Second year at Dzongsar Shedra

In the second year the main texts studied at Dzongsar Shedra are the Madyamakavatara, or Entrance to the middle way by Chandrakirti and the 400 verses by Aryadeva. Because I came from the Rigpa shedra in Nepal, where I attended the classes on Mipham Rinpoche’s Khenjug, or Entrance to the gateway of the wise, I arrived a few weeks late. Fortunately I arrived just in time for the famous 6^th chapter on transcendent wisdom from the Madyamakavatara.

Although I can still barely  understand what Khenpo Trinlepa is saying, nevertheless the teachings are quite amazing. The main commentary’s used are from the great Dzogchen Khenpo Shenga and Gorampa, but the Khenpo also teaches from a commentary by Khenpo chodrak, and recently we have also been using the uma chidon, which is something like a general commentary on the middle way, also by Gorampa. The main commentary by Gorampa, tawa ngensel or Removing wrong views, is quite elaborate. For example we are covering all the details of the differences between the Svatantrika Madyamika and the Prasangika Madyamika, in the ground , path fruition, and also within  a logical argument, for example in terms of the subject, the reason, the thesis, the example and so on. The whole chapter is based on the famous verse from Nagarjuna’s Root verses on the middle way:

བདག་ལས་མ་ཡིན་གཞན་ལས་མིན། །

གཉིས་ལས་མ་ཡིན་རྒྱུ་མེད་མིན། །

དངོས་པོ་གང་དག་གང་ན་ཡང་། །

སྐྱེ་བ་ནམ་ཡང་ཡོད་མ་ཡིན། །

Not from itself, nor from another,

Not from both, nor without a cause,

Does anything anywhere ever arise.

It might look like Nagarjuna is making four assertions here, but as you might know, the Prasangika Madyamika’s do not make any assertions of their own. As it says in Gorampa’s uma chidon, there are four wrong views regarding birth, from four different schools of thought, and thus Nagarjuna is merely saying this to refute their wrong views. The Hindu Samkhya’s say things arise from themselves, the Cittamatrin’s or mind only school of our own Buddhist tradition believe in things truly being born from others, the Jains believe things arise from both and the Charvaka’s believe things arise without a cause.

Besides the morning class at Dzongsar Shedra, I’m also attending some minor classes at the Nyingma Shedra. The Nyingma Shedra is  a branch of Namdroling, and thus they follow the same curriculum. In the second year they study Mipham’s Adornment of theMiddle way and the Entrance to the gateway of the wise as the main texts. The minor subjects are a text on the science of mind, or blo rigs, grammar, some part of Dudjom Rinpoche’s History and a text on tenet systems by Mipham Rinpoche, which is a condensation of Longchenpa’s Wish Fulfilling Treasury.

Besides the shedra’s, Chokling monastery has just finished a Thugdrub Barche Kunsel Drupchen, and also Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche taught for three days on the wisdom chapter of the Bodhicaryavatara at Deerpark. And last but not least, the weather is very nice at the moment in Bir, not to cold and not (yet) too hot!

On the picture a gathering of some western mtshan nyid pa’s, which means people who study definitions, which is a name for people studying at Shedra’s, from Dzongsar Shedra, Sherab Ling, and the tsenyi lobtra in Dharamsala, gathered during Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s teachings at Deerpark.