"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." --George Santayana "History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done." ~ Sydney J. Harris Introduction A new campaign and online petition to recognise the Jonang Tibetan Buddhist tradition has been launched by the… Continue reading RECOGNISING JONANG AND RIGHTING PAST WRONGS IN TIBET: New online campaign launched by Tibetan Jonang lineage holder to demand that central Tibetan exile government authorities officially recognise one of the main Tibetan Buddhist lineages
Tag: Dolpopa
MAGIC KEY FOR ENTERING KNOWLEDGE (PART III): ‘CONEQUENTIALIST MIDDLE WAY’ SCHOOL. The Consequentialist (Prasangika) Middle Way school and the fault of negating everything into empty-of-self (rang-tong) without asserting the ultimate ‘basis’ and qualities of Buddha Nature, the union of clear awareness-emptiness
“These days in this scriptural tradition people take mere words that appear as 'no propositions' as a refuge. They do not accept the presentation of the path and result, and do not even assert the Buddha Nature (Dezheg Nyingpo). Then they focus their mind single-pointedly on the blank, mere emptiness of the lack of elaborations…… Continue reading MAGIC KEY FOR ENTERING KNOWLEDGE (PART III): ‘CONEQUENTIALIST MIDDLE WAY’ SCHOOL. The Consequentialist (Prasangika) Middle Way school and the fault of negating everything into empty-of-self (rang-tong) without asserting the ultimate ‘basis’ and qualities of Buddha Nature, the union of clear awareness-emptiness
A SHINING MASS OF DHARMA: The Extraordinary and Vast Collected Works of Jetsun Tāranātha. New website and translation on his Life and Works
Introduction For the New Moon today, the first day of the sacred month of Saga Dawa tomorrow,and the recent commemoration of Jetsun Tāranātha's passing (May 17th), I am happy to launch and announce a brand-new website and first ever published English translation of the outline/contents of Tāranātha’s Collected Works, see https://taranathascollectedworks.com. To accompany the launch,… Continue reading A SHINING MASS OF DHARMA: The Extraordinary and Vast Collected Works of Jetsun Tāranātha. New website and translation on his Life and Works
WHO IS KHALKHA JETSUN DAMPA AND WHY IS HIS RECENT RECOGNITION CONTROVERSIAL? The 5th Dalai Lama/Gelugpa forceful and violent takeover and suppression of Jonang (and other lineages) in Tibet, and their ongoing recognition of the Jonang and Shangpa Kagyu lineage master, Tāranātha
"In 1642, eight years after Tāranātha’s death, an alliance of Mongol armies led by Gushri Khan defeated the U-Tsang rulers and enthroned the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (Nga-dbang-blo-bzang-rgya-mtsho) (1617–1682). According to most historical accounts, in the year 1650, the Fifth Dalai Lama sealed and banned the study of Jonang Empty-of-Other texts, prohibiting the… Continue reading WHO IS KHALKHA JETSUN DAMPA AND WHY IS HIS RECENT RECOGNITION CONTROVERSIAL? The 5th Dalai Lama/Gelugpa forceful and violent takeover and suppression of Jonang (and other lineages) in Tibet, and their ongoing recognition of the Jonang and Shangpa Kagyu lineage master, Tāranātha
THE WISDOM OF MANJUSHRI AND THE HOLLOW FRUITY PLEASURES OF SAMSARA. Sakya master Lama Dampa Gyeltsen’s Letter to Student, taught by Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche
"All the most important teachings, all the most important practices, all of them of the Sakya tradition, come through him. Like the Lamdre, Vajrayogini, Vajrakila and so on. So, his writings are highly regarded for elucidating the teachings of the Sakya founding masters." "That's why we also call seeming peak moments dukkha too. Because although… Continue reading THE WISDOM OF MANJUSHRI AND THE HOLLOW FRUITY PLEASURES OF SAMSARA. Sakya master Lama Dampa Gyeltsen’s Letter to Student, taught by Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche
MIND-ONLY IN TIBET (PART II): FIVE DHARMAS OF MAITREYA; KAGYU, JONANG AND SAKYA ZHENTONG VIEWS AND DIFFERENCES; DOLPOPA’S ASSERTIONS ABOUT MIND-ONLY TEXTS AS ZHENTONG MIDDLE WAY; AND THE NEED FOR THE THIRD MAHAYANA SCHOOL ‘BUDDHA NATURE’ (17th Karmapa teaching, Day 8)
"Generally, when talking about the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, he had studied and contemplated the Five Levels and many other Mind-Only texts. However, he mainly emphasized the Dharmas of Maitreya, and was the first Kagyupa, in the general and the sub-Kagyu lineages to spread the teachings of the Dharmas of Maitreya in Tibet. He left… Continue reading MIND-ONLY IN TIBET (PART II): FIVE DHARMAS OF MAITREYA; KAGYU, JONANG AND SAKYA ZHENTONG VIEWS AND DIFFERENCES; DOLPOPA’S ASSERTIONS ABOUT MIND-ONLY TEXTS AS ZHENTONG MIDDLE WAY; AND THE NEED FOR THE THIRD MAHAYANA SCHOOL ‘BUDDHA NATURE’ (17th Karmapa teaching, Day 8)
NEW PAGE: ‘BUDDHIST VEGETARIANISM’
Contrary to popular belief, and despite the difficulties of giving up meat in countries like Tibet (due to lack of plant food available), there are many examples of Tibetan Buddhist masters who advocated strict vegetarianism. One recent article, 'The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet' by Geoffrey Barstow (author of 'Food of Sinful Demons: Meat, Vegetarianism, and… Continue reading NEW PAGE: ‘BUDDHIST VEGETARIANISM’
4th Shamarpa, Yangchenpa Monastery and his ‘Praises to Dolpopa’
Omniscient Dolpopa (1292-1361) Today is the paranirvana of Omniscient (Kun mkhyen) Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan) (1292–1361) one of the most extraordinary Tibetan Buddhist masters, and key advocates and founders of the Empty-of-Other (gzhan stong) philosophy school and a highly realized practitioner of tantra, in particular Kālacakra. He is one… Continue reading 4th Shamarpa, Yangchenpa Monastery and his ‘Praises to Dolpopa’
The story of Dolpopa’s ‘Mount Meru’: HE Jigme Dorjee Rinpoche visits the Great Jonang Stupa, Tibet, September 2018
Alas, although my fortune is very modest, ཀྱེ་མ་བདག་གི་སྐལ་བ་རབ་དམན་ཡང་། A discovery like this makes me think it is excellent fortune. འདི་འདྲ་སྙེད་པས་སྐལ་བ་བཟང་སྙམ་བྱེད། Is this discovery by a lazy fool due to the blessing of the Kalki emperor? ལེ་ལོ་ཅན་གྱི་བླུན་པོས་འདི་རྙེད་པ། རིགས་ལྡན་རྒྱལ་པོས་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས་ཡིན་ནམ། Although my body did not arrive at Kalapa ལུས་ཀྱིས་ཀ་ལཱ་པ་རུ་མ་སླེབ་ཀྱང། did the Kalki enter my faithful mind? དད་པའི་སེམས་ལ་རིགས་ལྡན་ཞུགས་སམ་ཅི། Although… Continue reading The story of Dolpopa’s ‘Mount Meru’: HE Jigme Dorjee Rinpoche visits the Great Jonang Stupa, Tibet, September 2018