Aryadeva (Sanskrit: आर्यदेव, Āryadeva) (3rd Century CE), was a disciple of Nagarjuna and author of several important Mahayana Madhyamaka Buddhist texts. He is also known as Kanadeva the 15th patriarch in the Zen tradition, and Bodhisattva Deva in Sri Lanka.

Aryadeva was born as the son of a king in Sri Lanka. Some Chinese sources however, suggest he was born in Southern India in a Brahmanical family. According to Geshe Ngawang Dakpa of Sera Je Monastery,

Aryadeva was a student of Nagarjuna, and contributed significantly to the Madhyamaka-school.

According to the Drikung Kagyü school of Tibetan Buddhism, Garchen Rinpoche is the current incarnation of Aryadeva.

Most of Aryadeva's works were not preserved in the original Sanskrit, but they mainly survived in Tibetan and Chinese translations.

His best-known text is probably the Catusataka (400 verses), in sixteen chapters of twenty-five stanzas each.

Several important works of esoteric Buddhism (most notably the Caryamelapakapradipa or "Lamp that Integrates the Practices") are attributed to Aryadeva. Contemporary research suggests that these works are datable to a significantly later period in Buddhist history (late ninth or early tenth century), but the tradition of which they are a part maintains that they are (at least in some measure) the work of the Madhyamaka Aryadeva. Traditional historians (for example, the 17th century Tibetan Tāranātha), aware of the chronological difficulties involved, account for the anachronism via a variety of theories, such as the propagation of later writings via mystical revelation. A useful summary of this tradition, its literature, and historiography may be found in Wedemeyer 2007.

Thubten Chodron is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun and a central figure in reinstating the Bhikshuni (tib. Gelongma) ordination of women. She is a student of H. H. XIVth Dalai Lama, Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and other Tibetan masters.

Born in 1950, she grew up in a "non-religious" Jewish family near Los Angeles, California, United States and earned her B.A. in History, University of California at Los Angeles in 1971. While doing graduate work in Education, she taught elementary school. She took a course with Ven. Lama Yeshe and Ven. Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1975, inspiring her to study and practice Tibetan tradition at their monastery in Nepal. In 1977, she received Sramanerika (novice) ordination, and in 1986, she travelled to Taiwan to receive the full Bhikshuni ordination.

She has studied and practiced Buddhism of the Tibetan tradition extensively, in India and Nepal, and for three years at Dorje Pamo Monastery in France. She has held several significant posts, including Director of the spiritual program at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy for two years, Resident Teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, and ten years as Spiritual Director and Resident Teacher at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle. She has written numerous articles and books, such as Open Heart, Clear Mind; Buddhism for Beginners; Taming the Mind; Working with Anger; How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator; and Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig.