First Buddhist Philosophy Class

Next Prev

First Buddhist Philosophy Class

Time: 9:00 to 10:15 am
Teacher: Geshe Gyaltsen Tsering

Text: Blaze of Quotations and Logic

(Tib:ལྟ་བ་བཀའ་རྟགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞིའི་གནད་དོན་གསལ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་ལུང་རིགས་འོད་འབར། Wylie: lta ba bka’ rtags kyi phyag rgya bzhi’i gnad don gsal ba’i sgron me lung rigs ’od ’bar) and Essence of Superfine Gold (Tib: ལམ་རིམ་གསེར་ཞུན་མ། Wylie: lamrim gser zhun ma)

11 March – 11 December
The textbook for this year’s class with Geshe Gyaltsen-la is The Blaze of Quotations and Logic, a Lamp Illuminating the Significance of the Four Seals of the Buddha’s Teachings, authored by a renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher Gen Lamrimpa Ngawang Phuntsok and The Essence of Superfine Gold by the H.H Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso.

Gen Lamrimpa’s Blaze of Quotations and Logic is a text written in the classical Tibetan scholastic style; as it explains the Four Seals, it employs scriptural quotations and logical reasoning. During the time of the Buddha, he spoke emphatically about these Four Seals, not just once or twice, but over and over again, and he would often even get up close to dogs, cattle and other animals and whisper into their ears these four points. Sometimes, the Four Seals are counted as three: All conditioned phenomena are impermanent; all phenomena are empty and selfless; and Nirvana is peace and virtue. But commonly we refer to the four points listed as the Four Seals of the Buddhist view. When it comes to the actual interpretation of the Four Seals, in terms of level of refinement, there are many variances between the different Buddhist schools of thought. Nevertheless, basically the Four Seals are unanimously accepted by all Buddhists and are one of their main subjects of study, contemplation and meditation.

Essence of Superfine Gold is the most famous literary composition of the Third Dalai Lama (1543-1588). It is a condensed but comprehensive commentary on Je Tsongkhapa’s (1357-1419) A Song of Spiritual Experience, which is the seminal guide on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment of the Beings of Three Capacities. Although brief, this text summarizes the three principal paths of the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Recommended texts

Dharmakirti’s Commentary on Valid Cognition (Skt. Pramāṇavārttika, Tib. ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགེལ། ), Chapter 2,
Je Tsongkhapa’s Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of Path to Enlightenment (བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་རྱིམ་འབྱིང་བ།)
Teachings on Je Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path, with commentary by the 14th Dalai Lama, LTWA.
Dza Patrul Rinpoche’s The Words of My Perfect Teacher (ཀུན་བཟང་བླ་མའྱི་ཞལ་ལུང་། )
The Ornament of Liberation (དྭགས་པོ་ཐར་རྒྱན།)