Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 75-minute working session, Khensur Rinpoche helps compile a class-by-class curriculum map of Sera Je Monastery’s Geshe program, identifying root texts and commentaries across valid cognition, the Ornament for Clear Realization, Madhyamaka, Vinaya, and Abhidharma. Between texts, he traces the monastery’s twice-repeated destruction — in the 1930s and again in the early 1960s under Chinese rule — and his own post-Geshe path: six months in Mysore studying grammar and poetry, then a role at Sarnath helping design the curriculum of a new college. The session’s biographical centrepiece is his decision to remain at Sera rather than enter the Tantric College, choosing to teach incoming monks after a divination found both paths spiritually equal. Of particular interest to those studying traditional monastic education or Rinpoche’s personal history.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 57 RS 1991 07 22.mp3
UUID: 2e7161ad-2867-4dc6-841e-6504b3205b3d
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Rinpoche's Story (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-07-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 75.1 minutes
Words: ~4,254
Another memory. Still have a So it’s very old, really. Okay. So it is the first. That’s the first one.
So that’s the root one, is it? No. This is the commentary. First commentary. Liberation.
I’m not sure if this is illuminating or clearing. I have to look at this. Alright. We’ll check it. Checking text.
Yeah. Okay. Mhmm. You don’t have Ked You don’t have It’s not Kedrup, it’s Kedrup, isn’t it? Kedrup.
Kedrup. Kedrup. Kedrup. Don’t know how to look at the spelling. Kedrup.
Explanation, ocean of reason. Ripigasso. Ripigasso. Ripigasso. Ripigasso.
Ripigasso. That’s right. Yeah. That’s good. Yeah.
So, So So that sorry. I’m I’m still. That’s that’s. Right? No.
That’s. Oh. That’s numb drill. So that’s the one that’s studied sort of over about six or seven different clasps. Mhmm.
That’s right. Okay. So we haven’t Just like before. What is another commentary, is it? Textbook.
He’s a very busy man. There’s just some jockey girls. Yep. The only thing is now we haven’t got anything for. So in the kharam class, they look at Vinaya, Abhidharma and Pramānavārttika.
So do they just use the same text as they had before? No new text. So in the main, they would look at the Oh, what I thought they had They would they would look in the main, would look at the text that they’ve well, have already been listed. Mhmm. And they do have a a few new ones, do they?
Yeah. But it’s not worth worrying about. No. It’s Yes. That’s okay.
Don’t know. I’m saying you did that. Alright. And then in the column class, they look at the ab abidharma and then I and I do they they use many new texts, which is my Same text. Same text.
Yeah. But just more depth. In detail. More detail. Yeah.
They go into deep more detail. About debate. Do they debate? So because the texts are so profound, they have they they go into them again deeper. Mhmm.
And do they do a lot of debating in those? Do they debate a lot on the texts? In Karam? Yeah. So the the the Karam class, there’s not so much debate.
Oh. But in the Harampak class, the Haram class has a great deal of debate. So it’s mainly based on debating the text, is it? Because they would have studied them. They wouldn’t know them really well by you.
So they would they would continue to study the text a great deal, but they would have a lot of debate on them. To Samshakti. Yeah. Never seen the monastery? But I don’t understand I that.
So this is the rebuilt after the inventory And then this was again destroyed. Can Rinpoche explain? Because it was destroyed in the thirties when he was very little, and he saw it rebuilt then. That was rebuilt in the before he went to Lhasa. And then yeah.
And then it was destroyed in the sixties. What what what was the birth date? Twenty five. Twenty five. So it was destroyed in nineteen thirty three?
Yeah. And then the younger But he saw that rebuilt. Yeah. A younger. There was no monastery till nineteen forty two.
It hadn’t been rebuilt till nineteen forty two. When he left, they were just beginning to rebuild. In nineteen forty four, it just partially rebuilt. So this occurred after ‘forty four, this big Did So this is what they started to rebuild in nineteen forty four. And so he only saw it when it’s personally rebuilt.
Oh, I see. He only saw a bit part of it. Yeah. So in nineteen fifty nine he left and then this was again destroyed in the early sixties. So this is the one before it was destroyed in the sixties, is it?
Yeah. This is before nineteen sixty. Mhmm. And so they didn’t really start to build it again, is that right, after the nineteen sixties until just a few years ago, the nineteen eighties? Nineteen eighty Nineteen for more than twenty years, it was just completely destroyed then?
No monks no monks at all? No no no house or anything? They didn’t have the monastery, but they had some monks that were staying in their homes. Indage? Dage.
Oh, I see. Is that only because the Chinese allowed it to be started again in ADH? Yes. And they just refused. They wouldn’t allow anything before that time.
Nothing? Twenty years. So for all that time, nearly twenty five years, there was no new monks. Is that correct? No.
No. But only in Bylakuppe or wherever it is, muscle. That’s not that’s that’s fear of okay. So the So the divination came out that there was no difference between going to the Tantric College and staying at Sera. And so they was equal.
And then so he had to make a choice in whether he would follow and be go in to study Tantra or on the one hand, you know, he could go into it and study it very well and practice it very well. Or whether he would stay at Sera and thereby be able to teach the students. The situation was such that if there weren’t people staying at the monasteries, then the teachings would degenerate And there were there weren’t enough Geshe’s too. And so he chose to stay at Sera and to so that in order he could teach the new students. So because he the the divination came out that there was they were were equal.
There was no difference. Then he thought it was better to benefit the students and stay at Sera. So in in the end, that was his his decision. Those can be very tricky. So if he would have entered into tantric college, he would have to would have gone into a new class and he would and he wouldn’t have had an opportunity to to teach.
And and therefore he thought it would be more beneficial to stay at Sara where he could the only thing he would have to do would be teach. This was after his geshe about nineteen sixty late sixties, was it? So he had he had he had always wanted to go straight from the from his Geshe examination to enter into the Tantric College. But after he took his Geshe examination, his Abbot requested him to go to Mysore where they had this program for teachers. Grandmother.
And he stayed there for six months. And then after that, his class had moved from Buxa down to South India, Karnataka. Oh, his class moved while he was in Mysore. And therefore he went down and began to teach. Also, so he studied he went to Mysore for for six months and there he studied grammar and poetry.
And then they were he had thought to go to also a possibility was to go to Sarnath where they were they were starting the school and to to begin to study there also. Study or teach? So he went to, after the Mysore he went to Sarnath to help them to found the new school there by helping them to arrange a curriculum of study. So they had imagined and they just they helped outline the subjects. We would do a study for three, three, four, five, eight, nine, So the curriculum for studying Prajñāpāramitā and Mādhyamika, Abhidharma, Vinaya, Pramānavārttika.
Their curriculum, how they were going to study it. They were gonna study it in four years. Oh, I see. They had to sort of adapt it to the what’s Acharya? I don’t understand.
Like a bachelor or something, is it? Indian qualification. Yeah. Thought I heard. Like bachelor of Bachelor of arts.
Or something. Mhmm. So that was somehow linked to the Indian education system, this thing you had to work out? Between Tibetan and India, was it? That’s the thing.
Is that where Dawa studied? Could you ask him? She’s at the college in Dawa. Dawa studied there later? Dao.
Like, Kigir. Wasn’t just for monks. The owl she gave. Really? That’s right.
The women lay people. And it’s somehow linking between the Tibetan and the Indian Acharya qualification. They recognize the Tibetan studies for the Indian Acharya. So like a BA. So it’s a sort of bridge course.
The the like a a university, an Indian uni Indian. Yeah. Yeah. But with Tibetan subjects. Yeah.
The the Juja They have studied they studied English, Hindu, Hindi. And scriptures? Yeah. Yeah. So if it had gone differently, Rinpoche might have followed the same path of Gyume Khensur Rinpoche who left Sera and then went to one of the tantric, I think, Gyume, his teacher.
Gyume, Gyume, Gyume, me lower tantric. But he came from Sera, didn’t he? The same as Rinpoche first. Gyume Khensur. So in Tibet, he went from Sera Je into the lower tantric college. So if things had gone differently, that Rinpoche would have followed that same?
Chippa. Yeah. That’s right. He would have gone the same way. That’s what studied in his course, Rinpoche studied, isn’t it?
That’s right. Yeah. Is that its name? Yeah. Sera?
Okay. I guess Should. Or I won’t. Do and and he does he want the other text he studied listed or not? I mean, that’s the main one, isn’t it?
But you said it might only be a few pages long or and they studied in in-depth that one thing for a whole year. Does he wanna list the other texts or just leave it at When? This is Sukho nineteen forty nine, I think. Sukho Sarpak is in the jujitsu. Yeah.
I’m sorry. This was mainly the main text that they studied. They also studied this. Oh, right. So that’s that’s really the long title for this.
Okay. That’s alright. It’s already there. They are. Sometimes I do get into a model.
Sukho sapa class six, and we’ll we’ll stick to the old list for now until I change the numbers. We we went through and we got all the well, I don’t know if we got them all, but most of the texts studied in the classes up to Sukho Sarpa. So the next couple of pages there, can probably find it on page three. Class six. Kundu.
Does that make any sense to you? Kundu by Dignāgā. Is that the text? Dharma Dharma taught throughout all classes from class six onwards. True.
Yeah. What about Kundu, this this text, Namdra Mhmm. Is a commentary to this text. Kundu. Kundu by Dignāgā.
Dignāgā. Namdral is a commentary. The root text is Kundu. The Parcha, the the Kundu. The.
Do you know what, what the English term for kundu is? Compendium on valid cognition. Yeah. Oh. And this is a commentary to Oh.
This is Dharmakīrti’s commentary to this. I see. Commentary. This is compendium of valid cognition. Oh.
And this is commentary to Oh. Compendium of primary. Oh, okay. Compendium? Compendium of prime cognition.
I’ve covered. I’m just looking here. I think I’ve got enough on Sukho Saba. So if we go to what I’ve got as class seven down here, that’s Sukho This class includes topics mentioned under class for class six, definitive interpretive, is content concentrations in form, meditative concentrations in absorption. Twenty spiritual communities and mind bases of all.
And then I’ve got check this is so here. I don’t know. I’m not class six. Have I got those in the right class? Should are they right for Sukho Nipah?
This this, I don’t think I don’t I I what? I don’t think you need this is a verb. This is Which one? It’s the same as this. Meditative concentration of sort.
That’s it. The So I didn’t you don’t need this. I’ll cross it through again. But that’s right. It is this this this isn’t the correct name.
Which one? The definitive and interpretive sutures. So got a a bit of it or what? I guess it’s good. Essence of oh, I mean, well, I mean, excellent lesson.
Essence. I’m not sure which book it’s in. Oh. That was essence of eloquent exposition on definitive interpretive sutras. Oh, god.
Okay. Mhmm. Okay. So that’s right. So that’s okay.
So I’ve checked. Have you oh, you’ve you’ve got a same copy, haven’t you, underneath the This is different. Page four. No. Oh my.
No. Tendral? Circumumba. Tendral. So this you you have to include this.
That’s this is this is different than know? Well, this is a more up to date. I’ll wait there. Okay. That’s it.
Isn’t it? Page numbers are different. So So what do I have to include? This tympanic. So include from class six Dependent arising.
Yeah. This is class seven. Yeah. But they study in class six in-depth one, and then they do it all in general in class seven? So do I have to include those whole It depends on what what they study is dependent upon the the divination.
Yeah. That’s right. But that’s in class six. It’s on isn’t it? And then in class seven, don’t they study all things in general?
That’s what I understood. So is this saying that these these texts that were just listed would be both for both both But Sukho Saba would just study the one that the Mo suggested in-depth. Is that right? Could you? So the the elimination was just to see which which text they should study first.
Oh, first. Yeah. I That’s right. So they would look at many commentaries on that text, many different commentaries on that text, but they would study that that mainly that text for the first year. For that e.
Yeah. Great. Alright. That’s fine. So we’re really up to Pachen.
And Pachen’s where I start to get really confused because I clarified it in my own mind. Does Rinpoche know whether that was destroyed by the Chinese, communist Chinese, in sixty one or seventy one? Somewhere between sixty one and sixty three. Sixty one and sixty three. Between between somewhere between sixty one and sixty three.
Did anything happen again in the seventies or is it not? No. No. Said She was already destroyed. That’s alright.
I had two dates when I was doing my chronology, and I couldn’t work on it. So it’s a six early sixties. So shall we get on to this? Yeah. Things that did, but I’m a little bit confused as to where they fit in.
Partial is a larger parameter. So is that where it begins with all this stuff here? Is that the text that is studied? So you just want the main text that was studied in Parcha? Probably.
So the main text, the root text, is one for clear realization. But that that goes and goes for ages and ages, doesn’t it? I always guess she wrote in this book. I think she’s got that. But that goes for mean, that text is studied right from class.
That’s the main text, which is study for Parcha. Right. Well, I I think I need a little more than that is to get all the chapters a bit straighter. Yeah. That’s that’s the way the that’s where these chapters are coming from, from that book.
Right. Thanks. Yeah. Right. Okay.
The book is set up in eight chapters. In how many? Eight chapters. Yeah. Yeah.
Then in that hand out from we studied Abhisham Ankara. It goes it lists those eight chapters. Are you talking about the one we did last year with Yeah. This photocopied handout. Alright.
Okay. Alright. Okay. I’ve forgotten where that comes in. So if I if I refer to that Yeah.
Is that adequate? That has all the information. But but but but so is is is the does the Pachan go down to chapter eight? Does everything in the Pachan, which is two years, you check with Rinpoche cover down to chapter eight with truth body in that those two years? Because that’s an awful lot of chapters to cover from chapter two to chapter eight.
The. No. No. That’s right. Second chapter to the eighth through the eighth chapter in two years.
Okay. So then we ‘ve got class well, would you I’ll just stick to the old numbers till I change them. Class nine Yeah. So you have you want the text? Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Now this is So the main text is The main text is one of one of the earlier versions. I’ll get the breakdown of that from From that the handout. Copy.
And then there’s other text that they commentaries that they make use of. Alright. Yeah. And She didn’t touch So this is good. Just add one more text would be Jeladunsel.
Jeladunsel. Jeladunsel. Jeladunsel. D. R e l Yeah.
W a Yeah. D o n s a l Yeah. Clear meaning. The commentary called clear meaning. Called meaning.
Meaning. And. Harry Badra. By Harry Badra. Badra.
Yeah. H a r I. Yeah. B a d r a. So you have to check the spelling.
Okay. Harry Bada. So that’s important commentary. Mhmm. And then the the general meeting and what does it say?
Exposition of the general is meanings. This Dahwa’s writing. Analysis. Analysis. For or all analysis of Final analysis.
I know what it says. It looks like he’s crossed out of all analysis, but it doesn’t look quite I can’t read it properly. So Okay. Okay. Now is class nine, dysmudzimika, is that the same as middle way philosophy?
Uma. Uma? Uma? Yes. Why is called advanced Mādhyamika?
Does that mean they just do a little bit of it in the early classes or something? Well, you you have advanced you have advanced. You’re gonna dance there. I know. Is that just a mistake, do think?
Mhmm. So just be beginning. Mhmm. That’s alright. So the the the ten chapters of supplement to middle way?
Ten chapters. Ten chapters. Where will I get a list of those? Do know? Or would I need the list?
Or just They do don’t think they they don’t have any particular name. They don’t. No. So just leave them. They’re called mind generations.
First, second, third, etcetera, mind generation. First to seventh mind generation. First through tenth mind. Mind generation. Oh, yeah, do have names.
Anyway it’s easy, I can give you that. They just take up to ten perfections, each one. So this is this Mind only. Mind only. Mind Mind only.
Yeah. School. Yeah. Here they here they study the same text, but they study the middle way section. Mahasi.
Middle way. Middle way school. Middle way school. Section. Section.
And that’s this is the title of the text Golden Garland of Elegant. No. This one. This Exposition? Golden Garland of Elegant Exposition.
No. That’s no. This is not just this text. Thirteen. No, this is Sensural.
No, that’s here. Just bring this up. This this one up. Yeah. Alright.
Sorry? Parching the cups at the trunniliate. It wasn’t parching. It’s up up here. I mean, anything to me and gets really comfortable.
It was in purchase purchase in Amare. Oh, what? Took us the Sukho Sarpa class. Yes. Yeah.
It’s super. Like that’s an excellent exposition on the definitive interprets. Is that is that from Lama Tsongkhapa? Yeah. Isn’t it?
Yeah. Ah. And this is the same text here. I see. Yeah.
And they’ve studied the first half there, and they studied the second half here. Ah. Right. So that one just instead of putting it there, we’ll just put it up here a bit. Is that right?
Well, that’s Circle. Yeah. Two circle. Then So that’s the middle middle one. Mind mind only section.
Mind only section. Mind Mind only school. School. Mhmm. Okay.
Now is are these all by by? Or Yeah. Are they different books or different chapters? Different text. Three text.
Three separate. The. Opening eye of the unfortunate one to see. Opening That’s what I mean. Have it written here.
Yeah. But it’s squeaked. The dial is crossed. Opening the eye. The the eye of the One to two.
Open the eye of the one unfortunate. Now should we get the Tibetan names of these books of song covers as well? Suppose I should really. Good. Many of these books are listed in the main by in the like in like in the Yeah.
Meditation on emptiness. The book meditation on emptiness in the in the bibliography. Bibliography. Okay. They have a sanscript that Mhmm.
You’ll find all of it. This is Hopkins one. Isn’t it? Yeah. The and then then then this general meaning of the middle way and final analysis.
Are they two different books? Yes. Two different books. Two different books. At Tibetan.
Little loss of it’s all. Yeah. That’s enough? Yeah. Okay.
We go on to this. I probably just need to clarify. That would be class So we’ve done Umanipa as well as Umasapa, have we? So we’ve done what’s the old nine and ten. And so this is Duwa Vinaya.
Umasapa? Duwa sapa? Or Duwa, and we put together. Yeah. Both together with faith.
Yeah. I gotta do a do a Dotsawa. Dotsawa. Just going back to Uma Nipa, did we do Vasubandhu? Do we have Vasubandhu in here?
Vasubandhu. I don’t think he would he wouldn’t have written a text it. Well, so this is wrong. I’ll just crossed him. No.
He didn’t. No. He wouldn’t have gotten the text. He wouldn’t. So we’re looking at what we got here would cover class All of it.
Nine and ten, wouldn’t it? So this this is right. This first one? Class. You live in on twelve.
No. No. That can’t be a better intro. We know that. There’s enough there’s only gonna be thirteen classes.
No. But I haven’t altered my numbers if I start to alter my numbers. How however you want. So this is let just see. What is it?
Comma? D what’s that? D o m? Do you what’s that? D o o m.
D a m. D a m. Okay. What is in Sanskrit? Tibetan.
Tibetan. How do you spell that? I just spell s. Sakhya. Sakhya.
How do you end it with a u? Sakhya. Sakhya. I have to check it. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean So you can look in biographies? Yes. And then it’ll it’ll probably it’ll have it’ll probably have that. I’ll get on to them.
This one. Quite follow. Is that correct, the way it is there? Annoteachings Annoteachings on Vinaya. I’ll just do an arrow.
Annoteachings on Vinaya. That’s correct. You can That’s correct. Yeah. Can you just tick it or something?
Okay. Preacher’s Garden of Moral Discipline. Pänchen Delek Nyima? Where are you up to? Just one.
Oh. So the Pänchen Delek Nyima’s the textbook, both the textbook. For for Sera Je? Oh, here. I disappeared it.
Tell it I’m getting into the make big Precious Garland. Mhmm. It’s okay. Anyway, that’s okay. That’s right.
Alright. Got the. So this is this is more in the advanced classes at Nimba? No. This is so that’s this is zoo.
Oh. What about under zoo now? Mhmm. What does Rinpoche call? Mata?
No, ma’am. What did he say? Abhidhamma. Abhidhamma. Sorry.
Which one is? That must be where I got it confused before with the armor. Is it? C h a. C h a.
Mhmm. This is one word. Jump. Is it spelled right? Can I just check the root root text is Vasubamba or something?
Let me let me Sorry. Explain this before I forget. No. It’s just another name for this text. Oh.
You want you wanna write it somewhere? Yeah. Yeah. It’s the commentary for the ornament for realization. Commentary?
Commentary on the ornament realization. And this is the same text here. This one here. Suppose, jump. Jump out.
Okay. The path down. The path to no. That’s different. Okay.
And can I just is this is that the root and the others the commentaries or what? Right. These are all commentaries. The So the root text is the Treasury of Knowledge and these are all commentaries to that. Yeah.
The commentary to the treasury. That’s right. Jason Chikki Gasson? The the the Yeah. Just checking up up here with the one.
The root text was the which one the Vinaya root text? Duttala. Duttala. Chandra Kurvina? Guru Acharya Gurnappapa.
Root Root Sūtra. Oh, I see. Root Sūtra. And then all the others are commentaries again, isn’t it? Yeah.
I’m just I’m just having a So yeah. Root Sūtra. So then you have That would have been root search of the dharma, not the naya, wouldn’t it? Would it? No.
No. No. No. Sorry. Oh.
What what’s this? What’s what’s it in English? Middleware. Middleware. Middleware.
Middle way. Middle way. Middle is this is this is. Oh, that’s the two door. Okay.
So now we’re on This is. So there’s two main root texts. One is Dharmakīrti’s as it says here, commentary to Acharya Dignāgā’s Compendium of Prime Cognition. And then the other one is Dignāgā’s Compendium of Prime Cognition. Oh.
This commentary to Dignāgā’s continued plan of reincarnation. Alright. A there’s just a two root. So Can I just go back to this? I’m sure that’s not correct, that Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen was a disciple of was it the fifth time?
It wouldn’t be the first. Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen.