Zack Beer

By mark

Published on March 29, 2021

Translation Teams Lead

Zack leads and coordinates our translation teams and manages team processes, workloads and schedules. He brings a wide range of knowledge and skills to his role, including proficiency in Tibetan and Sanskrit, teaching experience, knowledge of Tibetan history and its living traditions, and many years reflecting on the theory and art of translation.

Zack became interested in Buddhist meditation as a teenager. He attended Stanford University, where he completed a BA in Religious Studies focusing on Buddhism, with a minor in creative writing. He then spent eleven years based in the Tibetan community of Boudhanath, Nepal. There, he first studied and earned an MA at Rangjung Yeshe Institute before eventually working at RYI for four years as a teacher and interpreter.

Under the umbrella of Dharmachakra Translation Committee, he has published a number of translations, including works on development-stage practice by Shechen Gyaltsab (in Deity, Mantra, and Wisdom and A Practice of Padmasambhava, both published by Snow Lion) and several sūtras for 84000. In 2014, he began his PhD studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he is currently completing a dissertation on the topic of secrecy in early Tibetan Buddhism.

Zack lives in California and spends his free time baking bread and watching birds.