Khyentse, Dzongsar
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While still a teenager, Rinpoche built a small retreat center in Ghezing, Sikkim and soon began traveling and teaching around the world. In the 1980s, he began the restoration of Dzongsar Monastery in Derge, the responsibility of which he had inherited from his previous incarnation, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He established Dzongsar Institute in Bir, India, (now DKCLI in Chauntra), which has grown to be one of the most respected institutions for advanced dialectical study. He also oversees two monasteries in Bhutan and has established dharma centres in Australia, Europe, North America, and Asia. He has written several books and made award-winning films. Rinpoche continuously travels all over the world, practicing and teaching the Dharma. (Source: Khyentse Foundation.org)
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Rinpoche gave these teachings on the Uttaratantra at the Centre d’Etudes de Chanteloube in Dordogne, France during the summers of 2003 and 2004, after completing a four-year teaching cycle on Chandrakirti’s Madhyamakavatara. He has often emphasised the value of a grounding in the Madhyamika or ‘Middle Way’ philosophy of emptiness, as without this foundation beginners can easily misunderstand Buddha’s teaching that all sentient beings have buddhanature. For example, many of us who have grown up in a Western cultural context can easily confuse buddhanature with ideas like God or a personal soul or essence. These teachings allow us to dispel these kinds of misunderstanding. And despite their very different presentations, both the Madhyamika and Uttaratantra are teachings on the buddhist view of emptiness. As Rinpoche says, “You could say that when Nagarjuna explains the Prajñaparamita, he concentrates more on its ‘empty’ aspect (“form is emptiness” in the Heart Sutra), whereas when Maitreya explains the same thing, he concentrates more on the ‘ness’ aspect (emptiness is form).” In showing us how emptiness and buddhanature are different ways of talking about the same thing, this text gives us the grounding we need to understand buddhanature.
In this way, the Uttaratantra gives us another way to understand the Four Seals that comprise the buddhist view, which Rinpoche teaches in his book “What Makes You Not a Buddhist.” It also offers a way to make sense of what modern physics has discovered about the magically “full” quality of “empty” space (e.g. vacuum particles and quantum optics). But like all buddhist philosophy, it is not intended simply to provoke an academic discussion that we leave behind as we return to our everyday lives. It is taught as a path for us to attain liberation. For practitioners, the Uttaratantra clearly explains what it means to accumulate merit and purify defilements, and it offers a safety net to protect our path from falling into all-too-common eternalist or nihilist extremes. It also tackles many of the basic questions that practitioners ask as they consider the nature of the path, questions like: What is the ultimate destination of this path? Who is this person travelling on the path? What are the defilements that are eliminated on the path? What is experience of enlightenment like? Rinpoche answers these questions and many others in this commentary on the Uttaratantra-Shastra. (Source: Siddhartha's Intent)Affiliations & relations
- Grandson of Dudjom Rinpoche · familial relation
- Grandson of Bla ma bsod nams bzang po · familial relation
- Eldest son of Norbu, Thinley · familial relation
- Sakya · religious affiliation
- Dzongsar Monastery · primary professional affiliation
- 'jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse chos kyi blo gros · emanation of
- Appey, Khenchen · teacher
- Chatral Rinpoche · teacher
- Khyentse, Dilgo · teacher
- Dudjom Rinpoche · teacher
- Sakya Trizin, 41st · teacher
- Nyoshul Khenpo · teacher
- Karmapa, 16th · teacher
- Bla ma bsod nams bzang po · teacher
- siddharthasintent.org · websites
