Btsan kha bo che

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PeopleBtsan kha bo che


བཙན་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་
Tsen Khawoche(b. 1021 - ) 

Tsen Khawoche was an eleventh-century disciple of the Kashmiri paṇḍita Sajjana. He is credited by Tibetan historians for giving rise to the "meditative" tradition of exegesis of the Ratnagotravibhāga, a main source of buddha-nature theory in Tibet, which heavily influenced Mahāmudrā and the "other-emptiness" philosophical position.

... read more at The Treasury of Lives

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On the topic of this person

Philosophical positions of this person


Karl Brunnhölzl cites ShAkya mchog ldan: "The sugata heart is the naturally pure wisdom, luminous by nature, that pervades everyone from buddhas to sentient beings." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 124.

"Kunga Drölcho provides some context for Dsen Kawoché’s view and for the following excerpts from the latter’s teachings, which Kunga Drölcho compiled as Guiding Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness:

Karl cites Kongtrul stating, "TOK calls Ngog’s tradition of the Maitreya texts "the oral transmission of explanation" (bshad pa’i bka’ babs) and Dsen’s lineage, "the oral transmission of practice" (sgrub pa’i bka’ babs), saying that they are asserted to hold the views of Madhyamaka and Mere Mentalism, respectively." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 124.

He predates the category, but as Stearns remarks, "Tsen Kawoché . . . is often thought to be the first Tibetan to have taught what later came to be known as the Zhentong view." See Stearns, C., The Buddha from Dolpo, pp. 42–3 and pp. 88–9.

Other names

  • དྲི་མེད་ཤེས་རབ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • dri med shes rab · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

  • Kadam · religious affiliation
  • grwa pa mngon shes · teacher
  • Sajjana · teacher