Kalsang Tenkyong, Sera Je Geshe

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དགེ་བཤེས་སྐལ་བཟང་བསྟན་སྐྱོང་།
Geshe Kalsang Tenkyong

At the age of 13, he joined Shugding Monastery in Tibet and memorized prayers and ritual texts. When he was 20, he joined Sera Monastery in Lhasa and learned language and logic. At 23, he left Tibet and arrived at Sera Monastery in India to pursue education in Buddhist studies. He stood 3rd in his exams on the Middle Way and Perfection Studies and carried out research on logic and epistemology as part of his Lharam Geshe training and sat the exams for it. He also stood 3rd in the examination in tantric studies. In 2020, he sat in the final defense for the Lharam Geshe degree. In addition to his regular academic achievements, he also won the first prize in a literary competition in Tibet, was the sole prize winner for literary composition during the international commemoration of Tsongkhapa, and also received many other prizes for literary writings. He served as the 11th President of the Khampa Literary Society and has authored many works including a commentary on Pramāṇasiddhi and two books of poetry entitled Sweets of the Mute. He is currently a researcher.

རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།

དགེ་བཤེས་ལྷ་རམས་པ་སྐལ་བཟང་བསྟན་སྐྱོང་། (སྨྱུག་མིང་དར་ལྕེ་ཟད་པོ།) སེ་ར་བྱེས། དགུང་ལོ་ ༡༣ ་ལ་ཤུག་ལྡིང་དགོན་ལ་ཞུགས་ནས་འདོན་ཆོག་མང་པོ་བློ་འཛིན་དང་། དགུང་ལོ་ ༢༠ ་ལ་ལྷ་ལྡན་སེ་རྭ་དགོན་ལ་ཞུགས་ནས་མཚན་ཉིད་གཞུང་དང་བོད་ཀྱི་རིག་གནས་བཅས་སྦྱངས། དེ་ནས་ལོ་ ༢༣ ་ལ་བཙན་བྱོལ་དུ་འབྱོར་ནས་སེར་བྱེས་གྲྭ་ཚང་ལ་ཞུགས་ནས་གཞུང་ཆེན་སློབ་གཉེར་བྱས་པས་དབུ་ཕར་རབ་འབྱམས་པ་རྩེ་ཕུད་གསུམ་པ་ཐོབ། ལྷ་རམས་ཚད་མ་རིག་པ་ཉམས་ཞིབ་པའི་རྩོམ་རྒྱུགས་ཕུལ་བ་དང་། སྔགས་ཀྱི་རྩོད་རྒྱུགས་ཆེན་མོ་རྩེད་ཕུད་ཨང་གསུམ་པ་ཐོབ། ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༠ ་ལོར་ལྷ་རམས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག བོད་ནས་སྙན་རྩོམ་འགྲན་བསྡུར་ཞིག་ལས་བྱ་དགའ་ཨང་དང་པོ་དང་། རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་ཙོང་ཁ་པ་རྗེས་དྲན་ལོར་སྙན་རྩོམ་དང་དཔྱད་རྩོམ་བྱ་དགའ་གཉིས་ཁོང་གཅིག་པུས་ཐོབ་པ་དང་། སྔ་ཕྱི་རྩོམ་ཡིག་འགྲན་བསྡུར་ལས་བྱ་དགའ་ཐེངས་མང་པོ་ཐོབ་ཅིང། སྐབས་བཅུ་པའི་ཁམས་པའི་སྨྱུག་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་གཙོ་གནང་ཞིང་། བརྩམས་ཆོས་ “ཚད་མ་གྲུབ་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཐར་ལམ་འཇུག་ངོགས་” དང་། སྙན་རྩོམ། “ལྐུགས་པའི་བུ་རམ་” ཞེས་པ་དེབ་ཕྲེང་གཉིས་ཡོད། ད་ལྟ་ཉམས་ཞིབ་གནང་བཞིན་བཞུགས།།

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Video
Geshe Kalsang Tenkyong on Buddha-Nature among Some Kadam Masters
རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་དང་ཆ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེང་གེས་གཤེགས་སྙིང་སྐོར་བཞེད་ཚུལ།

Interpretation of Buddha-Nature by Ngok Loden Sherab and Chapa Chökyi Senge


The old Kadam masters have written many works on Buddha-Nature and their teachings have influenced many other scholars in all Tibetan Buddhist traditions. However, today their teachings have declined, most of it being neglected. It is even difficult to find Kadam writings, and it is therefore pertinent that a special opportunity to make a presentation on the early Kadam tradition is given. Atiśa received the Mahāyāna tradition of both the profound view tradition from Nāgārjuna and vast praxis tradition from Asaṅga, and his followers included both those following the Prāsaṅgika Mādhyamika and Svātantrika Mādhyamika tradition.

Among the most prominent early Kadam masters on Buddha-Nature is Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab, who was not only the main transmitter of the Ultimate Continuum, the main book on Buddha-Nature, but also a first and major commentator. After explaining the etymology of tathāgatagarbha, gotra, dhatu, etc., Khenpo Tenkyong explains Ngok's understanding of tathāgarbha as emptiness of own being or self-existence and as a reality which cannot be found if investigated by ultimate analysis. Thus, emptiness is not an object of cognition and not a knowable thing. Such ultimate truth qua emptiness is the nature of the illusory conventional phenomena, and the two truths, i.e. emptiness of own being and illusory appearance, coalesce to form the union of two truths. Such emptiness and conventional appearance exist from primordial existence and are not newly contrived and created.

Discussing Chapa, whose understanding is from his trilogy on the Middle Way, he argues that Chapa asserts the absence of phenomena when investigated by ultimate analysis is ultimate truth. The presence of phenomena when not investigated by analysis is conventional truth. They are one by nature but different in aspects. Unlike Ngok, Chapa argued that the ultimate qua emptiness can be found when investigated through ultimate analysis. This led to a heated discussion on whether there is something truly existent or hypostatically existent in the Madhyamaka tradition.
Kalsang Tenkyong, Geshe. "Geshe Kalsang Tenkyong at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 1, Talk 2. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 1:02:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSLj6w_QfHM.
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