Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Recorded as part of an ongoing oral history project, this 62-minute session has Khensur Rinpoche — with Jampa translating — laying out the complete curriculum he studied at Sera Monastery in Tibet. After briefly covering a group retreat at Tashi Chuling around 1950, he maps the academic programme in sequence: introductory logic and epistemology, the Ornament for Clear Realization (a foundational perfection-of-wisdom text, two and a half years on its first section alone), four years of Middle Way philosophy, then Vinaya (monastic discipline) and Abhidharma (Buddhist psychology and cosmology). Throughout the entire study period, Dharmakīrti’s treatise on valid cognition was revisited for six weeks each year. Rinpoche names root texts, key commentaries, and the scholars who compiled Sera’s own debate-format textbooks, offering a rare inside view of classical Tibetan monastic education.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 RS 1988 03 28.mp3
UUID: afc67fda-8fb7-4022-b7df-367bb76719ff
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Rinpoche's Story (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-03-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 62.1 minutes
Words: ~2,987
Testing one two three four five six seven eight nine ten. This is Tuesday the twenty eighth of March nineteen eighty nine, and I’m at Buddha House. And I’m going to be recording more of Khensur Rinpoche’s life story with Jampa translating. So you just talk about something different. Yeah.
That’s perfect. Yeah. Last time, which is a long time ago, I think it was with Tenzin translating that we were talking about Rinpoche’s retreats and all of his life at Sera. I think we got up roughly to about nineteen fifty five, but it’s very hard to know exactly what time span because we’re talking about — I think about a retreat that he did in Sera, the back of Sera. Geshe Nawang Dargyé was the one that fed them. The two of them did a retreat and brought them food, something like that.
So I don’t know whether Rinpoche can remember or whether there’s much more because we fill a lot of tapes on Sarah, whether there’s a lot more to go through or whether we start to get on to some of the political things and what’s happening in Tibet. And we at one stage, we did talk about leaving Lhasa, but that was with Tenzin, and it was just over lunch, over at Pokhara. And I don’t know whether we could go through it more carefully. But we’re sort of up to that time period. So perhaps if you just remind Rinpoche of that and see where where he wants to take it from.
So at that time when Rinpoche was doing retreat at Sera, he and Gyumey Rinpoche did retreat together and Geshe Nawang Dargyé was like the, let’s say, helper or assistant for the retreat. Where? Tashi Chuling. The place is called Tashi Chuling? Yeah.
Oh. Yeah. They say a little over a month. They stay there a little over a month. What what year was that into?
Do you have that information? Nineteen fifty? Fifty. Nineteen fifty, there was an epidemic. We seem to be jumping in the years a bit.
These must be the different standards of geshes, and that’s nineteen fifty eight, that was the people in charge. In nineteen forty eight, it became… So they received the initiation from Trichang Rinpoche. But he didn’t give it to Khensur Rinpoche then. They did the retreat at Tashi Chuling. From Trichang? Trichang, Trichang, Trichang.
Yeah. Then they did a little over one month retreat with Geshe Nawang Dargyé as their helper. That was in nineteen fifty, did I say? Nineteen fifty. Yeah.
Then they offered a fire puja? They offered a puja and then they offered to the protector. Nineteen sixty five, do you have that? Yes. I think you’re right.
That’s when he that’s after he left to Yeah. Nineteen sixty five. Well, we haven’t covered So he took the initiation nineteen forty nine, then he had to do Yeah. Of course. He did the they did retreat in fifty.
So now then, you talk about the studies, right Sarah? So so first, I think he’s gonna go through these studies. Mhmm. And the very first text of the study is called collected topics. Düra.
The collective topics. Three divisions of collected topics. And then awareness and knowledge, Lorig, and then classes of reasoning, Tagrig. And seventy topics. The first one is collected topics.
First topic: collected topics. Second is Lorig — and you’re recording this? Yes. Yeah? This is okay.
This is Düra, Düra in Tibetan. And then awareness and knowledge. So these are the names of the various texts. And this is l o r i g.
L o r. R I g. Uh-huh. And then maybe classes of reasoning. Classes of reasons.
Classes of reasons. Yeah. I’m just See, we can make a list of these. Yeah. I’m just roughly translating.
This is Tagrig, t a g r i g. And then seventy topics. Seventy topics? Yeah.
This is Dünjuma. Dündön. d o n. Oh, d o n. D u n.
D o n d u n? Mhmm. M a? M a. Okay.
Then sa lam. Sa lam. Grounds, paths and grounds. Paths and grounds. Sa lam.
sa lam, s a l a m. So you studied Düra and collected topics for a little over a year, two years? A little over two years? Then Lorig? So this is in this period.
So these three, these first three were studied. It took about a little over two years to study. And these two seventy topics in paths and grounds about one year together? Together. So the next text that they study is called Ornament for Clear Realization.
Ornament. Ornament for Clear Realization. And Tibetan, Mngon, Mngon Tog, T O G, G Y A N, Mngon Tok Gyan, and had many different subjects. For the first, for example, the first chapter. So he’s not going to go till everything is in the first chapter.
Uh-huh. It’s just some of the essential subjects that are covered. So Kaptona Nama. So in the first chapter there’s the turning of wheel of dharma. What do say?
Wheels of dharma. Wheels of dharma. What the three turnings or what? Yeah, that’s what it’s referring to. Technically, this is called wheels of Dharma.
Wheels of Dharma, that’s the name of the subject. Mind generation. This is some of the topics that are taken up. Three refugees. Two truths.
Lineage? Lineage? Another name is Buddha Buddha nature? Definitive and interpretive sutras. Definitive and interpretive sutras.
Alright. Then the Dependent arising. Meditative concentrations and absorptions. And the twenty-two spiritual community. Kushik.
The four Buddha bodies. That first chapter took one and a half years? That’s an enormous amount. Would we call it a chapter in English? No, the the the I mean, we would call them yeah, I think maybe we call them division.
Division. Section. Yeah. Matter. Or, sex, whatever Yeah, you can give it another name.
So there’s seven subjects in this second chapter. So it’d be a lot to write those. Would it be a lot to write them? Oh, we can write them. It be much.
Can I don’t know if it’s because we can list them? I don’t know if it’s contained anywhere. Okay. We’ll just Okay. The that’s in.
Can say that he knows And then the other divisions also have many subjects. So there I mean it’s called, you know, there’s eleven the first is called path Knowledge. What in the seven subjects? Yeah, well eleven. Eleven, sorry.
I thought you said seven. Eleven. Yeah, eleven. So the branches of path knowledge, Branches of or the way we say, I don’t think we say branches, divisions or something like that. Path knowledge.
Is the first subject, first subject called path knowledge and then it says etc. And there are eleven. So it might be a lot to go into now. I remember she was wondering. Okay.
Well, see, sometime maybe not now because we’ve got such a lot to do but sometime maybe Bruce could come and just go through that at some later stage when I’ve got it all transcribed because it could just be a table or a charting book. Rinpoche, yeah Rinpoche is going to teach this this all these topics in the next term. Then I’ll know Oh, that’d be great. Is that good? Oh, that’d be Then the third chapter, third division is How long did that first one one month.
One month? Oh, must be short. Base knowledge three So there are nineteen subjects taken up. So I think we’ll leave that for now because I don’t know how to translate some of these words. That’s fine.
As long as we get them later, that’s great. And the how long did that take? Complete training, fourth fourth division. Complete training is correct. These are we can check all these names, but you’ll know what they are because they’re probably fairly correct.
Subjects. Six months. Maybe maybe one year rather than six months. One year. One month.
Sixth and seventh. What about section six? Yeah. We’re getting six fifth six. Something like I’ll have to check on the translation something like I’ll just say it for now, just a word something like jump over training.
But anyway I can easily check. Thirteen sections thirteen subjects. And Dharma? The sixth and the sixth and seventh divisions took about two weeks together. Oh.
Yeah. The momentary training. This is seventh. Yeah. And there’s four subjects.
And then the eighth is Truth Body. The name is Truth Body. Four subjects. One what is it? One month or just over one month.
One year. One month, two two weeks, one month. Was the first section? Oh, over the page. It’s called what we call that?
Collected topics. Oh, sorry. Turning of the wheels of Dharma. Called form body. The name of it is called form body.
And these are all the subjects. Subjects start with turning up the wheel mind generation three refugees. Yeah. Okay. Then Go on towards One month.
One month. One year. One month. One. Hour.
Not very much. So section Ah. Section eight, is that the end? The zoom. Ah.
The zoom. Yeah. There’s only a check. Eight sections. So what is that?
It’s about three years. Let me look. Not very long. It’s not long enough. Oh, or just on this One and a half.
Two and a half. Of the subjects. Oh. Okay. Oh.
And the section name is omniscient mind. Objection one is But, anyway, we’ll get to straighten this out easily later. And this and to study this one subject of form body took one and a half years. Oh. And then the rest of these took another year.
So altogether it’s two and a half years on the first chapter, on the first section. One and a half years for full body. And then one year for the rest of these. And then one year for the rest. Maybe a little over a year for the rest of all the subjects.
Oh, well, I might have to sort of get that straight. I’ll type it up when we get there. It’ll be no problem. Yeah. Okay.
Fine. Good. And then So this is the study of transcendental wisdom. When you say this, do you mean all of it? So this ornament of clear realization is in a class of literature called prajna paramita or transcendental wisdom.
Oh, now this is where we had a lot of trouble with Tenzin because we couldn’t get the exact words. Can you say that Ornament for Clear Realization is in the class of, it is the condensation of a class of literature called Prajñāpāramitā or the perfection of wisdom. Then, so the root text is, okay, so the root text is Ornament for Clear Realization. That’s the root text that they study. Then they study commentaries in addition to which are based upon Ornament for Clear Realization.
And so now Rinpoche is giving some of the commentaries that he studied. And the first commentary is a text by Tsongkhapa — what can I say? — the Golden Garland.
Golden Garland. Golden Garland. I think it’s called the Elegant Exposition Book. The Golden Ornament of Elegant Exposition, perhaps — something like ornament of elegant exposition. Anyway I can get that. That’s no problem.
And then the commentary is by Gyaltsab. Gyaltsab Rinpoche, g y a l t s a b. Gyaltsab Rinpoche. And it’s called Namché.
Namché Nyingpo. The Essential Ornament for Knowledge. I’m just guessing this title. I’m sure there’s some nice names for it. Essential Ornament for Knowledge.
And then another text would be Tokönongwa. Illuminating reasoning. I have to check on all these things. Illuminating reasonings.
So the author of the textbooks at Sera, Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen. Jetsün, Jetsün, J E T S U N, Chökyi, C H Ö K Y I. Gyaltsen, G Y A L T S A N. Commentaries on the complete eight chapters, on the complete eight section. One of them is an explanatory commentary, and the second is what it’s called — I don’t know — chüja, chüja.
It’s a Remembrations. Analysis. Analysis. Analysis. It’s a form of a debate text.
It’s all set off in debate. It’s not a commentary, it’s a debate. A debate text. So now we’re going to move into another area of literature called middle way philosophy. Middle way philosophy.
So so we we finished the we finished the wisdom. This is number six, No. We we finished this we finished the perfection of wisdom literature. Yeah. And then we’re gonna move into the middle way philosophy.
I’m not quite sure where yeah. And the main text to be studied is called Supplement to the Middle Way by Candrakīrti. Yeah, these are all Indian texts. Chandra. Chandra, c h a n d r a, Kirti, k i r t i — it’s one word.
Candrakīrti. That’s the root text. So then the commentary which he studied by Tsongkhapa called Illuminating the Thought of the Middle Way. And then this is also by Tsongkhapa, the annotated commentary to root wisdom. Annoteachings to the root wisdom.
And then another text by Tsongkhapa, essential ornament, a good explanation of the definitive interpretive sutras. Essential ornament? Essential ornament. Okay. Actually, have good excellent explanation or eloquent explanation.
The essential ornament, an eloquent explanation of definitive? Then by Kedrup Kedrup Rinpoche. This is another Kedrup. If you could write these words down, because I can’t translate it now.
Opening the CHE. CHE. Ch E P. That’s good for now. So opening the eye, Tom Tom, I don’t know what it is.
Don’t worry. I’ll just leave it. These all can be found. Again, by Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen, as was up here, the textbook writer for Sera. The general meaning, the text called General Meaning of the Middle Way, umuchita, the middle way, general meaning. General Meeting, oh, middle way. Yeah.
Along with one of these analytical texts, debate texts. So you study middleweight philosophy for four years? This this subject took four years. It’s quite so tall, isn’t it? You don’t say?
Then the area of text called Vinaya, moral discipline. So the main text that they study is by Vasubandhu. Vasubandhu. And it’s called the Root of Moral Discipline.
This is a name of an author. Künkhyen, k u n k y e n. Tsönawa. Tsönawa.
Yeah, that looks good. And it’s called? It’s there? Uh-huh. There.
So Annoteachings to the root text. Annoteachings on the root. Something like that. The Precious Garland of Moral Discipline.
Precious Garland of Moral Discipline. This is all the Vinaya. Yeah, this is, I’d say, Dülwa Rinchen Trengwa. Again, Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen, the textbook author. The commentary to, on a commentary on moral discipline.
Oh. D e l e g, n y i m a. Commentary on the Vinaya. We’d have to check on the name. And now the next overall subject that’s taken up is called Abhidharma or you can call it Buddhist psychology and cosmology, whatever.
This is an over next to overall subject and it’s based on the text. Y o n. Y o n. D o n? O r.
This is o r. This is umlaut over here. Yunden. Yunden. Maybe there’s an a.
That’s the author of the text. On the Vinaya one? Yeah. Yeah. And this author is Vasantu.
And it’s Kosha? Kosha? And it’s a treasury of knowledge. Treasury of knowledge. Jampal, J A M P A L, Yang, Y A N G.
Is this the author? The Treasury of Knowledge written by Chim? Oh. Yeah. The Treasury of Chim.
The Treasury of Chim. The treasury — Gendün Drupa, Gendündruppa. And the treasure illuminating the path to liberation through the treasury, or something? I have to check on it.
It’s called Or maybe it’s something like maybe clearing the path, clearing the clearing the Yeah, These are all written somewhere. And then again, Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen, the textbook author. So his commentary to the treasury. Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen. Commentary to to the treasury.
Was he living at that time at the monastery, and was he their writer, or had he? The Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen. And the birthplace of Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen is Söngnathe. That’s his birth place. The trunda? We can find out.
Yeah. So he knows the according to the the Tibetan astrological signs. About the same time as Gendun Drupa. About the same time as Gendun Drindup. Gendun Drindup.
The Dalai Lama Tongwa Dönden. What? The first Dalai Lama. Oh, right. So we’re talking about quite a long time ago.
That’s fine. I think I thought that About that time. Yeah. Yeah. That’s sort of good.
I mean, didn’t know whether it was a person living there who just I knew I knew that, but I wasn’t quite sure when. Fine. Fine. And then four years to study Abhidharma.
Then they also study. During this period, this entire study period, one So during this period of study, every year they would study a text called a long name, it’s called, it’s by Dharmakīrti. The author is Dharmakīrti and the text’s name is Dharmakīrti’s Commentary to Dignāgā’s compendium of prime cognition. Dignāgā, compendium of valid cognition, or Pramānavārttika. And they would study this for one and a half months every year.
How do you spell pramāna? Year throughout their all this period of time. So then they would say the commentaries that they would use would be, the first commentary would be, the first one is by Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Gyaltsab Rinpoche. J?
Gyaltsab. Gyaltsab Je? Gyaltsab. Anyway, we’ll check on this. It’s called — yeah — just like it was clearing the path of liberation, clearing the path of liberation. And then a text by Kedrup. Kedrup Rinpoche. We mentioned these are the two chief disciples of Tsongkhapa.