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Author Name | Biography |
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Virgil | Virgil “The most lovable of Romans” and its greatest poet, advocate/inspiration/teacher for small farmers, Dante's guide through hell and purgatory, considered a great magician, seer, and saint as well as the embodiment of human knowledge and experience; Virgil began life as a poor farmer and once had to swim for his life to escape soldiers. Given patronage by Augustus he wrote the Aeneid that became the Roman national epic and standard text for school curricula after Augustus refused Virgil’s dying wish to have it burned. For hundreds of years his poems were opened at random as an oracle for insight into uncertainty and to solve problems. |
Vyasa | Vyasa Hindu immortals, Vishnu avatar, 5th incarnation of Brahma “The one who classified the Vedas,” one of the seven Hindu immortals, and Vishnu avatar; Vyasa became author of the Mahabharata. Also credited with writing the eighteen major Purāṇas; he compiled, documented and categorized many ancient Indian texts that had been passed down through long oral traditions. The 10th Sikh guru, Gobind Singh described him as the 5th incarnation of Brahma and praised him for preserving the ancient Vedic knowledge. |
William Godwin | William Godwin Provocative and influential social, political, and literary critic Mary Shelley’s father, married to pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, journalist, philosopher, publisher, translator, and author; Godwin became the first to promote utilitarianism and modern anarchism. He attacked aristocratic privilege, advocated the abolition of marriage, wrote numerous novels, and became a major influence on British literature and culture. His views on progress, life extension, and human perfectibility gave inspiration for his daughter’s novel, Frankenstein. He opposed Malthus, became a literary influence on Dickens and Poe, a political influence on Peter Kropotkin, libertarianism, and communism. |
Benazir Bhutto | Benazir Bhutto “Iron Lady,” 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan, first woman to head a Muslim majority nation; Benazir Bhutto studied at Harvard in the USA and Oxford in the UK, became a symbol of women's empowerment in Islamic countries as well as a small but bright light shining on the possibility of peace between Islam and the West, democracy in Muslim countries, and the ending of Islamic extremism. Assassinated but now honored by the Pakistani government, her legacy includes almost all Pakistani political parties allowing women full participation in their organizations and elections, support programs for the poorest Pakistanis, and inspiration for young activists like Malala Yousafzai. |
Abu Yazid al-Bisṭāmī | Abu Yazid al-Bisṭāmī Famous Sufi, ”King of the Gnostics,” forefather of ecstatic Islamic mysticism; Abu Yazid disavowed excessive asceticism and changed the course of Sufism by shifting the emphasis from discipline, obedience and piety to direct experience and “self-annihilation in the Divine Presence.” An active shrine to him in Bangladesh was built and has been used since 850 CE and he remains an important lineage holder in thelargest Sufi brotherhood, the Naqshbandi. |
Anonymous | Anonymous Freedom from the narrow boxes defined by personal history Anonymous (5000 BCE - ) |
Arthur Desmond | Arthur Desmond Arthur Desmond (c. 1859 – 1929), aka Arthur Uing, Ragnar Redbeard, Richard Thurland, Desmond Dilg, Gavin Gowrie Bank-bashing heroic reformer, “The Poet of Revolution,” author, and politician; Desmond started a political organization dedicated to “emancipation from poverty, competitive commercialism, industrial wage slavery, tyrannical authority, and mental bondage." Like Machiavelli and his satirical book The Prince, Desmond was slandered by the rich and powerful plutocrats of his time as an immoral, satanic figure, advocating Social Darwinism, racism, and fascism. His book, Might Is Right, however, was called by fellow labor movement collaborators, “one of the greatest books ever written." He promoted land reform, the nationalization of large estates and banks, single taxation and called bank directors "scoundrels", large estate owners "blood-sucking leeches" and the local press as "hirelings of monopoly.” |
Bertrand Russell | Bertrand Russell “20th century Voltaire” Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) |
Dzogchen Pönlop | Dzogchen Pönlop Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche རྫོགས་ཆེན་དཔོན་སློབ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། (1965 - ) |
Hojo Tokimune | Hojo Tokimune Hojo Tokimune, Hōjō 北条 時宗 (1251 – 1284) Mainly responsible for the spread of Zen Buddhism in Japan and ruler during the time Kublai Khan was invading and trying to conquer; Hojo Tokimune as the 8th Shogun and with the help of typhoons repelled two Mongol invasions. (The second included 4,400 ships and over 140,000 troops.) He personally planned and led the defense and in the process established a new warrior class called samurai which became one of the most fierce fighting forces the world has ever known. He brought famous teachers from China, built temples, and funded the transplanting and translation of Chinese Chan Buddhism into Japanese Zen. Although dying when only 33 years old, his influence on Japanese politics and culture ran deep and still continues. |
Hui Hai | Hui Hai Hui Hai 大珠慧海 Baizhang Huaihai (788 - 831) |
Indrabhūti | Indrabhūti Mahasiddha #42 Indrabhuti ཨིནྡྲ་བྷཱུ་ཏི། The Enlightened Siddha-King (late 9th century) “The first tantrika,” archetypal tantric king, and inspiration for several tantric lineages; Indrabhuti for political reasons pledged his Buddhist sister Laksminkara in marriage to the prince of a neighboring Hindu kingdom. She went to live with the neighboring prince but soon became disillusioned with the materialism, superstition, and decadence of her new country. Late one night she fled the palace and found a cave in the mountains where she lived and practiced meditation, attained enlightenment and scandalously started teaching untouchables. This greatly upset the Hindu king but inspired Indrabhuti to do the same and leave the comfort of palace life to devote himself completely to his spiritual path. He rejected however a path that rejected sensual pleasure and sex and practiced the Guhyasamaja father-tantra in the Anuyoga Dzogchen lineage. Mahasiddha #42 |
Jack LaLanne | Jack LaLanne Jack LaLanne (1914 – 2011) |
Jack Weatherford | Jack Weatherford Jack Weatherford (1945 - ) |
Jālandhara | Jālandhara Mahasiddha #46 Jalandhara ཛཱ་ལནྡྷ་ར་པ། “The Ḍākinī's Chosen One” (late 9th century) |
James Joyce | James Joyce James Joyce (1882 – 1941) Polyphonic novelist, poet, one of the most influential 20th century writers, stream of consciousness avant-garde modernist; Joyce revolutionized modern fiction while - according to a psychoanalyst - using his writing to avoid a complete psychotic break. A huge influence on philosophers and writers as varied as Borges, Rushdie, Beckett, Robert Anton Wilson, Joseph Campbell, and John Updike; his influenced crossed over into the world of science as he became the source of the now popular scientific term, “quark..” Finnegans Wake - considered the most challenging work ever written in the English language - shines as a monument to the possibilities of creative spirit unshackled by regard for public opinion. Although considered one of the greatest novels ever written., controversy and resistance kept his novel Ulysses from being published in the USA until 12 years after it was written. His writing style and content brings out the deeper reality of situations and experiences pointing toward the sense rather than the words. |
Jeremy Bentham | Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832) “The first patron saint of animal rights,” founder of modern utilitarianism, philosopher, and social reformer; Bentham defined “the greatest happiness of the greatest number” as a political strategy and brought the idea of welfare into modern government. A strong voice for individual and economic freedom, he worked hard to end slavery, the death penalty, physical punishment, and was the first in England to argue for decriminalizing homosexuality. He promoted equal rights for women, universal education, the separation of church and state, and animal rights. His secretary was John Stuart Mill’s father and together they tested the limits of education. |
John Holt | John Holt John Holt (1923-1985) Excellent teacher for 14 years fired for advocating children’s rights, author of the“Homeschooling Bible,” Teach Your Own, visiting lecturer at U. C. Berkeley and Harvard Graduate School, school system consultant; John Holt came to believe that the US school systems were failing and becoming only places "where children learn to be stupid,” focus on avoiding ridicule rather than learning, become only “teacher-pleasers, and lose their love of discovery. He blamed grades, tests, and ranking students for undermining their confidence, inspiration, and joy; and advocated “unschooling” as a kind of Lao Tzu-ian Wu Wei, natural approach to opening the doors of enthusiasm, freedom, and creativity. |
Kakusan Shido | Kakusan Shido Kakusan Shido, Horiuchi (1252 - 1305) |
King David | King David "The baffled king composing Hallelujah!" King David דָּוִד (fl. c. 1000 BCE) |