Sarah Harding was born in Malibu in 1951 and educated in Los Angeles, California. She studied English literature and anthropology at Prescott College in Arizona and earned a degree in Religious Studies from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Sarah spent three years traveling through Europe, Africa, and Asia, and while abroad, she studied Tibetan language and culture for two years in Darjeeling, India, and in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 1974, Sarah returned to the United States to continue her studies in Tibetan culture and language. Her interests in Tibetan and Buddhist studies culminated in her participation in the first traditional three-year meditation and study retreat for Westerners, which was conducted entirely in Tibetan, under the guidance of Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, near Dijon, France.
Between 1980 and 1992, Sarah served as a resident Dharma teacher and translator in Los Angeles and later in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has done extensive oral translation internationally for such renowned teachers as Kalu Rinpoche, Chagdud Tulku, Tenga Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, and Gangteng Rinpoche. Sarah is a founding member of the International Buddhist Translation Committee and a member of the Nalanda Translation Committee. Her prolific career as a translator includes more than thirty-five translations of traditional Buddhist texts, as well as the Tibetan Language Correspondence Course, co-authored with Jeremy Morrelli. From 1992 she was a faculty member in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University and is recently retired. Sarah continues to make her home in Boulder, where she is currently working on her next book. She has been a Tsadra Fellow since 2000. (Adapted from Source July 22, 2020)
Online Publications:
- Pha Dampa Sangye and the Alphabet Goddess: A Preliminary Study of the Sources of the Zhije Tradition. Presented by Sarah Harding at the 2016 meeting of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS) in Bergen, Norway
- Nāropa’s Life of Liberation and Spiritual Song
- Did Machik Lapdrön Really Teach Chöd? A Survey of the Early Sources
Library Items
A Gathering of Brilliant Moons
A collection of essays and translations featuring advice and instructions of prominent 18-19th century Tibetan masters.
Gayley, Holly, and Joshua Schapiro, eds. A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rimé Masters of Tibet. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017.
Gayley, Holly, and Joshua Schapiro, eds. A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rimé Masters of Tibet. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017.;A Gathering of Brilliant Moons;Holly Gayley; Joshua Schapiro;John Canti;Sarah Harding;Wulstan Fletcher;Michael Sheehy;Douglas Duckworth;A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rimé Masters of Tibet;'jam mgon kong sprul;Dpal sprul rin po che;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Bdud 'joms gling pa;Dodrupchen, 3rd;Mdo mkhyen brtse;Rtogs ldan shAkya shrI;'jigs med gling pa;Shar rdza bkra shis rgyal mtshan;Dge rtse ma hA paN+Di ta tshe dbang mchog grub;Zhang ston bstan pa rgya mtsho;Thub bstan dge legs rgya mtsho
Esoteric Instructions
This volume, Esoteric Instructions, deals with meditation—specifically tantric meditation. Esoteric Instructions is a collection of intimate records of personal teachings by masters that simplify tantric meditations by providing pertinent examples and very personal and helpful hints to disciples based on the master's own experience. Although originally oral in nature, they have been codified and passed down through specific lineages from teacher to student. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Harding, Sarah (Kalu Rinpoché Translation Group), trans. Esoteric Instructions: A Detailed Presentation of the Process of Meditation in Vajrayāna. Book Eight, Part Four of The Treasury of Knowledge. By Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Tayé ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2007.
Harding, Sarah (Kalu Rinpoché Translation Group), trans. Esoteric Instructions: A Detailed Presentation of the Process of Meditation in Vajrayāna. Book Eight, Part Four of The Treasury of Knowledge. By Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Tayé ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2007.;Esoteric Instructions;Meditation;Vajrayana;Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye;འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་;'jam mgon kong sprul;blo gros mtha' yas;yon tan rgya mtsho;'jam mgon chos kyi rgyal po;pad+ma gar dbang blo gros mtha' yas;pad+ma gar gyi dbang phyug rtsal;pad+ma gar dbang phrin las 'gro 'dul rtsal;བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྩལ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་ཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲོ་འདུལ་རྩལ་; Sarah Harding;The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Eight, Part Four: Esoteric Instructions: A Detailed Presentation of the Process of Meditation in Vajrayana.;'jam mgon kong sprul
Affiliations & relations
- Tsadra Foundation · workplace affiliation
- Naropa University · secondary affiliation
- Kagyu · religious affiliation
- Tibetan Buddhism · religious affiliation
- Shangpa Kagyu · religious affiliation
- Kalu Rinpoche · religious affiliation
- Chagdud Tulku · teacher
- Kalu Rinpoche · teacher
- Tenga Rinpoche · teacher
- Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso · teacher
- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche · teacher
- Gangteng Rinpoche · teacher
- Kalu Rinpoche · teacher
- Tenga Rinpoche · teacher
- Thrangu Rinpoche · teacher
- Chagdud Tulku · teacher
- Gyamtso, Khenpo Tsultrim · teacher
- https://www.tsadra.org/translators/sarah-harding/ · websites
