Kumbum Jampaling Monastery was founded in 1583 by the Third Dalai Lama in Amdo at the site where Tsongkhapa was born. Kumbum has four monastic colleges: the Debate College, Tantric College, Kalachakra College and Medical College.

Labrang Tashikyil Monastery was founded in 1710 in Amdo. It has always had a strong connection with the Mongols, and many lineages, such as that of Kalachakra, were transmitted from here to the monasteries of Mongolia.

Conceptual Cognition of Space-like Voidness Needs to Induce Zestful Vigor Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II: Lama Tsongkhapa is saying that whatever Nyingma is saying is totally wrong. It is too early for us. Dr. Berzin: What do you mean by “too early for us”? Okay, now here it...

Conceptual Fabrication – A Way of Being Aware or Conventional Objects Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II: All four Tibetan traditions share this verse (XVIII.5) of Nagarjuna in common: From the depletion of karmic impulses and disturbing emotions (there is) liberation. Karmic...

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...

Dr. Berzin: Rinpoche, you study with both a Gelugpa and a Nyingma teacher, especially about the Prasangika view of voidness (emptiness). Could you please explain the differences between the Gelugpa and Nyingma interpretations of voidness as asserted in Prasangika and please...

Other-Voidness Is an Implicative Negation Dr. Berzin: I’d like to ask you about other-voidness, zhentong (gzhan-stong). His Holiness the Dalai Lama acknowledges the Jonangpas as one of the proper Tibetan Buddhist traditions, but don’t the Jonangpas say that the deepest truth...

Introduction Our topic for this weekend is “ways of knowing” or lorig in Tibetan. This is a very helpful topic because it deals with how we know anything, how we know that what we know is correct, and how we know that it is decisive. It very much affects how we proceed on the...

The Complexity of Karma This weekend we’re going to be speaking about karma, and although the topic is announced as “karma: free will versus determinism,” that will be just a part of what we’ll talk about. I’d like to go into some detail about what karma is, what the various...

Take others’ feelings seriously, to care about how you treat them.