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Geshe
Geshe (, short for ''dge-ba'i bshes-gnyen'', "virtuous friend"; translation of Skt. ''kalyāņamitra'') or geshema is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks and nuns. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug lineage, but is also awarded in the Sakya and Bön traditions.Quotation: The ''geshe'' degree in the Gelug school is comparable to a western doctorate in Buddhist philosophy. The difference is that it usually takes more than twenty years to complete. The equivalent ''geshema'' degree is awarded to women. History The title ''Geshe'' was first applied to esteemed Kadampa masters such as Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1102–1176), who composed an important text called ''Seven Points of Mind Training'' and Geshe Langri Tangpa (, 1054–1123). The ''geshe'' curriculum represents an adaptation of subjects studied at Indian Buddhist monastic universities such as Nālandā. These centers were destroyed by Islamic invaders of India, leaving Tibet to continue the tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venerable Kelsang Wangmo
Geshe Kelsang Wangmo is a German-born Buddhist nun, scholar, and teacher. She is the first woman to be awarded a Geshe title, considered equivalent to a Ph.D. in Buddhist philosophy. Early life She was raised in a Roman Catholic family in Lohmar, a small town between Cologne and Bonn in Germany. During her childhood, she attended church but grew uninterested in religion in her teens. After completing high school in 1989, she went on a backpacking trip. Travelling through Israel (where she stayed on a kibbutz), Turkey, Cyprus, Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan, she reached India. After visiting Kolkata, Varanasi, and Manali, she landed in Dharamshala. She had planned to stay for a couple of weeks before returning to start university, studying medicine. But eventually, she stayed on. Conversion to Buddhism She joined an introduction to Buddhism course at Tushita Meditation Centre, at Dharamkot above McLeod Ganj in Himachal Pradesh. She went on to study Buddhism seriously. Her stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chekawa Yeshe Dorje
Geshe Chekhawa (or Chekawa Yeshe Dorje) (1102–1176) was a prolific Kadampa Buddhist meditation master who was the author of the celebrated root text ''Training the Mind in Seven Points'', which is an explanation of Buddha's instructions on training the mind or Lojong in Tibetan. These teachings reveal how sincere Buddhist practitioners can transform adverse conditions into the path to enlightenment, principally, by developing their own compassion. Before Chekhawa Yeshe Dorje's root text this special set of teachings given by Buddha were secret teachings only given to faithful disciples. Chekhawa Yeshe Dorje was born into a family that practiced the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. However, as is common in all the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, he also sought teachings from other traditions. He received teachings from Rechungpa (one of Milarepa's main disciples) and later from Kadampa Geshes. After reading the text ''Eight Verses of Training the Mind'' by Geshe Langri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as in Nepal. Smaller groups of practitioners can be found in Central Asia, some regions of China such as Northeast China, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and some regions of Russia, such as Tuva, Buryatia, and Kalmykia. Tibetan Buddhism evolved as a form of Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism stemming from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism (which included many Vajrayana, Vajrayāna elements). It thus preserves many Indian Buddhist Tantra, tantric practices of the Gupta Empire, post-Gupta Medieval India, early medieval period (500–1200 CE), along with numerous native Tibetan developments. In the pre-modern era, Tibetan Buddhism spread outside of Tibet primarily due to the influence of the Mongol Emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gelug
file:DalaiLama0054 tiny.jpg, 240px, 14th Dalai Lama, The 14th Dalai Lama (center), the most influential figure of the contemporary Gelug tradition, at the 2003 Kalachakra ceremony, Bodh Gaya, Bodhgaya (India) The Gelug (, also Geluk; 'virtuous')Kay, David N. (2007). ''Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantation, Development and Adaptation,'' p. 39. Routledge. is the newest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), a Tibetan people, Tibetan philosopher, Vajrayana, tantric yogi and lama and further expanded and developed by his disciples (such as Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, 1st Panchen Lama, Khedrup Je, Gyaltsab Je, Gyaltsap Je, Dulzin Drakpa Gyaltsen, and 1st Dalai Lama, Gendün Drubpa). The Gelug school is alternatively known as Kadam (''bKa’-gdams gsar-pa''), since it sees itself as a continuation of the Kadam (Tibetan Buddhism), Kadam tradition of Atiśa, Atisha (c. 11th century). The school of New Kadam, or New Kadampa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsongkhapa
Tsongkhapa ( Tibetan: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་, '','' meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley", c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.Tsong khapa (2006), pp. ix-x. His philosophical works are a grand synthesis of the Buddhist epistemological tradition of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, the Cittamatra philosophy of the mind, and the madhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti.Tsong khapa (2006), pp. ix-xii.Sparham, Gareth"Tsongkhapa" ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Fall 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Central to his philosophical and soteriological teachings is "a radical view of emptiness" which sees all phenomena as devoid of intrinsic nature.Newland 2009, p. 8. This view of emptiness is not a kind of nihilism or a total denial of existence. Instead, it sees phenomena as existing " interdepe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abhisamayalankara
The "Ornament of/for Realization[s]", abbreviated AA, is one of five Sanskrit-language Mahayana sutras, Mahayana śastras which, according to Tibetan tradition, Maitreya revealed to Asanga, Asaṅga in northwest India circa the 4th century AD. (Chinese tradition recognizes a different list of Maitreya texts which does not include the AA.) Those who doubt the claim of supernatural revelation disagree (or are unsure) whether the text was composed by Asaṅga himself, or by someone else, perhaps a human teacher of his. The AA is never mentioned by Xuanzang, who spent several years at Nalanda in India during the early 7th century, and became a savant in the Maitreya-Asaṅga tradition. One possible explanation is that the text is late and attributed to Maitreya-Asaṅga for purposes of legitimacy. The question then hinges on the dating of the earliest extant AA commentaries, those of Arya Vimuktisena (usually given as 6th century, following possibly unreliable information from Taran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shantideva
Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; ; ; ; ) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Abhayadatta Sri also lists Shantideva as one of the eighty-four mahasiddhas and is known as Bhusuku Pa (布苏固巴). Two works of Shantideva are extant, the '' Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra'' and the ''Śikṣāsamuccaya'', both of which were written with the intention of being training manuals for one who intends to follow the path of the bodhisattva. The Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra in particular was the subject of both Indian and Tibetan commentaries during the period it was written and has also received large amounts of attention from both academics and lay practitioners in recent years as well including a commentary written by the 14th Dalai Lama. Biography There are two sources of Shantideva's life composed by the Tibetan historians; Buton Rinchen Drub and T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra
The ''Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra'' (''Entering the Bodhisattva Conduct'') or ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' (''Entering the Bodhi'' ''Way''; Tibetan: བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་ ''byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa;'' Chinese: 入菩薩行論), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text written c. 700 CE in Sanskrit verse by Shantideva (Śāntideva), a Buddhist monk at Nālandā University in India which is also where it was composed. Structure ''Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra'' has ten chapters dedicated to the development of bodhicitta (the mind of enlightenment) through the practice of the six perfections (''Skt.'' Pāramitās). The text begins with a chapter describing the benefits of the wish to reach enlightenment. The sixth chapter, on the perfection of patient endurance (''Skt.'' ), strongly criticizes anger and has been the subject of recent commentaries by Robert Thurman and the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Tibeta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perfection Of Wisdom
A Tibetan painting with a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra at the center of the mandala Prajñāpāramitā means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Transcendental Knowledge" in Mahāyāna. Prajñāpāramitā refers to a perfected way of seeing the nature of reality, as well as to a particular body of Mahāyāna scriptures ( sūtras), known as the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, which includes such texts as the Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra. The word ''Prajñāpāramitā'' combines the Sanskrit words '' prajñā'' "wisdom" (or "knowledge") with ''pāramitā'', "excellence," "perfection," "noble character quality," or "that which has gone beyond," "gone to the other side," " transcending." Prajñāpāramitā is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and is generally associated with ideas such as emptiness (''śūnyatā''), 'lack of svabhāva' (essence), the illusory ('' māyā'') nature of things, how all phenomena are characterized by "non-arising" ( ''anutpāda'', i.e. unborn) and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kadampa
file:Portrait of the Indian Monk Atisha.jpg, 300px, Tibetan Portrait of Atiśa The Kadam school () of Tibetan Buddhism, or Kadampa was an 11th century Buddhist tradition founded by the great Bengalis, Bengali master Atiśa (982–1054) and his students including Dromtön (1005–1064), a Tibetan Buddhist lay master.Silk, Jonathan A; von Hinüber, Oskar; Eltschinger, Vincent; Bowring, Richard; Radich, Michael (2015). ''Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Vol. II Lives'', pp. 1145-1158. Brill. The Kadampa stressed Karuṇā, compassion, pure discipline and study.Chokyi Dragpa (2015). ''Illuminating the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva'', Glossary. Simon & Schuster. By the 15th century, Tsongkapa is credited with synthesizing and folding Kadampa lineages into the Gelug school. The most evident teachings of that tradition were the graduated teachings on the Mahayana path. These special presentations became known as lojong (mind training) and lamrim (stages of the path). Kadam m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lojong
Lojong (, 'mind training') is a contemplative practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition which makes use of various lists of aphorisms or slogans which are used for contemplative practice. The practice involves refining and purifying one's motivations and attitudes. There are various sets of lojong aphorisms; the most widespread text in the Sarma traditions is that of Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (12th century). There is also another set of eight lojong slogans by Langri Tangpa. In the Nyingma tradition, there is a list of seven lojong slogans which are part of the Dzogchen Nyingthig lineage.Jigme Lingpa (2016). ''Steps to the Great Perfection: The Mind-Training Tradition of the Dzogchen Masters,'' pp. xii-xiii. Shambhala Publications. Lojong slogans are designed as a set of antidotes to undesired mental habits that cause suffering. They contain both methods to expand one's viewpoint towards absolute or ultimate bodhicitta, such as "Find the consciousness you had before you wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Langri Tangpa
Geshe Langri Thangpa (གླང་རི་ཐང་པ། ; wylie: glang ri thang pa) (1054–1123) is an important figure in the lineage of the Kadampa and Gelug schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Phenpo, as Dorje Senge (རྡོ་རྗེ་ སེང་གེ ; wylie: rdo rje seng ge). His name derives from ''Langtang'', the area in which he is said to have lived. He was a Kadampa master, and disciple of Potowa Rinchen Sel. In the 2nd water bird year he founded Langtang Monastery (གླང་ཐང་ ; wylie: glang thang), as a Kadampa monastery. It later became a Sakya monastery. , search "glang thang" He was the author of [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
