Gelug

The Five Systems of Five Buddha-Families  We’ve seen that when we speak about the five Buddha-families, if we look at it from the dimension of what will develop into all the aspects of a Buddha, we have this one set of five: mental activity, good qualities, verbal expression,...

Definition of the Two TruthsDeepest TruthA mind that analyzes the deepest nature of a knowable phenomenon takes as its involved object (‘jug-yul) its deepest essential nature, i.e. it takes the voidness of the phenomenon as the main object with which it cognitively engages....

Decisive Determination and Apprehension A decisive determination (nges-shes, determining cognition) is a cognition that ascertains (nges-pa) its own object (rang-yul) correctly by decisively cutting it off from incorrect interpolations (sgro-’dogs bcad-pa) that it is something...

Review Yesterday, we began the Seven Point Mind Training by the Kadampa Geshe Chekawa, and we covered the first of the seven points: the preliminary teachings to rely upon. The second point, which we’ll explain today, is the actual training in bodhichitta.  The text deals...

Are There Common-Locus Objects Extending over the Three Times? Consider the location of a presently-happening object, such as the “presently-happening-yoghurt in the pot.” For ease of discussion, let us refer to “yoghurt in the pot” simply as “yoghurt.” Both the...

What arises in a moment of mental activity includes both ways of cognitively taking objects and cognitive objects that are cognitively taken. Although we can say that both of these appear in a moment of cognition, in the sense that both of these arise, usually what is  meant...

Brief Historical Background of Non-Gelug and Tsongkhapa’s Systems Now we’re ready to look at Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna’s presentation of karma as asserted by Tsongkhapa. This is in accord with Tsongkhapa’s special way of explaining the Prasangika system of Madhyamaka. Someone...

[Clarification of His Holiness' answers by Dr. Berzin are included within square brackets.] Kalachakra in the Four Tibetan Traditions Dr. Berzin: As Kalachakra is found in all four Tibetan traditions and, in the West, Kalu Rinpoche has given the Kalachakra initiation several...

Further Background Material Range of the Analysis Since the issue of free will versus determinism hinges on the understanding of “ not-yet-happenings,” let us focus our analysis, for the moment, primarily on them. Moreover, let us limit our discussion to the Gelug Prasangika...

Going from a Conceptual to a Non-Conceptual Cognition of Voidness Let us go back to what we were discussing before about voidness meditation. The earlier Tibetan traditions were saying that to attain the non-conceptual cognition of voidness, first we need to attain conceptual...