Thomas Cleary holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He is the translator of over fifty volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic. A resident of Oakland, California, he passed away in June 2021.

J. C. Cleary holds a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He has translated several books of Zen literature, including Zen Dawn.