Ngawang Tsesang, Ganden Shartse Geshe

དགེ་བཤེས་ངག་དབང་མཚན་བཟང་།

Geshe Ngawang Tsesang(b. 1979 - )

Born in 1979 in Khyungpo Tengchen, he became a monk at the age of eight under Lamrim Lama Pema Dorje and joined Dilgo Samtenling Monastery, where he studied reading, writing, prayers, and rituals. In 1996, he arrived in India and joined Ganden Shartse College. He finished his study of the five great treatises and in 2012 sat for the series of Grand Geluk Examinations. In 2018, he finished the course with the final defense for Lharam Geshe at the Grand Prayer Festival. After this, he undertook tantric studies at Gyuto Monastery and in 2019 he served on the Academic Council of Ganden Shartse. He currently teaches at Ganden Shartse and is also undertaking research on the Middle Way under the International Geluk Commission.

རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།

སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༧༩ ་ལ་ཁྱུང་པོ་སྟེང་ཆེན་དུ་འཁྲུངས། ལོ་ ༨ ་ནས་ལམ་རིམ་བླ་མ་པདྨ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྐུ་ནས་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་སྟེ་དིལ་མགོ་བསམ་གཏན་གླིང་དུ་ཆོས་སྒོར་ཞུགས། བོད་ཡིག་འབྲི་ཀློག་སོགས་ལ་བསླབས་ནས་རིམ་བཞིན་ཆོ་ག་ཆོས་སྤྱོད་སོགས་བློ་འཛིན་གནང། སྤྱི་ལོ ༡༩༩༦ ་ལོར་རྒྱ་གར་དུ་འབྱོར་ཏེ། བྱེས་ཀྱི་གདན་ས་དགའ་ལྡན་ཤར་རྩེ་གྲྭ་ཚང་དུ་སྒྲིག་ཞུགས་མཛད། གཞུང་ཆེན་བཀའ་པོད་ལྔར་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་འཛིན་གྲྭ་བཞིན་སློབ་མཐར་སོན་ཏེ། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༢ ་ལ་དགེ་ལྡན་ལུགས་བཟང་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་གི་རྒྱུགས་སྤྲོད་ཆེན་མོར་ཞུགས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༨ ་ལ་སློབ་མཐར་སོན་ཏེ། སྨོན་ལམ་ཆེན་མོར་དགེ་བཤེས་ལྷ་རམས་པའི་དམ་འཇོག་གནང་། དེ་ནས་གསང་ཆེན་རིག་པ་འཛིན་པའི་དཔལ་ལྡན་སྟོད་རྒྱུད་གྲྭ་ཚང་དུ་ལོ་གཅིག་གི་རིང་གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ཆེན་ཁག་ལ་གསན་བསམ་མཛད་དེ། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༩ ་ནས་དགའ་ལྡན་ཤར་རྩེ་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་སློབ་གཉེར་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུན་ལས་ལོ་གཅིག་དང་། དཔེ་ཁྲིད་དགེ་རྒན་གྱི་ཕྱག་འགན་འཁུར་བཞིན་པ་དང་། ད་ལྟ་རྒྱལ་སྤྱི་དགེ་ལྡན་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་གོ་སྒྲིག་འོག་གཞུང་ཆེན་རིགས་གཅིག་རྐང་འཛིན་གྱི་ལས་རིམ་ནང་དབུ་མའི་ཐོག་ཉམས་ཞིབ་གནང་བཞིན་པ་ལགས།།

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Video

Geshe Ngawang Tsesang on Buddha-Nature in Gyaltsab Je's Commentary

རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེའི་ཊཱིཀཱ་ལྟར་དུ་རི་བོ་དགེ་ལྡན་པའི་གཤེགས་སྙིང་གི་བཞེད་ཚུལ་སྐོར།
The Gelukpa Understanding of Buddha-Nature Based on Gyaltsab Je's Commentary

Geshe starts by stating the importance of making the Buddhist message easily accessible to a common listener. He expresses concern that scholars often discuss Buddhist topics using technical terms and do not consider the general audience who do not follow the technical vocabulary. Thus, he states that his aim is to present the Geluk understanding of buddha-nature in as simplest terms as he can, based on the writings of Tsongkhapa and his two main students, using mainly Gyaltsab Je's commentary on the Ultimate Continuum. Gyaltsab Je wrote his commentary having received teachings on the Ultimate Continuum from both Tsongkhapa and Rendawa.

He divides his presentation into three sections of (1) how the sūtras teach buddha-nature, (2) what is the essence or nature of buddha-nature, and (3) what is the benefit of such teachings on buddha-nature. Discussing the first part, he mentions how the first wheel mainly focused on the topic of the absence of a personal self as the clinging to self is the main cause of suffering. However, in the middle wheel, the Buddha not only negated the inherent existence of a personal self but also extended the application of emptiness to all five aggregates and all phenomena. Thus, all phenomena are established to be empty of inherent existence. In the third wheel, such emptiness of the mind or the lack of inherent or truly existent nature of the mind, which is luminous, is given the name buddha-nature.

Going on to explain the characteristics of buddha-nature, Geshe points out that in the Geluk tradition, it is the emptiness of the luminous mind which is buddha-nature. Emptiness of other things such as pillars and vases are not considered buddha-nature, although they are also empty of inherent nature. Buddha-nature pervades all minds, as all minds are luminous by nature, but not all emptiness qualifies as buddha-nature. If any emptiness would be buddha-nature, all inanimate objects would also have buddha-nature. Similarly, if buddha-nature is identical with the resultant dharmakāya, all sentient beings would be buddhas. Thus, buddha-nature refers only to the emptiness of the mind of the sentient beings.

Asked how the teachings on buddha-nature as emptiness can help in the pursuit of enlightenment and happiness, Geshe responds using the example of a plain screen. Just as multiple pictures appear on the screen, although they do not really exist, the diverse world appears in the state of emptiness although they do not really exist. The teachings on buddha-nature show how they do not truly exist. Responding to another question, he clarifies that the Ultimate Continuum in the Geluk tradition, according to Gyaltsab's commentary, is considered to align with the Prāsaṅgika Mādhyamika thought.

Ngawang Tsesang, Geshe. "Geshe Ngawang Tsesang at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 1, Talk 6. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 1:09:44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59TlNurZH74.

Ngawang Tsesang, Geshe. "Geshe Ngawang Tsesang at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 1, Talk 6. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 1:09:44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59TlNurZH74.;Geshe Ngawang Tsesang on Buddha-Nature in Gyaltsab Je's Commentary;Geluk;Rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen;Geshe Ngawang Tsesang;དགེ་བཤེས་ངག་དབང་མཚན་བཟང་།;Geshe Ngawang Tsesang at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference