Jules Levinson graduated from Princeton University in 1975 with a B.A. in English, earned an M.Ed. in Secondary School English at the University of Virginia, and in 1976 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. 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 Vajradhātu Seminary at Bedford Springs, PA, a three-month program of meditation and study taught by Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.
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. Since 1988, Jules has served frequently as an oral translator for Trangu Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche Tsültrim Gyatso. Together with Lama Chöying Namgyel and Sangye Khandro, he 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, CO. His publications include /Essential Practice/, a translation of lectures given by Trangu Rinpoche on the Indian master Kamalashīla’s Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School; Part II of /Moon of Wisdom/, in which Karmapa Mikyö Dorje comments on the Indian master Chandrakīrti’s refutation of the Mind Only School; Fierce Wisdom, a translation of Jikmé Lingpa’s liturgies for the practices of the internal yoga of channels and winds; and three forthcoming works, /A Course on View/, a translation of a series of lectures given by Khen Rinpoche Tsültrim Gyatso in commentary upon Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Tayé’s presentation of the two truths, Mind Only, and the Middle Way School; /The Lion Roars/, a translation of a pair of treatises composed by Mipam Namgyal Gyatso together with oral commentary by Khen Rinpoché Palden Sherap; and /The Metaphors of Liberation/, a study of the grounds and paths of hearers, solitary realizers, and bodhisattvas as they are presented in the Middle Way Schools.
