Gelug

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...

Cognition Theory: Cognition of Commonsense Objects Last session we looked at several unique points that Tsongkhapa made and contrasted some of them with the non-Gelug positions on them. Since the presentation I gave was quite sophisticated and advanced, I’d like to start this...

Definition of the Two Truths Deepest Truth A 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....

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...

Review We are continuing our discussion of what karma actually means. We discussed the presentation the Indian master Asanga made within the context of the Chittamatra system of tenets. If we translate Chittamatra literally, it means “mind-only.” We saw that, in this system,...

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...

[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...

How to Approach the Voidness Cognized in an Arya’s Total Absorption Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II: Now, the biggest debate regarding Prasangika in Sakya, Kagyu, Nyingma and Gelugpa concerns differences in how to approach the voidness that is seen in total absorption. They all...

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...