Tsongkhapa

This article focuses on a specific iconography of the dGe lugs pa school. This iconography is known by the name of tshogs zhing (a spiritual field for the accumulation of merits), here analyzed in its 18 th century form. The images described here are an essential tool for the religious practice prescribed by the dgGe lugs pa's bla ma mchod pa tantric literature. As an esoteric literature, the bla ma mchod pa is based on an "essential instruction" (man ngag) which gathers teachings on the main tantras of the so called niruttara classes. This paper will discuss the oldest iconography of the bla ma mchod pa tshogs zhing, directly related to the root text of the first Paṇ chen Bla ma Blo bzang Chos kyi rgyal mtshan (1567-1662). Among the many images of tshogs zhing I have analyzed 1-almost identical in the representation of this specific subject-I present here a xylograph (Fig. 2) and a thang ka (Fig. 1). The xylograph, realized in the style of the 18 th century's woodblocks of sNar thang, 2 is an uncatalogued item of the Tucci Tibetan Collection (IsIAO Library, Rome). The thang ka is property of a Tibetan private citizen living now in Bodhgaya, in the Indian state of Bihar. 3 Within the dGe lugs pa order, the bla ma mchod pa literature stems from essential tantric and esoteric instructions (man ngag) related to the guru devotion liturgies and practices prescribed by guruyoga literature. 4 In order to receive these particular man 1 Research has been done in the dGe lugs pa monasteries of Ladakh, McLeod Ganj and the Kathmandu Valley. Further sources of comparison were several catalogues on Tibetan art (see below) and the web site www.himalayanart.org. As primary sources, I also studied and translated two texts, Sangs rgyas ye shes's Bla ma mchod pa'i cho ga dngos grub kun 'byung, and Ye shes rgyal mtshan's Bla ma lha'i rnal 'byor gyi khrid dmigs kyi bsdus don snyan rgyud gter mdzod 'byed pa'i lde mig (see the bibliography for complete references). 2 A monastery located 15 km west of Shigatse, in gTsang (Central Tibet), which is famous as a printery. 3 I wish to thank the former President of IsIAO, the late Professor Gherardo Gnoli, and Mr. Thinlay Nepali for allowing me to study and show the xylograph and the thang ka presented here. 4 Bla ma mchod pa translates the Sanskrit term gurupūjā. Concerning the meaning of mchod pa, see Makransky 1996.

I'm a filmmaker. I am not a scholar. I am not an academic. I am an author of a number of books about what people say under deep hypnosis about the afterlife, and recently what they say without hypnosis on the same topic. My interest in posting here is that I have no one to share this information with, other than my web page, or perhaps medium.com - but what's contained in this paper is not meant to offend anyone - it's observational reporting.  I leave all indepth reviews to those scholars who have done so much of it - I'm literally in the parking lot outside the grandstand and listening to the game going on inside.  I am a fan of the people who I mention in this essay - but it may not belong here, and if not, I apologize.  But there is no peer reviewed place to write about what people say about the flipside, consistently and it is reproducible.  I've been filming people saying the same things over a decade, different hypnotherapists, and most recently, without any hypnotherapy. Some of the excerpts come from the book "Architecture of the Afterlife" (Homina publishing 2020).

Un tratado en el que, basándose en el Capítulo sobre la moralidad ética, de Niveles del bodhisatva, de Asanga, Tsong Khapa analiza en detalle la naturaleza y características de los votos de la liberación individual y del bodhisatva, en el contexto del Camino de Mahayana de la Perfección.

The Meaning of rigs shes in the Geluk Tradition A rational consciousness is a crucial concept that can explain Tsongkhapa's and the Geluk Tradition's path to enlightenment. There are two types of rational consciousness: a conceptual and a non-conceptual rational consciousnesses. A conceptual rational consciousness is regarded as a concordant ultimate because, while a conceptual rational consciousness itself is not an ultimate due to relying on signs to examine the ultimacy of true existence, this type of rational consciousness concords with an ultimate which is the result of the ultimate reasoning. On the other hand, a non-conceptual rational consciousness is an actual ultimate since it directly perceives the selflessness of persons and phenomena. The former is, according to Sonam Thakchöe's formulation, ontologically deceptive but epistemologically correct; the latter is correct ontologically and epistemologically. This paper tries to find answers on the two questions. First, how can these two rational consciousnesses—a conceptual rational consciousness and a non-conceptual rational consciousness—be related to each other in meditation on emptiness? A conceptual rational consciousness and a non

This chapter focuses on methods to counter anger according to Tsong-kha-pa, a fifteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar and founding figure of the Gelukpa (dge lugs pa) tradition. After briefly introducing the figure of Tsong-kha-pa, we discuss elements in his Tibetan Buddhist worldview which are formative in his approach to anger. These elements include Tsong-kha-pa’s understanding of the nature of mind and mental states, his strict adherence to the principles of karma (action) and rebirth, and the correlation of actions with pleasant or unpleasant effects to virtuous and non-virtuous states of being. We then contextualize Tsong-kha-pa’s countering of anger within the framework of his integrated system of Mahayana Buddhist moral and mental cultivations. This integrated system is known as the gradual stages on the path to awakening (lam rim).

... GHA 221 this point one has gathered a rough understanding of the essencelessness of things and begun the unified path of calm abiding and special insight (samathavipasyanŻayuganaddha). The bodhisattva is ready to enter into the mahŻayŻana path of preparation. ...

This paper investigates old dGa’-ldan and Gong-dkar-ba xylographic editions that date to the 15th century. The Gong dkar ba edition was the earliest block-print edition of Sa skya pa writings in Central Tibet, and it was sponsored by Gong dkar rDo rje gdan pa Kun dga' rnam rgyal when he was still a young lay noble called Grwa lnga rgyal po.

This paper will compare two fourteenth century philosophical systems that describe Buddhist theories on creation: the graded path of the Middle Way and aspects of its subsequent system of Highest Yoga Tantra according to Je Tsongkhapa, and the Great Perfection tradition according to Longchenpa.  For the Middle Way philosophy I will mostly rely upon teachings on perception by a modern monk-scholar, Gen Lamrimpa, who refers to a system elaborated on by a 19th century Sera Mey textbook author Purbuchok Jampa Tsultrim, which stands as a quintessential representative of the philosophy of Gelug (dge lugs) tradition of Je Tsongkhapa.  In addition, to support my presentation of Middle Way philosophy I will also refer to the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim chen mo).  For the philosophy of the Great Perfection I will rely on the modern scholars David Germano and Herbert Guenther, and on Longchenpa’s text Words and Meanings.
In doing so, I will attempt to answer the following questions: What is the philosophy of each of these systems?  How does the map of the mind presented in these traditions relate to both the source of the mind, and to the external world?  What mechanisms are in place that make these systems work?  Is the philosophy reflected in the contemplative systems? And finally, how does each system deal with solipsism?
The key distinction of these systems lies in their fundamental views of emptiness, the foundation from which each system’s creation story emerges.  We will see that the emptiness of the Great Perfection tradition is divine and luminous in nature, while the Middle Way emphasizes a reductionist view of emptiness without any qualities.  Beyond their foundations however, which are important, the two systems contain many of the same elements but differ greatly in emphasis.  Having the same components is a likely necessity needed to justify their foundations, and yet those differences in emphasis have a profound effect on their systems of praxis.

An overlooked aspect in the study of Tibetan Buddhism is the Gelukpa (dge lugs pa) understanding of Tuṣita Heaven as a pure land (dag pa’i zhing khams). Ever since Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (Tsong kha pa blo gzang grags pa, 1357–1419) founded the monastery of Ganden (dga’ ldan, Tuṣita, “Heaven of Joy”) his Gelukpa followers have placed devotional emphasis on creating merit to form links with the Buddha Maitreya, and Maitreya’s pure land within Tuṣita Heaven. The Gelukpa understanding of Tuṣita Heaven as a pure land develops based upon a long history of Maitreya worship in Tibet, upon the aspirations for rebirth in Tuṣita by previous Indian and Tibetan scholars, and in relation to events during and after Tsongkhapa’s life that are connected to Maitreya and Tuṣita Heaven. The practices and devotions surrounding the understanding of Tuṣita Heaven as a pure land are inter-connected with the history of the institutional development among those who follow Tsongkhapa and are centered around the Ganden monastery he founded, an institution that has the very name of the heaven itself. Practices and beliefs related to Tuṣita were developed among Tsongkhapa’s immediate followers and over the course of several centuries and were exported to wherever the Gelukpa tradition thrived, which included areas throughout Tibet, a vast area from Kalmuck Mongolian regions, Inner and Outer Mongolia, the Buriat Republic of Siberia, and even temples in China. The later popularity of these beliefs and practices was also related to the ascendancy of political power of the Gelukpa school in Tibet, particularly from the seventeenth century, and contributed to social cohesion among Gelukpa followers.
The following chapter provides a brief historical background to Maitreya and Tuṣita in the life of Tsongkhapa, describes the context for the understanding of Tuṣita Heaven as a buddha-field among Tsongkhapa’s followers, and concludes
with a description of the characteristics of Maitreya’s field as a pure land.

Study of the Twenty Saṃghas in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism published in 2003.  A full monograph on the topic is published in  Stairway to Nirvāṇa: A Study of the Twenty Saṃghas Based on the Works of Tsong kha pa (SUNY, 2008) [ http://www.sunypress.edu/p-4578-stairway-to-nirvana.aspx ].  A text critical edition of Tsong-kha-pa's work on this subject in Tibetan script with Sanskrit and Pāli annotations is in A Stairway taken by the Lucid: Tsong kha pa's Study of Noble Beings (Aditya Prakashan, 2013) [http://www.adityaprakashan.com/]

This paper will look at Kant's views of the aesthetic experience, in relationship to Buddhist philosophical and political discussions of art and social organization. The primary focus in Kantian literature explores the relationship between free and dependent beauty, as well as Kant's paradox of taste. The central argument of the Kantian portion is going to navigate the paradox of taste via Graham Priest's epistemic and conceptual distinction pertaining to the limits of thought. Secondly, I shall contextualize the debate with similar argumentation found in medieval Tibetan literature, by thinkers such as Tsongkhapa and Drakpa Gyaltsen. Lastly, I shall look at the political and artistic state of affairs in Yuan and Ming Dynasties and assert the applicability of both Kantian and Tibetan discussions of effibility in the context of Tibetan poetry and Thangkas.

A Stairway taken by the Lucid presents for the first time an annotated English translation accompanied with a Tibetan critical edition of Tsong kha pa's commentary on the different types of Noble Beings (Skt. arya, Tib.'phags pa) that progress toward awakening. In this edition and translation of his blo-gsal bgrod-pa'i them-skas, Tsong kha pa (1357-1419), revered as one of the foremost masters in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, provides a detailed exegesis of the characteristics and attainments that Noble Beings acquire in advancing toward nirvana through multiple lifetimes in varying cosmological realms. Noble Beings are individuals within the Buddhist spiritual community (samgha) who become constituted by moral virtue, mental quiescence, and cognitive insight through embodying the Buddha's teaching on the way to nirvana. Tsong kha pa details the location and number of lives remaining until nirvana for Noble Beings based on his meticulous analysis of classical Indian Buddhist works like Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa and Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya.

After being engendered through the appropriating activity (upadana) of the mind (manas), applied to the universal experience of the storehouse consciousness (alayavijnana), the individual experience is constituted through the conjoint activity of the six “operational consciousnesses” (pravrtti vijnana): the five sensory consciousnesses and the mental consciousness (manovijnana). The brute sensory experience is projected by the five sensory consciousnesses, approximating the senses, but being rather some faculties (indriya), capacities, the potentiality of consciousness to engender some specific types of experience. In Vijnanavada, the sensory experience is totally devoid of concept (vikalpa), presenting itself as an amorphous flow of sensory inputs. Conceptualization is performed by the mental consciousness which, in an illusory manner, projects the categorically discriminated entities onto the sensory flow. Vijnanavada authors claim that the conceptually determined entities created by the mental consciousness (manovijnana) are purely fictitious, hence the mental consciousness projecting a totally illusory ontological sphere, which broadly comprises all the states of human awareness. Most of the human conscious experiences take place at the level of this conceptual sphere, this meaning that human awareness and the entire human drama involve mainly illusory entities.
Therefore, conceptual experience is severely flawed, firstly, because it is produced at the level of the limited individual self (atman), and, secondly, due to its fictitious character (vitatha).

Keywords: Buddhism, Vijñanavada, mental consciousness, manovijnana, operational consciousness, pravrtti vijnana, perception, concept, category.

James B. Apple examines one of the formative subjects in traditional Buddhist studies, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha. The Saṃgha (community) is one of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha) universally revered by all Buddhists. While the Saṃgha is generally understood as the community of Buddhist ordained monks and nuns, along with lay adherents, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha concerns an exemplary community of the twenty types of Noble Beings (ārya-pudgala) who embody the Buddha’s teachings. Focusing on the interpretation of the Saṃgha given by the fourteenth-century Tibetan scholar Tsong kha pa, Apple provides a comprehensive typology and analysis of the stages through which Noble Beings pass in their progress toward enlightenment through multiple lifetimes in various cosmological realms. He explains the cosmographic formations and complex structures of Buddhist spiritual cultivation, illustrating how Tibetan and Indian Buddhists conceptualize all possible states on the path to enlightenment.

An experimental analysis of Tsong kha pa's inquiries into truth and phenomena is explored. To develop open divine theories of emptiness, a key issue for Tsong kha pa is how to treat the two modes of propositions as an integration of all propositional attitudes: descriptive and interpretative. The descriptive mode applies to all sentient beings, while the interpretative mode is for a limited context in the four major human schools of Buddhist philosophy. By activating these modes, one can visualize the descriptive truth as well as the interpretative reality asserted by one's own teachers or from scripture.