Tenet Systems

Vaibhashika According to the Gelug interpretation of Vaibhashika, The coarse selflessness (identitylessness, lack of an impossible “soul”) of persons is the fact that persons – me and you – are not static, partless entities that can exist independently of a body and mind and...

The Meaning of the Word “Nirvana” Nirvana (mya-ngan ‘das, myang-'das, Skt. nirvana, Pali: nibbana) in Sanskrit and Pali means, literally, an “extinguished state.” The image is that of a fire that has been extinguished due to there being no more fuel. In its most common usage,...

In Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior (sPyod-‘jug, Skt. Bodhicaryavatara), the great Indian master Shantideva discusses, in ten chapters, the bodhisattva path. He begins with explaining the benefits of developing bodhichitta and the necessity for doing so immediately:...

This evening I’ve been asked to speak about the issue of sectarianism and nonsectarianism within Buddhism itself. This is quite a difficult topic if one starts to look at it in greater depth, not just superficially that all the teachings are the teachings of the Buddha and...

Introduction To gain liberation or enlightenment requires non-conceptual cognition that persons, for instance “me,” lack an impossible soul (gang-zag-gi bdag-med, the selflessness of persons, the identitylessness of persons). In the Gelug presentation, except for the...

I’ve been asked today to speak a little bit about the two views of voidness, rangtong (rang-stong) and zhentong (gzhan-stong) in Tibetan – that’s self-voidness and other-voidness. Self-voidness is short for voidness of a self-establishing nature. Whereas other-voidness is...