About Us
Kalavinka Press is the publishing arm of the Kalavinka Dharma Association, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit dedicated to the preservation of right Dharma. KDA was founded by Bhikshu Dharmamitra and was approved by the IRS as tax-deductible in 2004. Donations are used exclusively to defray the costs directly involved in translation, publication, promotion, and distribution of especially important texts from the early Indian and Chinese Buddhist traditions
To help ensure the survival of these translations after such point as Bhikshu Dharmamitra passes on, as of February 21, 2023, Kalavinka Press has been adopted as an affiliate imprint of the Buddhist Text Translation Society of Ukiah, California.
About these Translations
Bhikshu Dharmamitra has always tried to adhere as well as practically possible to the standards for Buddhist canonical translation laid down by his spiritual guide, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua who required that, prior to publication, all translations must first be checked by well-qualified collaborators for three things: 1) Technically accurate translation from the source language; 2) Doctrinal correctness closely adhering to the actual statements in the text and not unduly influenced by the creative interpretations or opinions of even the most respected commentaries; and 3) English language readability, but again, not at the expense of accuracy. He had an additional "certification" requirement which Dharmamitra has attempted to accomplish "in-house" by soliciting the feedback of those same Dharma friends who checked the manuscripts for accuracy, doctrinal correctness, and readability. Those various Dharma friends who have assisted with critical feedback and improvement of these translations are listed at the front of each book under "Acknowledgments." In nearly all cases they have been first-generation disciples of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, current members of Dharma Realm Buddhist Association monastery congregations, or well-known and very learned Buddhist monks.
About the Translator
Bhikshu Dharmamitra is a Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the early American disciples (since 1968) of the late Weiyang Ch’an patriarch, Dharma teacher, and exegete, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua who gave him the Dharma name Guo Xian (果先) and the ordination name Heng Shou (恆授). He has a total of 37+ years in robes during two periods as a monastic (1969 to 1975; 1991 to the present).
Dharmamitra’s principal educational foundations as a translator lie in four years of intensive monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahayana texts in a small-group setting under Master Hua from 1968–1972, undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University, a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen University Language Center near Taipei, two years of graduate school work at the University of Washington’s School of Asian Languages and Literature (1988–90), and, most recently, an additional three years (2016-2018) of auditing mostly graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again at UW's Department of Asian Languages and Literature.
Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra has devoted his energies primarily to the study and translation of classic Mahayana texts with a special interest in works by Arya Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles, including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the "Flower Adornment Sutra"), Nāgārjuna’s 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika Vibhāśa (“Treatise on the Ten Grounds”), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra (the “Ten Grounds Sutra”), all of which are current or upcoming Kalavinka Press publications.
Dharmamitra's choice to publish these translations with a non-commercial press stewarded by the monastic Sangha was taken as a means of ensuring that the more abstruse titles won't go out of print simply because they don't cater to mass market audiences while also ensuring that these sacred scriptures may always be freely available in ebook format easily distributed world-wide.