Tshewang Sonam, Tharpaling Khenpo

མཁན་པོ་ཚེ་དབང་བསོད་ནམས།

Khenpo Tshewang Sonam

Born in Ura village, Bumthang, Bhutan, he joined Wangthang Temple as young boy to learn prayers and rituals in the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions under Wangthang Rinpoche Yeshi Dorje. He also learned language and grammar under Lama Gyalwang Nyima and astrology under Lopen Norbu Wangchuk. He joined Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in Mysore and completed his education in 1996 while he also received training in meditation from Nyoshul Khenpo, Khenpo Akhyug, and Tulku Thubzang. In 1988, he served as a teacher at Tsangkha Monastic College, and from 1997, at the behest of H.H. Penor Rinpoche, he served as chief lecturer at Palyul Chokhorling in North India, Palyul Monastery in Tibet, and Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in Mysore. He also taught a large public gathering in Bhutan and regularly gave teachings on national TV on a wide range of topics. After spending three years in retreat in solitude, he currently serves as the head of Tharpaling Monastery and has authored commentaries on Entering the Middle Way, Ornament of Realization, and many other works.

རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།

འབྲུག་བུམ་ཐང་དུ་ཨུ་རའི་ཡུལ་དུ་འཁྲུངས་ཤིང་། ཆུང་དུས་ཝང་ཐང་དགོན་པའི་སྒོམ་སྡེ་ལ་ཞུགས་ཏེ་བཀའ་རྙིང་གི་ཆོག་འཕྲིན་སྐོར་སྦྱང་། བླ་མ་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཉི་མ་ལས་བརྡ་སྤྲོད་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་ནོར་བུ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ལས་རྩིས་གཞུང་ཞུས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༩༦ ལ་སྔ་འགྱུར་མཐོ་སློབ་སློབ་མདོ་སྔགས་རིག་པའི་འབྱུང་གནས་གླིང་གི་བཤད་གྲྭ་མཐར་སོན་ཅིང་ སྨྱོ་ཤུལ་མཁན་པོ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རྡོ་རྗེ། ཡ་ཆེན་མཁན་པོ་ཨ་ཁྱུག དཔལ་ཡུལ་མཆོག་སྤྲུལ་ཐུབ་བཟང་སོགས་ནས་རྫོགས་ཆེན་གྱི་ཉམས་ཁྲིད་ཞུས་ཤིང་། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༨༨ ་ལ་ཚངས་ཁ་རྩིས་གཞུང་སློབ་གྲྭའི་དགེ་རྒན་གནང་ཞིང་། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༩༧ ལ་ ༧ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་པད་ནོར་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་བཀའ་བཞིན། བྷིར་དཔལ་ཡུལ་ཆོས་འཁོར་གླིང་། དེ་ནས་རིམ་པར་ཁམས་དཔལ་ཡུལ་བཤད་གྲྭ་དང་། རྣམ་གྲོལ་གླིང་སྔ་འགྱུར་མཐོ་སློབ་ཆེན་པོའི་བཤད་གྲྭའི་ཚོགས་གཙོ་མཁན་པོའི་ལས་འགན་བསྣམས་ཤིང་། དེ་རྗེས་འབྲུག་ཡུལ་དུ་ ཁྲོམ་ཚོགས་དང་བརྙན་འཕྲིན་ཐོག་ཆོས་བཤད་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་སྔོན་འགྲོ། འཁྲུལ་འཁོར། བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་སྒྲུབ། སྒྲུབ་མཆོད་སོགས་ཆོས་ཐུན་གྲངས་མང་བཙུགས་ཤིང་། ལོ་གསུམ་རི་ཁྲོད་ཉུལ་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་ད་ལྟ་ཀློང་ཆེན་པའི་གདན་ས་འབྲུག་ཐར་པ་གླིང་གི་བསྟན་བདག་བླ་མའི་མཚན་གནས་བཞེས་ཏེ་བཞུགས། རྩོམ་གཞུང་ལ་ ཤེར་ཕྱིན་འགྲེལ་པ། དབུ་མ་འཇུག་འགྲེལ། དུས་གསུམ་རྣམ་བཞག བློ་རིག་དང་ འོད་ཆོག་སོགས་ཡོད།།

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Video

Khenpo Tshewang Sonam on Application of Buddha-Nature in the Nyingma Tradition

རྙིང་མ་དང་རྫོགས་ཆེན་ལ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་བཞེད་ཚུལ་དང་ཉམས་བཞེས།
The Understanding and Application of Buddha-Nature in the Nyingma and Dzogchen Tradition

Khenpo starts by thanking the participants, organizers, and attendees for the wonderful gathering and for the hard work to spread the teachings on buddha-nature by hosting this conference. A real patron of Buddhist teachings, he says, is one who supports critical thinking and the promotion of wisdom through such programes and not just someone who sponsors rituals and prayers. He then discusses the concept of gotra, or family/clan, based on activities and based on causes or reasons. He highlightes how the participants gather together as one family, sharing the buddha-nature, and that everyone should cultivate a kindred spirit instead of seeing differences based on region, nationality, gender, status, etc.

Delving into the buddha-nature theories, Khenpo explains that the middle wheel teaches buddha-nature with the nomenclature of the Perfection of Wisdom and the final wheel discusses it as tathāgatagarbha. In the tantric teachings we find other names such as innate mind, Mahāmudrā, and Great Perfection used to refer to buddha-nature. Citing the line from the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, he explains what mind, the nonexistence of the mind, and luminous nature of mind refer to. In an ecumenical spirit, he argues that what the Geluk considered as the absence of inherent existence and the Nyingma and other schools as the lack of any foundation refer to the same point of not finding an entity as they appear when thoroughly searched for their existence. Thus, despite the difference in word and presentation, he argues that the different interpretations of buddha-nature in different schools reach the same point.

He also shares that in studying buddha-nature, there is the exegetical intellectual approach and the practical instructional approach to buddha-nature. The difference between sūtra and tantric approaches to buddha-nature also ends when one attains the path of seeing, because at this stage the meditator directly experiences reality or buddha-nature whether the person followed the sūtra or tantric path. At this stage, the practitioner has actualized the actual luminosity through direct perception.

Such direct experience of pure, clear, unperturbed, unconditioned luminosity or buddha-nature is cultivated through intellectual and contemplative meditation in the sūtra system, through the practice of channels and vital energy in father tantras, and through seminal fluid practices and so forth in the mother tantras. However, in the Dzogchen system of the Nyingma, no contrived efforts are made, but buddha-nature is actualized through resting in the natural state, like allowing water to settle down or the sky to be free from clouds. By using the skillful postures and gazes and leveraging the practices of visions and light rays in the transcendent practice of todgyal, one unravels the buddha-nature from within one's heart.

Tshewang Sonam, Khenpo. "Khenpo Tshewang Sonam at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 3, Talk 1. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, June 1–3. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 1:04:45. https://youtu.be/FVvbqVoj7Mc.

Tshewang Sonam, Khenpo. "Khenpo Tshewang Sonam at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 3, Talk 1. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, June 1–3. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 1:04:45. https://youtu.be/FVvbqVoj7Mc.;Khenpo Tshewang Sonam on Application of Buddha-Nature in the Nyingma Tradition;Dzogchen;Nyingma;Khenpo Tshewang Sonam;མཁན་པོ་ཚེ་དབང་བསོད་ནམས།;Khenpo Tshewang Sonam at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference