the connections of Dzogchen and the Bön with Iranian religious culture of ancient Central Asia and the West, including Iranian Buddhism, Mithraism and Gnosticism.
Reynolds' research into original texts in Tibetan and Sanskrit, as well as comparative studies of mysticism, magic and religion and the production of monographs thereof, is known collectively as the Vidyadhara Project.
As the Bönpo Translation Project of the Bönpo Research Foundation, Reynolds has privately published a series of monographs on Bönpo Dzogchen and Tantra.
As Simhanada Publications, he has privately published a series of monographs and practice texts (sadhanas) from the Nyingmapa and Kagyudpa relating to Dzogchen and Buddhist Tantra.
In San Diego, California, Reynolds established the Vidyadhara Institute for Comparative Studies in Mysticism and the Esoteric Traditions with the aim of publishing and republishing a series of monographs on Buddhist and Tibetan Studies and also on various topics from the History of Religions, focusing on a comparative study of Buddhism and Bön with other mystical traditions such as Gnosticism, Neo-Platonism, Early Christianity, Kabalah, and Sufism, as well as dealing with the questions of East-West Psychology and meditation practice.
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